Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,137)
- Faculty Publications (399)
- September 2016 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Angie's List: Ratings Pioneer Turns 20
By: Robert J. Dolan and Ayelet Israeli
In 1995, before people “googled” or “yelped,” Angela Hicks (HBS, 2000) was establishing her Angie’s List as a pioneer in the accumulation and dissemination of consumer rating information. Hicks focused on the home repair and maintenance market and, as she put it,... View Details
Keywords: Pricing; Pricing Strategy; Services; Product Line Management; Growth; Conjoint Analysis; Market Research; Freemium; Growth Strategy; Two Sided Markets; Ecommerce; Platform; Platform Business; Platform Businesses; Platform Strategy; Platforms; Platforms And Ecosystems; Business Model; Internet and the Web; Business Growth and Maturation; Growth and Development Strategy; Price; Strategy; Digital Platforms; E-commerce; Service Industry; United States
- Fall 2016
- Article
How Do Customers Respond to Increased Service Quality Competition?
When does increased service quality competition lead to customer defection, and which customers are most likely to defect? Our empirical analysis of 82,235 customers exploits the varying competitive dynamics in 644 geographically isolated markets in which a nationwide... View Details
- 2016
- Book
Managing in the Gray: Five Timeless Questions for Resolving Your Toughest Problems at Work
Part of a manager's job is making tough calls, and the hardest challenge can be resolving "gray area” problems—situations in which analysis of the numbers, facts, and data fails to provide a clear answer. Gray areas test not only managers’ skills but also their... View Details
- September 2016 (Revised March 2017)
- Module Note
Strategy Execution Module 3: Using Information for Performance Measurement and Control
By: Robert Simons
This module reading explains how managers use information to control critical business processes and outcomes. The analysis begins by illustrating how managers use information to communicate goals and track performance. Then the focus turns to the choices that managers... View Details
- August 2016 (Revised December 2016)
- Module Note
Strategy Execution Module 2: Building a Successful Strategy
By: Robert Simons
This module reading describes the basics of building a successful strategy. Topics in this module include a discussion of the distinction between corporate and business strategy; how to conduct a SWOT analysis of market dynamics and internal capabilities; the use of... View Details
- August 2016 (Revised November 2019)
- Supplement
eSig: Growth Analysis
By: Mark N. Roberge and Thomas R. Eisenmann
eSig, an early-stage startup, offers an electronic signature application as a "freemium" product, i.e., users can upgrade from a free basic version to a premium version by paying a subscription fee. Using 9 months of data from 50,000 user activations, available as a... View Details
- August 2016 (Revised November 2019)
- Case
eSig: Growth Analysis
By: Mark Roberge and Tom Eisenmann
eSig, an early-stage startup, offers an electronic signature application as a "freemium" product, i.e., users can upgrade from a free basic version to a premium version by paying a subscription fee. Using 9 months of data from 50,000 user activations (available as a... View Details
- July 2016 (Revised January 2017)
- Case
Banking on Change: Aligning Culture and Compensation at Morgan Stanley
This case study was prepared as part of a research project on Culture, Conduct, and Governance in Financial Firms. The objective of this project is to compare and contrast the efforts of U.S. and European banks to induce changes in organization culture in the aftermath... View Details
- June 2016 (Revised March 2017)
- Case
Global Wine War 2015: New World Versus Old
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Sarah McAra
This case contrasts the tradition-bound Old World wine industry with the market-oriented New World producers in the battle for the Chinese wine market in 2015. China’s wine consumption growth presented a large and fast-growing export target that was extremely... View Details
Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Government Regulation; Industry Analysis; International Business; International Marketing; Market Entry; Exports; Business And Government Relations; China; Europe; France; Australia; Trade; Global Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Consumer Behavior; Market Entry and Exit; Competition; Food and Beverage Industry; France; Europe; Australia; China
- June 2016
- Teaching Note
Filene's Basement: Inside a Fired Customer's Relationship
By: Jill Avery and Susan Fournier
How, in a business climate in which building relationships with customers has dominated both managerial thought and marketing budgets, could Filene's Basement have fired a loyal customer, one who was formally and informally recognized as a best customer? This case... View Details
- 2017
- Working Paper
What Else Do Shareholders Want? Shareholder Proposals Contested by Firm Management
By: Eugene F. Soltes, Suraj Srinivasan and Rajesh Vijayaraghavan
Shareholder proposals provide investors an opportunity to exercise their decision rights within firms, but managers can seek permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to dismiss proposals. We find that managers seek to exclude 39% of all proposals... View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
Staggered Boards and Shareholder Value: A Reply to Amihud and Stoyanov
By: Alma Cohen and Charles C.Y. Wang
In a paper published in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2013, we provided evidence that market participants perceive staggered boards to be on average value-reducing. In a recent response paper, Amihud and Stoyanov (2015) “contest” our results. They... View Details
- January 2016 (Revised April 2017)
- Case
The Galaxy Dividend Income Growth Fund's Option Investment Strategies
By: W. Carl Kester
This case is designed to provide an elementary introduction to options and option pricing for beginning finance students. Analysis of the case requires students to compare the prices of put and call options with various exercise prices and maturity dates on two... View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
Financial Patent Quality: Finance Patents After State Street
By: Josh Lerner, Andrew Speen, Mark Baker and Ann Leamon
In the past two decades, patents of inventions related to financial services ("finance patents"), as well as litigation around these patents, have surged. One of the repeated concerns voiced by academics and practitioners alike has been about the quality of these... View Details
- 2015
- Chapter
The Business Model: Nature and Benefits
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and John Heilbron
This paper considers the nature of the business model and its strategic relevance to negotiations. We elaborate a substantive definition of the business model as decisions enforced by the authority of the firm; this definition enables the analysis of business models... View Details
- October 2015 (Revised October 2016)
- Case
Building Watson: Not So Elementary, My Dear! (Abridged)
By: Willy C. Shih
This case is set inside IBM Research's efforts to build a computer that can successfully take on human challengers playing the game show Jeopardy! It opens with the machine named Watson offering the incorrect answer "Toronto" to a seemingly simple question during the... View Details
- 2015
- Article
Testing Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures: Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24
We analyze balanced scorecard data from a convenience store chain, Store24, during the implementation of an innovative, but ultimately unsuccessful, strategy. Quarterly strategic reviews, based in part on the firm's balanced scorecard, led executives at Store24 to... View Details
- June 2015
- Case
The Valuation and Financing of Lady M Confections
By: Mihir A. Desai and Elizabeth A. Meyer
This case explores the decision-making process that small, private businesses must undertake when considering an expansion and when selling equity to outside investors. In the process, students are asked to complete two exercises: a break-even analysis and a valuation... View Details
- June 2015
- Supplement
Generating Higher Value at IBM (A): EPS Forecasting Model
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Scott Mayfield
This case analyzes IBM's financial performance and its capital allocation decisions over a 10-year period from 2004-2013, during which IBM returned more than $140B to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases. During this time, CEO Sam... View Details
- June 2015 (Revised September 2017)
- Supplement
Generating Higher Value at IBM
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Scott Mayfield
This case analyzes IBM's financial performance and its capital allocation decisions over a 10-year period from 2004-2013, during which IBM returned more than $140B to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases. During this time, CEO Sam... View Details