Publications

10 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why a Federal Rule on CEO Pay Disclosure May Get You In Trouble With Customers

to buy towels under a variety of bargain pricing scenarios. The findings were significant: A high-pay-ratio retailer required a 50 percent discount to elicit a willingness to purchase the product that was on... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

More Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Impact of Modularity on the Computer Industry

was a seminal event in the growth of Silicon Valley. CB: The effects of the ensuing competition on modules were better designs and lower prices. Customers were eager to buy the new plug-compatible, non-IBM... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Computer; Consumer Products; Technology

04 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Want to Make Diversity Stick? Break the Cycle of Sameness

this tendency to keep demographics the same from one leader to the next stand in the way of meaningful change? “The data suggest that we’re unlikely to make serious progress on diversity without concerted... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

April 1998 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Classic Pen Company, The: Developing an ABC Model

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Classic Pen has diversified from its core blue and black pen business by introducing new specialized colors. But costs have risen and margins on blue and black pens are decreasing. The controller turns to activity-based costing (ABC) for an explanation. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Manufacturing Industry

December 2017 (Revised January 2018)
Case

Alltech

By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred

Alltech was a Lexington, Kentucky–based producer of supplements for animal feed, with revenues of over $2 billion (projected to reach $3 billion in 2018), sales in 120 countries, 5,000 employees, and 100 manufacturing plants worldwide. For nearly four decades, Alltech... View Details

04 May 2021
Book

Best Buy: How Human Connection Saved a Failing Retailer

the core of the near-miraculous turnaround Joly spearheaded at the company during the 2010s. Joly stepped in as CEO of Best Buy in 2012, just after its quarterly profits plummeted by 91 percent and its stock price hit a nine-year low.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

13 Apr 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Incorporating Price and Inventory Endogeneity in Firm-Level Sales Forecasting

Keywords: by Saravanan Kesavan, Vishal Gaur & Ananth Raman; Retail

29 Feb 2024
HBS Case

Beyond Goals: David Beckham's Playbook for Mobilizing Star Talent

Beckham’s Inter Miami CF soccer club. Beckham visited Elberse’s MBA class, “The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports,” in October to further illuminate the discussions. “You can build a follower base that’s bigger than what traditional media can offer, and you... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Sports

June 2025
Case

TfL Pension Fund and the 2022 Gilt Market Crisis

By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Vincent Dessain, Emer Moloney and Carlota Moniz

On September 27, 2022, Padmesh Shukla, CIO of the Transport for London (TfL) Pension Fund, was keeping a careful eye on the turmoil in the U.K. sovereign bond (or gilt) market. When the new government announced the largest tax cuts the U.K. had seen in half a century,... View Details

16 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Technology Alone Can't Solve AI's Bias Problem

In a cluttered online world, few can resist the convenience of an automated ranking when deciding what movie to watch on Netflix or which seafood restaurant looks promising in a Google search. But when it comes to finding a job candidate... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

2009
Other Unpublished Work

Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns

By: William R. Kerr

This study tests the importance of Ricardian technology differences for international trade. The developed panel includes both emerging and advanced economies, and particular attention is devoted to the variation exploited in empirical tests. The elasticity of export... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Immigration; Competitive Advantage; Integration; Technology; United States

Read Now

10 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Groupon Good for Retailers?

gifts for others. So if three customers each want three vouchers, each can buy one for himself and one for each of his two friends, complying with the rules but obtaining... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising; Technology

22 Feb 2021
Book

Reaching Today's Omnichannel Customer Takes a New Sales Strategy

their current situation and how it might evolve,” Cespedes writes in the book’s introduction. If not, he says, they will make decisions based on bad assumptions and fall victim to those who do understand cause-and-effect links between... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

23 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Three-Dimensional Strategy: Winning the Multisided Platform

transaction. "It functions that way for the same reason that eBay doesn't buy all of the products offered on its website," says Hagiu. "There's just too much stuff and too much risk. It can grow much faster... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

17 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

How Our Brain Determines if the Product is Worth the Price

while the results of this initial experiment had been significant to neuroscience, Karmarkar's team also wanted to show that their research could have real-world implications for retailers—a direct effect on whether a consumer decided to... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

16 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Understanding the ‘Want’ vs. ’Should’ Decision

that the receipt of a $10 discount would cause people to "splurge" on some extra goodies they might not otherwise have purchased. This is exactly what we observed, and this finding contradicts standard economic theory. View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Retail; Entertainment & Recreation

October 2022 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Ginkgo Bioworks vs. Scorpion Capital: The Debate Over Related-Party Revenues

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese, Suraj Srinivasan and Annelena Lobb

Ginkgo Bioworks, a synthetic biology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, faced divergent views on its revenue possibilities and accounting practices. After a report emerged accusing it of fraudulent accounting and lack of innovation, its share price plunged. But... View Details

Keywords: Fraud Allegations; Revenue; Reports; Accounting Audits; Innovation and Management; Investment; Biotechnology Industry; Boston