Publications

2012
Case

Kingdee in 2011: Stranding or Dormancy?

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jin Zhang and Xiaohui Li

This case is the follow-up of Kingdee A(6-311-351). In 2011, Kingdee made strategic investments and business expansions, suffering net profit decline despite operating revenue growth and also changes to top managers. View Details

Keywords: Strategy

September 1987 (Revised December 1996)
Case

Patten Corp.

By: Krishna G. Palepu

Forbes Magazine criticized the revenue recognition policy of Patten Corp. As a result, the company's stock price dropped by a significant amount. The students are asked to discuss if the criticism by Forbes is justified, and if not, what the company should do. View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Financial Statements; Budgets and Budgeting; Problems and Challenges; Financial Condition; Spending; Revenue; Planning; Quality; Stocks; Journalism and News Industry

January 2023
Teaching Note

Duolingo: Teaching Languages to the Masses

By: Youngme Moon

Teaching Note for HBS Case 323-016. At the time the case is written, Duolingo is the most popular language learning service in the world. The company has more than 40 million monthly active users, and the company’s total annual revenue has reached $250 million a year.... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Customer Relationship Management; Acquisition; Retention; Innovation and Invention

2018
Article

The Role of Overbilling in Hospitals' Earnings Management Decisions

By: Jonas Heese

This paper examines the role of overbilling in hospitals’ earnings management choices. Overbilling by hospitals is a form of revenue manipulation that involves misclassifying a patient into a diagnosis-related group that yields higher reimbursement. As overbilling... View Details

Keywords: Overbilling; Accrual-based Earnings Management; Real Activities Manipulation; For-profit Hospitals; Earnings Management; Health Industry

SSRN

Find at Harvard

July 1995 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Baseball Strike, The

Describes structural conditions in the American baseball industry in 1995. Although this case covers conditions leading to the 1994-95 strike, it is designed primarily for analysis of the structural tensions that arise between suppliers, buyers, and rivals as industry... View Details

Keywords: Industry Structures; Sports; Labor and Management Relations; Sports Industry; United States

03 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 3

studying the impact of Craigslist, a website providing classified-advertising services, on local U.S. newspapers. We exploit temporal and geographical variation in Craigslist's entry to show that newspapers with greater reliance on classified-ad View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2005 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Microsoft in 2005

By: David B. Yoffie, Darmesh M Mehta and Rudina I Seseri

Focuses on Microsoft's strategy for sustaining competitive advantage in the global software industry. Also, explores Microsoft's history and its current position, as it tries to diversify its product and service revenue streams. View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Business History; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Applications and Software; Globalized Markets and Industries; Information Technology Industry

01 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

What to Do When Your Organization Has Dueling Missions

commercial revenue to fund its social mission. As such, hybrids combine typical aspects of both corporations and social organizations. “Hybrids have to simultaneously pursue commercial and social objectives” Managing a hybrid is no easy... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

November 2006 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Kendall Square Research Corporation

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Kendall Square Research was a small competitor in the supercomputer industry. Sales grew rapidly in 1992 and early 1993 and the company sold stock to the public for the first time. Analysts forecast higher earnings for 1993, then the company's revenue recognition... View Details

Keywords: Revenue Recognition; Standards; Accounting Audits; Computer Industry

July 2002 (Revised March 2005)
Case

Kendall Square Research Corporation (A) (Abridged)

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and F. Warren McFarlan

Kendall Square Research was a small competitor in the supercomputer industry. Sales grew rapidly in 1992 and early 1993, and the company sold stock to the public for the first time. Analysts forecasted higher earnings for 1993, then the company's revenue recognition... View Details

Keywords: Revenue Recognition; Standards; Accounting Audits; Computer Industry

Find at Harvard

16 Nov 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Private Equity and COVID-19

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan, and Vladimir Mukharlyamov; Financial Services

Willy C. Shih

Willy Shih is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration. He is part of the Technology and Operations Management Unit, and he teaches in the MBA and Executive Education Programs. His expertise is in manufacturing, product... View Details

Keywords: aerospace; automotive; biotechnology; communications; computer; digital imaging; electrical equipment; electronics; entertainment; high technology; industrial goods; information technology industry; manufacturing; retailing; semiconductor

16 Nov 2016
HBS Seminar

Ben Shiller, Brandeis University

July 2022
Case

boAt Lifestyle

By: Rajiv Lal and Kairavi Dey

boAt began as a lifestyle brand in the consumer electronics category in 2016 with the aim of bringing affordable, durable, and fashionable audio products and accessories to millennials and Gen-Z customers in India. Born in 2016 with Amazon India as its only sales... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Initial Public Offering; Digital Marketing; Product Development; Product Marketing; Business or Company Management; Electronics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; India

April 2007 (Revised March 2018)
Case

M-TRONICS (A)

By: Joseph L. Bower and Lynda M. Applegate

The new CEO of a small manufacturing firm pursues growth through the launch of Entrepreneurial Subsidiaries. While the firm grows revenues from $600 million to over $2 billion in 10 years, problems surface as the subsidiaries are integrated into the established... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Model; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Integration

15 Apr 2019
News

How Companies Should Prepare Their Forecasts

21 Jun 2011
News

PPG kicks off new rebranding campaign worth $2 million the first year

April 18, 2023
Article

The Rebirth of Software as a Service

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Jacco van der Kooij

Traditional sales models focus on customer acquisition and the “funnel” or “pipeline” metrics that dominate talk about sales. But this approach falls short when applied to a recurring revenue business, where the customer life cycle looks more like a bowtie, not a... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Sales; Technology Industry