Publications

November 2015 (Revised January 2016)
Teaching Note

McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage Free Eggs

By: Michael W. Toffel

This case provides an opportunity for students to consider how large, multinational corporations should respond when targeted by activists regarding environmental and social concerns in their supply chains. Greenpeace targeted McDonald's because its chicken supplier... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Welfare; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; Brazil; United States; United Kingdom

December 2010 (Revised March 2011)
Case

The Euro in Crisis: Decision Time at the European Central Bank

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull, Dante Roscini and Diane Choi

This case traces the origins and evolution of the European Central Bank, with attention to its 2010 decision concerning the purchase of Greek sovereign debt. View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Currency; Central Banking; Financial Management; Sovereign Finance; Policy; Crisis Management; Europe; Greece

May 2020
Article

How Quantitative Easing Works: Evidence on the Refinancing Channel

By: Marco Di Maggio, Amir Kermani and Christopher Palmer

We document the transmission of large-scale asset purchases by the Federal Reserve to the real economy using rich borrower-linked mortgage-market data and an identification strategy based on mortgage market segmentation. We find that central bank QE1 MBS purchases... View Details

Keywords: Monetary Policy; MBS; Quantitative Easing; LSAP; Refinancing; Deleveraging; HARP; GSE; Central Banking; Global Range; Financing and Loans; Credit; United States

SSRN

Find at Harvard

This essay was submitted as comments in connection with the Federal Reserve Board’s corporate loan purchase facilities collectively called the Main Street Lending Program (“MSLP”.)

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2001
Case

Encyclopedia Britannica (B)

By: Vijay Govindarajan and Praveen Kopalle

In response to the threat from Encarta (Microsoft), Encyclopedia Britannica (EBI) published its text on a two-CD set that was offered free to consumers who purchased the print set and charged $995 if the consumer wanted solely to purchase the CD. By 1996, the company... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Software; Acquisition; Information Publishing

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October 1998
Case

Terry Hinge & Hardware

Presents Andrew Cousin's efforts to buy a manufacturing business via a search fund. Includes the investment memorandum for the proposed purchase of Terry Hinge & Hardware. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Acquisition

10 Nov 2015
HBS Seminar

Matthew Grennan, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

Stuti Agarwal

Stuti is a PhD student in Consumer Behavior at Harvard Business School. She completed her Bachelors in Economics and Psychology from Boston University in 2019 and went on to complete her MPS in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University in 2020. She... View Details

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Is There Help for the Big Ticket Buyer?

Research to write this essay, I expected to find that consumer decision-making research grappled with the types of tough purchasing and investment decisions that were on my callers' minds. To my surprise, I found that this literature has... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman

November 2003 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Flextronics International, Ltd.

By: Robert S. Huckman and Gary P. Pisano

Describes Flextronics' evolution from providing outsourced manufacturing services for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the electronics industry to developing entire unbranded products for purchase by OEMs. In 2001, Flextronics began a development program that... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Production; Service Operations; Performance Effectiveness; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry

27 Apr 2020
News

Social Distancing Survey: 36 Million Americans’ #1 Way to Cope is Online Shopping

September 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Compass Maritime Services, LLC: Valuing Ships

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Albert W. Sheen

Tom Roberts, a founding partner of Compass Maritime Services, a New Jersey-based shipping research and consulting firm, has been asked by a new potential customer in May 2008 for advice on purchasing a capesize bulk carrier. After identifying a suitable ship with his... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Price; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Negotiation Offer; Mathematical Methods; Ship Transportation; Valuation; Consulting Industry; Shipping Industry

2007
Working Paper

Mental Accounting and Small Windfalls: Evidence from an Online Grocer

By: Katherine L. Milkman, John Beshears, Todd Rogers and Max H. Bazerman

We study the effect of small windfalls on consumer spending decisions by examining the purchasing behavior of a sample of online grocery shoppers over the course of a year. We compare the purchases customers make when redeeming a $10-off coupon they received from their... View Details

Keywords: Spending; Consumer Behavior; Mathematical Methods; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

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Research Summary

Evaluating Transactions

I also study how people judge potential transactions. We often think of purchase decisions as straightforward: a consumer buys a product if he expects the benefits to outweigh the price, sometimes after shopping around for the best deal. In practice,... View Details

17 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

New Treasury Rules Help Long-Retirement Planning

The United States Treasury recently amended its rules to encourage workers with retirement plans to purchase life annuities within these plans. Life annuities generally make fixed monthly payments from the date of retirement until the... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Pozen; Financial Services

20 Jun 2018
News

Graphic images speak to consumers of sugary drinks

April 2021
Article

A Model of Multi-Pass Search: Price Search Across Stores and Time

By: Navid Mojir and K. Sudhir

In retail settings with price promotions, consumers often search across stores and time. However, the search literature typically only models one pass search across stores, ignoring revisits to stores; the choice literature using scanner data has modeled search across... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Search; Multi-pass Search; Price Search; Store Search; Spatial Search; Temporal Search; Spatiotemporal Search; Dynamic Structural Models; MPEC; Price Promotions; Store Loyalty; Consumer Behavior; Price; Spending; Marketing; Mathematical Methods