Publications

SSRN

2015
Chapter

Consuming Brands

By: Jill Avery and Anat Keinan

Traditional definitions of branding often underestimate the value a brand has for infusing a choice situation with meaning. This chapter explores how people consume brands and presents three perspectives on the meaning of brands that have diverse theoretical roots in... View Details

Keywords: Brand Building; Brand Management; Marketing; Brands and Branding

19 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Company Loyalty

company loyalty by helping people grow out of their jobs—ideally, into new ones within the company. But even when you can't retain talent, it doesn't mean departing employees weren't loyal. Indeed, another mistaken assumption is that... View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Keller Johnson

2013
Article

What Goes Up Must Come Down? Experimental Evidence on Intuitive Forecasting

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Andreas Fuster, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

Do laboratory subjects correctly perceive the dynamics of a mean-reverting time series? In our experiment, subjects receive historical data and make forecasts at different horizons. The time series process that we use features short-run momentum and long-run partial... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cognition and Thinking

Research Summary

Informing Brand Marketing Practice

Susan M. Fournier is involved with several projects relating more generally to brand managment issues. These include boardroom-level projects (with Professors Thomas Madden and Franke Fehle of the University of South Carolina, and sponsored by Interbrand) on the... View Details

November 1985 (Revised November 1987)
Case

R&R

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Outlines alternative mechanisms for getting into business. Shows the means by which an experienced entrepreneur can gain control over the necessary resources in order to lower the fixed costs of business entry. Provides a mechanism for discussing the role of... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Entrepreneurship

13 Oct 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Market Competition, Government Efficiency, and Profitability Around the World

Keywords: by Paul M. Healy, George Serafeim, Suraj Srinivasan & Gwen Yu

March 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Technical Note

Statistical Inference

By: Iavor I. Bojinov, Michael Parzen and Paul Hamilton

This note provides an overview of statistical inference for an introductory data science course. First, the note discusses samples and populations. Next the note describes how to calculate confidence intervals for means and proportions. Then it walks through the logic... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Statistics; Mathematical Modeling; Mathematical Methods; Analytics and Data Science

2018
Report

The Water of Systems Change

By: Mark R. Kramer, John Kania and Peter Senge

Foundations involved in systems change can increase their odds for success by focusing on the least explicit but most powerful conditions for change, while also turning the lens on themselves. The Water of Systems Change aims to clarify what it means to shift... View Details

Keywords: Foundations; Systems Thinking; Systems Change; System; Change; Organizations; Strategy

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December 2007
Article

Fair (and Not So Fair) Division

By: John W. Pratt

Drawbacks of existing procedures are illustrated and a method of efficient fair division is proposed that avoids them. Given additive participants' utilities, each item is priced at the geometric mean (or some other function) of its two highest valuations. The... View Details

Keywords: Price; Management Practices and Processes; Valuation

10 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Commodity Busters: Be a Price Maker, Not a Price Taker

capabilities to your customers' needs and to match your customers to your capabilities. You must focus your capabilities where they will mean the most to the customer. The real secret to being a price maker is to walk away from business... View Details

Keywords: by Benson P. Shapiro

April 2003 (Revised December 2003)
Background Note

Winning the Influence Game: Corporate Diplomacy and Business Strategy

Provides a framework for influencing key outside players--businesses, governments, and NGOs--in support of business strategy. This could mean negotiating contracts with major customers and suppliers, concluding acquisitions and alliances, and securing financing from... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Business Strategy; Power and Influence

19 May 2003
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Winner Targets India Dropouts

Harvard Business School MBA '03 students Raj De Datta, Arvind Krishnamurthy, and Meghna Modi recently won the Social Enterprise track of the annual HBS Business Plan contest with their plan for brokering microfinance loans to families in the service of keeping... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler; Financial Services

12 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

Investors Have More Than Money to Offer Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs have an incredible backstop of management experience and wisdom available to them that, too often, they ignore. Why don’t startup founders make more use of their investors? Many entrepreneurs are hesitant to ask advice from funders. Would doing so, they... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

17 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Venture Capital: Hot Markets and Current Industry Trends

doesn't mean you always agree—hopefully you don't," she said. "There is a need to push each other, but also to know your goals are the same at the end of the day." Their vision becomes your vision, Fagnan said. "I... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

February 1991 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Ann Hopkins (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Ilyse Barkan

Intended to help students understand the many barriers organizations face as their members and their management ranks grow more diverse. As a case on business ethics, it encourages students to discuss what "fairness" and "diversity" mean when an organization is also... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams

2012
Book

Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business

By: Frances Frei and Anne Morriss

Most companies treat service as a low-priority business operation, keeping it out of the spotlight until a customer complains. Then service gets to make a brief appearance—for as long as it takes to calm the customer down and fix whatever foul-up jeopardized the... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Business Ventures