Publications

Read Now

August 2002 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Electronic Arts Introduces The Sims Online

By: Youngme E. Moon

Electronic Arts (EA), the world's largest independent game publisher, is preparing to launch an online, subscription-based version of the most popular PC game in history: The Sims. The new game is called "The Sims Online" and it differs from the original game in two... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Decision Making; Price; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Internet; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Voatz

By: Mitchell Weiss and Maddy Halyard

Nimit Sawhney scrolled through the tweet stream on his phone, unsure of what to make of it on August 6, 2018 or how to respond. Voatz, the Boston-based startup he co-founded and led, provided a mobile-voting platform. In March of 2018, had successfully piloted the new... View Details

Keywords: Mobile App; Business Startups; Voting; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Safety; Cybersecurity

July 2005
Case

Freemark Abbey Winery (Abridged)

Freemark Abbey must decide whether to harvest in view of the possibility of rain. Rain could damage the crop but delaying the harvest would be risky. On the other hand, rain could be beneficial and greatly increase the value of the resulting wine. This decision is... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Forecasting and Prediction; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

16 Jun 2015
News

Michael Porter on America's Historic Energy Opportunity

15 Nov 2021
News

Putting Your Corporate Purpose to Work

09 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

The Challenge of the Multi-site Nonprofit

constructive co-existence of unit autonomy and organizational affiliation, organizations must have in place a clear process for making decisions as to who will perform the functions necessary for the system,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

December 1999
Case

Sendwine.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Charmaine C Ess and Ann A. O'Hara

Sendwine.com, an online retailer of premium gifts of wine by the bottle, faced decisions about its growth strategy in mid-1999. Mike Lannon, president and founder, had established his company as a prominent player in an increasingly crowded field. But with success came... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Venture Capital; Financial Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Luxury; Diversification; Internet; Web Services Industry

13 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Public Companies Underinvest in the Future

Sageworks, a financial information company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. When Sageworks decided to open up its nearly 250,000 private-firm database of detailed accounting information to academic researchers, Ljungqvist was one of the fortunate few the company... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

05 Dec 2019
Blog Post

Addressing Unmet Needs in Health Care Using an MBA

No one can convey the impact of an MBA from Harvard Business School better than our alumni. And, when it comes to a career health care, there are a multitude of paths that one can choose. From care delivery and insurance to life sciences and entrepreneurship, the... View Details

30 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: Preparing to Sell

mechanisms (forums for discussions and decisions, plus rules, policies, and agreements) to help the family make decisions and keep family members informed, united, and hopefully committed to future... View Details

Keywords: by Jonathan Pellegrin; Food & Beverage; Retail

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

percent discount, it is not a matter of if but when the category economics will shift. “Can you be an office supply store if you do not sell paper?” With technology making both pricing and assortment choices transparent for the consumer,... View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

07 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 7, 2007

studying markets with tendencies toward "early" hiring. Our data make clear that the movement of the clerkship market back to the third year of law school is highly valued by judges, but we also find that a strong majority of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

31 Jul 2023
News

Why Better Pay Didn’t Stop Amazon Employees from Trying to Unionize

November 1991 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Whelan Pharmaceuticals: Tax Factors and Global Site Selection

Whelan Pharmaceuticals, a U.S. company with $3 billion in sales, must decide where to manufacture its newest product. In considering possible sites, both foreign and U.S., the firm must identify and make trade-offs between tax, marketing, and manufacturing factors. View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Geographic Location; Cost vs Benefits; Production; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

March 2020 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Nadine Vogel: Transforming the Marketplace, Workplace, and Workforce for People with Disabilities

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Hannah Riley-Bowles and Michael Norris

In 2019, Nadine Vogel, founder and CEO of Springboard Consulting, a firm that worked with Fortune 500 companies on issues related to disability and their workforce, faced the decision of the best path forward to grow her small company. Should she build more and better... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Market Entry and Exit; Consulting Industry; United States; Florida; New York (state, US)

2010
Working Paper

Just Say No to Wall Street: Putting A Stop to the Earnings Game

By: Joseph Fuller and Michael C. Jensen

Putting an end to the "earnings game" requires that CEOs reclaim the initiative by avoiding earnings guidance and managing expectations in such a way that their stocks trade reasonably close to their intrinsic value. In place of earnings forecasts, management should... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Performance Expectations; Goals and Objectives; Risk and Uncertainty; Growth and Development Strategy; Decisions; Risk Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Earnings Management; Value; Projects

SSRN

August 1996 (Revised February 2000)
Exercise

Decision-Making Exercise (C)

By: David A. Garvin and Michael Roberto

Provides questionnaires so students can compare their experiences with different decison-making processes. Students read "Growing Pains," a Harvard Business Review (HBR) case study, and then work in teams to come up with recommendations using a consensus approach to... View Details

Keywords: Conflict Management; Decision Making; Management Skills

March 1992 (Revised November 1992)
Case

Lockheed Aeromod Center, Inc.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed Corp. has an $11 million expansion underway in South Carolina. The company must decide how best to take advantage of the opportunity to issue tax exempt debt. Specifically, the decision involves choices about the maturity and... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Decisions; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Strategy; Taxation; Opportunities; Expansion; Valuation; South Carolina

November 2019
Article

When and Why Defaults Influence Decisions: A Meta-analysis of Default Effects

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Shannon Duncan, Elke U. Weber and Eric J. Johnson

When people make decisions with a pre-selected choice option—a “default”—they are more likely to select that option. Because defaults are easy to implement, they constitute one of the most widely employed tools in the choice architecture toolbox. However, to decide... View Details

Keywords: Choice Architecture; Defaults; Default Effects; Decision Making; Behavior; Analysis