Publications

August 2013
Article

Customer-Driven Misconduct: How Competition Corrupts Business Practices

By: Victor Manuel Bennett, Lamar Pierce, Jason A. Snyder and Michael W. Toffel

Competition among firms yields many benefits but can also encourage firms to engage in corrupt or unethical activities. We argue that competition can lead organizations to provide services that customers demand but that violate government regulations, especially when... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Crime and Corruption; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Consumer Behavior; Customer Satisfaction; Auto Industry; Service Industry

03 Nov 2020
News

One Paramount Priority

us—but that our perceptions of the other side are tearing us apart, she writes in an election-day opinion column in the Boston Globe. An entrepreneur, author, and founder and chair of the consumer collaboration agency C Space, Hessan... View Details

Keywords: Government

November 1998
Case

Wegmans Food Markets: Diabetes Counseling

By: Ray A. Goldberg, David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Danny Wegman, president of Wegmans Food Markets, is trying to decide how to evaluate the success of a nutrition-counseling program for diabetics, and whether and how to expand the program beyond the two stores currently involved. Wegmans, with 57 stores and $2.3... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Expansion; Programs; Human Needs; Financial Management; Health Care and Treatment; Nutrition; Consumer Behavior; Pharmaceutical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

February 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

AptDeco: Circular Economy Furniture Marketplace

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jamie Merkrebs

AptDeco, a used furniture marketplace, was growing rapidly in the tri-state area. The co-founders were confident that the business model, financial position, and unit economics positioned AptDeco for scaling in the massive $120 billion furniture market, despite its... View Details

Keywords: E-Commerce Strategy; Mobile; Word-of-Mouth; Word-of-mouth Marketing; Word Of Mouth; Internet Marketing; Growth Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Two Sided Markets; Two-sided Market; Two-sided Marketplace; Two-Sided Markets; Two-sided Network; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Leadership; African Americans; Circular; Peer-to-peer Markets; Furniture Industry; Furniture; Growth Hacking; Monetization Strategy; African-American Protagonist; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; E-commerce; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US)

25 Mar 2019
News

Rent The Runway Joins the Unicorn Club

milestone, CEO Jennifer Hyman (MBA 2009), told Forbes that the company “has created a new consumer behavior of dynamic ownership and clothing rental has become an essential utility in our members’ lives.”... View Details

Keywords: Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

01 Sep 2013
News

The Joy of Spending

the rest of our lives." One way to think about it: forget the granite countertop or the pool—how much time are you going to spend in the house compared to the time you spend driving to and from work? Pay Now, Consume Later "The worst... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

July–August 2024
Article

Doing More with Less: Overcoming Ineffective Long-Term Targeting Using Short-Term Signals

By: Ta-Wei Huang and Eva Ascarza

Firms are increasingly interested in developing targeted interventions for customers with the best response, which requires identifying differences in customer sensitivity, typically through the conditional average treatment effect (CATE) estimation. In theory, to... View Details

Keywords: Long-run Targeting; Heterogeneous Treatment Effect; Statistical Surrogacy; Customer Churn; Field Experiments; Consumer Behavior; Customer Focus and Relationships; AI and Machine Learning; Marketing Strategy

March 13, 2023
Article

Sales Teams Need to Stop Focusing on the Customer Funnel

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Understanding where customers are, how they navigate streams in your market, and how to interact with them in a given stream is now central to crafting a good customer experience, and that has implications. Among other things, companies need to shift from thinking... View Details

Keywords: Customer Experience; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior

Register to Read

01 Dec 2017
News

Research Brief: Better Brainstorming

having a high verbal fluency and a willingness to share). The budding entrepreneurs were then asked to work together to come up with new software products for the booming Indian wedding industry. The ideas generated by the teams were rated by Indian View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers

March 2006
Background Note

Customer-Introduced Variability in Service Operations

By: Frances X. Frei

Presents a typology of customer-introduced variability and offers guidance on how to manage each type. Central to the ideas developed is how to mitigate the effects of the apparent trade-off between reducing variability and diminishing the service experience or... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Six Sigma; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Performance Efficiency

October 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Chantal Cookware Corp.

By: H. Kent Bowen, Paul W. Marshall and Stephanie Dodson

Chantal Cookware is a small, private company with a 15-year record of success in the design, assembly, and sale of high-end cookware. It experiences serious setbacks when consumers' tastes shift from colorful enamel-on-steel products to commercial-style cookware.... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Strategic Planning; Market Entry and Exit; Product Positioning; Trends; Manufacturing Industry

November 1987 (Revised March 1993)
Background Note

Global Semiconductor Industry--1987

By: David B. Yoffie

In 1987, the global semiconductor industry was coming out of the deepest recession in its 40 year history. The note examines the competitive dynamics of this industry over time, the nature of its technology, and the sources of competitive advantage. The role of buyer... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Globalization; Crisis Management; Consumer Behavior; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Technology; Semiconductor Industry

Find at Harvard

04 Sep 2019
News

Ask the Expert: Bounce Back

which we can build a richer, more accurate profile for users of any age. That allows us to personalize messages more precisely, which is exactly what consumers want. They get irritated by offers that clearly aren’t for them—like the... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint

March 2007 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Burt's Bees: Leaving the Hive

Rapid growth is pushing Burt's Bees' natural personal care products into mass distribution channels, with products and brand elements that are less quirky, more commercial than they used to be. Indeed, CEO John Replogle believes that by focusing on efficacious,... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Consumer Behavior; Asset Pricing; Entrepreneurship; Distribution Channels; Product Development; Brands and Branding; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

July 2002
Case

Introducing ... The XFL!

By: Susan M. Fournier, Stephen A. Greyser and Seth Schulman

When the XFL professional football league debuted on February 3, 2001, it generated a Nielsen rating of 10.1, higher than any nationally televised program in a Saturday evening time slot. The next week, ratings plummeted, and by week nine the XFL game earned the title... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Product Development; Culture; Commercialization

Profile

Eryn Schultz

months into my new job, and I’ve been able to apply so much of what I learned in school in both my internship and my current job – things ranging from how incentives influence behavior to how to manage a P&L. In addition, the friends... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products; Consumer Products

August 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Siebel Systems: Anatomy of a Sale, Part 1

By: John A. Deighton and Das Narayandas

How does a $2 million software sale happen? This case traces efforts by Siebel Systems to sell lead management software to discount broker Quick & Reilly. The buying process is mapped out over four years. Covers in detail the last six months—from Siebel's initial... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Structure; Behavior; Competition; Applications and Software; Technology Industry