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  • September 2014 (Revised February 2017)
  • Case

Belk: Towards Exceptional Scheduling

By: Ethan Bernstein, Saravanan Kesavan, Bradley Staats and Luke Hassall
With 24,000 staff and over 300 stores, Belk Inc. sought to replace its entirely manual labor scheduling system with an automated software solution from Reflexis. Belk hoped the upgrade would simplify scheduling, reduce time employees spent in non-customer-facing roles,... View Details
Keywords: Retail; Scheduling; Local Autonomy; Automation; Metrics; Organizational Change; Human Resource Management; Process Improvement; Performance Measurement; Transparency; Southern United States; Retailing; Department Stores; System Outsourced Services; Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Change Management; Governance Controls; Resource Allocation; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; Applications and Software; Family Business; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; United States
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  • October 1989
  • Case

Dennis Hightower and the Walt Disney Co. in Europe

Describes the initial entry challenges faced by Dennis Hightower after being assigned the task to revitalize and reposition Walt Disney Co. of Europe in preparation for 1992. Allows students to consider the challenges of cultural heterogeneity, Disney traditions, and... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; Europe
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  • January 1990 (Revised June 1995)
  • Case

Colliers International Property Consultants

By: Nitin Nohria
Describes the origins, organizational structure, management practices, and use of information technology (IT) in Colliers, a real estate network. Colliers provides local firms with a way to maintain local autonomy while gaining national and international coverage.... View Details
Keywords: Property; Organizational Structure; Information Technology; Management Practices and Processes; Partners and Partnerships; Business Model; Mission and Purpose; Business Growth and Maturation; Conflict and Resolution; Quality; Real Estate Industry
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  • 2008
  • Working Paper

A Darker Side to Decentralized Banks: Market Power and Credit Rationing in SME Lending

By: Rodrigo Canales and Ramana Nanda
We use loan-level data to study how the organizational structure of banks impacts small business lending. We find that decentralized banks—where branch managers have greater autonomy over lending decisions—give larger loans to small firms and those with "soft... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Structure; Financing and Loans; Industry Structures; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Mexico
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  • August 2012
  • Article

A Darker Side to Decentralized Banks: Market Power and Credit Rationing in SME Lending

By: Rodrigo Canales and Ramana Nanda
We use loan-level data to study how the organizational structure of banks impacts small business lending. We find that decentralized banks-where branch managers have greater autonomy over lending decisions-give larger loans to small firms and those with "soft... View Details
Keywords: Geographic Location; Customers; Financing and Loans; Credit; Organizational Structure; Banks and Banking; Governance Compliance; Competitive Strategy
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  • 27 Jan 2009
  • First Look

First Look: January 27, 2009

innovations that allow local sectors to catch up with frontier technology. In poor countries, catching up requires the cooperation of a foreign investor who is familiar with the frontier technology and a domestic entrepreneur who is... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
  • 09 May 2017
  • First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 9

adoption of feed-in tariffs, subsidies, and tax credits in the 1980s. However the poor technological capabilities of U.S.-based firms meant that it was Danish and other foreign companies that benefitted most. Subsequently the combination of public policies to grow wind... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 15 Aug 2023
  • Research & Ideas

Why Giving to Others Makes Us Happy

windfall of money that they could use to purchase a goody-bag full of candy or other treats. Participants were randomly assigned to be given the choice to keep the bag of treats for themselves or to donate it to an anonymous sick child at a View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
  • 14 Jul 2008
  • Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Reforming New Orleans Schools After Katrina

schools are public schools of choice that operate outside the governance and policies of their local school districts. In nearly all states, charter schools must be open to all students, just like traditional public schools. Families... View Details
Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Education
  • 01 Nov 2010
  • Research & Ideas

How IT Shapes Top-Down and Bottom-Up Decision Making

it was difficult for anyone at headquarters to make educated decisions and communicate them to branch offices. In those cases, it was natural to cede control of daily operations to a local manager. With today's networking technologies,... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel
  • 17 Jun 2008
  • First Look

First Look: June 17, 2008

Nanda Abstract Using loan-level data from Mexico, we study the relationship between the organizational structure of banks and the terms of lending to small businesses. We find that banks with decentralized lending structures—where branch managers have View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
  • 12 Apr 2017
  • Research & Ideas

Why Productivity Suffers When Employees Are Allowed to Schedule Their Own Tasks

thanks to technological advances like internet connectivity, mobile devices, and software. Autonomy is a much-touted benefit at many organizations, and it’s nice to believe that we each know the best path to our own optimal productivity.... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health
  • 16 Nov 2021
  • HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

low-skilled commercial roles. For some, this meant “going from a position of considerable autonomy and professional status to a situation in which they had to read a script from a headset, sell products over the phone, and ask permission... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
  • Web

Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

production workers) are associated with more autonomy and a wider span of control. By contrast, communication technologies (like data networks) decrease autonomy for both workers and plant managers. Treating... View Details
  • 01 Dec 2023
  • News

Thinking Ahead

As we wind down 2023, there’s talk everywhere of generative AI and how it will fundamentally alter the world as we know it; but how does that translate for your corner of the business world? Is TikTok something you need to take seriously? (Is it time to dance?) We... View Details
Keywords: Julia Hanna; Illustrations by Chris Gash; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information
  • 19 Apr 2010
  • Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

autonomy beauty companies have to shape ideals. Unilever's current Dove marketing campaign, which uses senior women as models to make the point that one can be beautiful beyond one's 30s, shows that a large company has the power to... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics
  • 28 Nov 2005
  • Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

or local companies. It was also the sheer spread of businesses it owned beyond packaged consumer products, including African trading, plantations, specialty chemicals, paper and packaging, transport, advertising, and market research... View Details
Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products
  • Profile

Cait Haught

College, Cait founded and help run Pipeline Scholars, a tutorship program that connected Amherst volunteers with local middle-school students. After completing her undergraduate degree with a double major in American studies and... View Details
Keywords: Financial Services
  • 03 Jun 2022
  • Research & Ideas

In a Work-from-Anywhere World, How Remote Will Workers Go?

is poised for a drastic, historic change, says Harvard Business School Professor Prithwiraj Choudhury. What’s more, the normalization of virtual work that began with the COVID-19 pandemic is creating meaningful perks for local economies,... View Details
Keywords: by Kara Baskin
  • 09 Jun 2003
  • Research & Ideas

The Challenge of the Multi-site Nonprofit

value proposition created by a national organization with local units is lost. Instead, the debate should be reframed with autonomy and affiliation as the key dimensions. In their research, Grossman and... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne