Publications

01 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Encouraging Dissent in Decision-Making

notion that a large segment of consumers might prefer automobiles that were safe and fuel-efficient. Coca-Cola ignored evidence that "New Coke" would fizzle and launched it anyway. Companies in the mechanical-watch and analog-photography View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

July 2008
Case

Hilton Hotels: Brand Differentiation through Customer Relationship Management

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Gabriele Piccoli and Chekitan Dev

This case analyzes the Hilton Hotels Corporation's CRM strategy at a key juncture in its history, immediately after the firm has been taken private by Blackstone. The case provides students with a comprehensive history of the evolution and IT enablers of Hilton's CRM... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Privatization; Performance Evaluation; Information Technology; Accommodations Industry

16 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Your Customers Have Changed. Here's How to Engage Them Again.

needs. The velocity or rate of adaption that firms need to adjust to a new directional reality will depend on customer demand. Industries with decreasing customer demand—offline entertainment, hospitality, real estate, View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim; Retail; Service

01 Sep 2003
News

Larry Murphy

development advisor. He believes that sheer size, coupled with some ill-advised mergers, have hurt creativity and bottom-line performance at big-name media and entertainment companies. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Murphy says, “to see the View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Accommodation; Accommodation

March 2008
Case

Shangri-La Hotels

By: Dennis Campbell and Brent Kazan

In November 2006, Symon Bridle, the newly appointed chief operating officer of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, was thinking about a number of organizational issues that presented challenges to Shangri-La's rapid expansion strategy. There were three major issues at hand:... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Growth and Development Strategy; Standards; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Accommodations Industry; China; Europe; North America

24 May 2017
News

John J. Brennan, MBA 1980

experience to Vanguard in 1982, joining the Valley Forge, Pennsylvania–based pioneer of index funds when it was only seven years old. By 1989, the year he was named president, the company was regarded as an emerging industry leader in... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

December 1993 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Marriott Corporation (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Charles A. Nichols

Marriott Corp.'s chairman and CEO must decide whether to recommend a restructuring of the company to the board of directors. The proposal he is considering would split the Marriott Corp., a premier hotel developer, owner, and manager, into two separate companies by a... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Restructuring; Governing and Advisory Boards; Decision Making; Ethics; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations; Accommodations Industry

2014
Working Paper

Digital Discrimination: The Case of Airbnb.com

By: Benjamin Edelman and Michael Luca

Online marketplaces often contain information not only about products, but also about the people selling the products. In an effort to facilitate trust, many platforms encourage sellers to provide personal profiles and even to post pictures of themselves. However,... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Internet and the Web; Race; Trust; Renting or Rental; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry

SSRN

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December 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Four Seasons Goes to Paris: '53 Properties, 24 Countries, 1 Philosophy'

By: Roger H. Hallowell, David Bowen and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Illustrates how Four Seasons manages hotels in countries with strong and distinct national cultures. Focuses on how the chain meets its exacting service standards in a variety of settings worldwide, with special attention on France. View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Global Range; Global Strategy; Standards; Accommodations Industry; Paris

September–October 2021
Article

Frontiers: Can an AI Algorithm Mitigate Racial Economic Inequality? An Analysis in the Context of Airbnb

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Nitin Mehta, Param Singh and Kannan Srinivasan

We study the effect of Airbnb’s smart-pricing algorithm on the racial disparity in the daily revenue earned by Airbnb hosts. Our empirical strategy exploits Airbnb’s introduction of the algorithm and its voluntary adoption by hosts as a quasi-natural experiment. Among... View Details

Keywords: Smart Pricing; Pricing Algorithm; Machine Bias; Discrimination; Racial Disparity; Social Inequality; Airbnb Revenue; Revenue; Race; Equality and Inequality; Prejudice and Bias; Price; Mathematical Methods; Accommodations Industry

SSRN

Find at Harvard

Web

Research - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

Externalities? By: Sergey Chernenko & Adi Sunderam DEC 2018 How do cash policies affect stock returns? A mutual fund that uses its cash reserves to accommodate outflows will lower the volatility of its underlying holdings by buffering... View Details

12 Oct 2022
Blog Post

11 Stories from HBS PRIDE for National Coming Out Day

ups-and-down of my friendships or relationships. I drew lines between who was allowed to know and who wasn’t. And in my career, I shamelessly allowed myself to work for people who did not affirm who I was. Doing all this having to View Details

June 2000
Case

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Four Seasons has a love/hate relationship with technology, including the best Web site in the industry. This case examines how a leading service delivers high-tech/high-touch, and looks at its progressive human resource strategy. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Service Operations; Accommodations Industry

14 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 14

entertainment industry really works-and how to navigate today's high-stakes business world at large. Publisher's link: http://www.blockbusters-thebook.com/ 2006 Journal of Economic Perspectives The Investment Strategies of Sovereign... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Feb 2022
Book

Beyond the Cold War: Reinventing Socialism in 5 Countries

Although many view socialism through the rigid lens of Soviet orthodoxy, it has always been a work in progress and an evolving and adaptable ideology on a global scale, says Harvard Business School Marvin Bower Associate Professor Jeremy Friedman. In his new book, Ripe... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

June 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Accor: Strengthening the Brand with Digital Marketing

By: Jill Avery, Chekitan S. Dev and Peter O'Connor

Accor, the world's leading hotel operator with a portfolio of fourteen hospitality brands (including Sofitel and Novotel) in 92 countries, prided itself on living up to its motto, "To open new frontiers in hospitality." Accor was indeed contemplating how to do just... View Details

Keywords: Digital; Hospitality; Branding; Brand Management; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; E-commerce; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Europe; France