Publications

Find at Harvard

31 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

The Effect of Institutional Factors on the Value of Corporate Diversification

Keywords: by Venkat Kuppuswamy, George Serafeim & Belén Villalonga

2012
Working Paper

When Supply-Chain Disruptions Matter

By: William Schmidt and Ananth Raman

Supply-chain disruptions have a material effect on company value, but this impact can vary considerably. Thus, it is important for managers and investors to recognize the types of disruptions and the organizational factors that lead to the worst outcomes. Prior... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Operations; Performance Efficiency

06 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Using What We Know: Turning Organizational Knowledge into Team Performance

Keywords: by Bradley R. Staats, Melissa A. Valentine & Amy C. Edmondson; Video Game; Web Services

07 Jun 2014
Video

Thomas Scambos - Making A Difference

March 1997 (Revised August 2017)
Case

Compagnie du Froid, S.A.

By: Robert Simons and Antonio Dávila

The owner of an ice cream company must evaluate the performance of three regional businesses. To do the analysis, students must flex the budget by seasonal temperature; calculate revenue, volume, price, and efficiency variances; analyze the effects of transfer prices;... View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Investment Return; Performance Evaluation; Revenue; Budgets and Budgeting; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; France; Spain; Italy

June 1994 (Revised June 1995)
Case

Chandler Home Products: European Rationalization

By: Michael Y. Yoshino

Chandler, a large U.S. consumer products firm, is rationalizing its European operations. Tony Pesci, protagonist, is deciding which plants to close for maximum efficiency. The manufacturing/marketing relationship is strained as efficiency is being weighed against... View Details

Keywords: Debates; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Labor; Contracts; Operations; Performance Efficiency; Relationships; Consumer Products Industry; United States

2012
Working Paper

The Need for (long) Chains in Kidney Exchange

By: Itai Ashlagi, David Gamarnik, Michael A. Rees and Alvin E. Roth

It has been previously shown that for sufficiently large pools of patient-donor pairs, (almost) efficient kidney exchange can be achieved by using at most 3-way cycles, i.e., by using cycles among no more than 3 patient-donor pairs. However, as kidney exchange has... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Complexity; Performance Efficiency; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

November 2011
Article

Competing Matchmakers: An Experimental Analysis

By: Tanjim Hossain, Dylan B. Minor and John Morgan

Platform competition is ubiquitous, yet platform market structure is little understood. Theory models typically suffer from equilibrium multiplicity—platforms might coexist or the market might tip to either platform. We use laboratory experiments to study the outcomes... View Details

Keywords: Platform Competition; Two-Sided Markets; E-commerce; Competition; Two-Sided Platforms; Monopoly

Find at Harvard

We study resource allocation problems that involve multiple self-interested parties and a central decision maker. We introduce and study the price of fairness, which is the... View Details

September 2014 (Revised April 2016)
Case

Cree Inc.: Introducing the LED Light Bulb

By: John Gourville and Michael Norris

Cree, a North Carolina-based maker of light emitting diodes (LEDs), has just introduced its first consumer product—an LED light bulb. It is designed as an energy efficient replacement for the ubiquitous incandescent light bulb. But given that it is an unfamiliar... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Innovation; Product Adoption; Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; Energy Conservation; Product Launch; Consumer Products Industry; North Carolina

25 May 2011
HBS Case

QuikTrip’s Investment in Retail Employees Pays Off

It's a much believed assumption in the retail world: If you're going to compete on the basis of low cost, then you can't afford to invest in your employees. Extensive training—who has the time to give? Regularly scheduled hours?—way too inflexible. Benefits?—forget it!... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

14 Jun 2013
News

A Roadmap For Afghanistan’s Economic Future

November 1989 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Managing Xerox's Multinational Development Center

Describes a manager's role in developing a staff group responsible for enhancing the efficiency of Xerox's worldwide logistics and inventory management systems. Illustrates a range of management strategies for upward and lateral influence in a complex organizational... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management

20 Nov 2018
News

Building a Nonprofit Marketplace to Feed America

Research Summary

The Architecture of the Integrated Organization

By: Ranjay Gulati

In this research I explore how organizations balance pressures for efficiency with the need to be responsive at the same time. Operating in turbulent global markets it is increasingly important for firms to embrace both global efficiency and also local responsiveness.... View Details

October 2014
Background Note

Leader-as-Architect: Alignment

By: Ethan Bernstein, Ryan Raffaelli and Joshua Margolis

Part of a leader's job is to equip the organization to transform inputs into outputs by defining organizational strategy, shaping organizational identity, and then managing four organizational components—formal organizational structure, culture, people, and critical... View Details

Keywords: Organization; Resource Management; Leadership; Business Processes; Design; Organizational Design; Identity; Strategy; Resource Allocation; Strategic Planning; Alignment

September – October 2009
Article

Critical Decisions in Software Development: Updating the State of the Practice

By: Alan MacCormack, Michael A. Cusumano, Chris Kemerer and Bill Crandall

This article focuses on how to choose the "right" software development process, how to structure global software design chains, how to manage the interaction of project structure and software design, and how to balance innovation and efficiency in a software business. View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Product Development; Projects; Innovation and Management; Performance Efficiency; Information Technology Industry

12 Oct 2017
News

Financing Africa’s infrastructure

2010
Working Paper

The Role of Institutional Development in the Prevalence and Value of Family Firms

We investigate the role played by institutional development in the prevalence and value of family firms, while controlling for the potential effect of cultural norms. China provides a good research lab since it combines great heterogeneity in institutional development... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Data and Data Sets; Law; Management; Organizational Culture; Research; Value; China