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August 10, 2019
Editorial

E-Commerce Promised the World. Are We Happy With Our Purchase?

By: Louis Hyman and Kwelina Thompson

It has been 25 years since the first online transaction, but we are still struggling with the balance between convenience and security. View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; E-commerce; Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web

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December 2021
Case

Pairwise

By: José B. Alvarez and Annelena Lobb

Pairwise discusses the strategic approach of a company aiming to “snackify” fruits and vegetables by using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to create nutritious, bite-sized foods that could compete with packaged snacks. The company is confronting a number of challenges,... View Details

Keywords: Gene Editing; GMO; Food; Nutrition; Competition; Market Entry and Exit; Public Opinion; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Food and Beverage Industry

November 2008 (Revised November 2008)
Case

Cyworld: Creating and Capturing Value in a Social Network

By: Sunil Gupta and Sangman Han

In May 2008, the new CEO of Cyworld, a social network company in Korea, had to decide how to create and capture value from his rapidly growing user base. Cyworld was founded in 1999, and in 2003 it was acquired by SK Telecom, a leading mobile service provider in Korea.... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior; Social and Collaborative Networks; Segmentation; Value Creation; South Korea

01 Jun 2020
News

Keeping the Beat

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes “I definitely don’t think that virtual will ever cannibalize the real thing. I genuinely don’t see that happening. That’s some people’s fear. But I do think the benefit is that we are educating the View Details

Keywords: Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries; Information

28 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

A Dedication to Creation: India's Ad Man Ranjan Kapur

gradually. You build a Honda Scooter, then a Honda Civic, then a Honda Accord, and then an Acura. There is a lot of theory and research on how consumer behavior and perception changes over time. And that... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Advertising

Profile

Fangfang Wang

In China, Fangfang Wang participated in a general management training program at Mars Food that allowed her “the freedom to customize my career path.” Through a series of rotating assignments, Fangfang developed a deep understanding of View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit/Government/Education; CPG

25 Sep 2009
News

Are You Being Served?

finding plenty of ways that companies frustrate their customers. These days, health care, airlines, and telecommunications, to name a few, are sectors that can drive consumers up the wall. Are you, valued customer, treated well, or at... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

Fast Answer

Social Entrepreneurship & Systems Change

start-ups like education, health, fintech, family, communication, and consumer finance among other industries; also invests across every sector, including education, work, finance, justice, food and health. View Details

November 1998
Case

Wegmans Food Markets: Diabetes Counseling

By: Ray A. Goldberg, David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Danny Wegman, president of Wegmans Food Markets, is trying to decide how to evaluate the success of a nutrition-counseling program for diabetics, and whether and how to expand the program beyond the two stores currently involved. Wegmans, with 57 stores and $2.3... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Expansion; Programs; Human Needs; Financial Management; Health Care and Treatment; Nutrition; Consumer Behavior; Pharmaceutical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Challenges that Face Bricks-and-Mortar Stores

technologies. Lesson 1: Use Technology To Create An Immediate, Tangible Benefit For The Consumer. If consumers don't see how technology is going to help them, they often assume that it's going to be used against them. When UPC scanners... View Details

Keywords: by Raymond Burke; Retail

2010
Article

The Strategic Use of Brand Biographies

By: Jill Avery, Neeru Paharia, Anat Keinan and Juliet Schor

We introduce the concept of a brand biography to describe an emerging trend in branding in which firms author a dynamic, historical account of the events that have shaped the brand over time. Using a particular type of brand biography, "the underdog," we empirically... View Details

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15 Oct 2019
News

Understanding Challenges Across the Supply Chain

Sylvia Wachsner (PMD 35, 1978), director of Sociedade Nacional de Agricultura in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “Drawing from the faculty’s industry knowledge, I have learned about consumer behavior and have... View Details

03 Nov 2020
News

One Paramount Priority

us—but that our perceptions of the other side are tearing us apart, she writes in an election-day opinion column in the Boston Globe. An entrepreneur, author, and founder and chair of the consumer collaboration agency C Space, Hessan... View Details

Keywords: Government

05 Oct 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Don't More People Get Flu Shots at Work?

course of their lives,” Beshears says. “It’s not merely a matter of building it and then people will come. You actually need to place it right front and center. Otherwise it’s very easy for people to ignore.” Related Reading: The Business of View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Health

01 Dec 2020
News

Steady as She Goes

consumer behavior brought on by the pandemic to persist. Coles has seen a significant uptick in online ordering—Weckert estimates the company saw five years’ worth of adoption in six months—and people are... View Details

Keywords: April White; COVID-19; change management; leadership; women; grocery stores; Food and Beverage Stores; Retail Trade

01 Feb 1998
News

Short Takes

people can't anticipate or avoid." According to the study, consumers do not let paradoxes get the best of them. They combat such inner conflict by adopting coping mechanisms. They might, explains Fournier, use confrontative strategies... View Details

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

September 2017
Teaching Note

Dick's Sporting Goods

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Matthew G. Preble

This is the teaching note to accompany Rajiv Lal, Jose B. Alvarez, and Matthew G. Preble, “Dick’s Sporting Goods,” HBS No. 517-007 (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2017). View Details

February 2017
Case

Dick's Sporting Goods

By: Rajiv Lal, Jose B. Alvarez and Matthew G. Preble

Edward Stack, chairman and CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS), faced a rapidly changing sporting goods landscape in October 2016. Two large competitors—The Sports Authority and Sport Chalet—had folded earlier that year, and DKS had to contend with increasingly robust... View Details