Publications

2016
Working Paper

The Impact of Supplier Inventory Service Level on Retailer Demand

By: Nathan Craig, Nicole DeHoratius and Ananth Raman

To set inventory service levels, suppliers must understand how changes in inventory service level affect demand. We build on prior research, which uses analytical models and laboratory experiments to study the impact of a supplier's service level on demand from... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Forecasting and Prediction; Learning; Consumer Behavior; Service Delivery; Performance Expectations; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Service Industry

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November 2009 (Revised March 2011)
Case

New York Life and Immediate Annuities

By: Julio J. Rotemberg and John T. Gourville

By positioning Immediate Annuities as "guaranteed lifetime income," New York Life has built itself a $1.4 billion per year business by 2009. However, to make Immediate Annuities a mainstream financial product for retirees, New York Life must understand why many... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Personal Finance; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Retirement; Salesforce Management; Insurance Industry

March 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Neck & Neck: Leveraging the Club Neck Information

Commercial Director Prado wonders how to leverage the loyalty card information to prepare the fall 2008 budget. The case discusses the value of subjective and objective information for profit-planning purposes. Spanish children's apparel retailer Neck & Neck uses... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry

October 2013 (Revised January 2016)
Case

J.C. Penney's 'Fair and Square' Strategy (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek and Jill Avery

As he gets ready to release 2nd quarter 2012 results, Ron Johnson, the new CEO of department store J.C. Penney, is reconsidering the dramatic changes he initiated for the business model and brand image of his company. A new pricing scheme he put in place in February,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Price; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; United States

22 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 22

PublicationsForward: The Future of Consumer Credit and Mortgage Finance Authors:Nicolas P. Retsinas and Eric Belsky, eds. Publication:Brookings Institution Press and Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, 2011 Abstract... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Eyes Shut: The Consequences of Not Noticing

Editor's note: Behavioral economist Max H. Bazerman decided to pursue the subject of noticing after realizing that he wasn't very good at it himself. "The truth is that I was truly terrible at noticing," says Bazerman, the Jesse... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman; Retail

06 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 6

that escalate anxiety in high achievers and the unproductive behaviors you turn to for relief. Then adopt practices that give you the courage to "do the right things poorly" before "doing the right things well."... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2025
Working Paper

Climate Risk and the U.S. Insurance Gap: Measurement, Drivers and Implications

By: Parinitha Sastry, Tess Scharlemann, Ishita Sen and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva

In a world with rising risk, how much are U.S. households willing to pay for homeowners insurance, and what does their demand imply for the future of insurance markets? We provide the first estimates of household willingness to pay for homeowners insurance and the... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Risk and Uncertainty; Insurance; Personal Finance; Consumer Behavior; Mortgages

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2024
Working Paper

Moral Incoherence During Category Emergence: The Contentious Case of Connected Toys

By: Ryann Noe

Through a longitudinal study of the emergence of connected toys – physical toys that interact with digital devices – I build theory about moral incoherence: when competing views about the moral worth of a category persist over time. During the course of their... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; Moral Sensibility; Market Entry and Exit; Consumer Behavior

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August 10, 2019
Editorial

E-Commerce Promised the World. Are We Happy With Our Purchase?

By: Louis Hyman and Kwelina Thompson

It has been 25 years since the first online transaction, but we are still struggling with the balance between convenience and security. View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; E-commerce; Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web

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December 2021
Case

Pairwise

By: José B. Alvarez and Annelena Lobb

Pairwise discusses the strategic approach of a company aiming to “snackify” fruits and vegetables by using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to create nutritious, bite-sized foods that could compete with packaged snacks. The company is confronting a number of challenges,... View Details

Keywords: Gene Editing; GMO; Food; Nutrition; Competition; Market Entry and Exit; Public Opinion; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Food and Beverage Industry

November 2008 (Revised November 2008)
Case

Cyworld: Creating and Capturing Value in a Social Network

By: Sunil Gupta and Sangman Han

In May 2008, the new CEO of Cyworld, a social network company in Korea, had to decide how to create and capture value from his rapidly growing user base. Cyworld was founded in 1999, and in 2003 it was acquired by SK Telecom, a leading mobile service provider in Korea.... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior; Social and Collaborative Networks; Segmentation; Value Creation; South Korea

05 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

In Praise of Marketing

how and why, has advanced greatly in the last twenty years. Low-cost data analysis enables marketers to understand what level and mix of incentives will produce behavior change, even down to the level of the individual consumer. Marketers... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Advertising

16 Jul 2014
HBS Case

Marketing Obamacare

and people don't like buying or paying for it. Therefore it takes skillful marketing to attract the attention of people and motivate the desired purchase behavior you are looking for." Amidst the generally dismal track record of the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

2010
Article

The Strategic Use of Brand Biographies

By: Jill Avery, Neeru Paharia, Anat Keinan and Juliet Schor

We introduce the concept of a brand biography to describe an emerging trend in branding in which firms author a dynamic, historical account of the events that have shaped the brand over time. Using a particular type of brand biography, "the underdog," we empirically... View Details

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