Demand and Consumers →
- 05 Jun 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
How Transparency into Internal and External Responsibility Initiatives Influences Consumer Choice
Three studies examined how firms can use transparency into social and environmental responsibility initiatives to differentiate themselves in the consumer market. Results show that transparency into internal, responsible operations practices can increase sales at least as much as transparency into external, corporate social responsibility practices, if not more so.
- 21 May 2019
- Cold Call Podcast
If the Key to Business Success Is Focus, Why Does Amazon Work?
Sunil Gupta explores the infiltration of Amazon into dozens of industries including web services, grocery, and movie production. What’s the big plan? Is the company spread too thin? Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 May 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Consumer Inertia and Market Power
Consumers are often more likely to buy a product if they have purchased it previously. This paper provides a means to estimate the magnitude of this phenomenon (i.e., consumer inertia) and shows how it affects the prices of firms in competitive settings. Perhaps surprisingly, greater consumer inertia can result in smaller price increases after a merger.
- 08 Apr 2019
- Sharpening Your Skills
The Life of Luxury and How to Sell It
Luxury is its own market, but who shops there? Who sells there? What's the best strategy? Researchers at Harvard Business School examine consumerism at the top of the curve. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 26 Mar 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Mitigating the Negative Effects of Customer Anxiety Through Access to Human Contact
Firms increasingly deploy self-service technologies (SSTs) to manage customer interfaces that are inherently stressful. For example, patients may be asked to use kiosks to check themselves into hospitals. This study finds that customer anxiety during SST transactions can reduce customers’ trust in the service provider. Operational design choices may help.
- 21 Mar 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Advancing Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Research Through Open Innovation Competitions
Crowdsourcing is a way for many individuals to address a common problem. This paper describes the design and outcomes of three crowdsourcing contests focused on algorithms for 1) clustering antibody sequences, 2) imputing gene expression measurements, and 3) performing fast queries on a particular dataset. Innovation through contests greatly improved the solutions available.
- 05 Mar 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
The Impacts of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment
This paper challenges the logic that making it easier for consumers to search across a wide assortment of products is the best strategy for online retailers. Experiments show that adding extra search costs to find discounted items can improve gross margins and sales by increasing the number of items inspected and serving as a self-selecting price discrimination mechanism among customers.
- 04 Mar 2019
- What Do You Think?
What’s the Antidote to Surveillance Capitalism?
SUMMING UP: As companies increasingly build business models around our personal data, what can be done to fight back? James Heskett's readers suggest there are no easy answers. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Feb 2019
- Research & Ideas
Rocket-tunity: Can Private Firms Turn a Profit in Space?
Private rocket companies are competing to be the first to send paying tourists into space, perhaps even this year. Matthew Weinzierl lays out the strategic roadmap to the stars. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 Feb 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Relative Performance Transparency: Effects on Sustainable Choices
Encouraging consumers to purchase a more sustainable product or use resources more responsibly is a key challenge for society. This paper discusses experiments involving more than 7,000 participants to shed light on how information and its presentation regarding sustainable performance can be a tool for enhancing sustainable choices in practice.
- 28 Nov 2018
- HBS Case
On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website
Target is one big-brand retailer that seems to have survived and even thrived in the apocalyptic retail landscape. What's its secret? Srikant Datar discusses the company's relentless focus on online data. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 26 Nov 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Demand Estimation in Models of Imperfect Competition
The study shows how knowledge about firm behavior can be modeled to better predict demand. Firms tend to raise prices in response to higher demand, so observed relationships between price and quantity can be quite misleading. The authors provide an adjustment that can be used when price experiments or instrumental variables are not available.
- 19 Nov 2018
- Sharpening Your Skills
E-Santa: Is Retail Ready for Digital Christmas?
The retail industry is in such a spin over multichannel strategy, mall closings, and big brand shutterings, to name a few pressures, that even Santa can't keep track of it all. Here is recent Harvard Business School research on digital trends shaping how we shop and sell. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Nov 2018
- Cold Call Podcast
Could Big Data Replace the Creative Director at the Gap?
Is it time to throw out the creative director and rely on big data to predict what consumers want to wear next? Assistant Professor Ayelet Israeli discusses how Gap CEO Art Peck considers a bold idea to boost sales. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 23 Oct 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Opportunistic Returns and Dynamic Pricing: Empirical Evidence from Online Retailing in Emerging Markets
Dynamic pricing is widely applied in industries like airline ticketing, ride-sharing, and online retailing. This paper identifies two downsides of dynamic pricing: opportunistic returns and strategic choice of payment method. The impact can be significant and has implications for managers and researchers.
- 16 Oct 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Shipping Fees and Product Assortment in Online Retail
This study highlights a strong link between an online retailer’s product assortment decisions and shipping policies in determining purchase outcomes and profits. Consumers are less sensitive to shipping fees than to product prices, but free shipping for orders above the minimum is a strong motivator for increasing average basket sizes.
- 10 Oct 2018
- Research & Ideas
The Legacy of Boaty McBoatface: Beware of Customers Who Vote
Companies that encourage consumers to vote online should be forewarned—they may expect more than you promise, according to research by Michael Norton, Leslie John, and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 Sep 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Large-Scale Demand Estimation with Search Data
Online retailers face the challenge of leveraging the rich data they collect on their websites to uncover insights about consumer behavior. This study proposes a practical and tractable model of economic behavior that can reveal helpful patterns of cross-product substitution. The model can be used to simulate optimal prices.
- 20 Aug 2018
- Research & Ideas
Bargain Hunters Beware: A Store's 'Original Price' Might Not Be After All
Retailers often compare a "sale" price to the original price. Donald Ngwe says consumers should be skeptical of those original prices — and so should regulators. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
The Comprehensive Effects of a Digital Paywall Sales Strategy
Many print media firms are switching to a business model requiring readers to pay for online content. This study of media paywall strategies in the US finds that adopting a digital paywall can lead to positive demand substitution from digital to print channels, particularly for large-sized firms and those with unique content.