Publications

01 Dec 1994
Conference Presentation

Design and Scheduling of Apparel Manufacturing Systems with Both Slow and Quick Production Lines

By: J. H. Hammond, Z. B. Tang and F. H. Abernathy

Keywords: Design; Planning; Production; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Manufacturing Industry

October 2001
Supplement

BMW AG: The Digital Auto Project-An Interview With Chris Bangle, Head of Global Design

By: Stefan H. Thomke

Chris Bangle describes how BMW is trying to reduce its development time by half with the aid of computer-aided technologies. To leverage these technologies in the very competitive automotive industry, he talks about how BMW is faced with the challenges of changing its... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Management Practices and Processes; Time Management; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; Competition; Information Technology; Auto Industry

June 2011 (Revised October 2012)
Case

IBM China Development Lab Shanghai: Capability by Design

By: Willy Shih, Kamen Bliznashki and Fan Zhao

When IBM shifted from a traditional territory-based multinational organization to what it called a globally integrated enterprise, it established its headquarters for "Growth Markets" in Shanghai and "Established Markets" in New York. This positioned its China... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Corporate Strategy; Global Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Research and Development; Emerging Markets; Product Development; Information Technology Industry; China

July 2019
Article

Using Behavioral Science to Inform the Design of Sugary Drink Portion Limit Policies: Reply to Wilson and Stolarz-Fantino (2018)

By: Leslie John, Grant E. Donnelly and Christina A. Roberto

In their commentary, Wilson & Stolarz-Fantino argue that specific design features of our research mean that it cannot have policy implications and that researchers “need to consider profit maximization in menu design or studies are likely to suggest ill-informed... View Details

Keywords: Policy Implementation; Food; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy

January 2003 (Revised April 2003)
Case

KIPP National, 1999 (A): Designing a School Network

Covers the origin, evolution, and nature of the KIPP Academies, two high-performing public middle schools founded in 1995 by Michael Feinberg and David Levin in Houston and New York. In January 2000, Feinberg and Levin meet with Scott Hamilton, managing director of the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Middle School Education; Expansion; Education Industry; Houston

25 Apr 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Using Design Thinking to Invent a Low-Cost Prosthesis for Land Mine Victims

Keywords: Re: Srikant M. Datar; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

September 2023
Article

Measuring Time Use in Rural India: Design and Validation of a Low-Cost Survey Module

By: Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Natalia Rigol, Simone Schaner, Elena Stacy and Charity Troyer Moore

Time use data can help us understand individual labor supply choices, especially for women who often provide unpaid care and home production. Although enumerator-assisted diary-based time use data collection is suitable for low-literacy populations, it is costly and... View Details

Keywords: Time Use; Measurement and Metrics; Gender; Labor

Article

The Job Market for New Economists: A Market Design Perspective

By: Peter A. Coles, John Cawley, Phillip B. Levine, Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth and John J. Siegfried

This paper, written by the members of the American Economic Association (AEA) Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market, provides an overview of the market for new Ph.D. economists. It describes the role of the AEA in the market and focuses in particular on two mechanisms... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Jobs and Positions

October 2021
Article

Board Design and Governance Failures at Peer Firms

By: Shelby Gai, J. Yo-Jud Cheng and Andy Wu

Our study introduces board committees as a crucial determinant of board actions. We examine how directors who structurally link different board committees—referred to as multi-committee directors (MCDs)—explain why some board actions are merely symbolic while others... View Details

Keywords: Board Committees; Board Monitoring; New Director Nomination; Peer Financial Restatements; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Performance Effectiveness

April 2015
Case

Accor: Designing an Asset-Right Business and Disclosure Strategy

By: Mozaffar Khan and George Serafeim

Sebastien Bazin was now in charge of Accor, the world's largest French hotelier, a CAC 40 company with 3,600 hotels in 92 countries and a market cap of €10 billion. Previously as the European head of Colony Capital, one of the largest private equity groups and the... View Details

March 2022
Case

GrowSari (A): Design for the Last Mile Customer

By: Brian Trelstad, Cam Carag and Michi Ferreol

Reymund (ER) Rollan and Shivapratim (Shiv) Choudhury, founders of the digital technology platform GrowSari, were at a crossroads. The feedback from their initial product roll-out were not what they had expected, and they needed to decide how to proceed. The pair,... View Details

Keywords: Fast Moving Consumer Goods; Product Launch; Information Technology; Analytics and Data Science; Digital Platforms; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Technology Industry; Philippines

May 2024
Article

Design of Off-Grid Lighting Business Models to Serve the Poor: Field Experiments and Structural Analysis

By: Bhavani Shanker Uppari, Serguei Netessine, Ioanna Popescu and Rowan P. Clarke

A significant proportion of the world's population has no access to grid-based electricity and so relies on off-grid lighting solutions. Rechargeable lamp technology is gaining popularity as an alternative off-grid lighting model in developing countries. In this paper,... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Developing Countries and Economies; Consumer Behavior; Poverty; Logistics; Business Model; Utilities Industry

July 2002
Article

The Economist As Engineer: Game Theory, Experimental Economics and Computation As Tools of Design Economics

By: Alvin E Roth

Keywords: Game Theory; Economics; Mathematical Methods; Design

2008
Other Teaching and Training Material

A Problem-Solving Approach to Designing and Implementing a Strategy to Improve Performance

By: Stacey Childress and Geoff Marietta

This note helps teams work through a problem-solving process that facilitates the design and implementation of a strategy for continuous improvement. View Details

Keywords: Business Processes; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Strategy

January 2018
Article

The Central and Unacknowledged Role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the Design and Execution of Medical Device Pivotal Trials

By: Aaron V. Kaplan and Ariel D. Stern

The introduction of new medical devices has transformed cardiovascular care in recent decades. Devices, such as heart valves, pacemakers, stents, ventricular assist devices, and implantable defibrillators, have prolonged and improved the quality of life for millions of... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Business and Government Relations; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Information Publishing; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

October 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Background Note

Modularity in Design and Manufacturing: Application to Commercial Aircraft

By: Willy Shih and Margaret Pierson

The note discusses the modularization of design, and the modularization of manufacturing in the commercial aerospace industry. It is intended to be taught with the case, "Boeing 737 Industrial Footprint: The Wichita Decision," HBS No. 612-036. View Details

Keywords: Design; Production; Technology; Aerospace Industry

Article

Exploring the Duality Between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the 'Mirroring' Hypothesis

By: Alan MacCormack, Carliss Y. Baldwin and John Rusnak

A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that the organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are... View Details

Keywords: Organization Design; Architecture; Modularity; Open Source Software; Communication; Design; Governance; Management Practices and Processes; Open Source Distribution; Product Design; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Performance; Problems and Challenges; Behavior; Software

2007
Working Paper

Coupled Search Processes: Why Is it so Difficult to Find that Organizational Design Matters?

By: Nicolaj Siggelkow and Jan Rivkin

Organizational design affects performance via coupled search processes. At low frequency, managers search for appropriate organizational designs. At higher frequency, managers use designs to search for high-performing operational choices. The two searches are coupled:... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Operations; Organizational Design; Performance; Networks; Research; Cognition and Thinking; Strategy

2010
Conference Presentation

Compensatory Fit in Integrated Architectures: The Upside of Structural Ambiguity

By: Ranjay Gulati and Luciana Silvestri

Keywords: Integrated Design; Ambiguity; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure