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- December 2022
- Article
Conflicting Interests and the Effect of Fiduciary Duty—Evidence from Variable Annuities
By: Mark Egan, Shan Ge and Johnny Tang
We examine the variable annuity market to study conflicts of interest and the effect of fiduciary duty in brokerage markets. Insurers typically pay brokers higher commissions for selling more expensive annuities. Our results indicate that sales are four times as...
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- December 2022
- Case
Freelancer, Ltd.
By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes
Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500...
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- December 2022
- Supplement
Freelancer, Ltd. Case Supplement
By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes
Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500 companies,...
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- November 2022
- Case
The Battle Among Channels for Marketing Pharmaceuticals: UpScript, Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and Direct-to-Consumer Sales
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Tiffany Farrell
Can an online pharmacy both improve the quality and speed of care for patients who need branded drugs and stabilize profits for pharmaceutical manufacturers? UpScript, after years spent achieving legal and regulatory compliance and simultaneous technological...
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- November 2022
- Background Note
The Future of E-Commerce: Lessons from the Livestream Wars in China
By: Ayelet Israeli, Jeremy Yang and Billy Chan
This note explores the emerging multi-billion dollars commerce trend of livestream commerce. Livestream commerce is the sale of goods or services directly to consumers via live shows on digital platforms (such as social media or e-commerce platforms). It is a form of...
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Keywords:
Retail;
Retailing;
E-commerce;
E-Commerce Strategy;
Ecommerce;
Channels Of Distribution;
Marketing Communication;
Marketing;
Marketing Channels;
Marketing Strategy;
Advertising;
Brands and Branding;
Media;
Retail Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Advertising Industry;
China;
United States;
United Kingdom
- November 10, 2022
- Article
5 Ways Startups Can Prepare for a Recession
By: Lou Shipley
Startups face unique challenges during economic downturns. They typically aren’t yet profitable and so are reliant on outside funding—and therefore are especially exposed when macroeconomic conditions change. To make it through a recession, startup CEOs should hit the...
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- November–December 2022
- Article
Can AI Really Help You Sell?
By: Jim Dickie, Boris Groysberg, Benson P. Shapiro and Barry Trailer
Many salespeople today are struggling; only 57% of them make their annual quotas, surveys show. One problem is that buying processes have evolved faster than selling processes, and buyers today can access a wide range of online resources that let them evaluate products...
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- October 2022
- Case
Aphro Beverages
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amram Migdal
This case focuses on distribution, sales, and product decisions as Aphro Beverages reaches an inflection point in its growth trajectory. In 2020, Aphro Beverages, based in Accra, Ghana, successfully launched its brand and brought two new alcoholic spirits products to...
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Keywords:
Agribusiness;
Plant-Based Agribusiness;
Business Ventures;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Entrepreneurship;
Food;
Geography;
Geographic Scope;
Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Resource Allocation;
Marketing;
Brands and Branding;
Digital Marketing;
Product Marketing;
Product Launch;
Product Positioning;
Social Marketing;
Operations;
Distribution;
Distribution Channels;
Product;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Supply Chain;
Sales;
Salesforce Management;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Africa;
Ghana
- September–October 2022
- Article
Should Your Company Sell on Amazon?: Reach Comes at a Price
By: Ayelet Israeli, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Matt Higgins and Sabir Semerkant
Selling on Amazon allows brands to reach millions of consumers—but that exposure comes with costs. They include smaller margins, more competition, the risk of commoditization, and less knowledge about customers.
In this article, the authors present a scorecard to...
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Keywords:
Retail;
Retailing;
Online Business;
Ecommerce;
E-commerce;
E-Commerce Strategy;
Omnichannel Retail;
Omnichannel Retailing;
Amazon;
Amazon.com;
Sales;
Digital Marketing;
Internet and the Web;
Business Model;
Retail Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Fashion Industry;
Advertising Industry;
Battery Industry;
Apparel and Accessories Industry;
Beauty and Cosmetics Industry;
Distribution Industry;
Electronics Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
United States
- September 2022
- Case
The Pokémon Company: Evolving into an Everlasting Brand
By: Tomomichi Amano and Masaki Nomura
Super Bowl 50, the fiftieth annual championship game of the American National Football League played in February 2016, featured 52 commercials, and brands spent more than six million dollars each for a 30-second commercial slot. Surprisingly, the commercial that...
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- 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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- September 10, 2022
- Article
NFT Sales: Clearing the Market, Avoiding Gas Wars
By: Scott Duke Kominers and Tim Roughgarden
Instead of letting the market decide the price for their primary sale offerings, many NFT projects choose to initially sell their NFTs at prices below the market-clearing level. But what happens when market designers trade off efficiency for equity; or when demand far...
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- 2022
- Chapter
Coordinating Marketing and Sales in B2B Organizations
This Handbook is targeted at academics and graduate students who want an overview of the academic state of the business-to-business marketing domain and at B2B practitioners who want to be aware of the current state of knowledge in their domains. This chapter examines...
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- September 2022
- Article
Giving a Buck or Making a Buck? Donations by Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Independent Patient Assistance Charities
By: Leemore Dafny, Christopher Ody and Teresa Rokos
The federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits biopharmaceutical manufacturers from directly covering Medicare enrollees’ out-of-pocket spending for the drugs they manufacture, but manufacturers may donate to independent patient assistance charities and earmark donations...
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- August 2022
- Exercise
Joy4Home Brands: Pricing Matters
By: Elie Ofek, Oded Koenigsberg and Marco Bertini
Joy4Home Brands, the maker of novel houseware items, was gearing up for its launch. The company would be introducing two lines: kitchenware products and storage containers. The initial go-to-market plan called for a direct to consumer (DTC) channel strategy. While...
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- August 2022 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Wasabi Technologies
By: N. Louis Shipley and Mel Martin
After launching a successful hot cloud storage company, Founder and CEO David Friend is ready to scale the venture rapidly. Wasabi Technologies had focused primarily on direct sales, but an opportunity to pivot to channel sales was on the horizon. The company’s major...
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- August 15, 2022
- Article
Preparing Sales for a Changing Economy: Part 2: Getting More from Your Training Spending
A previous article discussed changing business development requirements and some implications. This article discusses three areas that are fundamental to getting ROI from training initiatives and how engagement between Sales and L&D professionals, completed by smart...
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- August 9, 2022
- Article
Preparing Sales for a Changing Economy: Part 1
Companies spend more per capita on sales training than any other function, but the return on investment is disappointing. One recent estimate indicates “that 85-90% of sales training fails to translate into a lasting improvement in productivity.” A major reason is...
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- July 2022
- Case
boAt Lifestyle
By: Rajiv Lal and Kairavi Dey
boAt began as a lifestyle brand in the consumer electronics category in 2016 with the aim of bringing affordable, durable, and fashionable audio products and accessories to millennials and Gen-Z customers in India. Born in 2016 with Amazon India as its only sales...
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- July 2022
- Supplement
Solution for E-Commerce Analytics for CPG Firms (A): Estimating Sales
By: Ayelet Israeli
Keywords:
Data Analysis;
Data Analytics;
CPG;
Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG);
Estimation;
Online Channel;
Retail Analytics;
Retail;
Retailing Industry;
Data;
Data Sharing;
Bricks And Mortar;
Ecommerce;
Analytics and Data Science;
Analysis;
Sales;
Goods and Commodities;
Retail Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
United States