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- News (24)
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- November 2011 (Revised August 2012)
- Background Note
Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs
By: Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas Eisenmann and Steven G. Blank
Provides practical guidelines for conducting market research to explore and validate demand for entrepreneurial offering. Explains how the research objectives of entrepreneurs might differ from those relevant to managers evaluating product or service offerings to...
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Cespedes, Frank V., Thomas Eisenmann, and Steven G. Blank. "Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs." Harvard Business School Background Note 812-097, November 2011. (Revised August 2012.)
- Research Summary
Entrepreneurial Management: Customer Discovery and Business Development
This research focuses on: (a) market research methods and tactics suitable to startups seeking their initial customers and validation of their initial business model; (b) guidelines for conducting visits with potential customers as part of the startup ptrocess; and (c)...
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- September 2020
- Article
Customer Supercharging in Experience-Centric Channels
By: David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno
We conjecture that for online retailers, experience-centric offline store formats do not simply expand market coverage, but rather, serve to significantly amplify future positive customer behaviors, both online and offline. We term this phenomenon “supercharging” and...
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Keywords:
Retail Operations;
Marketing-operations Interface;
Omnichannel Retailing;
Experience Attributes;
Quasi-experimental Methods;
Operations;
Internet and the Web;
Marketing Channels;
Consumer Behavior;
Retail Industry
Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno. "Customer Supercharging in Experience-Centric Channels." Management Science 66, no. 9 (September 2020).
- July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
Propel
By: Mitchell Weiss and Sarah McAra
In 2014, Jimmy Chen, a former product manager at Facebook, founded the start-up Propel to build software for low-income Americans. After conducting in-depth behavioral research, Chen and his small team in New York City began to develop technology to address the...
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Keywords:
Public Entrepreneurship;
Govtech;
Food Stamps;
EBT;
Mobile App;
User Research;
Financial Services Referrals;
Grocery Marketing;
Customer Discovery;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Entrepreneurship;
Public Sector;
Business Model;
Research;
Social Enterprise;
Poverty;
Welfare;
Mobile and Wireless Technology;
Applications and Software;
Technology Industry;
United States
- September 2022
- Case
AllSpice: GitHub for Hardware Engineers
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Mel Martin
AllSpice, a software-as-a-service company that built a GitHub-like revision control tool for hardware engineers, was in the midst of preparing for rapid scale when the 2022 market downturn left them with big decisions to make. Cofounder and CEO Valentina Ratner had to...
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Keywords:
Scaling;
SaaS;
Strategy;
Marketing;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Resource Allocation;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Technology Industry;
Electronics Industry;
United States
Bussgang, Jeffrey J., and Mel Martin. "AllSpice: GitHub for Hardware Engineers." Harvard Business School Case 823-022, September 2022.
- 2024
- Working Paper
Platform Information Provision and Consumer Search: A Field Experiment
By: Lu Fang, Yanyou Chen, Chiara Farronato, Zhe Yuan and Yitong Wang
Despite substantial efforts to help consumers search in more intuitive ways, text search remains the predominant tool for product discovery online. In this paper, we explore the effects of visual and textual cues for search refinement on consumer search and purchasing...
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Keywords:
Consumer Behavior;
E-commerce;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Learning;
Internet and the Web
Fang, Lu, Yanyou Chen, Chiara Farronato, Zhe Yuan, and Yitong Wang. "Platform Information Provision and Consumer Search: A Field Experiment." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 32099, February 2024.
- April 2009
- Case
Merck: Managing Vioxx (A)
By: Robert L. Simons, Kathryn Rosenberg and Natalie Kindred
This two-class case series allows students to stand in the shoes of CEO Ray Gilmartin during the unfolding stages of a reputational crisis. Merck's mission statement claims to "put patients first," but the company is widely criticized for putting profit before patient...
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Keywords:
Ethics;
Crisis Management;
Reputation;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Customers;
Business or Company Management;
Cost vs Benefits;
Corporate Accountability;
Business and Shareholder Relations;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Pharmaceutical Industry
Simons, Robert L., Kathryn Rosenberg, and Natalie Kindred. "Merck: Managing Vioxx (A)." Harvard Business School Case 109-080, April 2009.
- December 2003 (Revised September 2005)
- Case
Rein Chemical Company: Specialty Division
By: Francis Aguilar
This case describes corporate management's recent discovery of widespread unethical pricing transactions in one division and key managers' different views on how to respond. Students are asked to evaluate management's position and decide who should do what to resolve...
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Keywords:
Customers;
Price;
Ethics;
Business Divisions;
Chemicals;
Crisis Management;
Chemical Industry
Aguilar, Francis. "Rein Chemical Company: Specialty Division." Harvard Business School Case 904-046, December 2003. (Revised September 2005.)
- 29 Sep 2015
- First Look
September 29, 2015
patients; however, organizations have struggled to obtain outcomes data from electronic health record (EHR) systems. This study describes how Texas Children’s Hospital customized a commercial EHR system and assembled a cross-functional...
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Keywords:
Sean Silverthorne
- 31 Oct 2017
- First Look
New Research and Ideas, October 31, 2017
heterogeneity in consumer sophistication could explain the prevalence and persistence of misconduct at such firms. Misconduct is concentrated at firms with retail customers and in counties with low education, elderly populations, and high...
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Keywords:
by Sean Silverthorne
- 17 Feb 2020
- Sharpening Your Skills
How Entrepreneurs Can Find the Right Problem to Solve
discovery work to validate the problem or their target customers. While gut feel or personal experience with a problem can be a strong signal there is a problem to solve, without proper product discovery...
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Keywords:
by Julia Austin
- 11 Aug 2009
- First Look
First Look: August 11, 2009
from an online grocer to address this question. In general, we find that as the delay between order completion and delivery increases, grocery customers spend less, order a higher percentage of "should" items (e.g., vegetables),...
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Keywords:
Martha Lagace
- 06 Jun 2016
- Research & Ideas
Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful
can include small “lifestyle” businesses, multi-generational family businesses, high-growth, venture funded technology businesses, and new ventures designed to commercialize breakthrough discoveries in life sciences, clean tech, and other...
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Keywords:
by HBS Working Knowledge
- 15 May 2007
- First Look
First Look: May 15, 2007
economic models predict that they do not systematically differ. With online grocery data, we show that people are decreasingly impatient the further in the future their choices will take effect. In general, as the delay between order completion and delivery increases,...
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Keywords:
Martha Lagace
- 20 Dec 2022
- Op-Ed
Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation
well-being of our customers and the people we serve first”—and requires senior teams at every level to foster repeated honest conversations with lower levels about whether their unit is practicing that credo. According to recently retired...
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Keywords:
by Michael Beer
- 18 Feb 2009
- First Look
First Look: February 18, 2009
who need them most, but unrestricted transfers might threaten the Internet's routing system. I suggest policies to create an IP address "market" while avoiding major negative externalities—mitigating the worst effects of v4 scarcity, while obtaining price...
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Keywords:
Martha Lagace
- 21 Jan 2014
- First Look
First Look: January 21
with a low level of disclosure. Second, competition ensures that services with a high level of disclosure subsidize consumers. Third, firms maximize profits at the extensive rather than the intensive margin, outperforming competitors by attracting a larger View Details
Keywords:
Sean Silverthorne
- 16 Aug 2022
- Op-Ed
Now Is the Time for Entrepreneurs to Play Offense
roadmap. Engineers and product managers love it when they’re “left alone.” Take the time to do deeper customer discovery and requirements gathering. Customers might be more...
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Keywords:
by Jeffrey Bussgang
- 01 Oct 2014
- What Do You Think?
Is Too Much Focus a Problem?
"fail to consider or know how to recognize what is outside their industry that is impacting their business (such as) customers who are buying their goods but don't fit the target profile, or alternative (product) uses Focus has a...
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Keywords:
by James Heskett
- 02 Apr 2019
- First Look
New Research and Ideas, April 2, 2019
are being caused by rapid technological changes on the one hand and tectonic shifts in customer preferences and societal behaviour on the other. Marketing knowledge and practices have to advance at a significantly higher pace to address...
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Keywords:
Dina Gerdeman