Publications

02 Feb 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Mobile Money: The Effect of Service Quality and Competition on Demand

Keywords: by Karthik Balasubramanian & David F. Drake; Banking

Research Summary

Quality in Service Operations

Rogelio Oliva is interested in understanding how the operational characteristics of service delivery processes interact with human resource and marketing policies to determine the long term productivity, quality, and profitability of a service operation. Specifically,... View Details

Teaching Interest

Managing Service Operations - MBA Elective Curriculum

By: Ryan W. Buell

World-class service organizations deeply understand the needs and behaviors of their customers, and design, manage, and improve their operating models accordingly. This course investigates the distinct challenges inherent in leading service operations, which make up... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Loyalty; Quality; Employees; Service Models; Service Industry

September–October 1990
Article

Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services

By: F. Reichheld and W. E. Sasser Jr.

Keywords: Quality

October 1992 (Revised December 1993)
Case

ServiceMaster Co.: The Quality Services Network

By: James L. Heskett and Roger H. Hallowell

Keywords: Service Industry

February 1996
Case

Indianopolis: Implementing Competition in City Services

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Roger Atherton

Mayor Stephen Goldsmith of Indianapolis introduces competition to provide city services and implementation of new bidding procedures and work practices in the Department of Transportation. Exhibits show how work methods changed and work control procedures control work... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Business Strategy; Welfare; Transportation; Change; Cost Management; Service Industry

Educators

November 2007
Article

A Model of Consumer Learning for Service Quality and Usage

By: Raghuram Iyengar, Asim Ansari and Sunil Gupta

In many services, e.g., the wireless service industry, consumers choose a service plan based on their expected consumption. In such situations, consumers experience two forms of uncertainty. First, consumers may be uncertain about the quality of their service provider... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Customer Value and Value Chain; Learning; Price; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Service Delivery; Quality; Risk and Uncertainty; Service Industry

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November 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Supplement

Store24 (B): Service Quality and Employee Skills

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Service Delivery; Retail Industry

Article

Audit Personnel Salaries and Audit Quality

By: Jeffrey L. Hoopes, Kenneth J. Merkley, Joseph Pacelli and Joseph H. Schroeder

This study examines the relation between audit personnel salaries and office-level audit quality. We measure audit personnel salaries at the associate, senior, and manager ranks for Big 4 audit offices from 2004 to 2013, using unique individual-auditor-level data... View Details

Keywords: Audit Personnel Salary; Audit Quality; Salary Determinants; Audit Fees; Accounting Audits; Quality; Wages

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Web

Environmental Quality - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Research Areas Research Areas Antitrust & Competition Policy CEO Leadership Environmental Quality Innovation & Innovative Capacity Philanthropy Social Progress Index Environmental View Details

Awards

Best Paper, POMS College of Service Operations

Received Honorable Mention in the 2011 Best Paper Competition at the POMS College of Service Operations. View Details

14 Sep 2015
News

Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition

2008
Other Unpublished Work

Competition among Sponsored Search Services

By: Benjamin Edelman

Keywords: Search Technology; Competition; Information Technology Industry

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2012
Other Unpublished Work

The Instrumental Value of Medical Leadership: Engaging Doctors in Improving Services

By: Richard Bohmer

This paper was commissioned to contribute to The King's Fund's 2012 review of leadership and engagement. View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Service Quality; Quality; Leadership; Service Delivery; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

Read Now

October 1993 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A)

By: Roy D. Shapiro and Michael D. Watkins

AT&T's Universal Card Services (UCS) has been extremely successful during its short lifetime. Dedicated to improving service quality and customer satisfaction, chief quality officer Rob Davis and his quality team have designed and put into place an unusual measurement... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Policy; Compensation and Benefits; Performance Evaluation; Quality; System; Telecommunications Industry

Educators

Article

Audit Quality and Auditor Reputation: Evidence from Japan

By: Douglas Skinner and Suraj Srinivasan

We study events surrounding ChuoAoyama's failed audit of Kanebo, a large Japanese cosmetics company whose management engaged in a massive accounting fraud. ChuoAoyama was PwC's Japanese affiliate and one of Japan's largest audit firms. In May 2006, the Japanese... View Details

Keywords: Audit Quality; Auditor Reputation; Japan; Accounting Audits; Crime and Corruption; Reputation; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Japan

SSRN

14 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition

"strategic service vision" companies must adopt. Leading a breakthrough service—one that alters the basis of competition in entire industries—is different. Those that have done it understand things... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser & Leonard A. Schlesinger; Retail

May 2013
Supplement

Transport Corporation of India (C): Dealing with Shortcomings in Service Quality

By: V.G. Narayanan and Saloni Chaturvedi

Transport Corporation of India was a logistics company that provided multi-modal transport solutions to its customers. Set up in 1958, TCI had grown from a 'one man, one truck, one office' set-up to a company with revenues of $400 million in half a century. TCI's... View Details

Keywords: Transportation; Transportation Industry; India

October 2014 (Revised January 2016)
Case

IDEO: Human-Centered Service Design

By: Ryan W. Buell and Andrew Otazo

The case describes IDEO, one of the world's leading design firms, and its human-centered innovation culture and processes. It is an example of what managers can do to make their own organizations more innovative. In reaction to a rapidly changing competitive landscape,... View Details

Keywords: Design Thinking; Innovation; Service Management; Service; Design; Service Delivery; Innovation and Management; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Peru

Educators