Publications

March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Background Note

Activity-Based Costing and Capacity

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Discusses the use of budgeted rather than historical data in an activity-based costing (ABC) model and argues for calculating rates using practical capacity, not actual utilization. An ABC model need not be limited to analysis of historical data. When cost driver rates... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Accounting Industry

June 2007
Article

Does Employment Protection Reduce Productivity? Evidence from U.S. States

By: David H Autor, William R. Kerr and Adriana D. Kugler

Theory predicts that mandated employment protections may reduce productivity by distorting production choices. Firms facing (non-Coasean) worker dismissal costs will curtail hiring below efficient levels and retain unproductive workers, both of which should affect... View Details

Keywords: Theory; Production; Selection and Staffing; Cost; Employment; Capital; Performance Productivity; United States

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April 1999 (Revised March 2002)
Background Note

Aluminum Industry in 1994, The

After reaching all-time highs in excess of $2,500 per ton in 1988 and 1989, aluminum prices fall dramatically in the early 1990s as the former Soviet Union begins exporting far larger quantities of metal. By the beginning of 1994, the price has hit all-time lows (in... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Price; Supply and Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Soviet Union

April 1999 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Aluminum Smelting in South Africa: Alusaf's Hillside Project

With prices at all-time lows at the beginning of 1994, South Africa's sole primary aluminum producer--Alusaf--is considering building the world's largest greenfield smelter. Using cost estimates in this case, students can evaluate the relative cost position of this... View Details

Keywords: Metals and Minerals; Analysis; Markets; Profit; Capital; Industrial Products Industry; South Africa

February 2021
Article

Topic Classification of Electric Vehicle Consumer Experiences with Transformer-Based Deep Learning

By: Sooji Ha, Daniel J Marchetto, Sameer Dharur and Omar Isaac Asensio

The transportation sector is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is a driver of adverse health effects globally. Increasingly, government policies have promoted the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) as a solution to mitigate GHG emissions.... View Details

Keywords: Natural Language Processing; Analytics and Data Science; Environmental Sustainability; Infrastructure; Transportation; Policy

Editorial

Why ESG Funds Fail to Scale

By: Gabriel Karageorgiou and George Serafeim

You’ve seen the headlines about the growth in environmental, social, and governance funds. Many investment professionals might read these and believe that launching a new ESG investment firm or ESG offering will be an automatic success. Our analysis of the data shows... View Details

2025
Working Paper

Trade Within Multinational Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Fariha Kamal and Zachary Kroff

We leverage newly linked data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to study transactions within U.S. multinational enterprises (MNEs). We show that using administrative data on intrafirm trade allows us to correct for measurement error... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Enterprise; Input-output Linkages; Multinational Firms and Management; Trade; Supply Chain

01 May 2025
HBS Seminar

Dan Iancu, Stanford Graduate School of Business

June 2008 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Cook Composites and Polymers Co.

By: Deishin Lee, Michael W. Toffel and Rachel Gordon

This case describes how a company improves resource efficiency and process quality in its manufacturing process by developing a waste by-product into a new product. The case describes how CCP cleans production equipment between batches using styrene, which becomes a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Business Processes; Performance Efficiency; Natural Environment; Wastes and Waste Processing; Pollutants; Environmental Sustainability; Chemical Industry; Manufacturing Industry

October 2014 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Caesars Entertainment

By: Janice H. Hammond and Aldo Sesia

This case describes the introduction of a regression analysis model for forecasting guest arrivals to Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company will use the forecast to staff the front desk in the hotel. The staff is unionized and the company has little... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting; Staffing; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Hotel Industry; Decision Making; Forecasting and Prediction; Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Accommodations Industry; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Las Vegas

18 Apr 2013
News

Why Do Patients Take Their Doctor's Advice?

March 2011
Article

Meeting the Challenges of a Person-Centric Work Psychology

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

In this article, the authors discuss person-centric work psychology, a paradigm developed by H. M. Weiss and D. E. Rupp regarding daily work life psychology. They cited three challenges of the paradigm such as the collection, and analysis of data, the certainty of the... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Social Psychology; Emotions; Perception; Motivation and Incentives

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Research Summary

Statistical Methodology

William Simpson is developing methods of inference to use when assumptions of standard models are not met. He has created a hypothesis test to use for ipsative variables that adjusts for the non-zero correlations among variables expected under the null hypothesis. ... View Details

September 2012
Article

Bringing Science to the Art of Strategy

By: A. G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin, Jan W. Rivkin and Nicolaj Siggelkow

For all its emphasis on data and number crunching, conventional strategic planning is not actually scientific. It lacks the hypothesis generation and testing that's at the heart of the scientific method. To produce novel and successful strategies, teams need to adopt a... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Science

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28 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 28, 2010

Verlag, 2010 Abstract From small start-ups to global corporations, family-owned businesses were the main pillar of West Germany's economic growth after World War II. They continue to shape the corporate landscape to this day. This book offers a path-breaking historical... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Pilgrim Bank (A): Customer Profitability

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Provides a context in which students can explore managerial decision making that is critically informed by data analysis. The setting is a retail bank and the decision making relates to the bank's policy toward online banking. The management team is evaluating whether... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Customers; Profit; Banking Industry