Publications

April 2002 (Revised March 2006)
Background Note

Economics of Retail Banking Note

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Explains the financial operations of retail banking, highlighting profitability challenges facing the industry. For U.S. banks, it is quite common for more than half of the customer base to be unprofitable and to have relatively few customers make up the vast majority... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Economics; Cost; Banks and Banking; Profit; Revenue; Service Operations; Banking Industry; United States

November – December 2011
Article

Modeling a Paradigm Shift: From Producer Innovation to User and Open Collaborative Innovation

By: Carliss Baldwin and Eric von Hippel

In this paper, we assess the economic viability of innovation by producers relative to two increasingly important alternative models: innovations by single-user individuals or firms and open collaborative innovation. We analyze the design costs and architectures and... View Details

Keywords: Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Design; Cost; Communication; Competition; Economy; Research; Policy; Practice

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March 1979 (Revised November 1980)
Case

Beth Israel Hospital, Boston

The hospital is reviewing its obstetrical services and trying to decide on future strategy relative to communications, pricing and service characteristics. Important environmental trends include increasing government health regulation, a declining birth rate, more... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Medical Specialties; Health Industry; Boston

18 Sep 2018
Working Paper Summaries

After the Carnival: Key Factors to Enhance Olympic Legacy and Prevent Olympic Sites from Becoming White Elephants

Keywords: by Isao Okada and Stephen A. Greyser; Sports

March 1982 (Revised January 1990)
Background Note

Note on Pricing Strategies for Industrial Products

Used as a background reading for a course or course module on pricing, this note describes the several basic parameters relevant for price determination. Provides a conceptual approach to formulating pricing strategy, dealing with such topics as skimming versus... View Details

Keywords: Price; Product Marketing; Industrial Products Industry

30 Sep 2019
News

WeWork Needs Cash as Botched IPO Scuttles Planned Infusion

2009
Working Paper

Modeling a Paradigm Shift: From Producer Innovation to User and Open Collaborative Innovation

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and Eric von Hippel

In this paper we assess the economic viability of innovation by producers relative to two increasingly important alternative models: innovations by single user individuals or firms, and open collaborative innovation projects. We analyze the design costs and... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Policy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Independent Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Rights; Welfare

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March 1985 (Revised November 1985)
Case

Wilmington Tap and Die

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The general manager of a division manufacturing taps and dies must decide whether to continue a major capital investment program. The program was designed to replace aging mechanical machines with modern, electronically controlled equipment. A post-audit, after an... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Investment; Accounting Audits; Cost Management; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Performance Productivity; Production; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Manufacturing Industry

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September 1995 (Revised March 2023)
Background Note

Process Fundamentals

By: Ann E. Gray and James Leonard

This note provides an introduction for a course or module covering the basic elements of production or service operations and how processes are managed. Begins by discussing the activities that take place in a "process." Analysis tools such as the process flow diagram... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Operations; Management; Business Processes; Analysis

November 2020
Case

Axis My India

By: Ananth Raman, Ann Winslow and Kairavi Dey

Pradeep Gupta founded Axis My India (AMI) as a printing and publishing company in 1998. In 2013, AMI expanded into consumer research and election forecasting. Although a relatively unknown entity, AMI predicted several election results accurately. Gupta describes AMI’s... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Operations; Management; Infrastructure; Logistics; Service Operations; Political Elections; Forecasting and Prediction; Asia; India

15 Sep 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Debt Redemption and Reserve Accumulation

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

October 26, 2015
Article

Measuring and Communicating Health Care Value with Charts

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Robin P. Blackstone, Derek A. Haas and Nikhil G. Thaker

The goal of a health care system should be to deliver the most value to patients: the outcomes achieved for treating a medical condition relative to the costs incurred over a complete care cycle. We have found that a radar (spider web) chart is an effective means to... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Value; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

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2007
Working Paper

Testing Limits to Policy Reversal: Evidence from Indian Privatizations

By: Siddhartha G. Dastidar, Raymond Fisman and Tarun Khanna

We examine the effect of regime change on privatization using the 2004 election surprise in India. The pro-reform BJP was unexpectedly defeated by a less reformist coalition. Stock prices of government-controlled companies that had been slated for definite... View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; Privatization; State Ownership; Policy; India

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01 Jun 2012
News

How a Short-Term Strategy Can Backfire

April 1989 (Revised August 1989)
Case

Burlington Northern (A)

By: Janice H. Hammond

Describes the forces that led to the development of a logistics analysis program by the Burlington Northern Railroad. The first half of the case describes changes in industrial structure, technology, demographics, shipper practices, and government regulation that led... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Rail Transportation; Logistics; Rail Industry; United States

October 1997
Article

Does Competition Kill Corruption?

By: Christopher Bliss and Rafael Di Tella

Corrupt agents (officials or gangsters) exact money from firms. Corruption affects the number of firms in a free-entry equilibrium. The degree of deep competition in the economy increases with lower overhead costs relative to profits and with a tendency toward similar... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Crime and Corruption

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May 2004
Article

The Case for International Coordination of Electricity Regulation: Evidence from the Measurement of Efficiency in South America

A decade of experience has shown that monitoring the performance of public and private monopolies is the hardest part of electricity sector reform in South America—because operators control most of the information needed for effective regulation. South American... View Details

Keywords: Information; Mathematical Methods; Monopoly; Globalization; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; South America