Customer Focus - Publications - Faculty & Research

14 Sep 2023
Blog Post

MBAs Accelerate Their Social Enterprise Ventures

a startup. Most importantly, I’m ending this summer with the confidence that I can be a founder. Rea: This summer, our focus was to comprehensively understand India's solar irrigation landscape. We conducted field interviews with over 100... View Details

03 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Transforming Manufacturing Waste into Profit

It's been said that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." HBS Assistant Professor Deishin Lee, however, has taken that old adage a step further in her recent working paper Turning Waste into By-Product by showing how it's possible for companies to turn... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing

Web

HBS - The year in Review

core activities of teaching, research, and disseminating ideas. Faculty and students alike embraced the custom technology that enabled teaching and learning both in the classroom and remotely. They were supported by hundreds of frontline... View Details

30 Aug 2016
First Look

August 30, 2016

widespread adoption of their online self-service customer support solution that they were expecting based on early success in helping clients save and generate substantial amounts of money. Dr. Jacob O. Wobbrock and Dr. Andrew J. Ko are... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Profile

Brandon Tieu

HubSpot's impending decision of whether to focus on selling to larger enterprise customers or small-medium businesses. The former CEO came to class and explained their rationale to View Details

29 Aug 2023
News

Helping Consumers Decarbonize their Purchases

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck. In this episode, we’re going to be highlighting an episode of another HBS podcast: Climate Rising, which focuses on what businesses are doing, can do, and should do... View Details

17 Jun 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Excellence Comes From Saying No

School Professor Frances Frei has explored that question for years in the retail realm, culminating in her 2012 book, Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business. This past semester at HBS, the UPS... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

13 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 13

software and IT service firms will likely have an inward focus over the next five years and will, therefore, only slowly emerge onto the global market. Working PapersThe Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 4

in studying these complex social systems. I have made a deliberate choice to focus primarily on research that reflects firsthand experience with boards rather than on research that utilizes data derived from questionnaires and other... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets

of our clients who saw how we managed to overcome the crisis.” —Antonio Madero, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Sanluis Corporation (a leading Mexico-based automotive parts maker) Silverthorne: Was this focus on reputation development pushed... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

18 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

After the 'Crypto Crash,' What's Next for Digital Currencies?

attention and especially energy around speculation and trading—this gives an entrepreneur more time to focus and actually develop their product carefully without constantly having to face the market. Gazette: In November, the global... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Financial Services; Technology

12 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 12, 2018

changes in stockouts or rebalances. We observe no evidence of learning or fatigue. Agent-level heterogeneity in the treatment effects shows that the agents who handle substantially more customer deposits than withdrawals benefit most from... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

Overview

The overarching goal of my research is to produce works that are influential and informative to both academics and practitioners in the field of operations management. To accomplish this, I collaborate with industry partners who provide knowledge about their field,... View Details

12 Nov 2021
News

Alumni Business Leaders on Confronting the Climate Change Challenge

We see a strong push from customers and investors to adopt climate-positive policies and products. And we see movement to adopt policies that emphasize human consequences, these in addition to traditional approaches to compliance with... View Details

01 Mar 2023
News

Step Change

London School of Economics. After stints as a researcher and analyst at investment bank EFG Hermes and the International Finance Corporation, she was recommended for a role at Egypt’s Ministry of Finance in 2010, working in the Macro Fiscal Policy Unit with a View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographed by Abdelrahman Gabr – Koree; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

trucking-tech company, has a simple goal: Get goods where they need to go as efficiently as possible with a limited labor force. For TuSimple, that means a focus not on the cities themselves, but rather on the long stretches of highway... View Details

Keywords: Kathleen Fu, Deborah Blagg, Julia Hanna, and Maureen Harmon; illustrations by; energy; environment; sustainability; entrepreneurship; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transportation; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities; Construction of Buildings; Construction; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

26 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

How Cellophane Changed the Way We Shop for Food

which has been the focus of her research during her yearlong study at HBS. She’ll present some of her findings at a June 29 workshop called “Capitalism and the Senses,” which “brings together scholars from various disciplines, including... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Retail; Advertising

13 Oct 2009
Research & Ideas

7 Lessons for Navigating the Storm

root cause. Get ready for the long haul. Never waste a good crisis. You're in the spotlight: follow your True North. Go on offense: focus on winning now. "Leaders must also remember that they are in the spotlight during a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

greater customer satisfaction and employee retention after six months as compared to (a) socialization that focused on organizational identity (emphasizing the pride to be gained from organizational affiliation) and (b) the organization's... View Details