Publications

March 2015
Case

Statoil: Transparency on Payments to Governments

By: George Serafeim

The Statoil case describes the challenge of increasing transparency, in extractive industries, around host county government payments. The case describes Statoil's reasoning behind voluntarily disclosing host country government payments, and the events that led to this... View Details

Keywords: Corruption; Disclosure; Disclosure Strategy; Regulation; Industry Self-regulation; Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Bribery; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility; Government Legislation; Cost vs Benefits; Corporate Disclosure; Mining; Mining Industry; United States

26 Dec 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Reinforcing Regulatory Regimes: How States, Civil Society, and Codes of Conduct Promote Adherence to Global Labor Standards

Keywords: by Michael W. Toffel, Jodi L. Short & Melissa Ouellet

10 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Groupon Good for Retailers?

discount vouchers. Once customers prepay, they often enjoy consumer protections with regard to gift certificates-including special rules as to expiration and partial refunds. Here in Massachusetts, a gift... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising; Technology

12 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Power to the People: The Unexpected Influence of Small Coalitions

modern consumer society: agriculture, retail, pharmaceuticals, and the credit industry in post-World War II Germany, France, Britain, and the United States. In postwar Europe and the United States, the View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

09 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 9, 2015

interpersonal disclosure of intimate information increases attraction, cost transparency by a firm increases brand attraction, in turn boosting consumer purchase interest. This relationship persists even after controlling for perceptions... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 26, 2019

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53888 Trade Secrets Protection and Antitakeover Provisions By: Dey, Aiyesha, and Joshua White Abstract—We examine whether and why managers strengthen antitakeover provisions when facing an... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

10 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 10, 2009

friends, and faith in God (Studies 3—6). Finally, dream content influenced judgment: Participants reported greater affection for a friend after considering a dream in which a friend protected rather than betrayed them (Study 5) and were... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Get in Line: Chapter 11 Restructuring in Crowded Bankruptcy Courts

This paper tests whether Chapter 11 restructuring outcomes are affected by time constraints in busy bankruptcy courts. On average, total bankruptcy filings rise by 32% during economic recessions, leaving bankruptcy judges with far less time per case exactly when... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Restructuring; Financial Distress; Insolvency and Bankruptcy

February 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Coca-Cola on Facebook

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

In late 2008, executives at Coca-Cola had to decide what to do with a fan-created page on Facebook that had amassed over one million followers in three months. From a legal point of view the fan-created page was in violation of Facebook's terms of service as a... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Governance Controls; Policy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Social and Collaborative Networks; Food and Beverage Industry

24 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

The FDA: What Will the Next 100 Years Bring?

the work, not to mention the volume, is staggering. Just a few of the actions taken by the agency this past summer include: Licensed a new vaccine, ACAM2000, to protect against smallpox. Warned consumers not... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

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

Find at Harvard

21 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 21

Hervas-Drane Abstract—We analyze the implications of consumer privacy for competition in the marketplace. We consider a market where firms set prices and disclosure levels for consumer information, and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

The Pitfalls of Pricing Algorithms: Be Mindful of How They Can Hurt Your Brand

By: Marco Bertini and Oded Koenigsberg

More and more companies are relying on pricing algorithms to maximize profits. The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning enables real-time price adjustments based on supply and demand, competitors’ activities, delivery schedules, and so forth. But... View Details

Keywords: Algorithmic Pricing; Dynamic Pricing; Price; Change; Information Technology; Brands and Branding; Perception; Consumer Behavior

Find at Harvard

March 1982 (Revised September 1985)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation

By: Robert J. Dolan

Market leadership and technological innovation have marked Sealed Air's participation in the U.S. protective packaging market. Several small regional producers have introduced products which are less effective than Sealed Air's but similar in appearance and cheaper.... View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Product; Technological Innovation; Supply and Industry; Competitive Advantage; Consumer Products Industry; United States

08 Sep 2015
First Look

September 8, 2015

the need for increased upfront financing, but this protection lowers the real option value of the new venture. In equilibrium, financing risk disproportionately impacts innovative ventures with the greatest real option value. We propose... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

04 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Making the Case for Consumer-Driven Health Care

While some consider it President Obama's greatest accomplishment, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also has been the target of constant scrutiny and scorn since it was signed into law last year. Just last week, several news... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

September 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Case

The Pokémon Company: Evolving into an Everlasting Brand

By: Tomomichi Amano and Masaki Nomura

Super Bowl 50, the fiftieth annual championship game of the American National Football League played in February 2016, featured 52 commercials, and brands spent more than six million dollars each for a 30-second commercial slot. Surprisingly, the commercial that... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Growth and Development Strategy; Video Game Industry; Japan

04 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 4, 2018

It subsequently became much more arduous for pharmaceutical firms to bring new drugs to market. Some critics therefore argued that the new regulations were actually detrimental, as they prevented or delayed good drugs from coming to market. What was the right balance... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

2025
Working Paper

Enhancing Treatment Effect Prediction on Privacy-Protected Data: An Honest Post-Processing Approach

By: Ta-Wei Huang and Eva Ascarza

As firms increasingly rely on customer data for personalization, concerns over privacy and regulatory compliance have grown. Local Differential Privacy (LDP) offers strong individual-level protection by injecting noise into data before collection. While... View Details

Keywords: Targeted Intervention; Conditional Average Treatment Effect Estimation; Differential Privacy; Honest Estimation; Post-processing; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Behavior; Marketing