Consumer Research - Publications - Faculty & Research

28 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Brick-and-Mortar Stores Are Making a Comeback

quickly and easily at a low price. But consumers buy for many other reasons. They might have social goals or they might want to have an experience that’s delightful. Retailers have to build these functional, ego-expressive, experiential,... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Retail

17 Apr 2017
Research Event

The Most Pressing Issues for Platform Providers in the Sharing Economy

The so-called chicken-and-egg problem is arguably the most discussed and most obvious business dilemma in the sharing economy. Platform providers–like Uber, Airbnb, or Etsy–rely on both consumers and producers to create and sustain a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Service

07 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: Sept. 7

industries in its preferred direction. We find that exogenous price shocks proved particularly helpful in this regard. The Impact of Relative Standards on the Propensity to Disclose Authors:Alessandro Acquisti, Leslie John, and George Loewenstein Publication:Journal of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Oct 2000
What Do You Think?

What Lies Beyond NAFTA?

largely from Mexican readers—not surprising in view of the central role that Vicente Fox, the president-elect of Mexico, is expected to play in upcoming discussions of NAFTA 2.0. There was little argument among respondents about the positive impact of NAFTA on both... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

05 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles and Working Papers 2008

a Harvard Business Review classic, and has just been reissued in book form. We asked Sahlman what he would change if he wrote the article, now a decade old, today. 6. Spending on Happiness Money can't buy you love but it can buy happiness—as long as it's money for... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

12 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Michael Porter’s Prescription For the High Cost of Health Care

competition in health care must change. Our research shows that competition in the health care system occurs at the wrong level, over the wrong things, in the wrong geographic markets, and at the wrong time. Competition has actually been... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter; Health

14 Sep 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Google Engineer Deserved to be Fired by the CEO

pointed out, he justified his assertions by cherry-picking research on gender differences. The real risk of Damore’s generalizations, expressed in a business context, is that they give license to people to behave as if those beliefs are... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

17 Sep 2024
HBS Case

The Climate Targets Leaders Need to Know as Regulations Loom

Michael Toffel, the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management at Harvard Business School. Roughly 42 percent of Fortune 500 companies said they’d reached an environmental target or committed to reaching one by 2030, an 11 percent rise from 2021 to 2022,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

03 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Forget About Making College Affordable; Make it a Good Investment

The August 2016 cover of Consumer Reports featured a striking quote by a 32-year-old nurse with $152,000 in student loans: “I kind of ruined my life by going to college.” While obviously an extreme case, her plight offered merely the... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Fuller; Education

05 Oct 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Don't More People Get Flu Shots at Work?

Economics; Brigitte C. Madrian, Aetna Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management at the Harvard Kennedy School; and Gwendolyn I. Reynolds, with the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA. The team has completed... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Health

23 Aug 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Has the Corporate Mission Just Been Disrupted?

has been discussed for decades. Here is research and writing from Harvard Business School that discusses both the concept in theory and examples of CSR in practice. A Good Place to Start Statement on the Purpose of a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Green Technology

03 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

The Tricky Business of Managing Web Advertising Affiliates

network, but pay only for those ads that entice a consumer to make a purchase. (This setup is different from other online advertising such as banner ads, where the seller pays for the placement when the View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Advertising; Publishing

21 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: December 21

article reviews recent research conducted by the authors that finds that intellectual property rights reform increases technology transfers, foreign direct investment inflows, and industrial development. It also places the findings of... View Details

28 Jan 2002
Research & Ideas

Read All About It! Newspapers Lose Web War

technology on the newspaper business with HBS Working Knowledge editor Sean Silverthorne in this e-mail interview. An article based on Gilbert's doctoral research in this area received the Robert Litschert Best Doctoral Student Paper... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

16 May 2016
HBS Case

Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer

prompted a greater demand for food testing in order to verify the authenticity of the claims. Increasing consumer consciousness about food safety and healthfulness: Consumers have high expectations about the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

17 Oct 2016
HBS Case

Business Solutions That Help Cut Food Waste

the food that supermarkets and manufacturers and farmers can’t sell, recover it, and give it to people who could use a donation or reduced price meal. We are also trying to reverse decades of misguided thinking about what constitutes safe, View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

24 Oct 2007
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Innovation

industries ranging from oil refining to scientific instruments. But how do user innovations take place? How do they get to market? HBS professor Carliss Baldwin discusses her research on the rodeo kayak industry to understand the world of... View Details

14 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 14, 2015

needs of all relevant stakeholders. The original Beer et al. model remains a valuable guide to the next 30 years of HRM. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49360 Forthcoming Innovation Policy and the Economy Innovation Experiments: View Details