Publications

January–February 2012
Article

A Simple Model Relating Accruals to Risk, and its Implications for the Accrual Anomaly

By: Mozaffar N. Khan

This paper models systematic risk as a function of mean-reverting accruals. When the true abnormal returns are zero, but the true betas are empirically unobserved, the model predicts the anomalous pattern of empirical results on the accrual anomaly: (i) CAPM abnormal... View Details

25 Apr 2014
Video

Paul Viera - Making A Difference

January–February 2022
Article

Operational Disruptions, Firm Risk, and Control Systems

By: William Schmidt and Ananth Raman

Operational disruptions can impact a firm's risk, which manifests in a host of operational issues, including a higher holding cost for inventory, a higher financing cost for capacity expansion, and a higher perception of the firm's risk among its supply chain partners.... View Details

Keywords: Operational Risk; Operational Disruptions; Information Asymmetry; Control Systems; Operations; Disruption; Risk Management

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January 2017
Case

TalentCorp Malaysia and the Returning Expert Programme

By: William R. Kerr, Danielle Li, Mathis Wagner and Alexis Brownell

TalentCorp Malaysia runs the "Returning Expert Programme" (REP), a government program designed to encourage Malaysian professionals abroad to return home through use of various incentives. The REP is intended to combat the "brain drain," caused by highly educated... View Details

Keywords: Malaysia; Diaspora; Brain Drain; Migration; Diasporas; Government and Politics; Immigration; Human Capital; Programs; Malaysia

2012
Book

The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force That Transforms Performance

By: James Heskett

The contribution of culture to organizational performance is both substantial and quantifiable. This book presents the results of field research that demonstrates how an effective culture can account for up to half of the differential in performance between... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Framework; Policy; Retention; Books; Analytics and Data Science; Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Performance Expectations; Research

26 Sep 2017
Blog Post

A Summer Internship with the International Rescue Committee

In November of 2015 I set in the upper deck of Faneuil Hall in Boston, looking on as300 people from 80 countries congregated to take their oath as the newest crop View Details

06 Sep 2021
News

How to Make Sure Your New Work Policies Don’t Make People Want to Leave

09 Jan 2018
News

Think New England Is Cold? Try Antarctica

September 2020 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Go-to-market Strategy; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Decision Making; Marketing; Strategy; Los Angeles

August 1993
Case

USAA: Business Process Review for the Great Lakes Region

By: James L. Heskett and Roger H. Hallowell

USAA proposes to develop a new set of processes for its property and casualty division. The case focuses on processes used in automobile claims. View Details

Keywords: Business Processes; Insurance Industry; United States

Pietro Satriano is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School. He sits on the boards of CarMax, the largest omni-channel used car retailer in the U.S. and Metro, a large regional grocery retailer in Canada. Pietro advises a number of food-tech startups and acts... View Details

November 2019
Article

Full Substitutability

By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers, Alexandru Nichifor, Michael Ostrovsky and Alexander Westkamp

Various forms of substitutability are essential for establishing the existence of equilibria and other useful properties in diverse settings such as matching, auctions, and exchange economies with indivisible goods. We extend earlier models’ definitions of... View Details

Keywords: Substitutability; Mathematical Methods; Auctions; Market Design

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October 1991
Background Note

Market Research

By: Robert J. Dolan

Describes the major classes of market research. Provides students with an overview of methods available enabling them to select the proper set for their purposes. View Details

Keywords: Research; Markets

13 Apr 2021
News

Why Start-ups Fail

March 2008
Background Note

Marketing Input and Innovation Strategy

By: Elie Ofek

This note develops a framework for considering the challenges of incorporating marketing input when setting innovation strategy. The framework lays out the possible innovation opportunities a firm can entertain and describes how the customer knowledge gained from... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing; Research; Competition

November 1989 (Revised March 1992)
Background Note

Concept Testing

By: Robert J. Dolan

Describes concept testing products. Presents guidelines for effective design, execution, and interpretation of test procedures. Discusses limitations of these techniques and sets out the situations for which they are appropriate. View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Mathematical Methods; Forecasting and Prediction