Publications

July 2019 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Backstage at Boston Ballet

By: David G. Fubini, Ryan Raffaelli, Begum Agca Okutgen and Julia Kelley

This case asks students to consider how to prioritize goals when placed in a new leadership role. In August 2014, Meredith “Max” Hodges became the youngest Executive Director (ED) in the Boston Ballet’s 51-year history. In her first year, she was able to claim several... View Details

23 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Brand Power from Wedgwood to Dell: Part Two

kitchen; Howard Schultz's early office was the prep room for his first café; and Michael Dell began assembling PCs in his college dorm room. How did they go from these beginnings to creating global... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

December 2012
Case

Chobani: Growing a Live and Active Culture

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Matthew Preble

Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of the Greek yogurt company Chobani, Inc., was reflecting on what explained his young company's meteoric rise. The company held over half of the U.S. Greek yogurt market, and nearly 20% of the total yogurt market. The company's innovative approach to... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Growth Strategy; Growth Management; Yogurt; Innovation Strategy; Leadership; Culture; Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Agribusiness; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Canada; Australia

08 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How to Fashion Your New E-Business Model

Participants within a business market assume one or more of four primary roles to carry out these value-creating activities: Suppliers create component products or provide services, raw materials or talent.... View Details

Keywords: by Lynda M. Applegate

22 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

Recessions Push Some Entrepreneurs to Launch Too Soon

paper was published in 2019. "We find that startups founded by individuals most sensitive to labor market conditions display lower financial and innovative performance than startups founded by... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

May 2009 (Revised December 2009)
Teaching Note

Reliance Baking Soda: Optimizing Promotional Spending (Brief Case)

By: John A. Quelch and Heather Beckham

Teaching Note to Briefcase 4128 View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Consumer Marketing; Marketing Planning; Product Management; Sales Promotions; Program Budgeting; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Mathematical Methods; Advertising; Budgets and Budgeting; Product Marketing; Communication Strategy

13 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

Want to Be Happier? Spend Some Money on Avoiding Household Chores

finite lives. “The less control you feel you have over your daily experience, the less happy you feel. Money is a tool that allows you to purchase that control.” “People save for vacations, personal experiences, View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2025
Case

COMAC - Chinese Aviation Soars to New Heights

By: William C. Kirby and Daniel Fu

COMAC's C919 manifested the first challenge to the Boeing-Airbus duopoly since it came to dominate aircraft manufacturing in the 1990s. Beijing sought to export the C919 abroad in its quest to become a "transportation superpower." Was it a wise decision for COMAC to... View Details

Keywords: Aviation; Boeing; Airbus; Aircraft; State-owned Enterprise (SOE); Chinese Manufacturing; Airline Industry; Airports; Global Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Supply Chain; Expansion; Aerospace Industry; China; United States; Europe

06 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

Cut Salaries or Cut People? The Best Way to Survive a Downturn

competitor. That, in turn, drags down the firm’s revenue even faster. In contrast, if a company decides to eliminate head count, the employer can control who leaves—presumably letting go less-productive... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

12 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

Investors Have More Than Money to Offer Entrepreneurs

website; putting their firm’s logo/board member on your website Invitations to marketing and sales events Tapping their social media presence for sharing news and events Beyond the basics: Investors look at... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

13 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Your Company Wants to be a 'Cognitive Referent' (Hint: SpaceX)

this new market and product category to take off, but if they become the cognitive referent, they get an unequal share of the gains from doing so.” Is there a roadmap or View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Aerospace; Food & Beverage; Retail

02 Feb 2022
News

The Key to Retaining Low Wage Workers? Opportunity for Growth, Survey Says

2018
Working Paper

Hot or Not? What Makes Product Categories Attractive to Fair Trade and Eco-labeling Organizations

By: Kristin Sippl

This paper probes extant theory on product diversification in the empirical realm of fair trade and eco-labeling organizations (i.e., certification organizations). While much is known about diversification in for-profit firms, less is known about the more complex... View Details

Keywords: Hybrid Organizations; Fair Trade; Eco-labeling; Goods and Commodities; Diversification; Strategy

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Article

Positioning Brands Against Large Competitors to Increase Sales

By: Neeru Paharia, Jill Avery and Anat Keinan

We explore the effect of having a large dominant competitor and show the conditions under which focusing on a competitive threat, rather than hiding it, can actually help a brand. We demonstrate through lab and field studies that highlighting a large competitor's size... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; Brand Positioning; Competitive Positioning; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Air Transportation Industry; United States

Article

Putting the 'Relationship' Back into CRM

By: Susan Fournier and Jill Avery

Many managers think that the way to capture value through relationship marketing is to focus on the 'good' customers and get rid of the 'bad' ones. But there is a lot more to best practice relationship management than maximizing revenues on individual customers and... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; CRM; Customer Relationship Management; Brand Building; Brand Management; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry

Fall 2011
Article

Exclusivity and Control

By: Andrei Hagiu and Robin S. Lee

We analyze platform competition for content in the presence of strategic interactions between content distributors and content providers. We provide a model of bargaining and price competition within these industries and show that whether or not a piece of content ends... View Details

Keywords: General Strategy; Entertainment And Leisure; Software; Quality; Competition; Price; Sales; Expansion; Digital Platforms; Revenue; Negotiation

October 2013 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Alcoa's Bid for Alcan (A)

By: Paul Healy and Penelope Rossano

In spring 2007, Alcoa CEO Alain Belda was concerned about the company's market position in light of increased competition from developing markets. China's recent entry into the aluminum market was affecting both supply and demand. Furthermore, downstream and upstream... View Details

Keywords: Acquisitions; Strategy; Aluminum; Accounting; Financials; Alcoa; Rio Tinto; Alcan; Metals and Minerals; Competition; Consolidation; Emerging Markets; Acquisition; Financial Statements; Manufacturing Industry; Canada; China; Russia

08 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Unplugged: What Happened to the Smart Grid?

in Business, Energy and Environment, held in Harvard's Innovation Lab. "It's a question of who will make money and which business models are effective." Although the definitive answer to that question remains View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Energy; Utilities

February 2000 (Revised November 2002)
Case

QuickenInsurance: The Race to Click and Close (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

ES Technologies started in 1976 as a storefront in Tempe, Arizona selling personal computer kits to hobbyists. Twenty years later, revenues exceeded $3.5 billion, and the business had evolved from a computer store to a master reseller and full-line integrator of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry; Arizona