Publications

2019
Working Paper

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 16 Capturing Value by Controlling Bottlenecks in Open Platform Systems

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the means by which firms capture value in open platform systems. I begin by arguing that the surplus value created by complementarities within a technical system will be split among the owners of the unique and essential... View Details

Keywords: Open Platforms; Bottlenecks; Flow Production; Value Capture; Disintermediation; Production; Management; Digital Platforms

SSRN

2021
Working Paper

Science-Based Carbon Emissions Targets

By: David Freiberg, Jody Grewal and George Serafeim

We examine the effect of voluntarily adopting a standard for setting science-based carbon emissions targets on target difficulty and investments to achieve those targets. We find that firms with a track record of setting and achieving ambitious carbon targets are more... View Details

Keywords: Target; Targeting; Target-setting; Target Efficiency; Management Control Systems; Management Accounting; Environment; Environmental And Social Sustainability; Climate Change; Environmental Management; Environmental Accounting; Environmental Sustainability; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

SSRN

11 Jan 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

New Game, New Rules: Developing Managers for a Competitive World

rethink their business models and radically transform their organizational capabilities. The implications for organizations and management are profound. Let's take one example. At the heart of most modern corporations are information,... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

July 2009 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Risk Management at Wellfleet Bank: All That Glitters Is Not Gold

By: Anette Mikes

This case motivates a debate on the role of staff functions, such as risk management: what does it mean for them to be independent, and at the same time, to partner the business lines? The case describes the risk assessment process in the corporate banking arm of... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Credit; Banks and Banking; Governance Controls; Risk Management; Mathematical Methods

Educators

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 8: Linking Performance to Markets

By: Robert Simons

This module reading shows how to link profit plans and other performance measurement systems to both internal and external markets. Starting with the transfer of goods and services within a firm, the module discusses the different methods of designing transfer pricing... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Transfer Pricing; Activity Based Costing; Return On Investment; Residual Income; EVA; Strategy; Cost Accounting; Activity Based Costing and Management; Markets; Investment Return

01 Dec 2003
What Do You Think?

Is This the Twilight Era for the Managed Mutual Fund?

investor, I feel powerless to control or even understand how my mutual funds operate." Anupam Bordia comments, "the mutual fund scandal will shift public trust towards index funds." There is also a suggestion that the job... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

02 Nov 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Managing Functional Biases in Organizational Forecasts: A Case Study of Consensus Forecasting in Supply Chain Planning

Keywords: by Rogelio Oliva & Noel H. Watson

July 2012
Case

LEGO

By: Jan W. Rivkin, Stefan Thomke and Daniela Beyersdorfer

LEGO has emerged as one of the most successful companies in the toy industry. The case describes LEGO's gradual rise, rapid decline, and recent revitalization as it is keeping up with a changing market place. Central to LEGO's management model is the ability to find... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; Innovation; Operations Management; Organizational Change And Transformation; Operations; Competitive Strategy; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Educators

Research Summary

Clinical Trials as a setting for Health Policy and Management Research

The clinical trial marketplace is in flux. A decade ago, pharmaceutical firms almost exclusively conducted the study of their novel drug compounds within major academic medical centers. But today, industry-sponsored clinical trials are increasingly using community... View Details

June 2013
Supplement

Union Corrugating Co. (A) (Spreadsheet Supplement)

This is the spreadsheet supplement for HBS Case 803065, containing Exhibit 3 as an Excel document. View Details

2013
Working Paper

How Does Risk Management Influence Production Decisions? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Shawn Cole, Xavier Gine and James Vickery

Weather is a key source of income risk, particularly in emerging market economies. This paper uses a randomized controlled trial involving a sample of Indian farmers to study how an innovative rainfall insurance product affects production decisions. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Production; Weather; Insurance; Emerging Markets; Agribusiness; Insurance Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

2011
Book

The Fund Industry: How Your Money Is Managed

By: Robert Pozen and Theresa Hamacher

The Fund Industry explains to students and investors how to evaluate mutual funds and other collective investment vehicles. It discusses how different types of funds are managed, marketed, and regulated. It also reviews how funds invest and gather assets in countries... View Details

Keywords: Money; Financial Management; International Finance; Investment Funds; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

2009
Working Paper

Management and the Financial Crisis (We have met the enemy and he is us...)

By: William A. Sahlman

The financial crisis of 2008-9 has revealed that our broad model of corporate governance is broken, independent of the shortcomings in the regulatory system. Managers and boards of directors in scores of systemically important firms failed to protect employees,... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Ethics; Corporate Governance; Financial Crisis

24 Jul 2018
Op-Ed

4 Ways Managers Can Exercise Their 'Agency' to Change the World

they feel a lack of “agency,” a sense that only the highest rank of management can effect positive social change from within a business. Ironically, an increasing number of C-suite executives, including former Starbucks CEO Howard... View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

2018
Working Paper

Managing Through Organizational Change: Employee Alignment in the Presence of Unexpected Career Concerns

By: Ohchan Kwon and Jee-Eun Shin

This study examines performance consequences due to unexpected career concerns – layoff risks due to institutional reasons. Exploiting a company-wide announcement of a merger decision by management as a trigger event for unexpected career concerns, we examine employee... View Details

Keywords: Career Changes; Performance Measures; Incentives; M＆A; Employees; Personal Development and Career; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance; Motivation and Incentives

November 1997 (Revised April 2017)
Teaching Note

Purity Steel Corporation, 2012

By: Robert Simons and Antonio Dávila

Teaching Note for (9-197-082). View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Performance Measurement; ROI; Transfer Pricing; Steel Industry

June 2013
Supplement

Union Corrugating Co. (Video Supplement)

By: Jim Sharpe

This is the Video Supplement for Union Corrugating Company(A) and (B) (HBS Cases 803065 and 804003). View Details

January 1986
Case

Telecommunications in Transition: Managing Business and Regulatory Change

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Keywords: Change Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Telecommunications Industry

Find at Harvard

December 2010
Article

Management and the Financial Crisis (We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us...)

By: William A. Sahlman

The financial crisis of 2008-2009 has revealed that our broad model of corporate governance is broken, independent of the shortcomings in the regulatory system. Managers and boards of directors in scores of systemically important firms failed to protect employees,... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Human Capital; Ethics; Policy; Corporate Governance; Financial Crisis; Finance; Business and Shareholder Relations