Publications

Read Now

October 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

CompUSA The Computer Superstore

By: Ananth Raman and Anna Sheen McClelland

Examines the CompUSA organization, focusing especially on the operations and the company culture. Highlights the economics of PC retailing and the importance of a responsive supply chain for their product category. The description of company culture emphasizes the role... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Organizational Culture; Motivation and Incentives; Supply Chain Management; Computer Industry; Retail Industry; United States

Educators

14 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 14, 2009

is available at this time. Publisher's link: http://www.springer.com/business/production/book/978-0-387-78902-6 The Harvard Economic Service and the Problems of Forecasting Author: Walter Friedman Publication: History of Political Economy... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2003
Conference Paper

Follow the Money: What Really Drives Technology Innovation in Construction

By: John D. Macomber

Technology enthusiasts, academics, and software companies remain concerned about the slow pace of innovation in the construction industry. Tools are widely available that seem to provide eminently sensible and clearly apparent improvement to the process of design and... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Technological Innovation; Construction; Design; Performance Improvement; Motivation and Incentives; Knowledge Management; Adoption; Business Model; Capital Structure; Supply Chain

December 2011
Article

Do Powerful Politicians Cause Corporate Downsizing?

By: Lauren Cohen, Joshua Coval and Christopher J. Malloy

This paper employs a new empirical approach for identifying the impact of government spending on the private sector. Our key innovation is to use changes in congressional committee chairmanship as a source of exogenous variation in state-level federal expenditures. In... View Details

Keywords: Spending; Private Sector; Taxation; Innovation and Invention; Interest Rates; Business and Government Relations; Investment; Employment; Power and Influence

Read Now

January 2011
Case

Clean Edge Razor: Splitting Hairs in Product Positioning

By: John A. Quelch and Heather Beckham

After three years of development, Paramount Health and Beauty Company is preparing to launch a new technologically advanced vibrating razor called Clean Edge. The innovative new design of Clean Edge provides superior performance by stimulating the hair follicles to... View Details

Keywords: Project Management; Interdepartmental Relations; Organizational Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Conflict Management; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Relationships; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

Educators

2010
Chapter

The Paranoid Style in the Study of American Politics

By: David Moss and Mary Oey

What drives policy making in a democracy? The conventional view is that political actors, like economic actors, pursue their self interest, and that special interest groups dominate the policy making process by satisfying policy makers' need for money and other forms... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Government Legislation; Media; Interests; Power and Influence; Public Opinion; United States

2008
Other Unpublished Work

The Paranoid Style in the Study of American Politics

By: David Moss and Mary Oey

The conventional view is that political actors, like economic actors, pursue their self interest, and that special interest groups dominate the policy making process by satisfying policy makers' need for money and other forms of political support. Indeed, many... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Government Legislation; Media; Interests; Power and Influence; Public Opinion; United States

Web

Class Profile - Doctoral

Undergraduate Majors* Accounting Applied Mathematics Biology Business Computer Science Decision Sciences Economics Engineering Finance Government History Information Systems Law Mathematics Operations Philosophy Physics View Details

June 2010
Supplement

Blue Man Group: Creativity, Life, and Business (Video)

This video complements the case "Blue Man Group: Creativity, Life and Surviving an Economic Crisis." (810108) With extensive clips from live performances, Blue Man's three co-founders offer their perspective on creativity, life and business; and describe the birth and... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Entrepreneurship; Financial Crisis; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

May 2001
Article

The Open Source Movement: Key Research Questions

By: Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

The paper analyzes the incentives of individual programmers and of commercial companies to participate in open source projects. While these incentives are in our opinion well accounted for by the economic paradigm, much empirical and theoretical work is still needed to... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Open Source Distribution

Article

Putting Patients First: Social Marketing Strategies for Treating HIV in Developing Nations

By: Zoe Chance and Rohit Deshpandé

It is more than mere coincidence that the highest rates of HIV occur in the world's poorest countries. Of the over 40 million people currently living with HIV, 95 percent are in the developing world. The first part of this paper explores the economics of HIV and... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Developing Countries and Economies; Poverty; Health Care and Treatment; Social Marketing; Perspective; Customer Focus and Relationships; Profit; Africa; Asia; South America

Read Now

07 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 8, 2018

improvements in delivering specific healthcare services and justify further investigation of process improvements. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54827 in press Journal of Personality and Social View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

14 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

The Network Effect: Why Companies Should Care About Employees’ LinkedIn Connections

produce more patented innovations, and those innovations are typically more scientifically and economically valuable. “We found that companies that are more central are having a bigger impact—the innovation they produce is more successful... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

03 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 3

Authors:Laura Alfaro and Anusha Chari Publication:India Policy Forum (forthcoming). (Also HBS Working Paper 10-030.) Abstract Using firm-level data, this paper analyzes the transformation of India's economic structure following the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2023
Article

Can Security Design Foster Household Risk-Taking?

By: Laurent Calvet, Claire Célérier, Paolo Sodini and Boris Vallée

This paper shows that securities with a non-linear payoff design can foster household risk-taking. We demonstrate this effect empirically by exploiting the introduction of capital guarantee products in Sweden from 2002 to 2007. The fast and broad adoption of these... View Details

Keywords: Financial Innovation; Household Finance; Structured Products; Stock Market Participation; Finance; Innovation and Invention; Household; Personal Finance; Risk and Uncertainty; Behavior; Market Participation

16 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 16

forthcoming Abstract Capitalism, as defined in this book, is an indirect, three-level system of governance for economic relationships (i.e., economic, administrative, and political). Whereas economic markets... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

July 1991 (Revised December 2018)
Compilation

Slavery

By: Thomas K. McCraw

Explores the general history of slavery in the United States. Through detailed exhibits and a text consisting of excerpts from six first-hand observations of slavery, this note is designed to present the ethics, economics (especially the perverse incentive systems),... View Details

Keywords: Slavery; Human Capital; History; Ethics; Social Issues; Motivation and Incentives; United States