Publications

March 2001 (Revised December 2007)
Case

Katharine Graham

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Lisa M. Gunther and Dina R. Pradel

Details the career of Katharine Graham of the Washington Post Co., a pioneer in her field and one of the first high-profile women to lead a major public company. Her story is a unique example of how power and expertise are built over time, and differs from those of... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Values and Beliefs; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Journalism and News Industry

October 2000 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Individual and the Corporation, The: Kathy Levinson and E*TRADE (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Susan Harmeling

Kathy Levinson, the president and COO of ETRADE and a lesbian mother of two children, must decide whether and how to participate in the "No on Knight" campaign. The campaign opposes California ballot proposition 22, which requires California to recognize only marriages... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Values and Beliefs; Decision Choices and Conditions; Gender; Diversity; Financial Services Industry

February 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

eBricks.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

eBricks.com is developing an online marketplace for construction materials. The start-up company faces two decisions: 1) whether to merge with BluelineOnline.com, a firm providing project management solutions for the construction industry; and 2) whether to develop an... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Marketplace Matching; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Startups; Construction Industry

22 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles, Papers of the Decade

longer-term perspective. Authority versus Persuasion Published: August 5, 2009 In directing employees, managers often face a choice between invoking authority and persuasion. In particular, since a firm's formal and relational contracts... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

25 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

An Organization Your Customers Understand

the role of organization in regard to a business unit's success, or in the choice of which structure to use, is intertwined with a large number of other important factors. These include the strategy of the business, the quality of its... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

14 Jun 2016
First Look

June 14, 2016

Pontet-Canet's style, and whether the institutions of Bordeaux were helping Pontet-Canet or holding it back. Consequently, Tesseron wondered how to best align his choices along these dimensions and secure Pontet-Canet's prosperity in the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: December 20

information, we hypothesized that complex decisions can best be made by engaging in periods of both conscious and unconscious thought. In both studies we found that the sequential integration of conscious and unconscious thought solved complex View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

24 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Do We Tax?

will we be able to truly understand the policy we have and how we might improve it. Q: What are you working on now? A: To add evidence to my argument about people using a variety of criteria to judge tax policy, I am running surveys in which people are given View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Legal Services

December 2010
Teaching Note

Cresud S.A., Farmer or Real Estate Developer? (TN)

By: Arthur I Segel and Andrew Pierson Terris

Teaching Note for 211-011. View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Decision Choices and Conditions; Risk Management; Competition; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Strategy; Opportunities; Decisions; Performance Effectiveness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Argentina; Bolivia; Brazil; Paraguay

May 2008
Article

When Winning Is Everything

By: Deepak Malhotra, Gillian Ku and J. Keith Murnighan

In the heat of competition, executives can easily become obsessed with beating their rivals. This adrenaline-fueled emotional state, which the authors call competitive arousal, often leads to bad decisions. Managers can minimize the potential for competitive arousal... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Behavior; Emotions; Personal Characteristics; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage

August 2001 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Doral Costa

By: William J. Poorvu, John H. Vogel Jr., Arthur I. Segel and Amy Silverstein

Doral Costa is a proposed 277,803 square foot Class A office park development in Miami, FL. Trammell Crow Co. would like to develop this office park in joint venture with a partner. Samantha Spar, the acquisitions partner at Titan Associates, a large real estate... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Joint Ventures; Acquisition; Investment; Partners and Partnerships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Fair Value Accounting; Construction; Property; Real Estate Industry; Consulting Industry; Miami

Article

De Gustibus non est Taxandum: Heterogeneity in Preferences and Optimal Redistribution

By: Benjamin B Lockwood and Matthew Weinzierl

The prominent but unproven intuition that preference heterogeneity reduces redistribution in a standard optimal tax model is shown to hold under the plausible condition that the distribution of preferences for consumption relative to leisure rises, in terms of... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Income; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Taxation; Microeconomics; Macroeconomics

September 2009 (Revised September 2010)
Case

Avid Radiopharmaceuticals and Lighthouse Capital Partners

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Ann Leamon

In fall 2008, a venture lender must decide whether to make a loan to Avid, a small but promising venture-backed life sciences firm. In reviewing her proposal, Cristy Barnes considers the company's characteristics and how they differ from a typical investment. At the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Investment; Financial Services Industry; Health Industry

March 2008 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Linden Lab: Opening Second Life

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

In early 2008, managers in Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life, faced decisions about the company's strategy. Despite profound initial skepticism about demand for a user-generated virtual world that was not a traditional game, Second Life had achieved... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Open Source Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Software

June 2007 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Intel 2006: Rising to the Graphics Challenge

By: Willy C. Shih and Elie Ofek

Examines the evolution of the PC hardware industry over the span of two and a half decades. The open architecture design of the IBM Personal Computer followed by the rapid appearance of clones drove a high level of standardization and modularity in the industry, and... View Details

Keywords: History; Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Information Infrastructure; Competitive Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Technology Industry

May 2007
Case

Westin Hotels and Resorts: Operations of a Lifestyle Experience

By: Frances X. Frei, Chekitan S. Dev and Laure Mougeot Stroock

Westin Hotels and Resorts adopted a new "lifestyle" brand strategy which provided guests with a new service experience. The dilemma Westin faced was how to operationally build a brand that delivered consistent service on intangible values. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Service Operations; Value Creation; Tourism Industry

October 1992 (Revised October 1993)
Case

MCI Communications Corporation: National Accounts Program (Condensed)

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Concerns the early stages of a major-account program at MCI, a telecommunications firm seeking to penetrate the corporate-account market. Among the issues are: 1) coordination of field sales efforts with national account selling efforts; 2) sales strategy for major... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Decision Choices and Conditions; Training; Compensation and Benefits; Management Practices and Processes; Marketing Strategy; Groups and Teams; Sales