Publications

Find at Harvard

June 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Case

Airbnb, Etsy, Uber: Growing from One Thousand to One Million Customers

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Morgan Brown

By 2016, two-sided online platforms (or marketplaces) were pervasive among the highest growing internet startups around. These marketplaces sought to match suppliers of assets for rent, physical products or services with customers demanding them. Among the most notable... View Details

Keywords: Airbnb; Etsy; Uber; Growth Hacking; Two Sided Markets; Digital Platforms; Marketing; Digital Marketing; Growth Management; Service Industry

January 2024 (Revised February 2024)
Course Overview Note

Managing Customers for Growth: Course Overview for Students

By: Eva Ascarza

Managing Customers for Growth (MCG) is a 14-session elective course for second-year MBA students at Harvard Business School. It is designed for business professionals engaged in roles centered on customer-driven growth activities. The course explores the dynamics of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Making; Analytics and Data Science; Growth Management; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

August 2001 (Revised September 2005)
Case

eBay (A): The Customer Marketplace

By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

eBay, the popular Internet-based consumer-to-consumer marketplace, has recently become attractive to corporate customers. According to a vocal subset of eBay customers, the company has lost its way and is set to forsake its traditional business. Told from the... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Multi-Sided Platforms; Problems and Challenges; Opportunities; Trust; Internet; Web Services Industry

21 Mar 2016
HBS Case

Can Customer Reviews Be 'Managed?'

This is a lesson that actually applies to any consumer category really. I would say with pretty much any product or service that somebody is selling, word-of-mouth is always going to be important. So for the marketers that are out there... View Details

Keywords: by Brian Kenny; Advertising; Travel

January 1997
Background Note

Buy Low, Sell High: Creating and Extracting Customer Value by Enhancing Organizational Performance

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Provides an integrated framework for creating customer value and managing the firm profitably. Focuses on the use of product/service line management and effective customer service to achieve customer satisfaction and high profitability. View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Framework; Performance Efficiency; Sales; Business Strategy; Customer Satisfaction; Profit; Product Marketing; Business or Company Management

21 Jan 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Learning from Customers in Outsourcing: Individual and Organizational Effects

Keywords: by Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats

October 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture

By: Frances X. Frei, Robin J. Ely and Laura Winig

On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its board of directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

16 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Your Customers Have Changed. Here's How to Engage Them Again.

further forced changes to customers and hence firm-based behaviors. The outcome of customers’ health and fears has resulted not in a traditional recession but a “deaccession,” where supply and demand exist, but customer-access to products... View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim; Service; Service

October 2011
Case

Raleigh & Rosse: Measures to Motivate Exceptional Service

By: Robert Simons and Michael Mahoney

In January 2010, U.S. luxury goods retailer Raleigh & Rosse is being sued by its employees for encouraging "off the clock" hours. At the center of the class action lawsuit is the famous Raleigh & Rosse performance measurement system previously thought to be the core of... View Details

Keywords: Control Systems; Performance Measurement; Goal Setting; Compensation; Incentives; Motivation; Sales Compensation; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Growth Management; Lawsuits and Litigation; Organizational Culture; Management Systems; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Retail Industry; United States

September 2000
Background Note

Professional Services Module Five: Serving Clients Effectively

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda and Scot H. Landry

It is imperative for the internal systems and processes to be connected to the external processes of client management, competitive adaptation, and service delivery. View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Customer Relationship Management; Knowledge Acquisition; Service Delivery; Performance Effectiveness; Adaptation; Competitive Strategy

Find at Harvard

25 Mar 2011
Working Paper Summaries

How Do Incumbents Fare in the Face of Increased Service Competition?

Keywords: by Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell & Frances X. Frei; Banking

09 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

The Manager’s Guide to Communicating with Customers Collection

Are you reaching your customers? The key is knowing who they are and what they want To appeal to retail customers you need to understand what makes them tick. What better way to do that than by studying actual consumer behavior? A great... View Details

Keywords: by Richard Bierck; Retail

09 Dec 2019
Research & Ideas

Identify Great Customers from Their First Purchase

School. By incorporating data most companies discard, Ascarza and her co-researcher devised an algorithm capable of quickly analyzing more than 40 variables to create a “first impression” of the customer after the initial transaction. The... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Service; Service

2015
Working Paper

Customers and Investors: A Framework for Understanding Financial Institutions

By: Robert C. Merton and Robert T. Thakor

Financial institutions have both investors and customers. Investors, such as those who invest in stocks and bonds or private/public-sector guarantors of institutions, expect an appropriate risk-adjusted return in exchange for the financing and risk-bearing that they... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions