Publications

May 2002 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Innovation at Progressive (A): Pay-As-You-Go Insurance

By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

Consumer auto insurance is a price-sensitive industry in which customers rarely pay a premium to a provider even for additional service features. Progressive spends more on additional service features than its competitors do; consumers don't pay extra for these... View Details

April 2002 (Revised July 2002)
Case

Imagicast

By: John T. Gourville and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Imagicast has brought to market an interactive, multimedia retail kiosk designed to increase product sales. In spite of promising projections by industry analysts and detailed demand forecasts by Imagicast management, the company has yet to sell a single kiosk. Time... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Crisis Management; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Sales; Technology; Retail Industry; United States

April 2002 (Revised September 2002)
Background Note

Capital Controls

By: Rawi E. Abdelal and Laura Alfaro

Only in the waning years of the 20th century did international financial markets begin to enjoy the freedom from government regulation that they had experienced before the first world war. By 2002, international capital markets had grown to be enormous--$1.2 trillion... View Details

Keywords: History; Policy; Business and Government Relations; Change Management; Cost vs Benefits; Governance Controls; Governance Compliance; Emerging Markets; Financial Markets; Network Effects; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

March 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

NeoPets, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Elizabeth Kind

NeoPets, a rapidly growing Internet start-up, faces decisions about its international expansion strategy--whether to enter a joint venture with a conglomerate in Singapore to exploit Asian markets as well as which other regions to target. NeoPets allows its... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Global Strategy; Network Effects; Joint Ventures; Business Conglomerates; Age; Internet and the Web; Product Positioning; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; Asia; Singapore

March 2002
Teaching Note

Al Dunlap at Sunbeam TN

By: Brian J. Hall

Teaching Note for (9-899-218). View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products Industry; United States

March 2002 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Satellite Radio

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alastair Brown

In early 2002, XM and Sirius were fighting for control of the emerging U.S. market for satellite radio. Each company targeted consumers in automobiles, providing 100 channels of CD-quality audio for a monthly subscription fee of $10-$13. Wall Street analysts predicted... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Price; Risk and Uncertainty; Problems and Challenges; Network Effects; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology; Business Model; Investment Return; Auto Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

February 2002 (Revised October 2005)
Case

BMWFilms

By: Youngme E. Moon and Kerry Herman

Jim McDowell, VP of marketing at BMW North America, is debating how to follow up the success of his latest marketing campaign, "BMWFilms." This campaign features five short films for the Internet, directed by some of the hottest young directors in Hollywood. By all... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Film Entertainment; Innovation and Invention; Auto Industry; North and Central America

2002
Chapter

Strategic Uncertainty and the Future of Electronic Consumer Interaction: Developing Scenarios, Adapting Strategies

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Eric K. Clemons

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy

February 2002 (Revised April 2011)
Case

The Future of Hybrid Electric Vehicles

By: John T. Gourville, Alice Tzou and David Lane

Set in 2002, this case looks at the potential for hybrid electric vehicles in the United States. Looks at the pressures on the automotive industry to produce a commercially viable, environmentally friendly vehicle and the consumer behavior surrounding purchase of those... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Environmental Sustainability; Technology Adoption; Auto Industry; United States

January 2002 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Aqualisa Quartz: Simply a Better Shower

By: Youngme E. Moon and Kerry Herman

Harry Rawlinson is managing director of Aqualisa, a major U.K. manufacturer of showers. He has just launched the most significant shower innovation in recent history: the Quartz shower. The shower provides significant improvements in terms of quality, cost, and ease of... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Product Launch; Consumer Behavior; Product Positioning; Technological Innovation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Sales; Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United Kingdom

January 2002 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Cola Wars Continue: Coke and Pepsi in the Twenty-First Century

By: David B. Yoffie and Yusi Wang

Examines the industry structure and competitive strategy of Coca-cola and Pepsi over 100 years of rivalry. New challenges of the 21st century included boosting flagging domestic cola sales and finding new revenue streams. Both firms also began to modify their bottling,... View Details

Keywords: Price; Growth and Development; Brands and Branding; Emerging Markets; Industry Structures; Performance; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

2002
Article

Personalization and Personality: Some Effects of Customizing Message Style Based on Consumer Personality

By: Youngme Moon

Keywords: Identity; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships

December 2001
Case

Natural Pork Production

By: Ray A. Goldberg and James M Beagle

An entrepreneurial hog farmer's creative use of contracts and capital structure drives very successful growth and returns in a depressed commodity industry. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Capital Structure; Futures and Commodity Futures; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Goods and Commodities; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Contracts; Success; Consumer Products Industry

November 2001
Case

Gold Kist Inc.

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Stephanie Oestreich

An oversupply of poultry causes a major decrease in margins for the company and the industry. How does the only cooperative in the industry respond to short-term and long-term economic pressures? View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Economics; Profit; Consumer Behavior; Supply and Industry; Strategic Planning; Business Strategy

November 2001
Case

Korea-Tender

By: Das Narayandas and Kate Attea

Korea-Tender is a closed-bidding auction company trying to break even and must select the best opportunity to increase membership and revenue. It can continue its current model with heavy advertising, try to modify its costs, or develop an additional business model... View Details

Keywords: Auctions; Business Model; Advertising; Business Startups; Problems and Challenges; Marketing Strategy; Revenue; Growth and Development Strategy

November 2001 (Revised September 2002)
Case

Four Products: Predicting Diffusion

By: John T. Gourville

One of the critical tasks in the marketing of new innovations is predicting demand and rates of diffusion for those products. Focuses on four innovative products from different domains. Although one can speculate on the scope and rate of diffusion for each of these... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Innovation and Invention; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Technology Adoption

November 2001 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Audio Spotlight, The

By: Youngme E. Moon

Joe Pompei, a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab, has invented a breakthrough audio invention. The invention is an "Audio Spotlight" that projects a narrow beam of sound in the same way a laser beam projects a narrow beam of light. He must now decide how to... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Independent Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Value Creation

2001
Book

Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built

By: R. S. Tedlow

From the table of contents: Andrew Carnegie: From Rags to Richest; George Eastman and the creation of a mass market; Henry Ford: The Profits and the Price of Primitivism; Thomas J. Watson Sr. and American salesmanship; Charles Revson and Revlon: Consumer Packaged Goods... View Details

Keywords: Business History

November 2001 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Whirlpool Europe

By: Richard S. Ruback, Sudhakar Balachandran and Aldo Sesia

This case presents a capital budgeting problem. Whirlpool Europe is evaluating an investment in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that would reorganize the information flow throughout the company. Students derive the cash flows from working capital, sales,... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Cash Flow; Investment; Capital Budgeting; Consumer Products Industry; Europe