Publications

July–August 2023
Article

Demand Learning and Pricing for Varying Assortments

By: Kris Ferreira and Emily Mower

Problem Definition: We consider the problem of demand learning and pricing for retailers who offer assortments of substitutable products that change frequently, e.g., due to limited inventory, perishable or time-sensitive products, or the retailer’s desire to... View Details

Keywords: Experiments; Pricing And Revenue Management; Retailing; Demand Estimation; Pricing Algorithm; Marketing; Price; Demand and Consumers; Mathematical Methods

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May 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Arcos Dorados: Decarbonizing McDonald’s in Latin America

By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

This case describes the decarbonization strategy of Arcos Dorados—McDonald’s largest independent franchisee, operating in 20 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean—and how the company measured its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including those... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Accounting; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Change Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Environmental Sustainability; Food; Growth Management; Supply Chain; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Green Technology Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Latin America; North and Central America; South America

02 Mar 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is the Government’s Role in US Health Care?

various free market mechanisms for addressing these issues. Where to start? Paul Jackson suggests that "The only thing the government should be involved with is controlling the drug, insurance, and medical industry advertising spending... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

2013
Working Paper

Managing Firms in an Emerging Economy: Evidence from the Time Use of Indian CEOs

By: Raffaella Sadun

The success or failure of a company is often ascribed to the behavior of its CEO. Yet little is known about what top managers actually do, whether this matters for firm performance, and why it differs across firms. We provide some answers by developing a new survey... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Performance; Outcome or Result; Management Teams; Manufacturing Industry; India

December 2014 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Muñoz Group: Sustaining Global Vertical Integration Through Innovation

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Annelena Lobb

Muñoz Group, which supplied supermarket chains and food distribution chains around the world with fruit, flowers, juice and ice cream, was at a strategic crossroads in 2014. CEO Alvaro Muñoz had to choose the best way to achieve profit goals and provide his company... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Supply Chain; Retail; Agribusiness Industry; Globalized Firms and Management; Supply Chain Management; Competitive Advantage; Vertical Integration; Profit; Innovation and Invention; Retail Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; North and Central America

21 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 21, 2015

driver of macroeconomic fluctuations. We first exposit that in the presence of Cobb-Douglas production functions and consumer preferences there is a specific pattern of economic transmission whereby demand-side shocks propagate upstream... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 1992 (Revised March 1997)
Case

Peoria Engine Plant (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Amy P. Hutton

Describes the cost control system used at an automobile engine plant for labor and overhead costs. The finance staff prepares daily, weekly, and monthly variance reports against budgets. Department supervisors, finance staff, and the plant manager discuss the use and... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Cost Accounting; Budgets and Budgeting; Earnings Management; Reports; Financial Reporting; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Auto Industry

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16 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Has COVID-19 Broken the Global Value Chain?

The coronavirus pandemic has not only disrupted lives and businesses, it has illuminated underlying fragilities in the global value chain (GVC) that drives economies around the world. The smartphone you use many times daily is a product... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Article

The (Perceived) Meaning of Spontaneous Thoughts

By: Carey K. Morewedge, Colleen Giblin and Michael I. Norton

Spontaneous thoughts, the output of a broad category of uncontrolled and inaccessible higher-order mental processes, arise frequently in everyday life. The seeming randomness by which spontaneous thoughts arise might give people good reason to dismiss them as... View Details

Keywords: Spontaneous Thoughts; Self-Insight; Meaning; Attribution; Judgment And Decision Making; Decision Making; Cognition and Thinking

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June 1989 (Revised November 1991)
Supplement

Ingersoll-Rand (B): Managing Multiple Channels--1986

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Peter Baldwin takes over Clabough's job and is charged with the responsibility to improve sales force morale, control expenses, and improve market share. View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Supply and Industry; Management Teams; Industrial Products Industry

Research Summary

Internalizing Global Value Chains: A Firm-Level Analysis

By: Laura Alfaro

In recent decades, advances in information and communication technology and falling trade barriers have led firms to retain within their boundaries and in their domestic economies only a subset of their production stages. A key decision facing firms worldwide is the... View Details

September 19, 2017
Article

After Equifax Breach, Companies Advised to Review Open-Source Software Code

By: Ben DiPietro and Lou Shipley

It doesn’t make much sense: At a time when high-powered automated trading systems can execute stock sales in real time, some companies that rely on open-source software to help to run their businesses track their open-source use on spread sheets on paper.
Lou... View Details

Keywords: Software; Open-source; Security Vulnerabilities; Data Privacy; Hack; Applications and Software; Safety; Cybersecurity

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30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Germany’s Pioneering Corporate Managers

loss of control and precision of information). Before the 1920s at least, most German industrial firms did not have an extensive middle management staff. Large German firms remained much more diversified and decentralized than unitary,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2016
Working Paper

Standardized Color in the Food Industry: The Co-Creation of the Food Coloring Business in the United States, 1870–1940

By: Ai Hisano

This working paper examines how, starting in the 1870s, food manufacturers in the United States began to use standardized color, achieved by synthetic dyes, as part of their marketing strategies. Food manufacturers along with dye makers and regulators co-created the... View Details

Keywords: Food; Supply and Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

SSRN

March 2023
Teaching Note

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-069. On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth... View Details

December 2019
Case

Steemit: A New Social Media?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Alexander White and Karen Elterman

This case discusses the alternative social media site Steemit, including the principles it was founded on in 2016 and the challenges it faced in 2019. Steemit was a blockchain-based platform that aimed to differentiate itself from other social media companies by... View Details

February 2016 (Revised June 2016)
Case

The Maggi Noodle Safety Crisis in India (A)

By: Karthik Ramanna and Radhika Kak

The local government in Delhi has ordered a ban on Nestlé's flagship product in India—Maggi Noodles—citing excessive lead content per government lab tests. Nestlé disputes the government tests, noting that internal and third-party tests show the product to be safe.... View Details

Keywords: Multinationals; Regulation; Customer Relations; Business And Government; Crisis Management; Leadership; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalization; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Safety; Customer Relationship Management; Business and Government Relations; India; Europe; Switzerland

2023
Working Paper

Virtual Water Coolers: A Field Experiment on the Role of Virtual Interactions on Organizational Newcomer Performance

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Jacqueline N. Lane and Iavor Bojinov

Designing management practices to better onboard organizational newcomers working remotely is a key priority for firms. We report results from a randomized field experiment conducted at a large global firm that estimates the performance effects of different types of... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Virtual Water Coolers; Social Interactions; Careers; Field Experiment; Employees; Interpersonal Communication; Internet and the Web; Performance; Personal Development and Career

SSRN