Publications

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Typically, past spending in a category is a positive indicator of future purchasing. In this we show that there exist categories (which we name "canary categories") in which the reverse is true -
When customers purchase... View Details

01 Sep 2006
News

Marketing Giant Ted Levitt Remembered

SCHOLAR, WRITER, TEACHER: Levitt, in a photo from 1983. His research tranformed the study and practice of marketing. The HBS community lost a legendary member of its faculty June 28 when marketing expert Theodore (“Ted”) Levitt died at... View Details

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

07 Mar 2013
News

Matterport's 3-D Scanner Faces Marketing Challenge

November 2020 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Dell Technologies: Bringing the Cloud to the Ground

By: Navid Mojir and V. Kasturi Rangan

The case tells the story of Dell Technologies and its efforts to revitalize its value proposition and escape a commodity trap by acquiring EMC for $67 billion—the largest tech acquisition in history. It also shows the deeply intertwined connections between a company’s... View Details

Keywords: Value Proposition; Go-to-market; Strategic Positioning; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Technological Innovation; Business Divisions; Information Technology Industry; Computer Industry

July 2007
Article

Geographical Segmentation of U.S. Capital Markets

Demographic variation in savings behavior can be exploited to provide evidence on segmentation in US bank loan markets. Cities with a large fraction of seniors have higher volumes of bank deposits. Since many banks rely heavily on deposit financing, this affects local... View Details

Keywords: Age; Economy; Capital Markets; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Local Range; United States

2008
Working Paper

Structural Closure and Exposure: Formation of Structural Inequality in Managerial Labor Markets

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Positional advantages arise when actors obtain rewards attached to positions they occupy, but these rewards are not merited by their performance. Existing theory suggests that in competitive markets there should be no positional advantages. This paper proposes a model... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Jobs and Positions; Managerial Roles; Performance Improvement; Alignment; Competitive Advantage; Equality and Inequality

June 1994 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Cunard Line Ltd.: Managing Integrated Marketing Communications

By: Stephen A. Greyser

Cunard, the world's oldest luxury line company, is confronted with several key issues involving its marketing and marketing communications strategy. One concerns the balance between image/positioning advertising and short-term-oriented promotional... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Structure; Identity; Balance and Stability; Shipping Industry

Web

Video Clips - Creating Emerging Markets

children at their school, the Institution Tahar Sebti. Duration: 04:36 Hani Berzi Hani Berzi Base Of The Pyramid Hani Berzi, founder and CEO of Egypt-based Edita Food Industries, explains the positioning of Edita’s packed croissants... View Details

2007
Working Paper

The New Market for Federal Judicial Law Clerks

By: Christopher Avery, Christine Jolls, Richard Posner and Alvin E. Roth

In the past, judges have often hired applicants for judicial clerkships as early as the beginning of the second year of law school for positions commencing approximately two years down the road. In the new hiring regime for federal judicial law clerks, by contrast,... View Details

Keywords: Law; Education; Employment; Selection and Staffing; Marketplace Matching

September 2000
Case

Jardines: Tapping the Asian E-Commerce Market

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Melissa Dailey and Fred Young

"We have made significant progress in reshaping the group in the current cycle of change," announced the homepage of Jardine Matheson & Co.'s web site. Percy Weatherall, newly appointed managing director of the company, knew all too well about change. In his previous... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Decisions; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Technology Adoption

June 2006 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Euronext.liffe and the Over-the-Counter Derivatives Market (A)

Euronext.liffe, a derivatives trading exchange, had just finished rolling out three new services targeted at the over-the-counter (OTC) market in 2004. The services offered automated confirmation and clearing for OTC equity derivatives. Yet, developments in the... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Product Positioning; Competition; Financial Markets; Network Effects; Cooperation

03 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

Marketing Your Way Through a Recession

strong positions and the most productive cost structures in their industries, can expect to gain market share. Other companies with healthy balance sheets can do so by acquiring weak competitors. 8.... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

June 2020 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Time Out: The Evolution from Media to Markets

By: Kate Barasz and Eva Ascarza

In February 2020, Time Out’s chief executive officer Julio Bruno is evaluating the strategic direction of the company. Over the span of five decades, Time Out — the global media and entertainment brand — had gone from a self-published counterculture publication in... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Media Businesses; Hospitality; Hospitality Industry; Digital; Brands and Branding; Media; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United Kingdom; United States

07 Nov 2007
Op-Ed

How Marketing Hype Hurt Boeing and Apple

787 was showcased to the public from behind the hangar doors on July 8, 2007. Boeing marketers had done a terrific job of positioning the Dreamliner as a step change improvement in air travel, all but... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Aerospace; Consumer Products

11 Mar 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Finding Missing Markets (and a disturbing epilogue): Evidence from an Export Crop Adoption and Marketing Intervention in Kenya

Keywords: by Nava Ashraf, Xavier Giné & Dean Karlan; Food & Beverage

April 2012
Article

The Predictive Value of Accruals and Consequences for Market Anomalies

By: Francois Brochet, Seunghan Nam and Joshua Ronen

We revisit the role of the cash and accrual components of accounting earnings in predicting future cash flows using out-of-sample predictions and market value of equity as a proxy for all future cash flows. We find that, on average, accruals improve upon current cash... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Investment Return; Value; Equity; Markets; Cash Flow; Information Management; Accrual Accounting; Earnings Management; Corporate Governance; Stocks