Insights

In this interview from the Social Enterprise Initiative’s “Impact Insights,” HBS Professor Kash Rangan and co-founder of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative, discussed the new HBS research initiative called “Impact Co-Laboratory”.

On November 29th, 2017 the Digital Seminar series hosted Peter Cowhey from the School of Global Policy & Strategy at the University of California, San Diego and Jonathan Aronson from the Annenberg School of Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California.

What are some of the ways that pioneering companies are redefining the relationship with their customers in the digital age? By keeping in mind the importance of such strategies as using the right digital channels, adding value to your customers, and staying flexible to the emergence of new technologies. This article from HBR provides salient insights into how retailers can develop a similarly effective digital strategy as they navigate a rapidly changing industry.

HBS Assistant Professor Kris Johnson Ferreira partnered with Rue La La to help the online flash sale company improve their pricing structure. So what exactly can machine learning and data analytics do for a fashion retailer? Just take a look at the bottom line to see the answer.

HBS alum Charles Gorra explains how Rebag successfully built a secondary market for luxury handbags and describes the forces that are changing modern shopping habits.

Data interoperability is one of the most pressing innovations needed in the healthcare industry today but has consistently struggled to catch on. Why? Digital Seminar speaker, Julia Adler-Milstein takes a look at the underlying regulatory and market forces that have resulted in this failure to put standardization and interoperability first.

In the shifting digital landscape, it can be all too easy to cry wolf. The decline of big box stores in particular has left retailers anxiously worrying about the future of the industry. But the retail apocalypse isn’t all that it may seem, and as with all things in the digital economy, the story isn’t so much about death as it is about disruption. And as it turns out, the future of (at least some) retail is looking just fine.

As the digital landscape evolves, shoppers are becoming more accustomed to having what they want, when they want it. In an age when information is ubiquitous and consumers are in “shopping mode” all the time, an over-emphasis on the holiday season no longer makes sense for either customer or retailer. Perhaps it’s time for a new model.

Assortment rotation – swapping out products that are displayed by a store – is a popular business strategy for brick-and-mortar and online stores alike. But when and how should stores release a few products at a time versus revealing an entire product line? This research from Assistant Professor Kris Johnson Ferreira and Visiting Scholar Joel Goh is helping retailers fine tune that answer.

Adtech is broken. This is the central tenant of founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism Emily Bell’s view on the state of journalism today. With the worrying rise of the role of online advertising in political machinations, Bell argues those in the adtech know have been at best unaware and at worst complicit in failing to raise the alarm about the implications of these powerful technologies. What role do advertisers and brands have to play in developing a healthy democracy? It turns out quite a lot.