Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,430)
- Faculty Publications (313)
- 1997
- Working Paper
Designs and the Structure of Firms and Industries - Chapter 1
By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and Kim Clark
- June 1997 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
Walker and Company: Profit Plan Decisions
By: Robert L. Simons and Ramsey Walker
Ramsey Walker, a second-year MBA student, must decide how to control a family business as an absentee owner. After providing background details on the publishing industry, the case requires the reader to: 1) make a product segmentation decision; 2) prepare a profit... View Details
- June 1996 (Revised March 1998)
- Case
Skandia AFS: Developing Intellectual Capital Globally
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Takia Mahmood
Focuses on the measurement and management of organizational knowledge as a strategic asset, and on the deployment of information technology, organizational structure, and processes in leveraging that asset. View Details
- 1996
- Working Paper
From Structure to Structuring: A Pragmatic Perspective on Organizational Design
By: Nitin Nohria and James D. Berkley
- 1996
- Article
Limits on Interest Rate Rules in the IS Model
By: William R. Kerr and Robert G. King
There has been a substantial amount of research on interest rate rules. This literature finds that the feasibility and desirability of interest rate rules depends on the structure of the model used to approximate macroeconomic reality. We employ a series of... View Details
- July 1995 (Revised September 1995)
- Background Note
Technology for Teams
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Geoffrey Bock
The importance of groups in organizations has long been recognized but, until recently, groups were always "tacked onto" organizations that were designed around individuals. It was not just the logic of classical organizational theory that perpetuated this focus on the... View Details
- December 1994 (Revised March 1996)
- Case
Ciba Consumer Pharmaceuticals' Acutrim: Challenges and Opportunities in Today's Diet Industry
By: Nancy F. Koehn and Rebecca Voorheis
Since its introduction in 1983, Acutrim has been a major player in the U.S. appetite suppressant market and in the broader diet industry. This case focuses on the strategic, regulatory, marketing, and financial challenges this product and the rapidly changing diet... View Details
- August 1994 (Revised May 1995)
- Case
Engineering Inspection & Insurance Company
By: Robert H. Hayes
Engineering Inspection & Insurance Co. (EIIC) is a small but highly successful company that offers machinery and boiler inspection and insurance services. After years of above-average growth and profits, both are retreating toward the industry average, policy delivery... View Details
- July 1994
- Case
Microsoft: Multimedia Publications (A)
By: Marco Iansiti and Ellen Stein
Microsoft Corp. has built a highly successful business around computer software (both applications and system software) using a particular organizational structure. Now that the company has chosen to enter the consumer market with a CD-ROM product, how should Microsoft... View Details
- July 1994 (Revised March 1995)
- Case
Microsoft: Multimedia Publications (B)
By: Marco Iansiti and Ellen Stein
Microsoft is about to release an apparently successful CD-ROM baseball product. The company is trying to determine what product(s) should be developed next, how it should organize itself, and what role it should play in the development of such products. View Details
- July 1994 (Revised July 1995)
- Case
VeriFone: The Transaction Automation Company (A)
By: Richard L. Nolan, Donna B. Stoddard and Hossam Galal
Describes VeriFone's new organizational model and its role in catapulting VeriFone to a market leadership position. Examines the impact of information technology and information access on the ability to leverage global resources, market responsiveness, and... View Details
- March 1993
- Background Note
Stages Theory, The: A Framework for IT Adoption and Organizational Learning
By: Richard L. Nolan, David Croson and Katherine Seger
Describes Professor Richard Nolan's Stages Theory of Information Technology adoption by organizations. View Details
- April 1992 (Revised September 1993)
- Case
Poland--1989
By: Debora L. Spar
Describes the political and economic situation in Poland in 1989, following the country's first democratic elections and the subsequent establishment of a Solidarity-led government. After examining the legacies left by 40 years of Communist rule, the case lays out the... View Details
- February 1992 (Revised March 1993)
- Case
Intel Corp.--1992
By: Kenneth A. Froot
Intel Corp., the world's dominant designer and manufacturer of microprocessors (the "brains" of the personal computer), has accumulated a large amount of cash (net of debt). Furthermore, it expects to continue to accumulate cash at an unprecedented rate. Has the... View Details
- June 1991 (Revised April 1995)
- Background Note
Corporate Strategy: A Conceptual Framework
By: David J. Collis
Provides a conceptual framework for the study of corporate strategy. First describes previous perspectives on corporate strategy and then develops a framework of four elements: resources, tasks, structure, and industries. This framework can be used to explain the value... View Details
- June 1991 (Revised April 1997)
- Background Note
Managing the Multibusiness Corporation
By: David J. Collis
Lays out some ideas on how to restructure a multibusiness corporation. Identifies sixteen elements of organization design, and then applies contingency theory to argue that these elements need to be aligned with the tasks the corporation uses to create value across its... View Details
- February 1991 (Revised May 2016)
- Background Note
Note on Organizational Structure
By: Ethan Bernstein and Nitin Nohria
Provides the reader with a basic understanding of organizational structure. The first section outlines some of the key tools and criteria that must be taken into account in designing organizational structures. In the second section, some archetypal forms of... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Structure
- February 1991 (Revised February 1992)
- Case
Appex Corp.
By: Nitin Nohria
1990 Business Week named Appex Corp. the fastest growing high-technology company in the United States. Appex provided management information systems and intercarrier network services to cellular telephone companies. During its rapid growth, the company went through... View Details
Keywords: Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Culture; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Performance Productivity; Problems and Challenges; Management Practices and Processes; Business Divisions; Information Management; Information Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States
- December 1989
- Background Note
Note on How Organizations Can be Structured
By: D. Q. Mills
Describes four basic organizational forms--hierarchy, division, matrix, and cluster. Diagrams of each are included. Their strengths and weaknesses under different business environment conditions are detailed. There is a table comparing the forms on several key... View Details
- December 1989 (Revised February 1993)
- Case
Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition (C)
In 1989, Frito-Lay designed an information technology infrastructure to support time-based competition and organizational restructuring. The company planned to provide timely flexible information to all major decision makers at all levels. This case describes the... View Details