Publications

Americans are awash in debt. Credit undergirds daily life more than ever before—it is one of the defining aspects of life in the United States today. The damage from a depressed housing market is exacerbated by the subprime lender implosion, sending shock waves... View Details

18 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Will Global Demand for Oil Peak This Decade?

Is the globe’s thirst for oil finally topping out? A major international energy watcher says yes, predicting last month that demand for global oil for transport will peak around 2026, plateau for all uses by 2028, and possibly hit a zenith by the end of the decade.... View Details

Keywords: by Alvin Powell, Harvard Gazette; Energy; Industrial Products; Auto; Green Technology

2007
Working Paper

Digital Interactivity: Unanticipated Consequences for Markets, Marketing, and Consumers

By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

The digital interactive transformation in marketing is not unfolding, as many thought it would, on the model of direct marketing. That model anticipated that digital media using rich profiling data would intrude marketing messaging more deeply and more precisely into... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Interactive Communication; Marketing Communications; Consumer Behavior; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet and the Web

Read Now

July 2015
Article

A Behavioral Model of the Popularity and Regulation of Demandable Liabilities

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

Overoptimism regarding one's ability to arrive early in a queue is shown to rationalize deposit contracts in which people can withdraw their funds on demand even if consumption takes place later. Capitalized institutions serving overoptimistic depositors emerge in... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Banks and Banking

10 Jun 2022
News

Consumer Responses to Corporate Bankruptcy

August 2002
Article

Consumer Control and Empowerment: A Primer

By: Luc Wathieu, Lyle Brenner, Ziv Carmon, Amitava Chattopadhyay, Aimee Drolet, John T. Gourville, A.V. Muthukrishnan, Nathan Novemsky, Rebecca Ratner, Klaus Wertenbroch and George Wu

26 May 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Unraveling Results from Comparable Demand and Supply: An Experimental Investigation

Keywords: by Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth & M. Utku Unver

August 1990 (Revised September 1990)
Background Note

Environmental Update: Consumer and Shareholder Influence

March 1999 (Revised December 2001)
Background Note

Analyzing Consumer Perceptions

By: Robert J. Dolan

Describes the perceptual mapping techniques in a non-technical fashion. The procedure is useful for the depiction of the structure of the market. Discusses alternative methods, presents examples of each, and shows how the maps can be used in marketing decision making. View Details

Keywords: Industry Structures; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior

Educators

06 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Cheers to the American Consumer

identifying the Joneses like you. Immigration. The prevalence of immigrants among America's successful entrepreneurs is well documented. But the same curiosity and openness to new things also characterizes View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

March 2022 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Commercial Space Stations, Chickens and Eggs, and Demand for Activity in Low-Earth Orbit

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl and Brendan L. Rosseau

With the International Space Station set to retire in January 2031, NASA has made clear its desire to transition to commercially-led space stations in low-earth orbit (LEO). But the history of commercial station attempts has been fraught, characterized by a lack of... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Opportunities; Business Model; Travel Industry; Transportation Industry; Aerospace Industry

Educators

January 2020 (Revised April 2020)
Teaching Note

Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods

By: Jill Avery

Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods (CPG), offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3.00 price point that promised... View Details

Keywords: Brand; Brand Management; DTC; Private Label; Groceries; Packaged Food; Personal Care; Startups; Retailing; Amazon; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Business Startups; Disruption; E-commerce; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

February 2008
Supplement

Avaya (C): Implementing Demand Generation in Brazil

Avaya's top management wants to improve demand generation. This requires an improvement in the relationship between Sales and Marketing. This case series (Avaya (A)-(D)) walks the student through each phase of this process. The (A) case begins with background on the... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Relationships; Sales

Research Summary

Efficient Consumer Response (ECR)

Seifert is conducting ongoing research on ECR success factor study. Identifying the relevant success factors for ECR-Implementation. Research includes analysis of supply chain mangement and category management implementiation. Statistical data is based on extensive... View Details

January 2014
Technical Note

Learning From Extreme Consumers

By: Jill Avery and Michael Norton

Traditional market research methods focus on understanding the average experiences of average consumers. This focus leads to gaps in our knowledge of consumer behavior and often fails to uncover insights that can drive revolutionary, rather than evolutionary... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Ethnography; Design Thinking; Innovation; New Product Development; Research; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Innovation and Invention

Educators

2021
Working Paper

CEO Activism, Consumer Polarization, and Firm Performance

By: Young Hou and Christopher W. Poliquin

CEOs are increasingly engaging in activism on controversial social and political issues that do not directly affect their businesses. Simultaneously, the general public is increasingly polarized. We examine how CEO support for gun control after two mass shootings... View Details

Keywords: CEO Activism; Guns; Polarization; Non-market Strategy; Social Issues; Leadership; Consumer Behavior; Performance

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03 Oct 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Executive Development Programs Enter the Digital Vortex: I. Disrupting the Demand Landscape

Keywords: by Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas; Education

December 2020
Article

Consumer Reactance to Promotional Favors

By: Marco Bertini and Aylin Aydinli

Promotional favors are an increasingly popular but seldom researched form of price promotion where the receipt of the saving by consumers depends on an action on their part that is nonmonetary in nature, such as completing a questionnaire, posting a review, or making a... View Details

Keywords: Promotional Favors; Conditional Discounts; Psychological Reactance; Price Promotions; Pricing; Marketing; Price; Consumer Behavior