Publications

20 Dec 2006
Working Paper Summaries

The Demise of Cost and Profit Centers

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan

Contested Meanings of Freedom

In 1886, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down a law that prohibited employers from paying wages in company store scrip and mandated monthly wage payments. The court held that the legislature could not pre-scribe mandatory wage contracts for legally competent... View Details

October 2022
Case

Margaret Thatcher: Changing the World

By: Robert L. Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the rise of Margaret Thatcher, the daughter of a shopkeeper, from a small industrial town in England to the longest-serving leader in the Western world. The case describes how she became interested in politics at an early age, attended Oxford, and... View Details

Keywords: Politics; Leadership Style; Personal Characteristics; Business ＆ Government Relations; Values And Beliefs; Work-life Balance; Mission And Purpose; Government Administration; Power and Influence; Great Britain; Europe

March 2005 (Revised May 2011)
Course Overview Note

Conceptual Overview of Real Property

By: Arthur I Segel and Ann Winslow

Real estate represents the largest asset class in the world. Businesses in the United States have over $8.6 trillion of real estate assets on their balance sheets. Excluding housing--worth $16 trillion in the United States--and corporate-owned real estate, there is... View Details

Keywords: Property

01 Apr 2024
In Practice

Navigating the Mood of Customers Weary of Price Hikes

businesses need to know in 2024. Alexander MacKay: Focus on finding balance Since 2021, as companies faced supply shocks and changes to demand in an inflationary period, executives have increasingly focused on consumer price elasticities.... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Consumer Products

Forthcoming
Article

An Anatomy of Crypto-Enabled Cybercrimes

By: Daniel Rabetti

The advent of cryptocurrencies and digital assets holds the promise of improving financial systems by offering cheap, quick, and secure transfer of value. However, it also opens up new payment channels for cybercrimes. Assembling a diverse set of public on- and... View Details

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2019
Chapter

The Republic of Turkey

By: Kristin Fabbe

Situated between Europe and Asia, Turkey occupies a critical geostrategic position in the world. This unique geography, no doubt, has much to do with the complexities and continuities that have characterized the country’s political development. Turkey is anchored to... View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; International Relations; Turkey

March–April 2002
Other Article

The Importance of Being Strategic

By: Michael E. Porter

At the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative's recent North American Summit, Michael E. Porter, Bishop William Lawrence Professor at Harvard Business School, addressed the question "Is the world changing too fast for companies to have a long-term strategy?" "No," said... View Details

Keywords: Strategy

March 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Wirecard: The Downfall of a German Fintech Star

By: Jonas Heese, Charles C.Y. Wang and Tonia Labruyere

Wirecard was a German fintech company, member of the DAX30, that provided payment processing and related services. Wirecard had enjoyed large growth rates over the years and most investors and analysts were enthusiastic about the company's prospects. Wirecard's... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Fraud; Scandal; Accounting Audits; Accounting; Financial Reporting; Financial Institutions; Financial Markets; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Corporate Accountability; Governance Controls; Financial Services Industry; Germany; Singapore; Dubai

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

What Roosevelt Took: The Economic Impact of the Panama Canal, 1903-29

Keywords: by Noel Maurer & Carlos Yu

April 2015 (Revised June 2016)
Case

The Transformation of NCR

By: David Collis, Raffaella Sadun and Matthew Shaffer

During his tenure as CEO since 2005, Bill Nuti had moved NCR Corporation (originally National Cash Register) from its historical competence in hardware to become a provider of hardware and software for managing transactions across a range of industries and payments... View Details

Keywords: NCR; Hardware; Software; Acquisitions; Financial Services; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Transformation; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

Working Paper Summaries

Determinants of Early-Stage Startup Performance: Survey Results

Keywords: by Thomas R. Eisenmann

01 Nov 2019
News

Evolution of the consumer focus in healthcare

Summer 2013
Other Article

The Roots of Our Tax Debates

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl

Our fiscal debates are endlessly frustrating. The outlines of a compromise seem clear, yet both sides remain incapable of agreement. But is the proper balance between spending less and taxing more really so obvious? A look at what underlies the political wars over... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Debates; Taxation; Budgets and Budgeting; United States

February 2022
Article

Borrowing to Save? The Impact of Automatic Enrollment on Debt

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and William L. Skimmyhorn

Does automatic enrollment into a retirement plan increase financial distress due to increased borrowing outside the plan? We study a natural experiment created when the U.S. Army began automatically enrolling newly hired civilian employees into the Thrift Savings Plan.... View Details

Keywords: Retirement Savings; Automatic Enrollment; Choice Architecture; Nudge; Financial Distress; Retirement; Saving; Borrowing and Debt; Behavior

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January 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Steve Jobs: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the life of Steve Jobs who throughout his career flaunted convention and chose an unusual path to success. The case describes how Jobs, as young man, acquired an appreciation for aesthetics and the liberal arts, but was also quick to recognize and... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology; Business Startups; Personal Characteristics; Leadership Style; Innovation; Work-life Balance; Innovation Leadership; Power and Influence; Success; Information Technology Industry; United States

04 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Best of HBS Working Knowledge 2009

Balance Achieving a life that balances the pleasures and demands of work and life has never been easy. Here are four HBS Working Knowledge stories from the vault that address... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

August 2020
Article

Do Physician Incentives Increase Patient Medication Adherence?

By: Edward Kong, John Beshears, David Laibson, Brigitte Madrian, Kevin Volpp, George Loewenstein, Jonathan Kolstad and James J. Choi

We conducted a randomized experiment (911 primary care practices and 8,935 nonadherent patients) to test the effect of paying physicians for increasing patient medication adherence in three drug classes: diabetes medication, antihypertensives, and statins. We measured... View Details

Keywords: Health Economics; Medication Adherence; Physician Payment Incentives; Primary Care; Quality Improvement; Health Care and Treatment; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior