Faculty and Research

John Gourville is the Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr. Professor of Business Administration at the  Harvard Business School.  He joined the HBS Marketing Unit in 1995 after receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in marketing and behavioral research.  He is currently the course head for the Core Marketing course in the first year of the MBA program and has previously taught Entrepreneurial Marketing and The Marketing of Innovations in the second year program.  In the HBS Executive Education program, he has taught in the Strategic Marketing Management, the Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy, and the Leadership and Strategy in Pharmaceutical and Biotech courses and he has developed and chaired a course on the Marketing of Innovative Technologies. John also has participated in specialized executive education programs throughout the world.  Prior to receiving his Ph.D., John held management positions with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Mobil Oil, and New York Telephone.

John's research focuses on consumer decision making, especially in the areas of pricing and the adoption of innovations.  For instance, in several papers John has investigated subtle changes in the presentation of product price can lead to significant changes in a consumer's decision to purchase and consume that product.  In other work, he has looked at the impact of product variety on consumer choice and finds that offering a wide assortment of goods often harms a brand.  Finally, his current research investigates when and why innovative new products fail to gain traction in the marketplace.  John's research has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Marketing Science, the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, and in Marketing Letters.