Publications

30 Aug 2023
News

Welcome MBA Class of 2025

April 1983 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Shouldice Hospital Limited

By: James L. Heskett

Various proposals are set forth for expanding the capacity of the hospital. In assessing them, serious consideration has to be given to the culture of the organization and the importance of preserving it in a service delivery system. In addition to issues of capacity... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Capacity; Organizational Culture; Service Delivery; Growth Management; Strategic Planning; Quality; Social Enterprise; Health Industry; Canada

25 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

What CEOs Do, and How They Can Do it Better

Why did you come in late on Tuesday? Did you really need an hour and a half for lunch on Wednesday? Why wasn't that report done by Thursday? For most of us, justifying our schedules is an expected part of the job. But what employee hasn't looked at the closed door of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

February 1992 (Revised September 2003)
Case

Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation (A-1)

By: Lynn S. Paine

The CEO of Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp. must decide what to do when he receives information that the company's supply of apple juice concentrate may be adulterated. The concentrate is used in many of the company's juice products. It appears that others in the company may... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Law; Ethics; Nutrition; Management Teams; Decisions; Business or Company Management; Communication; Governance Compliance; Information Management; Corporate Finance; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

October 1996 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Chiquita Brands International (A)

By: Debora L. Spar and Terence Mulligan

When a new banana import policy is implemented in 1993 by the European Union, Chiquita Brands International, the world's largest banana distributor, watches its sales and net income plummet. The policy, Council Regulation (EEC 404/93), uses a new tariff and quota... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Trade; Government and Politics; Policy; Market Design; Fairness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Latin America; European Union

09 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Location, Location, Location: The Strategy of Place

When companies thrive in their home base, temptation can be great to expand to new locations, either across town or around the world. The problem: Many companies think of location strategy as a short-term checkers match rather than as a long-term chess game. “Many... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

07 May 2012
Research & Ideas

The Art of Haggling

Let's say a successful businessman is in the process of buying a lakeside cottage from the original owner. The prospective buyer makes a lowball offer. The owner counters with a high demand. Both parties chest their cards, each hoping the other will misplay his hand.... View Details

Keywords: by Katie Johnston

13 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

Want to Be Happier? Spend Some Money on Avoiding Household Chores

Source: iStock If you’re stressed out because it feels like there are never enough hours in the day, here’s a solution: hire a housecleaner, order takeout, and pay the kid next door to mow the lawn. In other words, buy yourself more free time. New research finds that... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

February 2001 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Estee Lauder and the Market for Prestige Cosmetics

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Opens with a brief history of the U.S. cosmetics market and its rapid development in the 1920s. Also recounts Lauder's initial involvement in the sector, making skin care products and selling them in Manhattan beauty parlors during the Great Depression. Pays particular... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Market Entry and Exit; Entrepreneurship; Luxury; Business Strategy; Society; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

Working Paper

How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?

By: Paul A. Gompers, William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan and Ilya A. Strebulaev

We survey 885 institutional venture capitalists (VCs) at 681 firms to learn how they make decisions across eight areas: deal sourcing, investment selection, valuation, deal structure, post-investment value-added, exits, internal firm organization, and relationships... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Decision Choices and Conditions

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11 Nov 2015
Book

Alex Ferguson's Lessons on Leading

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Sports

08 Jun 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Loan Types and the Bank Lending Channel

Keywords: by Victoria Ivashina, Luc Laeven, and Enrique Moral-Benito; Financial Services

05 Sep 2023
Blog Post

Video: Welcome MBA Class of 2025

View Video TRANSCRIPT Dean Srikant Datar: “Business has been an enormous force of good in the world. You look at the number of billions of people lifted out of poverty, the standard of living that it has created, jobs it has developed. Yet the world has so many... View Details

July 2008
Case

eHarmony

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Hanna Halaburda and Troy Smith

eHarmony's CEO needs to decide how to react to imitations of its business model, encroachment by competing models, and ascendance of free substitutes. The case provides four options to address these threats and asks students to choose one after they analyzed the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Service Industry

April 2015
Case

Domeyard: Starting a High-Frequency Trading (HFT) Hedge Fund

By: Lauren Cohen, Christopher Malloy and Matthew Foreman

The principals at Domeyard, a start-up high frequency trading (HFT) hedge fund based in Cambridge, faced a myriad of important decisions: which markets to trade on, how to raise capital, and from whom to raise capital. Many of these decisions were standard for... View Details

December 1997 (Revised October 1999)
Case

Citibank: Performance Evaluation

By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila

Citibank has introduced a new, comprehensive performance-scorecard system. A regional president struggles with a tough decision: how to evaluate an outstanding branch manager who has scored poorly on an important customer satisfaction measure. This case provides a... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Balanced Scorecard; Business Strategy; Customer Satisfaction; Performance Expectations; Decisions; Motivation and Incentives; Quality; Banking Industry

January 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Case

BlackRock: Linking Purpose to Profit

By: Aiyesha Dey

The case revolves around the actions that Barbara Novick, co-founder and Vice-Chair of Blackrock, and Michelle Edkins, Global Head of Investment Stewardship, would need to take in response to the controversial CEO letters from Laurence (Larry) Fink, Chairman and CEO of... View Details

October 1995 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Li & Fung (Trading) Ltd.

Li & Fung, one of the largest export trading companies in Asia, works primarily as an agent to connect U.S. and European manufacturers and retailers of nondurable, mass-market consumer goods with suppliers located all over East Asia who manufacture products according... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Marketplace Matching; Supply Chain Management; Trade; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Asia; United States; Europe