Publications

August 2021 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Fair Park Covid-19 Mass Vaccination Site (A)

By: Willy Shih

This case is an opportunity to apply the methods of the Toyota Production System (TPS) to the analysis of an everyday service application: administering Covid-19 vaccines. It describes the start-up of a drive-up Covid-19 mass vaccination site at the Texas State Fair... View Details

Keywords: Operations Improvement; Operations And Processes; Toyota Production System; COVID-19 Pandemic; Operations; Service Operations; Health Pandemics; Problems and Challenges; Goals and Objectives; Measurement and Metrics; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States; Texas

August 2011 (Revised August 2012)
Case

JetBlue Airways: Deicing at Logan Airport

By: Douglas Fearing and Robert S. Huckman

The case explores a deicing capacity expansion decision made by JetBlue at Boston Logan International Airport in the summer of 2010. The need for capacity expansion was driven by significant challenges faced during the previous winter combined with substantial... View Details

Keywords: Operational Disruptions; Strategic Planning; Disruption; Cost vs Benefits; Air Transportation; Service Operations; Logistics; Operations; Air Transportation Industry; Boston

November 2015 (Revised April 2017)
Case

Streaming Over Broadband: Why Doesn't My Netflix Work?

By: Shane Greenstein and Michael Norris

In late 2013 and early 2014, Netflix service over the major U.S. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) suffered major slowdowns. What were the causes of these problems? What could Netflix do to solve them? View Details

Keywords: Digital Innovation; Internet; Broadband Service; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Utilities Industry; United States

November 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Case

Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (A)

By: W. Earl Sasser and Gamze Yucaoglu

At the age of 39, Solmaz Altın took over the helm at Allianz Turkey. Solmaz quickly realized that, although the insurance market was thinly penetrated in Turkey, the company was operating in a very competitive environment with pressure on prices and, hence, cost... View Details

Keywords: Service Excellence; Customer Experience; Customer Service; Emerging Market; Customer Focus; Net Promoter Score; Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Leading Change; Service Operations; Emerging Markets; Customer Satisfaction; Insurance Industry; Turkey

October 2012 (Revised September 2013)
Teaching Note

The Dabbawala System: On-Time Delivery, Every Time

By: Stefan H. Thomke

The Mumbai-based dabbawalas are a 5,000 or so person organization that achieves exceptional service performance with a semi-literate workforce. Every working day, they deliver and return about 130,000 lunchboxes to offices throughout Mumbai. This entails more than... View Details

Keywords: Systems Design; Organization Design; Service; Organizational Design; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Mumbai

01 Dec 2015
News

Research Brief: What Makes a Mobile Money Service Thrive in an Emerging Market?

Ishan Sachdev (MBA 2013) Since 2009, more than 80 mobile money services have popped up in emerging markets to offer financial services to the millions of people who have a cell phone but no traditional bank... View Details

Keywords: Erin Peterson

18 Nov 2014
News

Alfred Raises $2M to Bring Its Personal Butler Service to Boston & Beyond

Keywords: Personal Services

02 Mar 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Evidence of Decreasing Internet Entropy: The Lack of Redundancy in DNS Resolution by Major Websites and Services

Keywords: by Samantha Bates, John Bowers, Shane Greenstein, Jordi Weinstock, and Jonathan Zittrain

October 2016
Case

Turkasset: Bringing Customer-Centricity to Debt Collection

By: Dennis Campbell and Gamze Yucaoglu

In December 2014, in preparation for the year-end board presentation, Hilmi Guvenal (PMD 1993), shareholder and CEO of Turkasset, and Ilker Yoney, COO, sat down to discuss Turkasset’s five- and ten-year strategic plans. Since taking leadership of the company in 2009,... View Details

May 2016 (Revised September 2016)
Case

Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean

By: Rajiv Lal and Gamze Yucaoglu

In 2015, Edip Ilkbahar, HBC’s founder and CEO, was looking over the plans for a new branch in Cyprus. Since the inception of the company by the Alarko Group of companies in 1994, Ilkbahar’s company had enjoyed high occupancy, high guest satisfaction, and high... View Details

November 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Supplement

Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (B)

By: W. Earl Sasser and Gamze Yucaoglu

At the age of 39, Solmaz Altın took over the helm at Allianz Turkey. Solmaz quickly realized that, although the insurance market was thinly penetrated in Turkey, the company was operating in a very competitive environment with pressure on prices and, hence, cost... View Details

Keywords: Service Excellence; Customer Experience; Customer Service; Emerging Market; Customer Focus; Net Promoter Score; Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Leading Change; Service Operations; Emerging Markets; Customer Satisfaction; Insurance Industry; Turkey

Article

Efficiencies and Regulatory Shortcuts: How Should We Regulate Companies like Airbnb and Uber?

By: Benjamin Edelman and Damien Geradin

New software platforms use modern information technology, including full-featured web sites and mobile apps, to allow service providers and consumers to transact with relative ease and increased trust. These platforms provide notable benefits including reducing... View Details

Keywords: Platforms; Regulation; Sharing Economy; Uber; Airbnb; Universal Service; Insurance; Market Platforms; Service Delivery; Software; Service Industry

Read Now

July 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Case

AmazonFresh: Rekindling the Online Grocery Market

By: Rory McDonald, Clayton Christensen, Robin Yang and Ty Hollingsworth

More than a decade after the high-profile failures of several early online grocers, grocery remains the largest single U.S. retail category and one of the few that has not yet migrated online. Amazon began testing its grocery-delivery service, AmazonFresh, in Seattle,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; New Markets; Grocery; Operations Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Strategy; Emerging Markets; Learning; Service Operations; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

September 2018 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Careem: Base Camp or Mountain Peak? Designing an OS for Scaling

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Gamze Yucaoglu and Alpana Thapar

This case focuses on designing a fast growing organization. It is part of a two-case set that is taught together to cover the scaling journey.
Careem, a Dubai-based ride-hailing service aimed to ‘simplify and improve the lives of people, and build an awesome... View Details

Keywords: Scale; Values; Rights; Operating Systems; Business Startup; Transportation; Organizational Design; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Organizational Culture; Values and Beliefs; Decision Making; Managerial Roles; Dubai; United Arab Emirates; Middle East

August 2021
Teaching Note

Fair Park Covid-19 Mass Vaccination Site (A) and (B)

By: Willy Shih

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 622-003 and 622-004. View Details

Keywords: Operations Improvement; Operations And Processes; Toyota Production System; Operations; Service Operations; Health Pandemics; Service Delivery; Problems and Challenges; Goals and Objectives; Measurement and Metrics; Health Industry; United States

21 Dec 2022
Blog Post

Climate Stories Episode #12: Vehicle to Everything - Claire Broido Johnson (MBA 2002), Chief Operating Officer of Fermata Energy

Climate Stories Episode #12: Vehicle to Everything - Claire Broido Johnson (MBA 2002), Chief Operating Officer of Fermata EnergyLike many of our Climate Story subjects, Claire Broido Johnson (MBA 2002) first became interested in climate... View Details

08 Jan 2025
News

Mapping Pain Points at the IRS

Having spent a decade helping retailers optimize customer service, Fumi Tamaki (MBA 2014) could not pass up the opportunity in June 2024 to take on the challenge of improving the customer experience at the government organization that serves more Americans annually... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers; IRS; customer service; government service; Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support; Government

March 2021
Article

Last Place Aversion in Queues

By: Ryan W. Buell

This paper documents the effects of last place aversion in queues and its implications for customer experiences and behaviors as well as for operating performance. An observational analysis of customers queuing at a grocery store, and four online studies in which... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Operations; Queues; Reference Effects; Last Place Aversion; Transparency; Customers; Behavior; Satisfaction; Service Operations