Retention - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2018
Article

In Pursuit of Enhanced Customer Retention Management: Review, Key Issues, and Future Directions

By: Eva Ascarza, Scott A. Neslin, Oded Netzer, Zachery Anderson, Peter S. Fader, Sunil Gupta, Bruce Hardie, Aurelie Lemmens, Barak Libai, David T. Neal, Foster Provost and Rom Schrift

In today’s turbulent business environment, customer retention presents a significant challenge for many service companies. Academics have generated a large body of research that addresses part of that challenge—with a particular focus on predicting customer churn.... View Details

Keywords: Customer Retention; Churn; Customer Relationship Management; Measurement and Metrics

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July 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Supplement

Managing Customer Retention at Teleko

By: Eva Ascarza

This exercise aims to teach students about 1)Targeting Policies; and 2)Algorithmic decision making, 3) Retention management. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Telecommunications Industry; Technology Industry; United States

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October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Store24 (A): Managing Employee Retention

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Provides a retailing context in which employee retention strategies are explored through analyzing detailed store-level data. View Details

Keywords: Retention; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Analytics and Data Science; Strategy; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

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03 Sep 2009
What Do You Think?

Are Retention Bonuses Worth the Investment?

Summing Up What is the time and place for retention bonuses? Retention bonuses have their time and place but have to be used sparingly, according to many respondents to this month's column. Others were not... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

November 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Exercise

Managing Customer Retention at Teleko

By: Eva Ascarza

This exercise aims to teach students about 1) Targeting Policies; and 2) Algorithmic decision making, and 3) Retention management. View Details

Keywords: Algorithmic Decision Making; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships

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October 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

Managing Customer Retention at Teleko

By: Eva Ascarza and Ta-Wei Huang

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 523-005. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; United States

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04 Jan 2021
Working Paper Summaries

The Twofold Effect of Customer Retention in Freemium Settings

Keywords: by Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer, and Julian Runge; Video Game; Entertainment & Recreation

January 2008 (Revised April 2008)
Teaching Note

Pilgrim Bank (B): Customer Retention (TN)

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Teaching Note for [602095]. View Details

Keywords: Customers; Banks and Banking; Customer Focus and Relationships; Banking Industry

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February 1995
Article

Chi no Souzou ni yoru Customer Retention (Customer Retention through Knowledge Creation)

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi

Keywords: Customers; Knowledge

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October 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Supplement

Managing Customer Retention at Teleko

By: Eva Ascarza and Ta-Wei Huang

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October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Supplement

Pilgrim Bank (B): Customer Retention

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Banking Industry

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01 Apr 2008
News

Five Ways to Boost Retention

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

February 2018
Article

Retention Futility: Targeting High-Risk Customers Might Be Ineffective.

By: Eva Ascarza

Companies in a variety of sectors are increasingly managing customer churn proactively, generally by detecting customers at the highest risk of churning and targeting retention efforts towards them. While there is a vast literature on developing churn prediction models... View Details

Keywords: Retention/churn; Proactive Churn Management; Field Experiments; Heterogeneous Treatment Effect; Machine Learning; Customer Relationship Management; Risk Management

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April 2025
Technical Note

Skills-First Talent Management: Engagement and Retention

By: Boris Groysberg, Nicole Zelazko, Robin Abrahams and Katherine Connolly Baden

The third in a series, this note describes the significance of employee engagement and retention, explores the relationship between these two pillars and skills-first talent management, and covers the major drivers of engagement and retention. The other two notes are:... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Employee Relationship Management; Retention; United States

Citation

Educators

05 Apr 2022
News

3 Ways to Boost Retention Through Professional Development

20 Dec 2022
News

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

25 Apr 2014
News

Addressing the challenge of teacher retention in public schools

Melissa Wu (MBA 2008) explains her work with TNTP to research teacher retention patterns and best practices for America's public schools. (Published April 2014) View Details

15 Nov 2021
News

6 Strategies to Boost Retention Through the Great Resignation

2023
Working Paper

Personalized Game Design for Improved User Retention and Monetization in Freemium Games

By: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer and Julian Runge

One of the most crucial aspects and significant levers that gaming companies possess in designing digital games is setting the level of difficulty, which essentially regulates the user’s ability to progress within the game. This aspect is particularly significant in... View Details