Publications

2009
Case

What People Want (and How to Predict It)

By: Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris

Historically, neither the creators nor the distributors of cultural products such as books or movies have used analytics -- data, statistics, predictive modeling -- to determine the likely success of their offerings. Instead, companies relied on the brilliance of... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Creativity; Customer Satisfaction; Forecasting and Prediction; Markets; Business Model; Publishing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

June 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Blue Man Group: Creativity, Life and Surviving an Economic Meltdown

In 2008, Blue Man Group's three co-founders are facing the prospect of losing not just a business but a way of life they have built together. The case follows the story of Chris Wink, Matt Goldman, and Phil Stanton as they pursue their creative passion and build the... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Crisis Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Personal Development and Career; Creativity; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

February 2009 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Investing in Early Learning as Economic Development at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank

By: Stacey M. Childress and Geoff Eckman Marietta

In his role as Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (Minneapolis Fed), Art Rolnick and his colleague, Rob Grunewald, had written "Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return." The... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Early Childhood Education; Investment Return; Demand and Consumers; Supply and Industry; Performance Effectiveness; Nonprofit Organizations; Minneapolis; Saint Paul

August 2022
Case

SuperRare: Turning an NFT Marketplace into a DAO

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Scott Duke Kominers and Amy Klopfenstein

In June 2021, John Crain and Jonathan Perkins, the founders of SuperRare, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), contemplate whether to transform their company into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Crain and Perkins founded SuperRare in 2018 to... View Details

05 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 5

sales force on track to achieve their annual sales quotas. The paper also introduces two main methodological innovations to the marketing literature: first, we implement empirically the method proposed by Arcidiacono and Miller (2011) to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Jul 2023
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2023

the Second Half of Life, as well as the forthcoming Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, coauthored with Oprah Winfrey. Hise Gibson: Leadership and habit formation My summer reading list comprises books that... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

September 2019 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2000, The Gap, Inc. (Gap) was the world’s largest player in specialty fashion retailing, and companies such as Inditex of Spain, H&M of Sweden, and Fast Retailing of Japan were less than a quarter of Gap’s size. But after two decades of growth, Gap’s progress... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Multinational; Brands; Fast Fashion; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Improvement; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Change Management; Strategy; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sweden; Spain; United States

26 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 26, 2008

Sugar Limited Harvard Business School Case 508-038 Until industry deregulation in 2006, Queensland Sugar ran Australia's single-desk marketing system for raw sugar exports. Since deregulation, eight of the ten Queensland sugar millers... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

05 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding

to connect groups with disparate skills—like engineering, sales, and market analysis—at key points in a project. Extensive analysis of job postings Zhang bases his conclusions on a unique linguistic analysis of more than 34 million online... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

10 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 10

entry) as a means of reconciling non-monotonic incentive responses to competition, effectively manipulating the number and skills distribution of contestants facing one another. February 2015 GfK Marketing Intelligence Review Beyond... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, July 18, 2017

preferences. Finally, we find no evidence that CEO activists using economic language are more persuasive in their appeals. The Relevance of Broker Networks for Information Diffusion in the Stock Market By: Di Maggio, Marco, Francesco... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Building Capabilities in Professional Service Firms

One of the most distinctive aspects of professional service firms is that the vast majority of the people who work in them are directly involved in serving clients. Long-term success in a professional service firm requires obtaining and developing the right... View Details

05 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 5

PublicationsPreference Signaling in Matching Markets Authors:Peter A. Coles, Alexey Kushnir, and Muriel Niederle Publication:American Economic Journal: Microeconomics (forthcoming) Abstract Many labor View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 10

without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial, we examine whether access to and marketing of an individually held commitment savings product lead to an increase in female decision-making... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Bio-Piracy: When Western Firms Usurp Eastern Medicine

for anything where the prior art is known," explains Prithwiraj Choudhury, an assistant professor in the Technology, Operations, and Management unit at Harvard Business School. "But when a Western firm goes to a Western... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Legal Services; Biotechnology

04 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 4

Publications August 2013 MIT Sloan Management Review The Art of Strategic Renewal By: Binns, Andy, J. Bruce Harreld, Charles A. O'Reilly, and Michael L. Tushman Abstract—In recent years, we have seen well-established companies such as... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthlorne

26 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 26, 2008

Working PapersAn Investigation of Earnings Management through Marketing Actions Authors:Craig J. Chapman and Thomas J. Steenburgh Abstract Combining new, hand-collected data with a widely studied dataset, we examine how firms use View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2007 (Revised April 2016)
Case

Octone Records

By: Anita Elberse and Elie Ofek

In February 2007, Octone Records founders James Diener, Ben Berkman, and David Boxenbaum had been highly successful with the first two bands they had signed, Maroon 5 and Flyleaf. Known for its grassroots marketing campaigns, Octone operated through a unique... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Joint Ventures; Investment Return; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Development; Outcome or Result; Creativity; Music Industry