Publications

December 2024
Article

Respect for Improvements and Comparative Statics in Matching Markets

By: Scott Duke Kominers

One of the oldest results in the theory of two-sided matching is the entry comparative static, which shows that under the Gale–Shapley deferred acceptance algorithm, adding a new agent to one side of the market makes all the agents on the other side weakly... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Marketplace Matching; Mathematical Methods; Market Design

15 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Five Imperatives for Improving Health Care

conference and survey from Harvard's business and medical schools may prove particularly timely. Delivered by the Forum on Healthcare Innovation, which was formed last year with encouragement from the respective deans of the two... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

17 Nov 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

How Activist Investors Became Respectable

no company is off limits. Activists have recently pressed for action at Apple, GE, and DuPont. Campaigns against companies with market capitalizations of more than $25 billion nearly tripled last year. The activist’s transformation to... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Fuller; Financial Services; Banking

April 1984 (Revised November 1988)
Background Note

Statistical Quality Control for Process Improvement

Describes systematic methods for process debugging and improvement, based on statistical quality control. Examples are from manufacturing settings, but techniques are also useful for services and sales, and to quantity improvement as well as quality improvement. View Details

Keywords: Quality; Performance Improvement; Business Processes

2025
Working Paper

A Preference for Revision Absent Improvement

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Leslie K. John, Ed O’Brien and Michael I. Norton

People regularly encounter revised stimuli (e.g., revised versions of products, new editions of books, tweaked recipes, and technological updates). In principle, a world of constant revision should benefit people by affording them the most up-to-date offerings. In... View Details

Keywords: Product Change; Versioning; Expectancy Effects; Heuristics; Intuitive Processing; Product Marketing; Change; Perception; Consumer Behavior

SSRN

15 Jul 2013
News

Five Imperatives for Improving Health Care

13 Dec 2006
Research & Ideas

Improving Public Health for the Poor

Microfinance—essentially small loans that help impoverished individuals create jobs, small businesses, and stronger communities—may offer a window on new methods for widening access to healthcare for the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

April 2017
Case

Luminopia: Improving Treatment for Visual Disorders

By: Doug J. Chung and Sarah Mehta

Luminopia—a start-up founded in January 2016 by three Harvard College freshmen—uses virtual reality technology to treat amblyopia (more commonly called “lazy eye”), the single biggest cause of visual disorders among children. By February 2017, the three founders had... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Virtual Reality; Startup; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Business Startups; Price; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Cambridge; Massachusetts; United States

spring 1999
Article

Improved Techniques for Valuing Large-Scale Projects

By: B. C. Esty

Keywords: Valuation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Projects

14 Oct 2014
News

A legacy of social and environmental respect

preserve his native Odishan culture. “Through my films, I hope to create an awareness in the world about the threat of climate change, the need for environmental protection, the legacy we leave for future... View Details

July–September 2023
Article

A Systematic Review of Respect Between Acute Care Nurses and Physicians

By: Derrick P. Bransby, Anna T. Mayo, Matthew A. Cronin, Katie Park and Christina Yuan

Background: Interprofessional collaboration between nurses and physicians has become an essential part of patient care, which, when lacking, can lead to well-known challenges. One possible explanation for ineffective nurse–physician collaboration is a lack of... View Details

Keywords: Relationships; Status and Position; Cooperation; Attitudes; Behavior; Outcome or Result; Health Industry

18 Jun 2024
News

Valuable Tips for Improving Sales Hiring

September 2007
Case

Collaborating to Improve

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Ingrid M. Nembhard

Madison Memorial Hospital is deciding between a variety of quality improvement strategies. Highlights quality improvement collaborative—organized programs popularized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in which teams from multiple institutions work together to... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Performance Improvement; Quality; Groups and Teams; Cooperation; Integration; Health Industry

05 Jan 2021
News

Using Behavioral Science to Improve Well-Being for Social Workers

June 2001 (Revised June 2001)
Background Note

Process Improvement Template

Managers are often confronted with the challenge of improving critical business processes so that their efforts are not merely ad hoc. This note provides a template by which improvement efforts are converted from unstructured efforts to bona fide, hypothesis-testing... View Details

Keywords: Performance Improvement; Business Processes

2022
Article

Improving Efficiency and Reducing Costs of MRI-Guided Prostate Brachytherapy Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing

By: Nikhil G. Thaker, Rajat J. Kudchadker, James R. Incalcaterra, Tharakeswara K. Bathala, Robert S. Kaplan, Ankit Agarwal, Deborah A. Kuban, Benjamin D. Frank, Prajnan Das, Thomas W. Feeley and Steven J. Frank

Integrated quality improvement (QI) and cost reduction strategies can help increase value in cancer care. We applied standard QI and TDABC methods to improve workflow efficiency and reduce costs for MRI-guided prostate brachytherapy. We constructed process maps,... View Details

Keywords: Brachytherapy; Quality Improvement; Prostate; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Cost Accounting; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Efficiency; Health Industry

December 2013
Article

Measuring the Value of Process Improvement Initiatives in a Preoperative Assessment Center using Time-driven Activity-based Costing

By: Katy E. French, Heidi W. Albright, John C. Frenzel, James R. Incalcaterra, Augustin C. Rubio, Jessica F. Jones and Thomas W. Feeley

Background: The value and impact of process improvement initiatives are difficult to quantify. We describe the use of time-driven activity-based costing(TDABC)in a clinical setting to quantify the value of process improvements in terms of cost, time and personnel... View Details

Keywords: Quality Improvement; Value Agenda; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Accounting; Health; Measurement and Metrics; Value; Health Industry; North and Central America

02 Mar 2016
News

Entrepreneurship to improve the world for everyone

Article

An Integrated Decision-Making Approach for Improving European Air Traffic Management

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Bert De Reyck and Zeger Degraeve

We develop a multistakeholder, multicriteria decision-making framework for Eurocontrol, the European air traffic management organization, for evaluating and selecting operational improvements to the air traffic management system. The selected set of improvements will... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Framework; Operations; Performance Improvement; Government Administration; Air Transportation Industry; Europe