Retail Promotion - Publications - Faculty & Research

27 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

Rituals Strengthen Couples. Here’s Why They’re Good for Business, Too

spell out the name of the retailer after visiting a tennis ball factory in Korea where the workers did a company cheer and calisthenics together every morning. "My feeling is that just because we work so hard, we don't have to go around... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

18 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

How New Managers Become Great Managers

promoted to vice president and divisional merchandise manager for furniture and decorative supplies. There she had profit and loss responsibility for $350 million and twelve people in an area with poor assortment of merchandise, flat... View Details

Keywords: by Linda Hill

19 May 2021
Op-Ed

Why America Needs a Better Bridge Between School and Career

degrees, workers of color, young workers, working mothers, and workers in the industries most affected by COVID, like retail and hospitality. As we look toward a post-pandemic recovery, it will be incumbent upon policymakers, business... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph B. Fuller and Rachel Lipson

07 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis

As the COVID-19 virus pandemic began to sweep across the world, Doug McMillon and his team at Walmart watched in horror. Suddenly, they realized, tomorrow would be nothing like “business as usual” and everything in the company’s marketing plan, from View Details

Keywords: by Jill Avery and Richard Edelman

13 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Don't Turn Your Marketing Function Over to AI Just Yet

factors that influence consumer behavior are so varied and complex, and the data that companies collect is so rich, just modeling how consumers search a single retail website is a monumental task. Each company’s data are so firm and... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

25 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

The Secret Life of Supply Chains

suppliers, and seems to have implications for policies that promote innovation and good jobs,” says the study’s coauthor, Harvard Business School Senior Fellow Karen Mills. For example, the research challenges the focus on reviving the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing; Service

30 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

The Upside of Highlighting a Product's Downsides

incentive—$300 to customers who opened particular cards and charged $1,000 to them during the first 90 days. Although the promotion helped Commonwealth Bank attract more customers, they didn’t spend as much or stay as long as those gained... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

clients with supply chain solutions. With five distribution centers and three logistics warehouses, and over 1,000 employees, Logistics previously managed more than 50 outbound orders per day to refill stores and retail locations for its... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

22 Jul 2019
Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

century? Today, the world’s largest taxi company (Uber) owns no cars; the world’s largest provider of accommodations (Airbnb) owns no real estate; and the world’s largest retailer (Alibaba) owns no inventory. Modern platform thinking has... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Teaching Interest

Overview

Globalization and Emerging Markets (Elective Course) The world order has changed significantly in the last two decades. The influence of western-style varieties of capitalism has been challenged by new forms of capitalism that rely less on private enterprise and on the... View Details

18 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

How to Use Free Shipping as a Competitive Weapon

given that they're exchanging what they hope is a boost in demand for sure losses on the logistics side," says Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Donald Ngwe. Shipping Fees and Product Assortment in Online Retail explores... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail

21 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Loyalty: Don’t Give Away the Store

when they offered the promotion. But it isn't clear that the promotion actually caused this. We wanted to get real data. It is difficult to get sample data from retailers; it takes a lot on their end to supply samples. We chose grocery... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Retail; Retail

15 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Deconstructing the Price Tag

anticipation of the holiday season, the retailer introduced a $115 leather wallet on its website that came in five colors. In an effort to promote sales after the holiday, the View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

07 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Whatever Happened to Caveat Emptor?

faced. There is also a second cause, one that has its roots in the changing shopping experience. During the 1960s, European retailing began moving away from personalized service and toward new self-service sales formats. Abetted by the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

03 Jun 2015
What Do You Think?

Is the Time Right for Self-Management?

organizations?" Others saw limited potential in the concept. As Edward Hare put it, "There are some people capable of managing themselves in a larger organization but many who can't This strikes me as another of those 'ideas' View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

12 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Power to the People: The Unexpected Influence of Small Coalitions

caps. "These measures were not put in place because of the concentrated lobbying power of France's consumer lending sector," Trumbull says. Instead, French politicians worked closely with industry and family groups to develop regulations that View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

07 Nov 2007
Op-Ed

How Marketing Hype Hurt Boeing and Apple

delay to the 787 is not likely to give the equally-hyped (and delayed) Airbus 380 any competitive advantage. The story at Apple is less benign and that explains why the stock was hammered harder. The iPhone was heavily promoted at the... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Aerospace; Consumer Products

29 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

Building a Powerful Prestige Brand

advantage. Most of these retailers allowed consumers to buy on credit. Many, such as Marshall Field's, issued a store charge card to good customers. Charge cards and other possibilities for buying cosmetics on credit were particularly... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn; Retail; Retail; Retail

27 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Social Network Marketing: What Works?

Therefore, the advertising-based business model has had only limited success on social networking sites. If the purpose of advertising is to influence consumers' purchases, our research shows that there is another way to influence their behavior. Imagine that Sony... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Retail; Retail; Retail

14 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 14

Would the album be able to find a large enough audience even without traditional promotional activities? And would there be any adverse reactions, for instance from traditional music retailers refusing to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Publications