Publications

March 1982 (Revised August 1985)
Background Note

Marketing Planning, Programming, and Budgeting

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Keywords: Marketing; Planning

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Article

Market Heterogeneity and Local Capacity Decisions in Services

By: Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

We empirically document factors that influence how local operating managers use discretion to balance the tradeoff between service capacity costs and customer sensitivity to service time. Our findings, using data from one of the largest financial services providers in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Cost; Standards; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Performance Capacity; Performance Productivity; Financial Services Industry; United States

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We estimate a dynamic structural model of sales force response to a bonus based compensation plan. Substantively, the paper sheds insights on how different elements of the compensation plan enhance productivity. We find evidence that: (1) bonuses enhance productivity... View Details

01 Oct 2001
News

The Eyes Have It: Business Plan Winners Pursue Global Vision

could be prescribed, assembled, and fitted in the field by trained microentrepreneurs rather than by optometrists or ophthalmologists. The next step was to form a "Low Cost Available Eyeglasses" (LCAE) team and enter the HBS Business Plan... View Details

Keywords: eyeglasses

01 Apr 2002
News

Emerging Research on Emerging Markets

asserted at the third annual HBS Workshop on Emerging Markets, held on campus last December. The two-day workshop, which attracted an impressive group of scholars from as far away as Sweden and as nearby as MIT, provided a forum to discuss how to support the efficient... View Details

Keywords: Yasheng Huang; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

The State of the Markets

Worldwide financial markets are in a period of extraordinary change, as they gear up for more and more volume, work out an assortment of mergers and consolidations, contemplate the reality of 24-hour global trading, adopt new advances in... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner

October 2004 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Making China Beautiful: Shiseido and the China Market

By: Geoffrey G. Jones, Akiko Kanno and Masako Egawa

Describes the multinational growth of Shiseido, the world's fourth-largest cosmetics company, with a focus on its strategy in China since 1981. Explores the challenges facing firms in the globalization of a culturally specific industry such as cosmetics. The Japanese... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Competition; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; China; Japan

May 2009 (Revised December 2009)
Case

Reliance Baking Soda: Optimizing Promotional Spending

By: John A. Quelch and Heather Beckham

Reliance Baking Soda is Stewart Corporation's oldest and most established product. The new Domestic Brand Director needs to create a 2008 marketing budget that delivers a profit increase of 10% over 2007 levels. She must first evaluate the effectiveness of past... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Quantitative Analysis; Consumer Marketing; Marketing Planning; Product Management; Sales Promotions; Program Budgeting; Marketing Strategy; Advertising; Product Marketing; Budgets and Budgeting; Sales; Consumer Products Industry

November 2020 (Revised September 2021)
Case

HP Instant Ink: (Self) Disrupting the Consumer Printing Market

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Oded Koenigsberg and George Gonzalez

Seeking to disrupt the consumer printing market (before being disrupted by others), and in response to customer pain points, in 2013 HP Inc. launched an ink replenishment service called Instant Ink, where customers pay a monthly subscription fee based on the number of... View Details

Keywords: Printing; Ink; Subscription Model; Customers; Information Infrastructure; Service Delivery; Business Model; Disruption; Growth and Development Strategy

28 Apr 2011
Working Paper Summaries

When Smaller Menus are Better: Variability in Menu-Setting Ability and 401(k) Plans

Keywords: by David Goldreich & Hanna Halaburda

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

19 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Activist Board Members Increase Firm’s Market Value

out from under any owners planning to use this rule as a tool. It was a unique situation for [research] because it was unpredicted and legally important for a subset of firms with large activist owners who might take advantage of a proxy... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

winter 1976
Article

Please Note Location of Nearest Exit: Exit Barriers and Planning

By: M. E. Porter

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Business Exit or Shutdown; Market Entry and Exit

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April 2018
Supplement

Flipkart (B): The Ongoing Battle for India's E-Commerce Market

By: Sunil Gupta, Das Narayandas and Rachna Tahilyani

In 2017, both Flipkart and Amazon claimed leadership position in India's recently concluded key annual festive season sale, but it was too early to declare victory. Amazon continues to invest heavily in India. Competition from newer players is increasing. Media reports... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Competition; Retail Industry; India

Web

Marketing AI Guidelines | About

customer service. Drafting marketing plans and creative briefs. Citing the Use of AI To ensure the authenticity of the content we produce, it is important to be transparent about the use of AI. Original... View Details

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 8: Linking Performance to Markets

By: Robert Simons

This module reading shows how to link profit plans and other performance measurement systems to both internal and external markets. Starting with the transfer of goods and services within a firm, the module discusses the different methods of designing transfer pricing... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Transfer Pricing; Activity Based Costing; Return On Investment; Residual Income; EVA; Strategy; Cost Accounting; Activity Based Costing and Management; Markets; Investment Return

September 2021
Teaching Note

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments): April 2021

By: Josh Lerner

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 821-125. View Details

Keywords: Pension Funds; Investment Strategy; Capital Markets

July 2010
Supplement

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Pricing and Profitability Analysis (CW)

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery

Pricing is one of the most difficult decisions marketers make and the one with the most direct and immediate impact on the firm's financial position. This toolkit will introduce the fundamental terminology and calculations associated with pricing and profitability... View Details

Keywords: Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Decisions; Strategic Planning; Price; Partners and Partnerships; Cost; Demand and Consumers; Revenue; Profit; Mathematical Methods; Measurement and Metrics