Publications

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March 1998 (Revised December 1999)
Case

Bronner Slosberg Humphrey

By: David E. Bell and Donald M Leavitt

Bronner Slosberg Humphrey has succeeded by providing integrated direct marketing solutions for major service companies such as AT&T, American Express, and FedEx. A new CEO takes over from the company's founder and is wondering how to grow the company. Options include... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Leading Change; Global Strategy; Service Operations; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Salesforce Management; Marketing Communications; Service Industry

Teaching Interest

Marketing Models Doctoral Seminar

This course is a doctoral level course on Quantitative Marketing. We will cover methodological as well as substantive topics this semester. Methodological topics include: Choice models, Entry and Exit models, Dynamic structural models, Bayesian estimation methods... View Details

August 2015 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Shareholder Activists and Corporate Strategy

By: David Collis and Ashley Hartman

By 2015, there had been an upsurge in activist shareholders arguing for radical changes in companies' corporate strategies. Personalities like Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman, and Daniel Loeb were feared and loathed in some quarters, celebrated in others. With nearly $120... View Details

Keywords: Scope; Activist Investors; Spin-offs; Synergy; Diversification; Consolidation; Hedge Fund; Corporate Strategy

August 1983 (Revised May 1985)
Case

Jamestown Co.

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Edward J. Hoff

In May 1983 Ms. Katherine O'Brien, vice president of marketing, was deciding whether Jamestown should discontinue the use of independent representatives in favor of a direct company salesforce. Jamestown sold informal stoneware dinnerware through department and gift... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Leadership Style; Marketing Channels; Salesforce Management

March 2022
Article

Estimating the Effectiveness of Permanent Price Reductions for Competing Products Using Multivariate Bayesian Structural Time Series Models

By: Fiammetta Menchetti and Iavor Bojinov

Researchers regularly use synthetic control methods for estimating causal effects when a sub-set of units receive a single persistent treatment, and the rest are unaffected by the change. In many applications, however, units not assigned to treatment are nevertheless... View Details

Keywords: Causal Inference; Partial Interference; Synthetic Controls; Bayesian Structural Time Series; Mathematical Methods

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13 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 13

company's superior productivity and market share gain in Brazil's cosmetics, fragrances, and toiletries (CF&T) industry. By 2009, Natura's direct sales business model generated income for over 1 million... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 19

B. Yoffie Publication:Journal of Economic Perspectives Abstract The patent market consists mainly of privately negotiated, bilateral transactions, either sales or cross-licenses, between large companies. There is no eBay, Amazon, New York... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2004 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Hedging Currency Risks at AIFS

By: Mihir A. Desai, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman

The American Institute for Foreign Studies (AIFS) organizes study abroad programs and cultural exchanges for American students. The firm's revenues are mainly in U.S. dollars, but most of its costs are in eurodollars and British pounds. The company's controllers review... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Forecasting and Prediction; Revenue; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Currency; Currency Exchange Rate; Education Industry; North and Central America

August 2006
Case

Dreyer's Slow Churned(TM) Ice Cream

By: Noel H. Watson, Steven C. Wheelwright and Brian DeLacey

Examines capacity forecasting and planning in a complex new product introduction scenario. The introduction at Dreyer's, a large dairy snack manufacturer, involves not only a new product but a new manufacturing process and product package, thus implying a significant... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Forecasting and Prediction; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Development; Planning; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

10 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 10, 2017

had from such a historical understanding of political economy and of power in an economic age. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53309 forthcoming Encyclopedia of International Economics and Global Trade, Vol. 3: Foreign View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2017 (Revised March 2017)
Case

IBM Transforming, 2012–2016: Ginni Rometty Steers Watson

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

To transform IBM for the next technology wave, Ginni Rometty, who became CEO in 2012, led divestment of declining businesses, made acquisitions in digital innovation and cloud computing, formed partnerships with former competitors such as Apple and tech startups, and... View Details

Keywords: Digital; Technological Change; Artificial Intelligence; Data; IBM; Watson; Internet Of Things; Innovation and Invention; Management; Sales; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Transformation; AI and Machine Learning

May 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Benetton Group S.p.A., 2012

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

On May 31, 2012, after 36 years on the Milan Stock Exchange, Benetton was officially delisted and taken private by Edizione, the Benetton family's holding company. Since 2000, Benetton shareholders had seen its market value fall from $4.3 billion to $720 million at the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Fashion; Retail; Privatization; Family Ownership; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Globalized Firms and Management; Change Management; Restructuring; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Italy

10 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 10, 2018

simultaneously manage the seemingly contradictory dualities of the job: integrating direct decision-making with indirect levers like strategy and culture, balancing internal and external constituencies, proactively pursuing an agenda... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

January 2008 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Glass Egg Digital Media

Glass Egg is an outsource games development firm in Vietnam. They are able to offer brand-name publishers-Microsoft EA, Atari-significant cost savings in the development of art assets for their video games. However, the firm's management find themselves at a point at... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Product Development; Organizational Structure; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

March 2022 (Revised July 2022)
Teaching Note

Camera IQ and the Metaverse: Building Augmented Reality Brand Experiences

By: Jill Avery

Camera IQ, a camera marketing software company that empowered brands to create and launch augmented reality experiences (AREs) across social platforms, had just raised an additional $5 million to fund further product development and expand its marketing and sales... View Details

24 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 24, 2007

Sports Illustrated, created the largest media company in the world by the mid-20th century. Luce's flagship magazine, Time, was able to gross over $20 million in sales during its first decade of publication and over $400 million by the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2025
Case

TagHive: Edtech Pricing and Distributor Decisions

By: Isamar Troncoso, Frank V. Cespedes and Stacy Straaberg

Education technology (edtech) company TagHive, founded in 2017, used a direct sales team and third-party distributors to sell its Class Saathi hardware and software solution to 300 clients, mainly primary and secondary schools in India. The product aimed to improve... View Details