Retail →
- 19 Oct 2016
- Book
Three Critical Mistakes Digital Businesses Make With Content
Do companies really understand the nature of today's digital transformation? Bharat Anand's book The Content Trap offers a new view of digital strategy that shifts the focus from "produce the best content" to "create the best connections." Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 14 Sep 2016
- Research & Ideas
Web Surfers Have a Schedule and Stick to It
Note to web marketers: Consumers won't carve out more time to visit your site. So how do you attract them? Start by understanding their online habits, reports new research by Shane Greenstein and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Jul 2016
- HBS Case
How Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy Attracted Their First 1,000 Customers
Thales Teixeira studies three of the most successful “platform” startups to understand the chicken-and-egg challenge of how companies can attract their first customers. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Jun 2016
- Research & Ideas
When Predicting Other People's Preferences, You're Probably Wrong
Marketers, job hunters and people looking for mates are all called upon to predict behavior—and many are probably wrong. The reason: We erroneously make assumptions about what others will like and dislike based on their previous choices, according to new research by Kate Barasz, Tami Kim, and Leslie John. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Apr 2016
- Research & Ideas
Why Your Company Wants to be a 'Cognitive Referent' (Hint: SpaceX)
Companies that come to epitomize a nascent market—think Starbucks and boutique coffee—can capture greater success than other startups, says Rory McDonald. Is there a roadmap to becoming a “cognitive referent”? Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 07 Apr 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Strategic Channel Selection with Online Platforms: An Empirical Analysis of the Daily Deal Industry
Platform businesses grow by connecting groups of customers. This study sheds light on the relative bargaining power of platforms and merchants, demonstrating that price bargaining power is an important factor to consider in platform competition. When the platform is too big and powerful, its strong bargaining power may push away some business partners and hence slow down growth.
- 11 Mar 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Becoming a Cognitive Referent: Market Creation and Cultural Strategy
Rory McDonald describes the making of a "cognitive referent," which is a firm that customers, the media, analysts, and employees automatically associate with a new market category--think Starbucks and coffee.
- 22 Feb 2016
- Research & Ideas
The ‘Mother of Fair Trade’ was an Unabashed Price Protectionist
Historian Laura Phillips Sawyer unearths the story of little-known drug store owner Edna Gleason who, in a man’s world, helped fire a progressive movement to protect small-business owners from price-slashing chains. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 03 Feb 2016
- Research & Ideas
The State of Customer Service Leadership
The economic future of the country is largely in the hands of those who lead our service organizations, which create more employment and GDP growth than any other sector. Jim Heskett, Earl Sasser, and Len Schlesinger discuss the current state of service and their recent book, What Great Service Leaders Know & Do. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 16 Dec 2015
- Research & Ideas
Why ‘Sleep on It’ No Longer Sounds Like Great Advice
When we have a tough decision to make, we're often encouraged to lie down and clear our heads for the night. But surprising research from Uma R. Karmarkar and colleagues indicates that "sleeping on it" won't help us make the most confident choices. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 09 Dec 2015
- Research Event
When Hosts Attack: The Competitive Threat of Online Platforms
Online retail platforms like Amazon are great for the third-party businesses that use them—until the platform’s owner decides to start competing with them. Feng Zhu looks at the factors that turn hosts into predators. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 09 Dec 2015
- Research Event
How Do You Predict Demand and Set Prices For Products Never Sold Before?
How can a retailer use its own data to determine what to charge for its products on a day-to-day basis? Kris Ferreira explains the value of data-driven-pricing Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 07 Dec 2015
- Research & Ideas
Why Immigrant Workers Cluster in Particular Industries
Anyone who lives in an American city can see how immigrants tend to cluster in industries along ethnic lines. Professor William R. Kerr explains why, and what this means for the US economy. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 24 Nov 2015
- Research & Ideas
Developing Your Next CEO for the Family Business
Family businesses have four options when considering a new CEO, but the crucial decision is whether a family member or outsider would be the best choice. John A. Davis looks at each option. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 Nov 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
The US Experiment with Fair Trade Laws: State Police Powers, Federal Antitrust, and the Politics of 'Fairness', 1890–1938
In a study of California retail druggists at the turn of the twentieth century, Laura Phillips Sawyer, finds that price-fixing counterintiutively increased competition.
- 12 Nov 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Social Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship
This research looks at why entrepreneurs from certain ethnicities cluster in particular industries, such as Vietnamese nail care salons.
- 05 Oct 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Online Network Revenue Management Using Thompson Sampling
Kris Johnson Ferreira and colleagues develop a machine learning algorithm that changes product prices in order to learn consumer demand and maximize total revenue in the presence of limited inventory.
- 16 Sep 2015
- Research & Ideas
Can Applied Economics Save Homeless Puppies?
At a startup she co-founded while pursuing a doctorate in economics, Christine L. Exley is rescuing dogs with principles of market design. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 14 Sep 2015
- Research & Ideas
Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition
What must leaders know and do to deliver breakthrough service? In an excerpt from the new book What Great Service Leaders Know and Do, James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, and Leonard A. Schlesinger explore the dynamics of the "service trifecta." Open for comment; 0 Comments.
Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million
In the second part of a series on growing startups, Thales S. Teixeira explains how Uber, Etsy, and Airbnb climbed from one thousand customers to one million. Open for comment; 0 Comments.