Publications

Read Now

February 2009 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Windows Vista

By: Benjamin Edelman

Microsoft designs, modifies, publicizes, and distributes Windows Vista—against a backdrop of consumers already largely satisfied with their existing Windows XP systems. Microsoft must decide what features to include and what to drop, how to compete with its own... View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Partners and Partnerships; Competition; Software; Computer Industry

21 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 21

Hervas-Drane Abstract—We analyze the implications of consumer privacy for competition in the marketplace. We consider a market where firms set prices and disclosure levels for consumer information, and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2005 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Best Buy Co.,Inc.: Competing on the Edge

By: John R. Wells and Travis Haglock

While Circuit City struggles, Best Buy has overtaken it to become the premier consumer electronics retailer in the United States. What has driven its success? How can it be sustained? View Details

Keywords: Competition; System; Organizational Structure; Retail Industry; United States

25 Nov 2014
News

Creating a ‘Doorbuster’: the $5 Toaster

Research Summary

Advertising and the Economics of Attention

Using novel technologies, such as eye- and face-tracking, to gauge attentional and emotional (facial) reactions to advertising, Professor Teixeira studies how advertising effectiveness can be optimized. Through complex statistical models of consumer response, he... View Details

July 2024
Article

Acceptance of Automated Vehicles Is Lower for Self than Others

By: Stuti Agarwal, Julian De Freitas, Anya Ragnhildstveit and Carey K. Morewedge

Road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death worldwide for people aged 2–59. Nearly all deaths are due to human error. Automated vehicles could reduce mortality risks, traffic congestion, and air pollution of human-driven vehicles. However, their adoption... View Details

Keywords: Transportation; Risk and Uncertainty; Technology Adoption; Prejudice and Bias

July–August 2013
Article

Complementary Goods: Creating, Capturing, and Competing for Value

By: Taylan Yalcin, Elie Ofek, Oded Koenigsberg and Eyal Biyalogorsky

This paper studies the strategic interaction between firms producing strictly complementary products. With strict complements, a consumer derives positive utility only when both products are used together. We show that value-capture and value-creation problems arise... View Details

Keywords: Complementary Goods; Product Development; Royalty Fees; Product Marketing; Competition

Find at Harvard

23 Apr 2015
News

Lilly Pulitzer for Target: They Came, They Waited, They Went Home Mad

May 2015 (Revised September 2015)
Case

AIP Healthcare Japan: Investing in Japan's Retirement Home Market

By: John A. Quelch and Qing Xia

The CEO of a health care-based REIT is considering alternative nursing home investment strategies. Students must consider macro-industry trends, scale and scope issues and consumer segmentation data in making their recommendations. View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Services; REIT; Marketing; Investment; Health Care and Treatment; Segmentation; Accommodations Industry; Health Industry; Real Estate Industry; Japan

23 Apr 2019
Video

Zubale Final Pitch New Venture Competition 2019 Alumni Track

18 Nov 2019
Video

Adi Godrej

Adi Godrej, Chair of the India-based Godrej Group, discusses the decision to deploy the cash generated by the group’s businesses to acquire consumer products companies in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

View Details

Career Coach

Claire D'Silva

Claire led Strategic Business Development at Klarna before HBS and has previous experience in Strategy at Chase in New York. She led hiring for groups at both organizations and can provide insight into what they’re looking for in a candidate. She spent last summer in... View Details

March 2016
Teaching Note

Catalina in the Digital Age

By: Uma R. Karmarkar and Robert J. Dolan

"Catalina in the Digital Age" considers how a company with a dominant market position should evolve its established product lines given the rise of novel digital technologies. Since its founding in 1983, Catalina had enjoyed a distinct position in the world of consumer... View Details

Keywords: Coupons; Information Technology; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Product Marketing; Retail Industry

May 1994
Case

Colgate-Palmolive: Managing International Careers

Colgate-Palmolive, the U.S.-based consumer products firm, has long emphasized international experience for its managers and has developed a comprehensive policy to manage expatriate assignments. The rise in dual-career families has made some managers reluctant to... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Personal Development and Career; Experience and Expertise; Consumer Products Industry; United States

June 2013
Article

Vacancies in Supply Chain Networks

By: John William Hatfield and Scott Duke Kominers

We use the supply chain matching framework to study the effects of firm exit. We show that the exit of an initial supplier or end consumer has monotonic effects on the welfare of initial suppliers and end consumers but may simultaneously have positive and negative... View Details

Keywords: Matching; Networks; Stability; Vacancy Chains; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain

Find at Harvard

January 2017
Background Note

Making Virtual Reality Real

By: Feng Zhu, Sarah Mehta and David Lane

This note describes virtual reality and augmented reality technologies and describes the main consumer products on offer in 2016 as well as their manufacturers. It also surveys existing applications of virtual and augment reality technologies. View Details

Keywords: Virtual Reality; Augmented Reality; Oculus; Google; HTC; Magic Leap; Microsoft; Samsung; Software; Niantic; Digital Platforms; Technology Adoption; Applications and Software; Technology Industry

10 Feb 2010
News

Super Bowl Commercials: What the Other Big Game is All About

Video

Adi Godrej

Adi Godrej, head of the India-based consumer products Godrej Group, describes the organization’s strategy for coping with high levels of taxes before liberalization in 1991, including the tactic of selling... View Details

Article

Advertising, the Matchmaker

By: Bharat N. Anand and Ron Shachar

We empirically study the informational role of advertising in matching consumers with products when consumers are uncertain about both observable and unobserved program attributes. Our focus is on the network television industry, in which the products are television... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Information; Consumer Behavior; Television Entertainment; Risk and Uncertainty; Product; Decision Choices and Conditions; Advertising Industry