Consumer - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

Latest Isn’t Always Greatest: Why Product Updates Capture Consumers

Because consumers gravitate to merchandise labeled as “updated,” even if the items are not necessarily improved, according to the results. "Once something says ‘revised’ on it, it makes you suspend critical judgment." “After showing... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

25 Oct 2020
News

How Consumers Really Use Online Reviews

September 2009
Supplement

Consumer Lending in Japan: Citi CFJ (B)

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull and Akiko Kanno

As the regulatory environment for consumer lending evolves, CFJ has to decide how to respond. View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk Management; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry; Japan

Citation

Purchase

Attention is a necessary ingredient for effective advertising. The market for consumer attention (or “eyeballs”) has become so competitive that attention can be regarded as a currency. The rising cost of this ingredient in the marketplace is causing marketers to... View Details

26 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

What Neuroscience Tells Us About Consumer Desire

brain data to play a key role in future research on consumer choice. (In a recent HBS industry background note on neuromarketing, she discusses the techniques that have helped researchers decode secrets such as why people love... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products

February 2018
Case

Health Savings Accounts: Enabling Consumer Participation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and James Wallace

Health savings accounts (HSAs), a creation of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, had become an integral part of the drive toward consumer-driven health care. Coupled with high-deductible health plans, HSAs allowed consumers to directly control a significant part of... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Healthcare Costs; Health Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Insurance; Innovation and Invention; Health Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

06 Dec 2020
Working Paper Summaries

'Repayment-by-Purchase' Helps Consumers to Reduce Credit Card Debt

Keywords: by Grant E. Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Stephen Bush, Zoe Chance, and Michael I. Norton

2010
Working Paper

A Brief Postwar History of U.S. Consumer Finance

By: Andrea Ryan, Gunnar Trumbull and Peter Tufano

This article describes the consumer finance sector in the US since World War II. We first define the sector in terms of the functions delivered by firms (payments, savings/investing, borrowing, managing risk, and providing advice.) We provide time series evidence on... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Mortgages; Personal Finance; Business History; Innovation and Invention; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Services Industry; United States

Citation

Read Now

December 1989
Case

Giant Effort to Inform Consumers

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Norman Klein

Keywords: Customers; Demand and Consumers

Citation

Find at Harvard

2022
Working Paper

Consumer Reviews and Regulation: Evidence from NYC Restaurants

By: Chiara Farronato and Georgios Zervas

We investigate the informativeness of hygiene signals in online reviews, and their effect on consumer choice and restaurant hygiene. We first extract signals of hygiene from Yelp. Among all dimensions that regulators monitor through mandated restaurant inspections, we... View Details

Keywords: Restaurants; Reviews; Hygiene; Yelp; Regulation; Food; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Consumer Behavior

Citation

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Read Now

March 2002 (Revised July 2002)
Case

TiVo in 2002: Consumer Behavior

Brodie Keast is anxious to understand the sharp contrast between the inertia of prospects and the deep emotional response shown by converted users of TiVo. After an overview of the company's situation and problems, the case focuses on different kinds of data (sales... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Television Entertainment; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

2000
Chapter

Strategies of Consumer Group Mobilization

By: Gunnar Trumbull

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Strategy; Groups and Teams

Citation

01 Sep 2009
News

Consumer Finance Makes HBS Debut

TUFANO: His new consumer finance elective is part of a broader effort to legitimize the field as an important area for research and teaching. Last spring HBS became the first top-ranked U.S. business school to offer a course in View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Finance

05 Mar 2019

Consumer Goods at HBS Webinar

Join us for a live panel with MBA students in the Consumer Goods industry. View Details

27 Jan 2011
Working Paper Summaries

A Brief Postwar History of US Consumer Finance

Keywords: by Andrea Ryan, Gunnar Trumbull & Peter Tufano; Banking

01 Dec 2020
News

Digital Health Care: Empowering Consumers

March 2000
Article

Consumer Researchers: Take a Hike!

By: Gerald Zaltman

Keywords: Research

Citation

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17 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon, Whole Foods Deal a Big Win for Consumers

Source: 400tmax Editor's Note. Online retailing behemoth Amazon announced June 16 that it would acquire upscale grocery chain Whole Foods Market in a deal valued at more than $13 billion. Though the company has dabbled with the idea of a brick-and-mortar footprint in... View Details

Keywords: by Jose Alvarez and Len Schlesinger; Retail