Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(6,381)
- Faculty Publications (1,876)
Costing
→
- December 2022
- Article
When and How Should Firms Differentiate? Quality and Advertising Decisions in a Duopoly
By: Dominique Olié Lauga, Elie Ofek and Zsolt Katona
A prominent hallmark of competitive interaction is the desire to differentiate from rivals. In this article, the authors examine under what conditions firms will differentiate through product quality versus advertising intensity. Firms select quality in a first stage,... View Details
- 2022
- White Paper
The Options Multiplier: Decoding the CareerWise Youth Apprentice Journey
By: Joseph B. Fuller, Rachel Lipson, Farah Mallah, Girish Pendse and Rachel Snyder
As more Americans question the appeal of costly
higher education programs, earn-and-learn models,
like apprenticeship, are attracting increasing
attention from policymakers and employers alike. While apprenticeship is widespread in many
parts of Europe,... View Details
- November–December 2022
- Article
Can AI Really Help You Sell?: It Can, Depending on When and How You Implement It
By: Jim Dickie, Boris Groysberg, Benson P. Shapiro and Barry Trailer
Many salespeople today are struggling; only 57% of them make their annual quotas, surveys show. One problem is that buying processes have evolved faster than selling processes, and buyers today can access a wide range of online resources that let them evaluate products... View Details
- November 2022
- Article
Opportunity Neglect: An Aversion to Low-probability Gains
By: Emily Prinsloo, Kate Barasz, Leslie K. John and Michael I. Norton
Seven preregistered studies (N = 2,890) conducted in the field, lab, and online document opportunity neglect: a tendency to reject opportunities with low probability of success, even when they come with little or no objective cost (e.g., time, money,... View Details
- 2022
- Article
The Effects of Public and Private Equity Markets on Firm Behavior
By: Shai Bernstein
In this article, I review the theoretical and empirical literature on the effects of public and private equity markets on firm behavior, emphasizing the consequences that emerge from disclosure requirements, ownership concentration, and degree of firm standardization.... View Details
- 13 Oct 2022
- Other Presentation
4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Disruptive Innovation
By: Amy Bernstein, Rita McGrath, Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Derek van Bever
A roundtable conversation takes stock of Clayton Christensen’s influential theory. This first in a series of roundtable conversations assessing the origins and impact of four breakthrough ideas.
In the 1980s, Clayton Christensen cofounded a startup that... View Details
In the 1980s, Clayton Christensen cofounded a startup that... View Details
Keywords: Disruptive Innovation
- October 2022
- Case
Spaceport America, Public Sector Risk-taking, and Political Accountability (A)
By: Matthew Weinzierl, Dava Newman, Rebecca Browder and Angela Acocella
Sitting quietly in the heart of the New Mexico desert in the summer of 2014, Spaceport America (SA) housed little of the activity its supporters anticipated when opening its hangar doors in 2011. Despite $1 million in annual rent from Virgin Galactic, British... View Details
- October 2022
- Case
Sustainable Finance at Itau BBA
By: George Serafeim, Maria Loumioti and Benjamin Maletta
As of August 2022, the Itau BBA had structured dozens of sustainability linked bonds, which made future interest payments a function of the borrower meeting a target for a sustainability metric, and had solidified its reputation as a pioneer of sustainable finance in... View Details
Keywords: Sustainable Finance; Corporate Social Responsibility; Environmental Sustainability; Growth Strategy; Debt Contracting; Performance Metrics; Risk Assessment; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Financial Instruments; Risk Management; Debt Securities; Measurement and Metrics; Banking Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Latin America
- October 2022 (Revised February 2024)
- Case
Masdar City: Aiming for Sustainable and Profitable Real Estate
By: Boris Vallee and Fares Khrais
Masdar City broke ground in 2008 and was conceived by the Abu Dhabi government to be an international beacon of innovation in sustainable energy and real estate. It was also to be a profitable investment for the government. At first glance, the two goals pulled in... View Details
Keywords: Analysis; Business Growth And Maturation; Decisions; Public Sector; Financial Crisis; Construction; Climate Change; Green Technology; Borrowing And Debt; Corporate Finance; Capital; Capital Budgeting; Capital Structure; Cost Of Capital; Equity; REIT; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Initial Public Offering; Innovation; Growth And Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Urban Development; Middle East; United Arab Emirates; Sustainable Cities; Green Building; Business and Government Relations; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financing and Loans; Real Estate Industry; Construction Industry; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; Abu Dhabi
- October 2022 (Revised June 2024)
- Case
Driving Decarbonization at BMW
The case describes BMW’s electrification and decarbonization strategy, and how the company measured carbon emissions throughout the life cycle of its vehicles and used tools like carbon abatement cost curves to evaluate decarbonization opportunities. In mid-2022,... View Details
Keywords: Decarbonization; Climate Change; Environment; Sustainability; Carbon Accounting; Carbon; Carbon Abatement; Electric Vehicles; Automobiles; Transportation; Environmental Accounting; Environmental Management; Environmental Sustainability; Accounting; Strategy; Technological Innovation; Supply Chain; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Transportation Industry; Auto Industry; Battery Industry; Germany; China; United States; Europe
- October 2022 (Revised September 2024)
- Case
mPharma: Scaling Access to Affordable Primary Care in Africa
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo
mPharma hopes to scale up to create the largest pan-African healthcare company ever to provide much-needed primary care in retail pharmacies; a reliable, fairly priced supply of drugs; and micro-insurance for drugs. They must prioritize launching a telemedicine... View Details
Keywords: Africa; Pharmaceutical Companies; Pharmacy Benefit Manager; Health Care; Health Care And Treatment; Health Care Costs; Health Care Delivery; Health Care Entrepreneurship; Telehealth; Health Equity; Corporate Strategy; Social Entrepreneurship; Equity; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Product Launch; Customer Value and Value Chain; Social Enterprise; Multinational Firms and Management; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Africa
- June 2022
- Article
A New Initiative to Track HIV Resource Allocation and Costs
By: Ryan McBain, AK Nandakumar, Michael Ruffner, Carlyn Mann, Mai Hijazi, Susanna Baker, Linden Morrison, Kalipso Chalkidou, Shufang Zhang, Iris Semini, Fern Terris-Prestholt, Steven Forsythe, Sarah Byakika, Joshua Musinguzi and Robert S. Kaplan
In early 2020, several global health institutions – including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS); United States Agency for International Development; and Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator at... View Details
- October 2022
- Article
It’s Not Just the Prices: Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing for Initiation of Veno-Venous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation at Three International Sites—A Case Review
By: Michael Nurok, Vin Pellegrino, Marc Pineton de Chambrun, Jonathan Warsh, Meredith Young, Erik Dong, Neil Parrish, Syed Shehab, Alain Combes and Robert S. Kaplan
The United States spends more for intensive care units (ICUs) than do other high-income countries. We used time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) to analyze ICU costs for initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for respiratory failure to estimate... View Details
- October 2022
- Article
When Does Moral Engagement Risk Triggering a Hypocrite Penalty?
By: Jillian J. Jordan and Roseanna Sommers
Society suffers when people stay silent on moral issues. Yet people who engage morally may appear hypocritical if they behave imperfectly themselves. Research reveals that hypocrites can—but do not always—trigger a “hypocrisy penalty,” whereby they are evaluated... View Details
- September 2022
- Background Note
On CUE: The Quest for Optimal Customer Unit Economics
By: Elie Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller
Startups are often evaluated by how well they perform on unit economics, defined as the ratio of a customer’s lifetime value (LTV) to acquisition costs (CAC). A common target for unit economics, advocated by many VCs and analysts, is 3:1 (i.e., LTV/CAC=3). While there... View Details
- September 2022
- Article
Cost of Cardiac Stereotactic Body Radioablation Therapy versus Catheter Ablation for Treatment of Ventricular Tachycardia
By: Chen Wei, Michelle Boeck, Pierre C. Qian, Todd Vivenzio, Zoe Elizee, Jeremy S. Bredfeldt, Robert S. Kaplan, Usha Tedrow, Raymond Mak and Paul C. Zei
Cardiac SBRT is a novel way of treating refractory ventricular tachycardia (VT) that may be less costly than catheter ablation, owing to its noninvasive, outpatient nature. We applied time-driven activity-based costing to both procedures. The direct and total... View Details
- September 2022
- Article
Experimentation and Start-up Performance: Evidence from A/B Testing
By: Rembrand Koning, Sharique Hasan and Aaron Chatterji
Recent scholarship has argued that experimentation should be the organizing principle for entrepreneurial strategy. Experimentation leads to organizational learning, which drives improvements in firm performance. We investigate this proposition by exploiting the... View Details
- September 2022
- Article
Giving a Buck or Making a Buck? Donations by Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Independent Patient Assistance Charities
By: Leemore Dafny, Christopher Ody and Teresa Rokos
The federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits biopharmaceutical manufacturers from directly covering Medicare enrollees’ out-of-pocket spending for the drugs they manufacture, but manufacturers may donate to independent patient assistance charities and earmark donations... View Details
- August 2022
- Case
Atlanta Ransomware Attack (A)
By: Amit Goldenberg and Julian Zlatev
This case describes the March 2018 Ransomware attack on the information technology (IT) systems of the city of Atlanta and the response by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and her administration. The case includes a brief background on Bottoms and her young administration at... View Details
Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Government and Politics; Government Administration; Information Technology; Cybersecurity; Information Management; Leadership; Management; Crisis Management; Management Teams; Negotiation; Risk and Uncertainty; Social Psychology; Perception; Personal Characteristics; Perspective; Power and Influence; Society; Public Administration Industry; United States; Georgia (state, US); Atlanta
- August 2022
- Supplement
Atlanta Ransomware Attack (B)
By: Amit Goldenberg and Julian Zlatev
This case describes the March 2018 Ransomware attack on the information technology (IT) systems of the city of Atlanta and the response by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and her administration. The case includes a brief background on Bottoms and her young administration at... View Details
Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Government and Politics; Government Administration; Information Technology; Cybersecurity; Information Management; Leadership; Management; Crisis Management; Management Teams; Negotiation; Risk and Uncertainty; Social Psychology; Perception; Personal Characteristics; Perspective; Power and Influence; Society; Public Administration Industry; United States; Atlanta; Georgia (state, US)