Publications

24 May 2010
News

Raise Your Prices!

September 2019
Article

Optimizing Reserves in School Choice: A Dynamic Programming Approach

By: Franklyn Wang, Ravi Jagadeesan and Scott Duke Kominers

We introduce a new model of school choice with reserves in which a social planner is constrained by a limited supply of reserve seats and tries to find an optimal matching according to a social welfare function. We construct the optimal distribution of reserves via a... View Details

Keywords: Matching; Reserves; Dynamic Programming; Marketplace Matching; Mathematical Methods

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October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Fortinet: Cybersecurity Pioneer Ken Xie Considers the Long Game

By: Tsedal Neeley, Jeff Huizinga and Emily Grandjean

Ken Xie, cofounder of cybersecurity giant Fortinet, faced a critical decision that would validate his leadership. Fortinet became the industry’s second-largest pureplay cybersecurity firm by developing differentiated hardware and investing in R&D. However, after a... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Marketing Strategy; Communication Strategy; Cybersecurity; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology Industry; United States; Sunnyvale

December 2002
Other Article

The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy

By: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer

When it comes to philanthropy, executives increasingly see themselves as caught between critics demanding ever higher levels of "corporate social responsibility" and investors applying pressure to maximize short-term profits. Increasingly, philanthropy is used as a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy

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2001
Case

Stora Enso North America (SENA)

By: Vijay Govindarajan, Jesse Johnson and Chris Trimble

Robert Leach, VP of information technology for SENA had a vision of building an IT infrastructure that connected all of the participants in the paper supply chain and launching new service businesses enabled by the new infrastructure. Through a detailed description of... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Service Delivery; Supply Chain; Business Strategy

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14 Mar 2016
News

Even A Company Known For Overworking People Is Embracing Sleep

19 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

How Mercadona Fixes Retail’s ’Last 10 Yards’ Problem

the workers—something that can be taken away if things get rough. It's part of what's making the company profitable. Too often, retail managers keep their employees dangling and switch their schedules around on short notice because they... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Food & Beverage

04 May 2012
News

How McDonald’s Came Back Bigger Than Ever

18 Nov 2021
News

Fewer Boots, More Slippers: How a Shortage of Shipping Containers is Changing What Shows Up on Shelves

December 1986 (Revised January 1998)
Case

Chaparral Steel (Abridged)

By: Kim B. Clark

Examines a major capacity expansion proposal of Chaparral Steel, a steel minimill. Gives students the opportunity to evaluate the proposed expansion in the context of the competitive environment, market demand, technological choice, and the demands of a global... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Performance Capacity; Steel Industry

07 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

When Supply-Chain Disruptions Matter

Keywords: by William Schmidt & Ananth Raman

August 2009
Case

The TSMC Way: Meeting Customer Needs at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

By: Willy C. Shih, Chen-Fu Chien, Chintay Shih and Jack Chang

When L.C. Tu receives an emergency order, he is confronted with a range of production scheduling choices, each of which has unique costs and trade-offs. The case was designed to help students understand job-shop style production and the impact of disruptions and... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Production; Semiconductor Industry; Taiwan

January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Delta Air Lines: Navigating the COVID-19 Storm

By: Ted Berk and Ryan Flamerich

This case examines Delta Air Lines’ response as demand for its services plummeted in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on the company’s funding needs and capital structure. Following a series of initial actions, the company’s cash “burn” had reduced from... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Financial Condition; Capital Structure; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Air Transportation Industry

January 2018
Case

Pravost Consulting Services

By: Andrew Wasynczuk and Tiffany Y. Chang

Pravost Consulting Services considers a division manager's response to the stringent demands of his boss who lambasts him for the division's weak performance. Six months earlier Jakub Kowalski, CEO of Pravost, promoted Viktor Novak to head up the faltering Pravost... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Consulting Services; Employee Retention; Eastern Europe; Performance; Attrition; Culture; Krakow; Retention; Performance Improvement; Organizational Culture; Consulting Industry; Information Technology Industry; Poland; Europe

March–April 2020
Article

What's Really Holding Women Back? It's Not What Most People Think

By: R. Ely and Irene Padavic

Ask people to explain why women remain so dramatically underrepresented in the senior ranks of most companies, and you will hear from the vast majority a lament that goes something like this: High-level jobs require extremely long hours, women's devotion to family... View Details

Keywords: Overwork; Employment; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Culture

2025
Book

Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier

By: Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau

Your guide--using the compelling stories of changemakers and the tools of economics--to the transformation and future possibilities of the business and economics of space.

Space is a place of unparalleled possibility for humanity, and it's undergoing a... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Economics; Innovation and Invention; Market Entry and Exit; Aerospace Industry

February 2008 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Avaya (A)

Avaya's top management wants to improve demand generation. This requires an improvement in the relationship between Sales and Marketing. This case series (Avaya (A)-(D)) walks the student through each phase of this process. The (A) case begins with background on the... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Performance Improvement; Relationships; Sales; Cooperation