Consumer Utility Models - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Sep 2011
News

Water for Life

has invested over $1 billion in laying 2,000 miles of water lines and building 33 wastewater treatment plants while returning strong profits for shareholders. Equally important, the company has emerged as a model for integrating financial... View Details

Keywords: Utilities; Utilities; Utilities; Utilities

02 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 2

is considered where firms internalize the regret costs that consumers experience when they see an unexpected price change. Regret costs are assumed to be increasing in the size of price changes and this can explain why the size of price... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

31 Oct 2018
News

Preaching with a Choir

volunteer experience as a musician with my background in consumer package goods marketing and my Harvard MBA training. “What we were looking to do is to take the Cadillac brand that is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, re-energize it,... View Details

20 Aug 2007
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Using Investor Relations Proactively

strong investor relations (IR) departments, according to HBS professor Gregory S. Miller. Two cases he recently coauthored describe how these different firms in the oil and gas industry—controversial of late for its mile-high profits—have carved a path as View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Utilities; Utilities

17 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Why Global Brands Work

Harvard professor Theodore Levitt praised Japanese manufacturers for their focus on "what every consumer in the world is seeking: world-class modernity at affordable prices." Either because they didn't understand regional... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Auto

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The ABCs of Addressing Climate Change (From a Business Perspective)

It's Climate Week in New York City. The schedule features a UN Climate Summit, a People's Climate March, the Clinton Global Initiative, substantial criticism of the whole endeavor, and plenty of agitated interaction. There is a lot of noise here. How can businesses cut... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Energy; Utilities

September 2014
Case

Google Inc. in 2014 (Abridged)

By: Benjamin Edelman and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Describes Google's history, business model, governance structure, corporate culture, and processes for managing innovation. Reviews Google's recent strategic initiatives and the threats they pose to Yahoo, Microsoft, and others. Asks what Google should do next. View Details

Keywords: Search Engines; Google; Online Advertising; Internet and the Web; Network Effects; Business Model; Competition; Information Technology Industry; Advertising Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

December 1993 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Kochman, Reidt + Haigh, Inc.

By: Richard S. Ruback and Roy Burstin

A small company faces the dilemma of how to finance growth (i.e., internally generated cash flows vs. outside financing sources). An innovative concept positions the company in promoting a niche within the kitchen-cabinet industry and in looking for an optimal way of... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Finance; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

01 Jan 2008
News

Anand G. Mahindra, MBA 1981

Harvard College. Instead, he opted for HBS and then a job in Mumbai with his father at Mahindra Ugine Steel (MUSCO). Soon after he arrived, the young Harvard MBA was called on to restructure and diversify MUSCO. That was the preparation he needed to join View Details

18 Apr 2022
News

Home Grown

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes With InMobi and now Glance, Naveen Tewari (MBA 2005) is at the forefront of a growing trend of global consumer technology companies created in Asia from the ground up. Growing... View Details

10 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

Lessons from the Browser Wars

simplified access to the online world, transforming the Internet from a communications vehicle for academics into a mass consumer phenomenon. At the same time, the growing usefulness of the Internet drove sales of personal computers off... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

25 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

An Organization Your Customers Understand

pharmacy: a pharmaceutical company selling prescription drugs, and a consumer products company selling personal care products such as shampoo and beauty aids. A consumer filling a medical prescription or... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

21 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 21

histories spanning generations, we combine induction and deduction to propose reputation as a meta-resource that allows firms to activate their conventional resources. We conceptualize reputation as consisting of prominence, perceived quality, and resilience and... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

09 Aug 2010
Research & Ideas

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

power plant are quite strong. Coming back to innovation, what's striking about chemicals is the role of small, independent engineering firms in transmitting innovation across the industry. So there's an interesting model here: Could we... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Utilities; Utilities

25 Oct 2016
First Look

October 25, 2016

outlet store use. Consumers who shop at outlet stores also do not differ significantly from those who shop at regular stores in terms of income. I use a structural demand model to show that View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Dec 1999
Research & Ideas

Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century

Today we might point to Heinz and Noble's skill in exploiting economies of scope, in developing additional goods that utilized existing inputs and organizational capabilities. 48 But neither man thought in theoretical terms about what he... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn

18 Jul 2018
News

Ensuring HBS Remains a Dynamic Community

expressing my opinions and making presentations,” Lien explains. After HBS, Lien returned to Morgan Stanley, rising to executive director of mergers and acquisitions. She then moved to San Francisco, eventually leaving investment banking to View Details

01 Mar 2004
News

Ron Shaich’s Café Society

the attention of consumers on the go, fresh bread fans, and people looking for a place to relax with a cup of coffee in the afternoon. Expected to top $1 billion in sales this year, the publicly held Panera has also satisfied the... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

01 Sep 2017
News

Inbox: From Das’s Desk

local HBS club, a webinar, or an HBX Live discussion led by a professor. The following year, you volunteer to join other alumni for a daylong mentoring exercise with first-year MBA students. Then, a year or two later, you take part in a three-day immersion program that... View Details

Keywords: Das Narayandas; HBX; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

08 Mar 2016
First Look

March 8, 2016

Consumer Neuroscience: Advances in Understanding Consumer Psychology By: Karmarkar, Uma R., and Carolyn Yoon Abstract—While the study of consumer behavior has been enriched by... View Details