Publications

December 2012
Article

Bolstering and Restoring Feelings of Competence via the IKEA Effect

By: Daniel Mochon, Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely

We examine the underlying process behind the IKEA effect, which is defined as consumers' willingness to pay more for self-created products than for identical products made by others, and explore the factors that influence both consumers' willingness to engage in... View Details

Keywords: Value; Consumer Behavior; Attitudes

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August 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Kemps LLC: Introducing Time-Driven ABC

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Kemps is making a strategy shift: from being focused on fulfilling customer requests to becoming the best cost dairy producer in the industry. Its existing manufacturing cost system, however, fails to capture the costs associated with handling special flavors, small... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Customer Relationship Management; Cost Accounting; Managerial Roles; Cost Management; Earnings Management; Business Strategy; Time Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Decisions; Food and Beverage Industry

April 1998
Case

Compaq, 1998

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Matt Verlinden

In 1997, Compaq Computer Corp. had become a $25 billion powerhouse. It had accomplished its revenue growth projections, successfully made a number of strategic acquisitions, and increased its gross margins, principally by moving up market into servers, workstations,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Transformation; Customer Relationship Management; Profit; Revenue; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Distribution Channels; Alliances; Customization and Personalization; Computer Industry

September 2024
Case

Board Director Dilemmas: The Tradeoffs of Board Selection

By: David G. Fubini, Suraj Srinivasan and Patrick Sanguineti

After retiring from a long and successful career in financial auditing, Linda McGill looked forward to the prospect of joining a board. She felt the time was right to leverage the breadth of her experience while fulfilling one of her long-term goals. Though somewhat of... View Details

Keywords: Board Decisions; Corporate Boards; Board Networks; Cost vs Benefits; Governing and Advisory Boards; Retirement

October 18, 2021
Article

How to Reframe What Work Means to You

By: Hubert Joly

Our society often conceives of work as something we must endure so we can afford to do something else. The former CEO of Best Buy explains why this view has led to a crisis of engagement among leaders and employees alike, and offers a different model that he introduced... View Details

Keywords: Work; Meaning In Life; Employment; Attitudes; Perspective; Mission and Purpose

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15 Feb 2017
News

You Should Consider Buying a Small Business. But When?

Research Summary

Relational Motivation & Need Expectations

My current research in this area explores the ways in which the nature of relational interactions at work facilitate, or supress, important individual and organizational outcomes such as motivation, engagement and personal well-being. Much of my work in this... View Details

Keywords: Motivation; Relationships; Engagement; Manufacturing Industry

January 2019 (Revised January 2021)
Case

The Louvre

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Francois-Lucien Vulliermet and Daniela Beyersdorfer

Once a royal residence and today one of the most photographed Parisian landmarks, the Louvre, home of iconic masterpieces, was the world’s largest and most visited museum in 2017. Its President Director Jean-Luc Martinez had since 2013 spearheaded its development and... View Details

Keywords: Customer-centricity; Cultural Organizations; Museum; Brand; Customer Focus and Relationships; Mission and Purpose; Culture; Education; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Fine Arts Industry

October 2014
Case

CreditEase: Providing Credit and Financial Services for China's Underclass

By: Lena G. Goldberg, Paul Healy and Nancy Hua Dai

In 2013 Ning Tang, who in 2006 founded CreditEase as a broker of P2P loans to unbanked individuals and small businesses in China, confronts the challenges of rapid growth and expansion in a changing regulatory environment. CreditEase needs to develop technology to... View Details

Keywords: P2P Lending; HNW Products And Services; Business Growth; Business Start-ups; Government Regulation; Change Management; Credit; Microcredit; Banking; Innovation And Management; Developing Countries And Economies; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Law; Financing and Loans; Change; China

Research Summary

Mobile web advertising: maximum entropy banner allocation

The worldwide mobile advertising market, currently $3 billion in size, is expected to grow to $20 billion by 2011. Online and mobile advertising employs two main pricing models: pay-per-click (CPC) and pay-per-impression (CPM). To date, most of the... View Details

April 2021
Case

Glass-Shattering Leaders: Ana Paula Pessoa

By: Boris Groysberg and Colleen Ammerman

Ana Paula Pessoa built a career at the largest media conglomerate in Latin America, combining a passion for digital transformation with a commitment to doing work that had a positive impact on society. Having grown up during a dictatorial military regime in Brazil, the... View Details

Keywords: Glass Ceiling; Leadership; Gender; Power and Influence

20 Jan 2015
First Look

First Look: January 20

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/415032-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 115-001 Quiet Logistics (A) This two-part case focuses on how to identify and manage strategic uncertainties in an innovative, entrepreneurial start-up company. In the (A) case,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May–June 2025
Article

Sustainability as a Business-Model Transformation

By: Ivanka Visnjic, Felipe Monteiro and Michael L. Tushman

Many global companies have made public commitments to sustainability targets. Fulfilling these commitments will require firms to transform their business models and organizational architectures. A few pioneers are leading the way, demonstrating that companies can make... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Business Model

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October 2020
Case

LifeBank Nigeria

By: Brian Trelstad, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Wale Lawal

The aspiration of addressing maternal deaths in Nigeria, which were mostly caused by blood shortages, led Temie Giwa-Tubosun to found LifeBank in 2015. LifeBank developed an online platform that enabled hospitals to connect and purchase blood from local blood banks and... View Details

Keywords: Systems Design; Social Business; Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Health Care; Blood; Social Enterprise; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Finance; Health Industry; Transportation Industry; Africa; Nigeria

2023
Working Paper

Point Four and the Politics of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States during the Early Cold War

By: Melanie Sheehan

This article traces business influence in the formulation of the Point Four technical assistance program, the first US Cold War-era international development program. It focuses specifically on business interest associations’ efforts to secure federal incentives to... View Details

Keywords: Point Four Program; Business Interest Association; International Development; Cold War; Foreign Direct Investment; Business History; Business and Government Relations

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This article explores the significant transition of retirement and offers insights into creating a satisfying postcareer life. It highlights the contrasting experiences of Irene and Lawrence, two retirees who navigated this change differently. Irene embraced... View Details

June 2022
Teaching Plan

Lifebank Nigeria

By: Brian Trelstad, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Wale Lawal

The aspiration of addressing maternal deaths in Nigeria, which were mostly caused by blood shortages, led Temie Giwa-Tubosun to found LifeBank in 2015. LifeBank developed an online platform that enabled hospitals to connect and purchase blood from local blood banks and... View Details

Keywords: Systems Design; Social Business; Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Health Care; Blood; Social Enterprise; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Finance; Health Industry; Transportation Industry; Africa; Nigeria

20 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 20, 2007

Working PapersIncorporating Price and Inventory Endogeneity in Firm-Level Sales Forecasting Authors:Saravanan Kesavan, Vishal Gaur, and Ananth Raman Abstract As numerous papers have argued, sales, inventory, and gross margin for a retailer are interrelated. We... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2003 (Revised March 2003)
Case

The Nature Conservancy

By: Allen S. Grossman and Jane Wei-Skillern

Almost immediately upon being appointed CEO of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Steve McCormick undertakes a radical reorganization of this global institution. TNC is the largest and, by most measures, the most successful environment organization in the world, with... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Natural Environment; Nonprofit Organizations; United States