Publications

Read Now

May 1981 (Revised January 1987)
Case

Sensormatic Electronics Corp.

By: David A. Garvin

Describes the decision faced by a rapidly growing firm in the merchandise security systems business on whether it should integrate backward into the injection molding of plastic parts. Financial analysis, comparative economics, and manufacturing strategy in an industry... View Details

Keywords: Change; Decisions; Economics; Financial Strategy; Production; Integration; Technology; Electronics Industry

Program

Finance for Senior Executives

compensation incentives, and play a bigger role in helping your company optimize its financial resources and strengthen its bottom line. Details Apply strategic financial insight Make informed View Details

August 2020
Case

24M Technologies

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In early 2020, 24M Technologies (24M) announced that two of its strategic investors had commenced building plants to produce lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries based on 24M’s novel semi-solid electrode technology. This promised to halve the cost of conventional Li-ion... View Details

Keywords: Lithium-ion Batteries; Technological Innovation; Commercialization; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy

20 Aug 2009
Working Paper Summaries

A Decision-Making Perspective to Negotiation: A Review of the Past and a Look into the Future

Keywords: by Chia-Jung Tsay & Max H. Bazerman

01 Sep 2017
News

Putting lifelong learning on the CEO agenda

March 2000 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Ethan Berman at RiskMetrics Group (A)

Ethan Berman, CEO of J.P. Morgan's risk management spinoff, has grown RiskMetrics Group (RMG) from a small team of 30 to a 70-person firm contemplating an IPO. Along the way, the consensus-based decision-making process that he espoused started to prove unwieldy; his... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Making; Service Industry; Consulting Industry

2010
Chapter

What Is Leadership: The CEO's Role in Large, Complex Organizations

By: Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria

What is the role of the CEO in a large, complex enterprise? What makes a CEO effective? At first blush, these questions seem easy to answer. A CEO is the epitome of leadership. He or she exercises ultimate power and is responsible for making the most critical choices... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Power and Influence

June 2020
Supplement

Shellye Archambeau: Becoming a CEO (B)

By: Tsedal Neeley and Briana Richardson

With the economy in a freefall, MetricStream is losing customers, hemorrhaging cash and struggling to make payroll. Several board members are threatening to quit. Others are pressing to sell the company even at dismally low valuations. It’s 2008 and lightning has... View Details

Keywords: Race; Gender; Leadership Style; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry; California

May 1980
Case

Kendall-Vetmat

Discusses the role of market research in a product manager's decision process. Traces the development of market research information for the introduction of a new product, and presents a manager's dilemma of receiving market data that are inconsistent with expectations... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Product Launch; Product Development

January 2000 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Cachet Technologies

By: Paul A. Gompers and Howard Reitz

Describes the decision facing Danny Lewin, Jonathan Seelig, and Tom Leighton, the founders of Cachet Technologies, an MIT spin-out. The firm has done poorly in the annual MIT business plan competition and the founders have to decide whether to continue. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Business Startups; Business Plan; Failure; Cooperative Ownership; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry

February 1986
Supplement

Kedaung Industrial Ltd., Video

By: Louis T. Wells Jr.

Presents an interview with the Indonesian partner of Corning Glass Works' investment in Indonesia. The first part of the interview sets out the original decisions made by the partners. It serves to introduce the partners to the class and to help them decide whether to... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Decisions; Investment; Consumer Products Industry; Indonesia

September 2018
Article

What Does It Take to Change an Editor's Mind? Identifying Minimally Important Difference Thresholds for Peer Reviewer Rating Scores of Scientific Articles

By: Michael Callaham and Leslie John

Study objective—We define a minimally important difference for the Likert-type scores frequently used in scientific peer review (similar to existing minimally important differences for scores in clinical medicine). To our knowledge, the magnitude of score change... View Details

Keywords: Information Publishing; Journals and Magazines; Science; Decision Making

Read Now

03 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 4, 2008

Information, and Financial Education Programs Author:Annamaria Lusardi Abstract Individuals are increasingly in charge of their own financial security after retirement. But how well-equipped are individuals to make saving decisions; do... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2025
Case

What's Heiring Next? The Saga of the Murdoch Media Empire

By: Lauren Cohen, Mayra Gazel and Sophia Pan

As Lachlan Murdoch left the courthouse, he puzzled on the next phase of his battle for control over his father Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. With Rupert aging and his siblings determined to retain their voting rights, Lachlan was convinced that the future of News... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Lawsuits and Litigation; Rights; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Family and Family Relationships; Power and Influence; Media and Broadcasting Industry

November 2000
Case

Clust.com: Dream More and Pay Less

Clust is a French group-buying Web site. Instead of marketing products to consumers, Clust is marketing aggregated consumer demands to manufacturers. Consequently, beyond the usual act of choosing among predefined alternatives, consumers are expected to bring up their... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Marketing

February 1999 (Revised June 1999)
Case

Transformation of Pratt & Whitney North Haven (Abridged)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Jeffrey L. Bradach, Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

Business unit manager Tom Hutton has empowered a group of hourly workers to purchase grit blast equipment for two cells. The capital purchase decision runs into some problems when the two cells fail to reach an agreement on which equipment to purchase. A rewritten... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Decision Making; Labor; Managerial Roles; Failure; Problems and Challenges; Power and Influence; Hardware

August 2019 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Lemonade: Disrupting Insurance with Instant Everything, Killer Prices, and a Big Heart

By: Elie Ofek and Danielle Golan

Launching its first products in the fall of 2016 in New York, insurtech startup Lemonade was on a mission to disrupt the insurance market by using AI and behavioral economics principles. The company offered renters, homeowners, and condo insurance and mainly targeted... View Details

Keywords: AI; Business Startups; Insurance; Technological Innovation; Business Model; Disruption; Brands and Branding; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Decision Making; Insurance Industry; Technology Industry