Publications

25 Oct 2010
HBS Case

Tesco’s Stumble into the US Market

students have to answer as they make their way through the Tesco case? A: There are two questions that students must wrestle with. First, are Tesco's problems in the United States a result of poor strategy... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

2019
Article

Time Series Experiments and Causal Estimands: Exact Randomization Tests and Trading

By: Iavor I Bojinov and Neil Shephard

We define causal estimands for experiments on single time series, extending the potential outcome framework to dealing with temporal data. Our approach allows the estimation of a broad class of these estimands and exact randomization based p-values for testing causal... View Details

Keywords: Causality; Nonparametric; Potential Outcomes; Trading Costs; Mathematical Methods

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Research Summary

The Corporate Governance Role of Taxes

Dyck introduces evidence that private benefits of control are higher in countries with poor tax enforcement and in ongoing work explores further this correlation using both theory and empirical work from the United States and Russia. This work illustrates that the... View Details

October 2002 (Revised November 2002)
Case

The EU's 13th Directive on Takeover Bids: Unlucky for Some?

By: Huw Pill and Ingrid Vogel

In the late 1990s, the United States boomed in the context of the so-called New Economy. The countries of the European Union--despite their progress with integration in the form of the Single Market 1992 program and the adoption of a single currency in January... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Corporate Governance; Germany; European Union

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02 Jan 2019
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: Do We Need an Artificial Intelligence Czar?

less than enthusiastic about these ideas. He remarked, “Let me see if I get this question right. We want to create a government position to oversee AI across all segments of the US economy. Great idea.” After citing a number of ways he... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

March 1987 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Au Bon Pain: The French Bakery Cafe, The Partner/Manager Program

By: W. Earl Sasser

In recent years, Au Bon Pain (ABP), a chain of upscale French bakeries/sandwich cafes based in Boston, confronted a set of human resource problems endemic to the fast food industry (i.e., a labor shortage which made it difficult to attract and maintain quality crew... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Managerial Roles; Retention; Employees; Performance Improvement; Recruitment; Problems and Challenges; Compensation and Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; Boston

31 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Why These Business School Professors Oppose Trump's Executive Order on Immigration

especially when they don’t have any knowledge of a subject. Designating a common enemy has always been an efficient way at uniting people. It also typically leads to scapegoating. Politicians’ role should be... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

31 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Marketing’s Conventional Wisdom

advertising; if you want to reach a narrow audience, you do niche advertising. But these marketers realized the best way to create cachet for a young audience was to make it inaccessible and let the kids discover it on their own. Q: So... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Service

Article

Why Leadership Training Fails—and What to Do about It

By: Michael Beer, Magnus Finnström and Derek Schrader

U.S. corporations spend enormous amounts of money—some $456 billion globally in 2015 alone—on employee training and education, but they aren't getting a good return on their investment. People soon revert to old ways of doing things, and company performance doesn't... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership Development; Organizational Design; Employees; Business Processes; United States

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December 2013 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Paul Levy: Confronting a 'Corporate Campaign' (A)

By: James K. Sebenius

Hospital CEO Paul Levy confronts an SEIU unionization drive via a "corporate campaign" aimed at undercutting the hospital's relationships with key internal and external constituencies. Having shepherded one of Boston's top teaching hospitals much of the way through a... View Details

Keywords: Dispute Resolution; Corporate Campaign; Negotiating Campaign; Bargaining; Health Care; Hospitals; Unions; Health Care and Treatment; Negotiation; Strategy; Negotiation Process; Labor Unions; Health Industry; Boston

July 2001 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Recall 2000: Bridgestone Corp. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine

In September 2000, the president of Bridgestone-Firestone, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Bridgestone Corp., was invited to appear before a U.S. congressional subcommittee investigating the August 2000 recall of more than 6.5 million tires made by the subsidiary. The... View Details

Keywords: History; Crisis Management; Business Processes; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Rubber Industry; Japan; United States

September 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Enman Oil, Inc. (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

Company pursues ways to reduce its debt-to-equity ratio by resorting to off-balance sheet debt transactions. View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Borrowing and Debt; Equity; Financial Condition; Financing and Loans; United States

29 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

'Green Bonds' May Be Our Best Bet for Environmental Damage Control

United States, and the easiest to track thanks to the availability of government data. “The story is supply and demand. If there is an element of a security that the investor desires for nonfinancial reasons, it will trade at a higher... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy; Utilities; Construction; Green Technology; Public Administration

14 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

New Agenda for Corporate Accountability Reporting

community activists? When and how does such reporting affect how managers make decisions in ways that increase or decrease shareholder value? What are the main welfare effects of corporate accountability reporting? Using the lessons of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Accounting; Energy; Utilities

17 Oct 2016
HBS Case

Business Solutions That Help Cut Food Waste

As much as 40 percent of food grown in the United States for human consumption is wasted. Source: Eivaisla After decades of wasteful food practices, where perfectly good food is discarded even as poverty keeps many families hungry,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

April 2018
Case

The Bayer - Monsanto Merger: GMOs and 'Science for a Better Life'

By: Martha J. Crawford and James Barnett

This case allows students to explore the economic, ethical and legal challenges faced by agri-business companies, after several decades of promoting and selling Genetically Modified (GM) crops. Starting in the 1980s, the widespread introduction of GM crops was... View Details

Keywords: Merger; Acquisition; GMO; Genetically Modified Crops; Neonics; Pesticides; Crop Seeds; EU; Mergers and Acquisitions; Agribusiness; Genetics; Natural Environment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Consolidation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; United States

March 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Addleshaw-Goddard LLP

By: Robert G. Eccles, Amy C. Edmondson and James Weber

Addleshaw-Goddard (AG), the 15th largest law firm in the U.K., is seeking ways to serve larger clients on more important legal matters. Part of this strategy involves its "Client Development Centre (CDC)," an innovative idea and set of services launched by Dr. Jim... View Details

Keywords: Price; Innovation and Invention; Service Operations; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Legal Services Industry; United Kingdom

January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Cisco Systems (2001): Building and Sustaining a Customer-Centric Culture

By: Ranjay Gulati

Customer centricity has been an important part of the culture at Cisco Systems since its inception. While part of this is attributable to values put in place by the founders and retained by subsequent management, it is also closely interwoven with its organizational... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employees; Brands and Branding; Customer Relationship Management; Business Units

2012
Working Paper

Conflict Policy and Advertising Agency-Client Relations: The Problem of Competing Clients Sharing a Common Agency

By: Alvin J. Silk

What restrictions should be placed on advertising agencies with respect to serving accounts or clients that are competitors of one another in order to avoid conflicts in interest? In recent decades, the advertising and marketing services industry has undergone a number... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Service Delivery; Competition; Conflict of Interests; Policy; Practice; Advertising Industry; United States