Publications

April 2017
Article

Introduction to Special Issue: The Consumer in a Connected World

By: John A. Deighton, Jacob Goldenberg and Andrew T. Stephen

Keywords: Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Consumer Research; Smartphones; Data; Technology

10 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Technology and COVID Upended Tipping Norms. Will Consumers Keep Paying?

payment. But what about after taking a ride-share ride? Or after getting a haircut? Many of those establishments prompt tipping either through their online app or on a tablet at checkout. Have you been surprised by the prompt? You’re not alone. These new point-of-sale... View Details

Keywords: by Anna Lamb, Harvard Gazette

Teaching Interest

Strategy and Technology

Overview

This course explores the unique aspects of creating effective management and investment strategies for technology-intensive businesses. What are effective strategies for winning in markets with strong network effects? How should... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Technology

April 2015
Case

Carolinas HealthCare System: Consumer Analytics

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

In 2014, Dr. Michael Dulin, chief clinical officer for analytics and outcomes research and head of the Dickson Advanced Analytics (DA2) group at Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS), successfully unified all analytics talent and resources into one group over a three year... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Segmentation; Big Data; Management Information Systems; Hospital Management; Health Care and Treatment; Marketing; Segmentation; Analytics and Data Science; Information Management; Information Technology; Health; Health Industry; United States

September 2019
Article

Technology Reemergence: Creating New Value for Old Technologies in Swiss Mechanical Watchmaking, 1970-2008

By: Ryan Raffaelli

In 1983, 14 years after the introduction of the battery-powered quartz watch, mechanical watches and the Swiss watchmakers who built them were predicted to be obsolete (Landes, 1983). Unexpectedly, however, by 2008 the Swiss mechanical watchmaking industry had... View Details

Keywords: Technology Reemergence; Technology Cycles; Cognition And Market Redefinition; Legacy Technology Trajectories; Information Technology; Demand and Consumers; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Identity; Change; Consumer Products Industry; Switzerland

Find at Harvard

June 2021
Case

Mobileye 2021: Robotaxi and/or Consumer AV?

By: David B. Yoffie, Danielle Golan and Nicole Tempest Keller

In March 2021, Amnon Shashua, co-founder and CEO of Israel-based Mobileye, was preparing to meet with Intel’s new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, to review plans for the future. Mobileye had been acquired by California-based Intel in 2017, but still operated independently.... View Details

Keywords: Technology Companies; Robotics; Autonomous Vehicles; Strategy; Decision Making; Transportation; Technological Innovation; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Israel

2010
Article

Impact of Online Consumer Reviews on Sales: The Moderating Role of Product and Consumer Characteristics

By: Feng Zhu and Michael Zhang

This article examines how product and consumer characteristics moderate the influence of online consumer reviews on product sales using data from the video game industry. The findings indicate that online reviews are more influential for less popular games and games... View Details

Keywords: Internet Marketing; Online Consumer Reviews; Word Of Mouth; Long Tail; Internet and the Web; Marketing Reference Programs; Digital Marketing; Video Game Industry

December 2012 (Revised April 2025)
Case

AmTran Technology Ltd.

By: Willy Shih, Jyun-Cheng Wang and Karen E. Robinson

As an original design manufacturer (ODM) of television sets and leading supplier to Vizio, a market leader in the U.S. for LCD flat panel TVs, AmTran Technology Ltd. uses what founder Alpha Wu describes as a "WE" model in which western companies perform sales,... View Details

2021
Article

Consumer Disclosure

By: Tami Kim, Kate Barasz and Leslie John

As technological advances enable consumers to share more information in unprecedented ways, today’s disclosure takes on a variety of new forms, triggering a paradigm shift in what “disclosure” entails. This review introduces two factors to conceptualize consumer... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; Passive Disclosure; Information; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Situation or Environment

January 2022
Teaching Note

Mobileye 2021: Robotaxi and/or Consumer AV?

By: David B. Yoffie

The Mobileye 2021 case is a strategy case developed for the Strategy & Technology course, which is a second year elective at Harvard Business School. The primary purpose of the case is to teach the framework, “Look Forward, Reason Back,” which is described in David... View Details

Keywords: Technology Companies; Robotics; Autonomous Vehicles; Strategy; Decision Making; Transportation; Technological Innovation; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Israel

2022
Article

Dynamic Pricing Algorithms, Consumer Harm, and Regulatory Response

By: Alexander MacKay and Samuel N. Weinstein

Pricing algorithms are rapidly transforming markets, from ride-sharing apps, to air travel, to online retail. Regulators and scholars have watched this development with a wary eye. Their focus so far has been on the potential for pricing algorithms to facilitate... View Details

Keywords: Competition Policy; Regulation; Algorithmic Pricing; Dynamic Pricing; Economics; Law And Economics; Law And Regulation; Consumer Protection; Antitrust Law; Industrial Organization; Antitrust Issues And Policies; Technological Change: Choices And Consequences; Competition; Policy; Price; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Microeconomics; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Law

SSRN

Article

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Financial Regulation for the Twenty-First Century

By: Leonard J. Kennedy, Patricia A. McCoy and Ethan S. Bernstein

After existing regulatory systems failed to prevent the recent financial crisis, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a sweeping reform designed to alleviate the crisis and prevent its recurrence. Out of this Act, the Consumer... View Details

August 2020
Case

24M Technologies

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In early 2020, 24M Technologies (24M) announced that two of its strategic investors had commenced building plants to produce lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries based on 24M’s novel semi-solid electrode technology. This promised to halve the cost of conventional Li-ion... View Details

Keywords: Lithium-ion Batteries; Technological Innovation; Commercialization; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy

February 9, 2024
Article

The Rise of Consumer Crypto

By: Steve Kaczynski and Scott Duke Kominers

Although non-fungible tokens are often misunderstood and even derided, they remain a general and flexible solution for establishing and tracking ownership in the digital domain. As a superior solution to existing technology in many areas of the consumer economy, their... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Crypto Economy; NFTs; Non-fungible Tokens; Internet Of Everything; Market Design; Technological Innovation; Demand and Consumers; Web Services Industry

Register to Read

August 2008 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Consumer Payment Systems — Japan

By: Benjamin Edelman and Andrei Hagiu

In 2008, the Japanese consumer payments landscape featured ongoing widespread use of cash, limited use of credit cards and rapid rise of e-money systems based on contactless technology embedded in cards and especially mobile phones. The case details the alliances that... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Digital Platforms; Alliances; Competitive Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Japan

2019
Chapter

Technology Adoption

By: Chris Forman, Avi Goldfarb and Shane Greenstein

Using examples from information technology adoption, we emphasize the role of costs, benefits, communications channels and dynamic considerations in the decision to adopt new technology. We discuss differences between adoption by consumers and adoption by firms. We... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption

Find at Harvard

October 1988 (Revised May 1989)
Case

General Electric: Consumer Electronics Group

By: David J. Collis and Nancy Donohue

Highlights the General Electric takeover of RCA and the consolidation of the two companies' consumer electronic groups. Starting first with a history of the television industry in the United States, Europe, and Japan, and then a brief discussion of the main competitors... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Markets; Business Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

Find at Harvard

20 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

How Consumers Value Global Brands

In 2002, we carried out a two-stage research project in partnership with the market research company Research International/USA to find out how consumers in different countries value global brands. First, we conducted a qualitative study... View Details

Keywords: by Douglas B. Holt, John A. Quelch & Earl L. Taylor

May 25, 2016
Comment

How Consumers and Businesses are Reshaping Public Health

By: John A. Quelch

Healthcare and education are two issues in which citizens around the world, rich and poor, are passionately interested. It has long been appreciated that the way that a society treats its youngest and oldest members says much about its moral maturity. Economic... View Details