Publications

2021
Article

Consumer Disclosure

By: Tami Kim, Kate Barasz and Leslie John

As technological advances enable consumers to share more information in unprecedented ways, today’s disclosure takes on a variety of new forms, triggering a paradigm shift in what “disclosure” entails. This review introduces two factors to conceptualize consumer... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; Passive Disclosure; Information; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Situation or Environment

November 1983 (Revised May 1990)
Case

Procter & Gamble Co. (A)

By: John A. Quelch

An associate advertising manager at Procter & Gamble is considering several options to strengthen the company's position in the light duty liquid detergent market. One option is to introduce a fourth Procter & Gamble brand in the category. Provides substantial... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Advertising; Product Launch; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; United States

Howard H. Stevenson is Sarofim-Rock Baker Foundation Professor emeritus, former Senior Associate Dean, Director of Publishing, and Chair of the Harvard Business Publishing Company board. The Sarofim-Rock Chair was established in 1982 to provide a continuing base for... View Details

Keywords: broadcasting; communications; computer; construction; financial services; forest products; health care; high technology; industrial goods; insurance industry; investment banking industry; manufacturing; paper; professional services; real estate; service industry; software; venture capital industry

January 2017 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Fitbit

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Christine Snively and Sarah Mehta

In 2019, Fitbit lost its leadership in the wearable sensor market to Apple and to cheaper alternatives.
Why did it lose its market position?
How will the proposed acquisition affect it and Google? View Details

Keywords: Wearable Sensors; Smart Watches In Health Care; Google Acquisition; Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Acquisition

Research Summary

Overview

By: John A. Deighton

Professor Deighton conducts research at the intersection of information technology and marketing. He is interested in the complementary uses of human and artificial intelligence and creativity in areas such as advertising, content creation, and online retailing. He... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Media; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; North and Central America; Asia; Europe

September 2004 (Revised January 2005)
Case

IBM: Ordering Midrange Computers in Europe

IBM Europe is trying to expand business-to-business (B2B) efforts with its large distributors of midrange systems. These efforts aim to automate many transactions and business processes, removing the need for human involvement. IBM has completed an initial project with... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Marketing Channels; Distribution Channels; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Germany; United States

Research Summary

Social Learning

One major area of my research is social learning: the ways and extent to which people discover what they want and need from the behavior and opinions of others. Social learning takes many forms. Probably most obvious is word of mouth—the advice and... View Details

June 29, 2022
Other Article

Strategic Complexity? Using Experiments to Understand and Overcome Obfuscation

By: Michael Luca, Ginger Zhe Jin and Daniel Martin

Credit card companies must decide what product features to disclose to consumers, such as payment schedules, penalties, and fees--and also whether to present them clearly or bury them in the fine print. Firms face similar choices in settings ranging from privacy... View Details

Keywords: Obfuscation; Credit Cards; Strategic Incentives; Complexity; Agreements and Arrangements; Customers; Consumer Behavior; Financial Services Industry

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2021
Working Paper

rTSR: Properties, Determinants, and Consequences of Benchmark Choice

By: Paul Ma, Jee-Eun Shin and Charles C.Y. Wang

We develop a measurement-error framework for assessing the quality of relative-performance metrics designed to filter out the systematic component of performance and analyze relative total shareholder return (rTSR)—the predominant metric market participants use to... View Details

Keywords: Relative TSR; Relative Performance Evaluation; Systematic Risk; Board Of Directors; Compensation Consultants; Style Effects; Executive Compensation; Performance Evaluation; Corporate Governance

SSRN

May–June 2019
Article

U-Shaped Conformity in Online Social Networks

By: Monic Sun, Michael Zhang and Feng Zhu

We explore how people balance their needs to belong and to be different from their friends by studying their choices of a virtual-house wall color on a leading Chinese social-networking site. The setting enables us to randomize both the popular color and the adoption... View Details

Keywords: Conformity; Normative Social Influence; Social Networks; Field Experiment; Social and Collaborative Networks; Behavior; Attitudes; Social Media

Find at Harvard

2008
Book

Revisiting Rental Housing: Policies, Programs, and Priorities

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas and Eric S. Belsky

Rental housing is increasingly recognized as a vital housing option in the United States. Yet government policies and programs continue to grapple with widespread problems, including affordability, distressed urban neighborhoods, poor-quality housing stock,... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government and Politics; Housing; Renting or Rental; Problems and Challenges; United States

Find at Harvard

August 2007 (Revised July 2008)
Case

HCL Technologies (A)

By: Linda A. Hill, Tarun Khanna and Emily Stecker

When Vineet Nayar became president of HCL Technologies, a global IT services business, in April 2005, he knew the company needed drastic change. Since its founding as a hardware company in the 1970s, HCL had grown into an enterprise with $3.7 billion in revenues and a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Employee Relationship Management; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competition; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; India

2012
Working Paper

Conflict Policy and Advertising Agency-Client Relations: The Problem of Competing Clients Sharing a Common Agency

By: Alvin J. Silk

What restrictions should be placed on advertising agencies with respect to serving accounts or clients that are competitors of one another in order to avoid conflicts in interest? In recent decades, the advertising and marketing services industry has undergone a number... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Service Delivery; Competition; Conflict of Interests; Policy; Practice; Advertising Industry; United States

December 2023 (Revised August 2024)
Supplement

Microsoft Azure and the Cloud Wars (B)

By: Andy Wu and Matt Higgins

By 2023, the global market for cloud infrastructure had consolidated into a three-horse race. As of Q4 2022, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google collectively accounted for 66% of the global market. AWS had a market share of 33%, Microsoft Azure had 23%, and Google Cloud had... View Details

Keywords: Microsoft; Artificial Intelligence; AI; Competition; Information Infrastructure; Market Participation

17 Oct 2023
HBS Case

With Subscription Fatigue Setting In, Companies Need to Think Hard About Fees

fact, they can just as easily lose great customers in the process. “There is such a thing as a poorly thought-out subscription model,” says Ofek, the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing at HBS. “You have to be careful in terms of... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Information; Information; Information

March 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Pakistan Rising: Bazaar's Growth Story (A)

By: Paul A. Gompers and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in September 2021 as Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, co-founders of Bazaar technologies (Bazaar), the Pakistani high growth B2B e-commerce marketplace, are contemplating whether the year-and-a half old startup should also venture into offering financing to... View Details

Keywords: B2B; Business Model; Emerging Markets; For-Profit Firms; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Value Creation; Globalization; Competition; Expansion; Profit; Resource Allocation; Diversification; Corporate Strategy; Pakistan

30 May 2019
Working Paper Summaries

US Antitrust Law and Policy in Historical Perspective

Keywords: by Laura Phillips Sawyer; Education

June 1999 (Revised August 2004)
Case

The American Basketball League: The Last Chapter

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Elizabeth (Lisa) Smyth

Provides information on the demise of the American Basketball League (ABL) in December 1998. Reviews the League's attendance, television activity, and competitive positioning versus the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). In conjunction with earlier cases... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Failure; Finance; Sports Industry