Publications

May 2020
Article

Digitizing Disclosure: The Case of Restaurant Hygiene Scores

By: Weijia (Daisy) Dai and Michael Luca

Collaborating with Yelp and the city of San Francisco, we revisit a canonical example of quality disclosure by evaluating and helping to redesign the posting of restaurant hygiene scores on Yelp.com. We implement a two-stage intervention that separately identifies... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Consumer Behavior; Knowledge Dissemination; Food and Beverage Industry

2013
Article

Where Not to Eat? Improving Public Policy by Predicting Hygiene Inspections Using Online Reviews

By: Jun Seok Kang, Polina Kuznetsova, Yejin Choi and Michael Luca

Restaurant hygiene inspections are often cited as a success story of public disclosure. Hygiene grades influence customer decisions and serve as an accountability system for restaurants. However, cities (which are responsible for inspections) have limited resources to... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Food; Governance Compliance; Mathematical Methods; Applications and Software; Public Administration Industry; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

March 2018
Case

Nudging Hand Hygiene Compliance at the Brigham and Women's Hospital

By: John Beshears, Michael Luca, Alister Martin and Simin Gharib Lee

July 2002
Article

Estimating and Controlling Workplace Risk: An Approach for Occupational Hygiene and Safety Professionals

By: Michael W. Toffel and Lawrence Birkner

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Labor; Safety

2022
Working Paper

Consumer Reviews and Regulation: Evidence from NYC Restaurants

By: Chiara Farronato and Georgios Zervas

We investigate the informativeness of hygiene signals in online reviews, and their effect on consumer choice and restaurant hygiene. We first extract signals of hygiene from Yelp. Among all dimensions that regulators monitor through mandated restaurant inspections, we... View Details

Keywords: Restaurants; Reviews; Hygiene; Yelp; Regulation; Food; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Consumer Behavior

Article

Crowdsourcing City Government: Using Tournaments to Improve Inspection Accuracy

By: Edward Glaeser, Andrew Hillis, Scott Duke Kominers and Michael Luca

The proliferation of big data makes it possible to better target city services like hygiene inspections, but city governments rarely have the in-house talent needed for developing prediction algorithms. Cities could hire consultants, but a cheaper alternative is to... View Details

Keywords: User-generated Content; Operations; Tournaments; Policy-making; Machine Learning; Online Platforms; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; City; Infrastructure; Business Processes; Government and Politics

September 2023 (Revised October 2023)
Case

Ghassan Nuqul and the Nuqul Group: Preserving a Father's Legacy

By: Christina R. Wing, Lauren Cohen and Alpana Thapar

The Nuqul Group was established in 1952 by Elia Nuqul, a Palestinian refugee who fled his hometown in 1948 with his family to Jordan. He overcame many hardships in his initial years there, but subsequently started a trading business that grew to become one of Jordan’s... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Family Ownership; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Succession; Jordan

October 2017 (Revised August 2020)
Case

RB

By: Joshua Margolis, Vincent Dessain and Jerome Lenhardt

As 2016 was approaching its end, Rakesh Kapoor, CEO of RB, one of the world’s major fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, envisioned the prospect of a major acquisition that would add a line of health-related products that promised growth in the developing... View Details

Keywords: Organization Behavior; Corporate Culture; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Growth; Geographic Development; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; France

June 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Procter & Gamble: Marketing Capabilities

By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ryan Johnson

P&G had become known and recognized as a marketing machine. It was the largest advertiser in the world, with 2010 spending of $8.68 billion. From the company's early exploitation of broadcast media (radio and television) for its soap products to more recent experiments... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Change Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Expansion; Consumer Products Industry

February 2008
Article

Blonde and Blue-eyed?: Globalizing Beauty, c.1945–c.1980

By: Geoffrey Jones

This article examines the globalization of the beauty industry between 1945 and 1980. The industry grew quickly. Firms employed marketing and marketing strategies to diffuse products and brands internationally, despite business, economic, and cultural obstacles to... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Markets and Industries; Product Marketing; Standards; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

Research Summary

Evolution of the Global Beauty Industry

By: Geoffrey G. Jones

This research examines the global beauty industry, which includes cosmetics, deodorants, fragrances, hair care, oral hygiene and skin care. Today global sales of cosmetics and toiletries are in excess of U.S. $380 billion. This research examines the growth of this... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Translating Information into Action: A Public Health Experiment in Bangladesh

By: Reshmaan Hussam, Kailash Pandey, Abu Shonchoy and Chikako Yamauchi

While models of technology adoption posit learning as the basis of behavior change, information campaigns in public health frequently fail to change behavior. We design an information campaign embedding hand-hygiene edutainment within popular dramas using mobile... View Details

Keywords: Handwashing; Public Health; Health; Information; Behavior; Change

February 13, 2023
Editorial

The Secret Tax on Women’s Time

By: Lauren C. Howe, Lindsay B. Howe and Ashley V. Whillans

When studies revealed the so-called pink tax, showing in 2015 that personal hygiene products “for her” cost 13% more than similar products for men, it caused outrage and action. The irony that women, despite generally having fewer financial resources than men, are... View Details

Keywords: Gender; Equality and Inequality; Work-Life Balance

August 2023
Case

WayCool: Reimagining the Food Supply Chain

By: Paul Gompers and Kairavi Dey

Founded in 2015, WayCool, is an Indian agri-tech start-up that built a B2B operation acquiring fruits and vegetables from product-specific agriculture companies and small-holding farmers. It sold them to business customers, such as local retail stores, restaurants, and... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Digital Transformation; Operations; Business Strategy; Supply Chain; Performance; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; South Asia

August 2012 (Revised October 2022)
Case

Elia Nuqul and the Making of a Middle Eastern Business Group (A)

By: Geoffrey Jones and Lana Ghanem

The case is concerned with Elia Nuqul, the founder of Jordanian-based Nuqul Brothers, a large diversified business group. It shows how Nuqul, a Christian Palestinian whose family was forced to flee to Jordan after the creation of Israel in 1948, built a business in his... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; History; Government and Politics; Global Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Middle East

2023
Working Paper

Behavioral Transmission: Evidence from a Public Health Campaign in Bangladesh

By: Reshmaan Hussam and Dayea Oh

We examine how behavior change transmits across contexts in the setting of hand hygiene in rural Bangladesh. We randomize an edutainment intervention across classrooms to trace schoolto-home transmission in handwashing behavior and randomize the proportion of students... View Details

Keywords: Handwashing; Interventions; Public Health; Health; Behavior; Change; Bangladesh

2012
Article

Wider dem sauren Mund. Beiersdorfs U.S.-Geschaeft mit der Zahnpastamarke Pebeco

By: G. Jones and Christina Lubinski

This article examines the growth and ultimate demise of the toothpaste brand Pebeco, which was created by the German personal care company Beiersdorf in 1903. The brand was an enormous international success, becoming for a time the largest toothpaste brand in the... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Problems and Challenges; Marketing Strategy; Markets; Change; Customers; Social Psychology; Science; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Germany

23 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 23, 2008

range of variation in beauty and hygiene ideals. What Have We Learned from Market Design? Author:Alvin E. Roth Periodical:Hahn Lecture. Economic Journal (March 2008) Abstract This essay discusses some things we have learned about markets,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2022
Supplement

The SAH Group: The Time is Right, Spreadsheet Supplement

By: Juan Alcacer and Alpana Thapar

In January 2021, Jalila Mezni, CEO of the SAH Group, was preparing to present the company’s future growth plans to its board of directors. The Tunisian company was a leading producer and distributor of personal care and packaged hygiene products. In 2019, it expanded... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Investment Decisions; Growth Management; Vertical Integration; Distribution; Competition; Strategy; Supply Chain; Presentations; Market Entry and Exit; Product Positioning; Consumer Products Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Health Industry; Tunisia