Consumer behavior

Surprised by a gender stereotype? React calmly, directly, and move on.

For the last decade, the Gallup Organization has surveyed the people of China, as both consumers of goods and employees of the companies that produce those goods. The data provide a unique picture of changing consumer attitudes, market opportunities, and management challenges.

People under 40 account for 79% of spending on luxury goods and services in China.

What consumers truly value can be difficult to pin down and psychologically complicated. But universal building blocks of value do exist, creating opportunities...

Business leaders of previous generations would envy today's low job-hopping rates.

Gender and age trends are redefining the “standard” career trajectory.

It's about building deeper relationships, not simply gathering more information.

Five things to know.

Influencer marketing is upending established customer-facing businesses.

If growth is what you’re after, you won’t learn much from complex measurements of customer satisfaction or retention. You simply need to know what your customers tell their friends about you.

An interdependent approach to teamwork can help employees from low-income backgrounds shine — and make your whole organization more productive.

Three hacks based on behavioral science.

Everyone has a long way to go.

HBR asked top management thinkers to share what they were resolved to accomplish in 2011. Here are their answers: Joseph E. Stiglitz will be crafting...

Because no two recessions are exactly alike, marketers find themselves in poorly charted waters every time one occurs. But guidance is available, say...

Three paths to success

When car rental companies sign you up for insurance unless you actively decline it, or software vendors recommend you click "next" for a quick install,...

The work-life debate ignores this pervasive issue. Why?

Peter F. Drucker claims to have made his last prediction late in 1929 when he forecast a quick recovery for the stock market, thereby inoculating himself against the folly of making further predictions. Nevertheless, the instinct to look ahead is profoundly human. We, the editors of the Harvard Business Review, have thus chosen the occasion […]

Multinational retailers have been slow to understand consumers in the developing world. As a result, they've been vulnerable to local competitors that...