Filter Results
:
(462)
Show Results For
-
All HBS Web
(1,395)
- Faculty Publications (462)
Show Results For
-
All HBS Web
(1,395)
- Faculty Publications (462)
- 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
Keywords:
Freemium;
Retention/churn;
Field Experiment;
Field Experiments;
Gaming;
Gaming Industry;
Mobile App;
Mobile App Industry;
Monetization;
Monetization Strategy;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Mobile and Wireless Technology;
Customers;
Retention;
Product Design;
Strategy
Ascarza, Eva, Oded Netzer, and Julian Runge. "Personalized Game Design for Improved User Retention and Monetization in Freemium Games." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-062, November 2020. (Revised December 2023.)
- September 2020 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience
By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller
Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in...
View Details
Keywords:
Toys;
Go-to-market Strategy;
Product Development;
Technological Innovation;
Product Launch;
Product Positioning;
Decision Making;
Marketing;
Strategy;
Los Angeles
Ofek, Elie, Andres Terech, and Nicole Tempest Keller. "Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience." Harvard Business School Case 521-017, September 2020. (Revised May 2024.)
- 2020
- Chapter
Building Emergency Savings Through Employer-Sponsored Rainy-Day Savings Accounts
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, J. Mark Iwry, David C. John, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Roughly half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. When financial shocks occur during their working life, many of these households tap into their retirement savings accounts. We explore the practical considerations and challenges associated with helping households...
View Details
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, J. Mark Iwry, David C. John, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian. "Building Emergency Savings Through Employer-Sponsored Rainy-Day Savings Accounts." In Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 34, edited by Robert A. Moffitt, 43–90. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020.
- June 2020
- Case
MOD Pizza: A Winning Recipe? (Abridged)
By: Boris Groysberg, John D. Vaughan and Matthew Preble
This is an abridged version of “MOD Pizza: A Winning Recipe?” HBS Case No. 416-004. Scott and Ally Svenson, the founders of MOD Pizza, had to make a number of decisions in planning how to scale their small company. They wanted to grow MOD from 45 stores as of May 2015...
View Details
Keywords:
Entrepreneurship;
Employees;
Employee Relationship Management;
Selection and Staffing;
Leadership;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Marketing;
Service Delivery;
Organizational Culture;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Mission and Purpose;
Service Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
United States
Groysberg, Boris, John D. Vaughan, and Matthew Preble. "MOD Pizza: A Winning Recipe? (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 420-118, June 2020.
- April 2020
- Article
Field Comparisons of Incentive-Compatible Preference Elicitation Techniques
By: Shawn A. Cole, A. Nilesh Fernando, Daniel Stein and Jeremy Tobacman
Knowledge of consumer demand is important for firms, policy makers, and economists. One common tool for incentive-compatible demand elicitation, the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism, has been widely used in laboratory settings but rarely evaluated for...
View Details
Keywords:
Incentive-compatible Elicitation;
Experimental Methods;
Weather Insurance;
Rainfall Insurance;
Agricultural Extension;
Demand and Consumers
Cole, Shawn A., A. Nilesh Fernando, Daniel Stein, and Jeremy Tobacman. "Field Comparisons of Incentive-Compatible Preference Elicitation Techniques." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 172 (April 2020): 33–56.
- January 2020
- Case
A Tough Call: SEAL Team Leader in Kandahar (A)
By: George A. Riedel
The case, which is a disguised version of real events, is set in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2013) during the long running Afghan war. Lt. Paul Rickson, a Navy SEAL Platoon Commander, is leading a team of 30 U.S. and Afghan soldiers on a mission to clear hostile forces in...
View Details
Keywords:
War;
Leadership;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Safety;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Afghanistan
Riedel, George A. "A Tough Call: SEAL Team Leader in Kandahar (A)." Harvard Business School Case 320-001, January 2020.
- December 2019
- Case
Walmart Ecommerce (A): Picking up the Pace
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman
This case is an abridged version (part 1 of 2) of "Walmart's Omnichannel Strategy: Revolution or Miscalculation?" HBS Case No. 720-370. The (A) case discusses Walmart's early forays into online retail, as well as improvements made under Doug McMillon beginning in 2014....
View Details
Keywords:
Acquisition;
Strategy;
Internet and the Web;
Distribution;
Distribution Channels;
Competitive Strategy;
Retail Industry;
Bentonville;
Arkansas;
United States
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Karen Elterman. "Walmart Ecommerce (A): Picking up the Pace." Harvard Business School Case 720-425, December 2019.
- December 2019
- Case
Walmart Ecommerce (B): Omnichannel Pursuits
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman
This case is an abridged version (part 2 of 2) of "Walmart's Omnichannel Strategy: Revolution or Miscalculation?" HBS Case No. 720-370. The (B) case describes Walmart’s omnichannel strategy in 2018 as it battled Amazon for online retail market share. Walmart aimed to...
View Details
Keywords:
Acquisition;
Strategy;
Internet and the Web;
Distribution;
Distribution Channels;
Competitive Strategy;
Retail Industry;
Bentonville;
Arkansas;
United States
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Karen Elterman. "Walmart Ecommerce (B): Omnichannel Pursuits." Harvard Business School Case 720-426, December 2019.
- December 2019
- Case
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Shaping the Vaccine Manufacturing Ecosystem (Abridged)
By: Willy Shih
This case describes the efforts of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to lower the cost of producing vaccines to prevent polio infections. It is an abridged version of HBS Case No. 620-021 with less emphasis on comparison between traditional and the new compact...
View Details
Keywords:
Vaccine;
Manufacturing;
Barriers To Entry;
Production;
Cost;
Technological Innovation;
Market Entry and Exit;
Pharmaceutical Industry
Shih, Willy. "Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Shaping the Vaccine Manufacturing Ecosystem (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 620-071, December 2019.
- November 26, 2019
- Article
Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good
By: Karen Huang, Joshua D. Greene and Max Bazerman
The “veil of ignorance” is a moral reasoning device designed to promote impartial decision-making by denying decision-makers access to potentially biasing information about who will benefit most or least from the available options. Veil-of-ignorance reasoning was...
View Details
Huang, Karen, Joshua D. Greene, and Max Bazerman. "Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116, no. 48 (November 26, 2019).
- 2019
- Working Paper
Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good
By: Karen Huang, Joshua D. Greene and Max Bazerman
The “veil of ignorance” is a moral reasoning device designed to promote impartial decision-making by denying decision-makers access to potentially biasing information about who will benefit most or least from the available options. Veil-of-ignorance reasoning was...
View Details
Huang, Karen, Joshua D. Greene, and Max Bazerman. "Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good." Working Paper, October 2019.
- 2020
- Working Paper
To Infinity and Beyond: Scaling Economic Theories via Logical Compactness
By: Yannai A. Gonczarowski, Scott Duke Kominers and Ran I. Shorrer
Many economic-theoretic models incorporate finiteness assumptions that, while introduced for simplicity, play a real role in the analysis. Such assumptions introduce a conceptual problem, as results that rely on finiteness are often implicitly nonrobust; for example,...
View Details
Gonczarowski, Yannai A., Scott Duke Kominers, and Ran I. Shorrer. "To Infinity and Beyond: Scaling Economic Theories via Logical Compactness." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-127, June 2019. (Revised November 2020.)
- June 2019
- Article
Brokers vs. Retail Investors: Conflicting Interests and Dominated Products
By: Mark Egan
I study how brokers distort household investment decisions. Using a novel convertible bond dataset, I find that consumers often purchase dominated bonds—cheap and expensive versions of otherwise identical bonds coexist in the market. The empirical evidence suggests...
View Details
Keywords:
Brokers;
Fiduciary Standard;
Consumer Finance;
Structured Products;
Household;
Investment;
Decisions;
Motivation and Incentives;
Conflict of Interests
Egan, Mark. "Brokers vs. Retail Investors: Conflicting Interests and Dominated Products." Journal of Finance 74, no. 3 (June 2019): 1217–1260.
- May 2019
- Case
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation: 'One CMHC' and Version 3.0
By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott
When Evan Siddall was appointed CEO of Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC) five years earlier, he had embarked on a major organizational restructuring. Now he is spearheading another round of changes. CMHC has adopted an ambition vision and five year strategic...
View Details
Keywords:
Government Organizations;
Culture;
Organizational Change And Transformation;
Human Resource Practices;
Future Of Work;
Change Management;
Leading Change;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Design;
Government Administration;
Restructuring;
Leadership;
Human Resources;
Talent and Talent Management;
Diversity;
Work-Life Balance;
Financial Services Industry;
Public Administration Industry;
Canada
Groysberg, Boris, and Sarah L. Abbott. "Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation: 'One CMHC' and Version 3.0." Harvard Business School Case 419-068, May 2019.
- March 2019
- Technical Note
Control or Flexibility? Structured Empowerment Offers Both—Lessons from Retail & Service Chains (Abridged)
By: Tatiana Sandino
This note explains how several retail and service organizations use a practice described here as “structured empowerment” to balance control and flexibility as they grow. I define structured empowerment as a practice that grants employees both (a) the power to make...
View Details
Keywords:
Service Operations;
Standards;
Employees;
Service Delivery;
Decision Making;
Power and Influence;
Retail Industry;
Service Industry
Sandino, Tatiana. "Control or Flexibility? Structured Empowerment Offers Both—Lessons from Retail & Service Chains (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Technical Note 119-088, March 2019.
- February 2019 (Revised August 2019)
- Case
KangaTech
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Patrick J. Ferguson, Sarah Fleischer, Jin Hyun Paik and Steven Randazzo
On a warm January afternoon in 2019, Steve Saunders, Dave Scerri, Carl Dilena, and Nick Haslam (see Exhibit 1 for biographies), co-founders of KangaTech, wrapped up the latest round of discussions about the future direction of their sports-technology start-up. Focused...
View Details
Keywords:
Startup;
Technology Commercialization;
Prototype;
Business Startups;
Technological Innovation;
Sports;
Health;
Commercialization;
Research and Development;
Decision Making;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Technology Industry;
Sports Industry;
Health Industry;
Australia
Lakhani, Karim R., Patrick J. Ferguson, Sarah Fleischer, Jin Hyun Paik, and Steven Randazzo. "KangaTech." Harvard Business School Case 619-049, February 2019. (Revised August 2019.)
- February 2019
- Teaching Note
Haier in the U.S.: Transforming GE Appliances
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen
Chinese appliance company Haier's 2016 acquisition of iconic GE Appliances ushered in strategic and structural changes to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship at the U.S. company, and to help it grow. Haier, which had a model designed to bring the company closer...
View Details
- 2022
- Working Paper
A Preference for Revision Absent Objective Improvement
By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Leslie K. John, Ed O’Brien and Michael I. Norton
From downloading never-ending updates to tracking ever-newer releases, consumers today are surrounded by revised offerings that purport to have improved upon what was previously available. Although revising things often makes them better, the current research reveals...
View Details
Keywords:
Product Change;
Versioning;
Expectancy Effects;
Heuristics;
Intuitive Processing;
Product Marketing;
Change;
Perception;
Consumer Behavior
Garcia-Rada, Ximena, Leslie K. John, Ed O’Brien, and Michael I. Norton. "A Preference for Revision Absent Objective Improvement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-087, February 2019. (Revised February 2022. Revise and resubmit, Journal of Marketing Research.)
- 2019
- Article
Preferences for Experienced Versus Remembered Happiness
By: Cassie Mogilner and Michael I. Norton
Consider two types of happiness: one experienced on a moment-to-moment basis, the other a reflective evaluation where people feel happy looking back. Though researchers have measured and argued the merits of each, we inquired into which happiness people say they want....
View Details
Keywords:
Well-being;
Life Satisfaction;
Experience;
Retrospective;
Time;
Happiness;
Satisfaction;
Welfare;
Perception
Mogilner, Cassie, and Michael I. Norton. "Preferences for Experienced Versus Remembered Happiness." Journal of Positive Psychology 14, no. 2 (2019): 244–251.
- Article
Accuracy First: Selecting a Differential Privacy Level for Accuracy-Constrained ERM
By: Katrina Ligett, Seth Neel, Aaron Leon Roth, Bo Waggoner and Steven Wu
Traditional approaches to differential privacy assume a fixed privacy requirement ϵ for a computation, and attempt to maximize the accuracy of the computation subject to the privacy constraint. As differential privacy is increasingly deployed in practical settings, it...
View Details
Ligett, Katrina, Seth Neel, Aaron Leon Roth, Bo Waggoner, and Steven Wu. "Accuracy First: Selecting a Differential Privacy Level for Accuracy-Constrained ERM." Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality 9, no. 2 (2019).