Publications

May 1988 (Revised June 2023)
Case

National Cranberry Cooperative, 1996

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Describes the continuous flow process used to process cranberries into juice and/or sauce. Requires student to analyze process flows to determine where the bottlenecks are and to decide how, and whether, to expand capacity. Original version written by J.G. Miller and... View Details

Keywords: Logistics; Performance Capacity; Performance Improvement; Supply Chain; Mathematical Methods; Cost vs Benefits; Production

07 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

The Better Way to Forecast the Future

are broader. When Grushka-Cockayne refers to averaging the forecasts, she is not necessarily referring to a mathematical average but any number of ways to combine them. Various methods can include weighting certain ones or trimming... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Air Transportation; Transportation

26 May 2016
News

Mary Callahan Erdoes, MBA 1993

stay-at-home mom. She cites her family, including four grandparents, as major influences. “There weren’t a lot of dolls in our house,” says Erdoes, who rode horses competitively until she went to Georgetown University. Erdoes majored in View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Monetary Authorities-Central Bank; Finance

September 1986 (Revised February 1990)
Background Note

A Note on Quality: The Views of Deming, Juran, and Crosby

By: David A. Garvin

Describes the three distinct approaches to quality management represented by W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, and Philip B. Crosby. Designed to introduce students to the elements of statistical quality control, structured approaches to quality improvement, and zero... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Performance Improvement; Mathematical Methods

Web

Robin Greenwood | About

Economics and Mathematics at MIT. He has taught in both years of the MBA curriculum as well as the PhD program. CV Behavioral Finance and Financial Stability Project Link to List of Outside Activities Link to Google Scholar Read more on... View Details

October 2007 (Revised January 2009)
Background Note

Analyzing Relative Costs

By: Hanna Halaburda and Jan W. Rivkin

Introduces students to the technique of relative cost analysis, a core technique of strategists. Among the intricate quantitative analyses that strategists undertake, relative cost analysis may be the most common. The goal of a relative cost analysis is simply to... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Competitive Advantage

September 2006 (Revised August 2008)
Module Note

Assessing Your Organization's Capabilities: Resources, Processes and Priorities

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Stephen P. Kaufman

Summarizes a model that helps managers determine what sorts of initiatives an organization is capable and incapable of managing successfully. The factors that affect what an organizational unit can and cannot accomplish can be grouped as resources, processes, and the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Experience and Expertise; Innovation and Management; Business Processes; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Mathematical Methods

Web

Cash House | About

Emeritus. Cash has been described throughout his career with words reserved for the most special of individuals: pioneer, trailblazer, legendary, game-changer. After receiving his BS in Mathematics from Texas Christian University,... View Details

01 Sep 2023
News

Alumni and Faculty Books

Edited by Margie Kelley The Happiness Handbook By Landon Carter (MBA 1967) Marshall and McClintic Publishing Have you ever wished you had the instruction manual for being a happy human on planet Earth? This book will answer some of life’s fundamental questions: Who am... View Details

September–October 2021
Article

Frontiers: Can an AI Algorithm Mitigate Racial Economic Inequality? An Analysis in the Context of Airbnb

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Nitin Mehta, Param Singh and Kannan Srinivasan

We study the effect of Airbnb’s smart-pricing algorithm on the racial disparity in the daily revenue earned by Airbnb hosts. Our empirical strategy exploits Airbnb’s introduction of the algorithm and its voluntary adoption by hosts as a quasi-natural experiment. Among... View Details

Keywords: Smart Pricing; Pricing Algorithm; Machine Bias; Discrimination; Racial Disparity; Social Inequality; Airbnb Revenue; Revenue; Race; Equality and Inequality; Prejudice and Bias; Price; Mathematical Methods; Accommodations Industry

SSRN

Find at Harvard

March 2012 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Boston Children's Hospital: Measuring Patient Costs

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Mary L. Witkowski and Jessica A. Hohman

The case describes two pilot projects on applying activity-based costing to measuring the cost of treating patients. It presents process maps and financial data relating to the processes used during (1) an office visit to a plastic surgeon for three different diagnoses... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Costing; Hospitals; Activity Based Costing and Management; Mathematical Methods; Health Industry

05 Sep 2014
News

Keeping Education in Check

South resulted in increased academic abilities across the board, from spatial analysis to mathematics scores to reasoning. In 2003, William Bart and Michael Atherton of the University of Minnesota wrote a paper that discussed the... View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon

2010
Book

The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance

By: Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman

Retailers today are drowning in data but lacking in insight: They have huge volumes of information at their disposal. But they're unsure of how to sort through it and use it to make smart decisions. The result? They're struggling with profit-sapping supply chain... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Logistics; Supply Chain Management; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

01 Jan 2004
News

D. Ronald Daniel, MBA 1954

Director & Former Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company, Inc. Former Treasurer, Harvard University Return to Alumni Achievement Awards main page EARLIER EDUCATION Wesleyan University, 1952 B.A., Mathematics LIFELONG LESSON FROM HBS "HBS... View Details

Web

Entrepreneurial Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Finance for his paper with Christopher Malloy and Andrea Frazzini, “Sell-Side School Ties” (August 2010). Scott Duke Kominers : Winner of the 2010 Frank and Brennie Morgan Prize for Outstanding Research by an Undergraduate Student, given jointly by the American View Details

Forthcoming
Article

Reputation Burning: Analyzing the Impact of Brand Sponsorship on Social Influencers

By: Mengjie Cheng and Shunyuan Zhang

The growth of the influencer marketing industry warrants an empirical examination of the effect of posting sponsored videos on influencers' reputations. We collected a novel dataset of user-generated YouTube videos created by prominent English-speaking influencers in... View Details

Keywords: Reputation; Mathematical Methods; Marketing Reference Programs; Social Media; Brands and Branding