Publications

September 2003 (Revised October 2010)
Case

A Pain in the Hip

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer

Describes in detail the process of diagnosing the cause of a sore hip in a young girl. Referred to the emergency room by her pediatrician, the child is subjected to a set of diagnostic tests over a two-day period, each designed to reduce the uncertainty surrounding the... View Details

Keywords: Production; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Performance Improvement; Health Industry

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03 Mar 2022
News

Mass General Brigham Ads Touting Expansion Are Ruffling Feathers

Research Summary

Internet Auctions for Close Substitutes

(with Eric Budish)

This is mainly an experimental project where we compare many auction designs in a market for close substitutes. We hypothesize some information will not get to market if there is sequential bidding and/or a hard close, and that this will... View Details

Research Summary

Senior Teams, Strategic Innovation, and Change

By: Michael L. Tushman

This research stream explores the relations... View Details

May 2017
Case

ATH Technologies: Making the Numbers

By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard

An exercise that takes students through five stages of growth in an entrepreneurial start-up in the medical devices industry: 1) founding, 2) growth, 3) push to profitability, 4) relocation process, and 5) takeover by new management. At each stage, students must... View Details

Keywords: Balancing Innovation And Control; Performance Evaluation; Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Risk Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Profit; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Innovation and Invention; Management Succession; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

February 2014 (Revised April 2014)
Supplement

Pixability: Managing a Corporate Board (Pre Class)

By: Noam Wasserman

"Bettina’s Board Walk" examines the board management methods of Bettina Hein, Founder-CEO of Pixability, Inc., as she prepares for and conducts a standard board meeting. The case is designed to give students an understanding of the delicate dynamics inherent in board... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Board Of Directors; Entrepreneurship

April 1988 (Revised July 1990)
Case

Schulze Waxed Containers, Inc.

Schulze Waxed Containers has recently lost 20% of its business. The firm's cost accounting system spreads fixed costs over the volume produced. The 1987 costs reflect the lower production volume and are higher. The firm has recently adopted a minimum mark up. The... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Production; Management Systems; Manufacturing Industry

November 1989 (Revised January 1990)
Case

Paul Revere Insurance Co. (C): Competing For the Baldrige Award--The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Exercise

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award requires firms to submit applications that conform to a rigorous quality-assessment system. This case consists of several parts of a service company's 1988 Baldrige application together with material from the Malcolm Baldrige... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Performance Improvement; Performance Evaluation

June 2025
Article

Passive Ownership and Price Informativeness

By: Marco Sammon

I show that passive ownership negatively affects the degree to which stock prices anticipate earnings announcements. Estimates across several research designs imply that the rise in passive ownership over the last 30 years has caused the amount of information... View Details

Keywords: Passive Ownership; ETFs; Market Efficiency; Price; Investment Funds; Stocks; Communication

2018
Other Teaching and Training Material

Financial Accounting Reading: Shareholders' Equity

By: Suraj Srinivasan

Core Curriculum Readings in Financial Accounting cover the fundamental concepts in financial accounting. Many readings include videos and Interactive Illustrations to help students master complex concepts.
This is a standalone reading designed to introduce... View Details

Keywords: Shareholders' Equity; Accounting; Financial Statements

October 2014
Teaching Note

MuMaté

By: Thomas Eisenmann

This teaching note is designed for use with "MuMaté: Funding Growth," "MuMaté (B-1): Confidential for Maxwell," "MuMaté (B-2): Confidential for Cantor," HBS Nos. 814-063, 813-149, 813-150, to help faculty deepen student comprehension of business issues and energize... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Growth Management; Negotiation; Expansion; Valuation; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Business Startups; Food and Beverage Industry

November 2008 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Teena Lerner: Dividing the Pie at Rx Capital (Abridged)

By: Boris Groysberg, Victoria Winston and Robin Abrahams

Teena Lerner, the CEO of Rx Capital, had a problem. Her three-year-old hedge fund was highly profitable, but in 2004, one of her four equities analysts lost a lot of money for the firm. If Lerner followed her existing compensation system, designed to reward teamwork,... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Employee Relationship Management; Performance Evaluation; Groups and Teams; Financial Services Industry

December 2000
Case

SupplierMarket.com (A)

By: William A. Sahlman and Jared Stone

Describes a decision confronting the cofounders of a B2B Internet firm that focuses on the purchasing process for manufactured direct materials. The company has raised one round of capital from two prominent venture capital firms and must decide if it makes sense to... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Customers; Decisions; Venture Capital; Internet

June 1989 (Revised July 1993)
Case

CIGNA Worldwide

By: John A. Quelch

A CIGNA Worldwide (CWW) task group of European country directors and key functional managers is meeting in November 1988 to discuss how CWW should respond to the European Community's plan to remove existing internal barriers and restrictions to the free flow of goods... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Insurance; Competitive Strategy; Emerging Markets; Trade; Insurance Industry; Europe

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28 May 2015
News

Breaking the Death Grip of Legacy Technologies

15 Aug 2014
News

Getting a handle on inversion

19 Oct 2018
News

Lessons from Mayo Clinic’s Redesign of Stroke Care

13 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

The Subconscious Mind of the Consumer (And How To Reach It)

communications device or even a personal care product invokes deep thoughts and feelings about social bonding can be very helpful to R&D experts. In the case of a communications device, this suggests that tactile experiences of social bonding be "engineered... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Mahoney

March 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Supplement

Arck Systems (E)

By: Ian Larkin

The Arck Systems series of cases describes the dilemmas faced by a senior sales manager in determining a sales compensation plan at an enterprise software company. The existing compensation plan is aggressive and highly rewards "star" performers. The cases track a... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Framework; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Design; Performance Evaluation; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Software