Publications

March 1998 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Hamptonshire Express

By: V. G. Narayanan and Ananth Raman

Presents a series of problems that face a newspaper publisher, including inventory level, effort level, subsidy for unsold inventory, and commission for sales. Each problem is accompanied by one or more spreadsheets. Students must make various operational decisions. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Motivation and Incentives; Performance; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Decision Making; Sales; Demand and Consumers; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Publishing Industry; United States

01 Mar 2024
News

The Internet's Next Frontier

While the Crypto, Fintech, and Web3 Lab—one of 13 labs contained within Harvard’s Digital Data Design Institute—might not have the Bunsen burners and test tubes found in science and engineering labs, it does share a philosophical construct: it is a sandbox—an... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

13 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Don't Turn Your Marketing Function Over to AI Just Yet

perspective, using basic economic principles—assuming customers prefer lower-priced products, for example—to build models that can begin to explain how consumers approach online search. (See Large-Scale View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

February 2006 (Revised September 2007)
Background Note

Winner-Take-All in Networked Markets

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Discusses platform structure in new networked markets, that is, whether a market that exhibits network effects will be served by a single platform or by rival platforms. Defines "platforms" and "platform structure"; describes factors that influence the odds that a... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Growth Management; Network Effects; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web

27 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

The Dynamics of Standing Still: Firestone Tire & Rubber and the Radial Revolution

"Radial Age" advertising campaign in 1968. 2 The August 1968 Consumer Reports awarded its top two spots to radials and documented the new technology's longer life, increased safety, handling and economy relative to even... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull; Manufacturing; Transportation

28 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 28

argue that competition can lead organizations to provide illicit quality that satisfies customer demand but violates laws and regulations and that this outcome is particularly likely when price competition is restricted. Using 28 million... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 13

MaterialsFonterra David E. Bell and Mary ShelmanHarvard Business School Case 512-003 In 2011, Fonterra, the world's largest processor and exporter of dairy products, needed to reposition its business to take advantage of rising demand in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing

service lines, market segments, and competitive positioning. Marketing did the thinking, managed the brand and consumer franchise in consumer goods companies, and provided support to the sales force. In this... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro

20 Oct 2010
Op-Ed

Export Competitiveness: Reversing the Logic

export is what has often been understood as "export competitiveness". In this thinking, exports become the target and ultimate goal of economic policy. While the crisis has increased the demand for growth strategies, it has also... View Details

Keywords: by Christian Ketels

26 Nov 2001
Op-Ed

Why Corporate Budgeting Needs To Be Fixed

Corporate budgeting is a joke, and everyone knows it. It consumes a huge amount of executives' time, forcing them into endless rounds of dull meetings and tense negotiations. It encourages managers to lie and cheat, lowballing targets and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

January 2009 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Innovation at Mahindra & Mahindra (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Briana Doerr Luthra

Describes the Mahindra & Mahindra Group's approach to innovation. The Group is among the top industrial houses in India and its managing director Anand Mahindra has put innovation at the core of its growth strategy. Emphasis is placed on managing the balance between... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Marketing; Business Processes; Product; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Design; Demand and Consumers; Auto Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

15 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

In the Virtual Dressing Room Returns Are A Real Problem

Many distinctive aspects of the textile and apparel industries present challenges to implementing electronic commerce. First, and perhaps most important, is the difficulty of accurately characterizing the product online. Many of the characteristics of a garment that... View Details

Keywords: by Jan Hammond & Kristin Kohler; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

07 Jul 2003
What Do You Think?

Can We Have Too Much Productivity Improvement?

productivity is the need [for] ever-increasing consumption. Unfortunately unemployed workers don't consume much of anything." Garry Emmons reminded me that "We examined this issue with HBS profs in a February 1999 HBS Bulletin... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

12 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 12

choice, and consumers fight back by rooting out and disseminating pricing policies that seem unfair. The problem is that companies generally think of value as a pie that is rightfully theirs. But value is not fixed, and it neither... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2022
Case

Rawbank's Illico Cash: Can 'Fast Money' Overcome Cash Dependency in the DRC?

By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger

Thomas de Dreux-Brézé, the Head of Strategy and Project Management at Rawbank Congo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was perplexed as he reviewed annual adoption rates for the bank’s launch of Illico Cash 2.0. As the bank’s mobile money app, Illico Cash... View Details

08 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 8

industry to measure to what extent waiting-time performance impacts different firms' market shares and price decisions. We report on a large-scale empirical industrial organization study in which the demand equations for fast-food... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2011
Article

Platform Envelopment

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne

Due to network effects and switching costs in platform markets, entrants generally must offer revolutionary functionality. We explore a second entry path that does not rely upon Schumpeterian innovation: platform envelopment. Through envelopment, a provider in one... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Economic Systems; Development Economics; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Network Effects; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry