Publications

2023
Working Paper

Learning to Use: Stack Overflow and Technology Adoption

By: Daniel Jay Brown and Maria P. Roche

In this paper, we examine the potential impact of Q&A websites on the adoption of technologies. Using data from Stack Overflow – one of the most popular Q&A websites worldwide – and implementing an instrumental-variable approach, we find that users whose questions... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Knowledge Sharing

Read Now

February 8, 2022
Article

Time-Driven Activity-Based Cost Comparison of Treating Five Acute, Low-Severity Conditions

By: Alan Yang, Andy Hung-Yi Lee, Joseph W. Kopp, Katherine D. Rose, Adam M. Licurse, Philip D. Anderson and Robert S. Kaplan

In 2017, patients made 145 million visits to emergency departments (EDs), generating $76.3 billion in charges. About a third of ED visits, however, were for conditions that were treatable in lower-resourced settings. We used time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC)... View Details

Keywords: Time-Driven ABC; Health Care Costs; Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment

Read Now

Article

Neither a Bazaar nor a Cathedral: The Interplay between Structure and Agency in Wikipedia's Role System.

By: Ofer Arazy, Hila Lifshitz - Assaf and Adam Balila

Roles provide a key coordination mechanism in peer-production. Whereas one stream in the literature has focused on the structural responsibilities associated with roles, the another has stressed the emergent nature of work. To date, these streams have proceeded largely... View Details

Keywords: Wikipedia; Knowledge Work; Organizational Structure; Knowledge; Information Publishing

Find at Harvard

Read Now

January 2002 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Space Data Corporation

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Jay Wynn

Space Data Corp. plans to partner with the U.S. National Weather Service to place transceivers on weather balloons and thereby create a national mobile communications network. The company is in the late development stages and is planning to launch a regional test that... View Details

Keywords: Wireless Technology; Business Startups; Business Processes; Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Telecommunications Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

August 2000 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Laura Martin: Real Options and the Cable Industry

By: Mihir A. Desai and Peter Tufano

CSFB equity research analyst Laura Martin publishes a report on valuing Cox Communications that introduces an innovative approach to valuation. She contends that EBITDA multiple analysis, typical for the cable industry, is flawed because it overlooks the value of the... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Innovation and Invention; Telecommunications Industry

13 Dec 2016
News

Eye Appeal Is Buy Appeal: Business Creates the Color of Foods

January 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

United Breaks Guitars

By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

When social media propagate a complaint about poor customer service, an international media event ensues. How do viral videos spread and what can firms do about them? This case dissects an incident in which a disgruntled customer used YouTube and Twitter to spread a... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Network Effects; Service Delivery; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet; Air Transportation Industry

14 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

You're Right! You Are Working Longer and Attending More Meetings

to keep working from home part of the time after COVID-19 abates, researchers are probing how virtual interaction might reshape organizations. In the first large-scale analysis of digital communication early in the crisis, the team—Sadun;... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

Research Summary

Fabrizio Ferri's research focuses on a number of corporate governance issues, with particular emphasis on executive compensation and shareholder activism. His dissertation investigates the determinants and consequences of firms' decision to reprice... View Details

October 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Teaching Note

The Miccosukee Tribe and the Battle to Save the Everglades: A Miami Climate Action Story

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 324-002. "Miccosukee" explores the challenges of coordinating actions to solve a complex systems problem—from individuals, small organizations, and coalitions of multiple organizations. The case discusses the impact of climate change and... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Leading Change; Natural Environment; Florida; Everglades National Park

June 2022
Teaching Plan

GreenLight Fund

By: Brian Trelstad and Mel Martin

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 320-053. As Tara Noland, the Executive Director (ED) of GreenLight Cincinnati, reflected on her first few years on the job. Noland had delivered on what she had been hired to do in the city: work with leading philanthropists and nonprofit... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Venture Philanthropy; Replication; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Venture Capital; Social Issues; Decision Making; Cincinnati

July 2021 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Brigham & Women's Hospital: Using Patient Reported Outcomes to Improve Breast Cancer Care

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Navraj S. Nagra and Syed S. Shehab

Dr. Andrea Pusic, breast cancer reconstruction surgeon, wants to extend outcomes measurement beyond traditional surgical metrics of infections, complications, and survival rates. The case describes her development of a new mobile phone app, which collects patients’... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Outcome or Result; Cost Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Health Testing and Trials; Surveys; Health Industry; Boston

2014
Case

Bluestar's Acquisition of Adisseo (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Donghong Li and Zhenning Yang

This case describes the process of acquiring Adisseo of France in 2006 by Bluestar Group, the largest subsidiary of ChemChina (a Fortune 500 company). Adisseo was mainly engaged in the production of methionine, a feed additive, while China had no methionine production... View Details

Keywords: Internationalization; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Strategy; China; France; Chemicals; China; France