Cost Efficiency - Publications - Faculty & Research

10 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

Learning Curve: Making the Most of Outsourcing

Companies that outsource merely to shuffle off commodity work to save costs might be missing important opportunities to work with vendors and significantly improve the final product. "When it comes to the outsourcing of many complex... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry; Health

23 Aug 2010
Research & Ideas

The Drive to Acquire’s Impact on Globalization

classic trading system of exchange is identified with David Ricardo, the early nineteenth-century economist who first analytically clarified it. Imagine that tribe A is good at both hunting and fishing, but more efficient at hunting.... View Details

Keywords: by Paul R. Lawrence

10 Jun 2015
Research & Ideas

The Transparency Revolution in Corporate Reporting

companies encouraging and funding ESG innovation. Dow Chemical has enormous energy consumption in their operations, but they've managed to save more than $10 billion through efficiency programs and are moving the world toward the adoption... View Details

Keywords: Re: George Serafeim

07 Dec 2016
HBS Case

Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing

a cab (Uber). It seems as if millennials would prefer to avoid face-to-face business interactions when there exists a more efficient way of getting what they want accomplished. “Having gone through the Great Recession, they tend to be... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

08 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Will the Japan Disaster Remake the Landscape for Green Energy in Asia?

Even before the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in Japan, many parts of Asia had already begun investing in "green" energy. But the disaster has certainly upped the urgency of the discussions. “It's driven a lot of people to have a bit of a... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Energy; Utilities

31 May 2016
HBS Case

Who Owns Space?

rapidly-evolving space sector, he argues, society will have the opportunity to determine the proper roles for government and the private sector nearly from scratch. “The idea of leveraging the private sector and its efficiencies to help... View Details

Keywords: Re: Matthew C. Weinzierl; Aerospace

08 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Twenty-first Century Skill: Trading Carbon Credits

Cap and trade has become an increasingly popular mechanism used by governments to induce green behavior among corporate polluters, with news emerging almost daily. Just recently New Jersey Governor Chris Christie withdrew his state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

26 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

HBS Faculty Comment on Environmental Issues for Earth Day

Earth Day focuses the world's attention on the both the dangers and opportunities facing the planet. But sustainability and the intersection between business and the environment are issues that need to be addressed all the time, as cities grow, resources diminish, and... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Energy; Utilities

13 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Diagnosing the Public Health Care Alternative

from real reform of the health care delivery system. The "cost savings" a public plan might achieve through volume discounts due to its scale are one-time savings and not true ongoing outcome or efficiency improvements. Instead, View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

January 2009
Teaching Note

Consumer Payment Systems — United States and Japan

By: Benjamin Edelman and Andrei Hagiu

Teaching Note for [909006] and [909007]. View Details

Keywords: Cash; Cost; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Efficiency; Technology; Alliances; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States; Japan

Citation

Purchase

06 Aug 2013
First Look

First Look: August 6

Costs of Racial 'Color Blindness' By: Norton, Michael I., and Evan P. Apfelbaum Abstract—The article looks at research on people's attitudes and behaviors with respect to noticing and referring to a person's race. It explains the 2013... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales

productivity improvements. Over the past 15 years, production efficiencies have enabled an average S&P 500 company to reduce its cost of goods sold by about 250 basis points, Cespedes says, but selling... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Should You Sell Your Digital Privacy?

self-adjust to technological innovation. But the idea of offering the opportunity to buy privacy is hard to swallow—if privacy is something to which we are entitled, should our share of it depend on ability to pay? Inevitably it does. Whenever we claim privacy, we... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls & Sean Silverthorne; Advertising

01 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

When Do Alliances Make Sense?

expertise, and spreading out risk. On the other hand, forming alliances also requires coordinating tasks and merging cultures, which can often be difficult and costly to achieve. Business theorists have long pursued this question in an effort to determine the best and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy; Utilities

28 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 28, 2010

pricing theories. First, in an era when efficient portfolio diversification was not possible, the intrinsic risk of an equity security was an important input into investor decision making. Second, our evidence suggests that businesspeople... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 26

Working PapersCompeting Ad Auctions: Multi-homing and Participation Costs Authors:Itai Ashlagi, Benjamin Edelman, and Hoan Soo Lee Abstract We model competing auctions for online advertising, with attention to the participation View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

A Bold Proposal for Investment Reform

critical look at companies' financial statements. Stock exchanges could fund the cost of audits through a modest transactions charge. Q: In your article you argue that the availability of high quality information is crucial to an View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

27 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

New Cluster Mapping Project Helps Companies Locate Facilities

Too often corporations decide to locate facilities based solely on cost savings. And that's shortsighted, argues Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter. Instead, business leaders should look for locations that gather... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

05 Dec 2007
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Marketing

direct sales? Should I break out individual costs on a price tag? How Can Marketing Better Align With Corporate Strategy? Fixing the Marketing—CEO Disconnect In many companies, the marketing function has wandered far from the firms'... View Details

23 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 23

strategy. Fairness, Efficiency and Flexibility in Organ Allocation for Kidney Transplantation Authors:Dimitris Bertsimas, Vivek F. Farias, and Nikolaos Trichakis Publication:Operations Research (forthcoming) Abstract We propose a... View Details