Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(913)
- Faculty Publications (173)
- July 2012
- Article
Discrete Choice Cannot Generate Demand That Is Additively Separable in Own Price
By: Sonia Jaffe and Scott Duke Kominers
We show that in a unit demand discrete choice framework with at least three goods, demand cannot be additively separable in own price. This result sharpens the analogous result of Jaffe and Weyl (2010) in the case of linear demand and has implications for testing of... View Details
- February 2012 (Revised January 2013)
- Case
The New York Times Paywall
On March 28, 2011, The New York Times website became a restricted site where most of the content was protected behind a "paywall." Users who exceeded the limit of 20 free articles per month were required to pay for either a digital or print subscription. The newspaper... View Details
- Fall 2011
- Article
A Brief Postwar History of U.S. Consumer Finance
By: Gunnar Trumbull and Peter Tufano
In this brief history of U.S. consumer finance since World War II, the sector is defined based on the functions delivered by firms in the form of payments, savings and investing, borrowing, managing risk, and providing advice. Evidence of major trends in consumption,... View Details
- June 2011 (Revised May 2012)
- Case
Nestlé SA: Nutrition, Health and Wellness Strategy
By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ryan Johnson
In 1997 Nestlé committed to a strategic vision of becoming the leading nutrition, health and wellness (NHW) company in the world. Over the next 13 years, the NHW strategy guided strategic decisions and choices at Nestlé including merger and acquisition choices,... 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
- April 2011
- Case
Samsung and Google TV
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Prithvi Raj and Crystal Jean Marrie
This case describes Samsung's decision on how to pursue the growing market opportunity for internet-connected televisions, which enable consumers to access a range of web-based content including basic information (e.g. stock quotes, weather, news headlines, RSS feeds,... View Details
- March 2011 (Revised February 2014)
- Case
Cree, Inc.: Which Bright Future?
By: David J. Collis, Mary Furey and Matthew Shaffer
After its founding in the late 1980s, Cree Inc. quickly grew into a major player in the emerging LED market. By 2007, technological improvements in LEDs had made them suitable for TV, computer, and mobile "backlighting"; and concerns over global warning led to calls to... View Details
Keywords: Cree; LEDs; Lighting Market; Clean Tech; Energy Policy; Semiconductors; North Carolina; Business Growth and Maturation; Forecasting and Prediction; Innovation and Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology Adoption; Electronics Industry; Green Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North Carolina; Raleigh
- 2011
- Chapter
How Does Simplified Disclosure Affect Individuals' Mutual Fund Choices?
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We use an experiment to estimate the effect of the SEC's Summary Prospectus, which simplifies mutual fund disclosure. Our subjects chose an equity portfolio and a bond portfolio. Subjects received either statutory prospectuses or Summary Prospectuses. We find no... View Details
- Article
The Social Utility of Feature Creep
By: Debora V. Thompson and Michael I. Norton
Previous research shows that consumers frequently choose products with too many features that they later find difficult to use. Our research shows that this seemingly suboptimal behavior may in fact confer benefits when factoring in the social context of consumption.... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
A Brief Postwar History of U.S. Consumer Finance
By: Andrea Ryan, Gunnar Trumbull and Peter Tufano
This article describes the consumer finance sector in the US since World War II. We first define the sector in terms of the functions delivered by firms (payments, savings/investing, borrowing, managing risk, and providing advice.) We provide time series evidence on... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
Cognitive Barriers to Environmental Action: Problems and Solutions
By: Lisa L. Shu and Max Bazerman
We explore interventions at the individual level and focus on recognized cognitive barriers from behavioral decision-making literature. In particular, we highlight three cognitive barriers that impede sound individual decision making that have particular relevance to... View Details
- February 2010 (Revised June 2012)
- Case
"Plugging In" the Consumer: The Adoption of Electrically Powered Vehicles in the U.S.
By: Elie Ofek and Polly Ribatt
How will U.S. consumers respond to the proliferation of alternative-fuel vehicles, such as cars powered partially or completely by electricity, in the coming decade? After a century in which fossil fuel-powered vehicles dominated the market, it appeared consumers would... View Details
- 2010
- Other Unpublished Work
God, Government and Outsiders: The Influence of Religious Beliefs on Depositor Behavior in an Emerging Market.
By: Ayesha K. Khan and Tarun Khanna
This paper provides evidence that religious beliefs can have a significant impact on individual financial choices. Using proprietary panel data on the distribution of bank deposits across all commercial banks in Pakistan over a 33-month period, I find that Islamic... View Details
- January 2010
- Case
DR Corporation
By: Roy D. Shapiro
DR Corporation is a manufacturer of major appliances. The traffic manager is facing a decision of selecting a carrier for the inbound movement of motors. The primary case decisions are 1) what factors are critical to the decision; 2) how to calculate the tradeoffs... View Details
- October 2009
- Article
Shaping Online Consumer Choice by Partitioning the Web
By: Jolie M. Martin and Michael I. Norton
This research explores how partitioning attributes in online search interfaces changes the valuations of those attributes-and impacts subsequent choice-such that attributes that are displayed as separate categories tend to receive greater decision weight than... View Details
- June 2009
- Article
Highbrow Films Gather Dust: Time-inconsistent Preferences and Online DVD Rentals
By: Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers and Max H. Bazerman
We report on a field study demonstrating systematic differences between the preferences people anticipate they will have over a series of options in the future and their subsequent revealed preferences over those options. Using a novel panel data set, we analyze the... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Principles that Matter: Sustaining Software Innovation from the Client to the Web
By: Marco Iansiti
Economic analysis often reviews the role of principles—such as respect for intellectual property rights—in driving innovation. Given the interdependent nature of innovation in information technology, three core principles have emerged that work together to ensure that... View Details
- April 2009 (Revised August 2009)
- Case
Linden Lab: Crossing the Chasm
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
In early 2008, managers at Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life, faced decisions about the company's growth strategy. Despite profound initial skepticism about demand for a user-generated virtual world that was not a traditional game, Second Life had... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Do Friends Influence Purchases in a Social Network?
By: Raghuram Iyengar, Sangman Han and Sunil Gupta
Social networks, such as Facebook and Myspace have witnessed a rapid growth in their membership. Some of these businesses have tried an advertising-based model with very limited success. However, these businesses have not fully explored the power of their members to... View Details
- January 2009 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Live Nation Faces the Music
By: Stephen P. Bradley, Frank Cespedes and Kerry Herman
In 2008, concert producer and promoter Live Nation faces a decision about its strategy in light of the tumultuous changes in the music industry and the increasing power of the major artists. As the music business once again recreates itself in response to new... View Details