Publications

January 2015 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Trouble at Tessei

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan W. Buell

In 2005, Teruo Yabe is asked to revive Tessei, the 669-person JR-East subsidiary responsible for cleaning its Shinkansen ("bullet") trains. Operational mistakes, customer complaints, safety issues, and employee turnover are at or near all-time highs, even as the... View Details

Keywords: Service Management; Employee Engagement; Employee Motivation; Leadership And Managing People; Quality Improvement; Efficiency; Japan; Operational Transparency; Employee Coordination; Transparency; Leadership; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Employees; Quality; Transportation Industry; Japan

June 2021
Article

Making Marketplaces Safe: Dominant Individual Rationality and Applications to Market Design

By: Benjamin N. Roth and Ran I. Shorrer

Often market designers cannot force agents to join a marketplace rather than using pre-existing institutions. We propose a new desideratum for marketplace design that guarantees the safety of participation: Dominant Individual Rationality (DIR). A marketplace is DIR if... View Details

Keywords: Dominant Individual Rationality; Market Design; Safety

SSRN

Find at Harvard

22 Oct 2015
News

There's an Agency for That

March 2014 (Revised May 2014)
Case

China Vanke (A-1)

By: Lynn S. Paine, John Macomber and Keith Chi-ho Wong

As China's largest homebuilder, China Vanke Co. Ltd. (Vanke) was facing an industry downturn sparked by strong government intervention. Faced with falling prices, Vanke's president must decide whether to keep the company's pricing and product positioning intact, and... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; China; Green Building; Sustainable Development; Business Government Relations; Leadership; Business and Government Relations; Urban Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Safety; Real Estate Industry; China

24 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

The FDA: What Will the Next 100 Years Bring?

responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, biologics (biotech products derived from living sources such as cells), over-the-counter medicines, medical devices, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, and all food... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Biotechnology; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage; Health

27 Nov 2018
News

Fearless outperformance: creating conditions for the very best teams to excel

February 26, 2024
Article

Making Workplaces Safer Through Machine Learning

By: Matthew S. Johnson, David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel

Machine learning algorithms can dramatically improve regulatory effectiveness. This short article describes the authors' scholarly work that shows how the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) could have reduced nearly twice as many occupational... View Details

Keywords: Government Experimentation; Auditing; Inspection; Evaluation; Process Improvement; Government Administration; AI and Machine Learning; Safety; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

Read Now

April 1990 (Revised October 1992)
Case

Black & Decker Corp.: Spacemaker Plus Coffeemaker (A)

A fire is reported in a Black & Decker Spacemaker Plus Coffeemaker. This newly introduced product is a "Key Introduction" for Black & Decker's Household Product Group (HPG). HPG's president has to decide whether the product should be recalled and, if so, how the recall... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Risk Management; Ethics; Product Marketing; Consumer Products Industry

14 Jul 2006
Op-Ed

The Case for Consumer-Driven Medicaid

The Medicaid program provides a much needed health insurance safety net for 52 million of our nation's poor and medically needy, but its price tag threatens the financial stability of the states, growing 9.5 percent in 2004 alone—far in... View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger

26 Nov 2022
News

Amy Edmondson: How To Make Firms Fearless

11 May 2021
News

President Biden Is Pitching An Expanded View Of Infrastructure. Is He Right?

2023
Book

Workplace Conditions

By: Jill Maben, Jane Ball and Amy C. Edmondson

This Element reviews the evidence for three workplace conditions that matter for improving quality and safety in healthcare: staffing; psychological safety, teamwork, and speaking up; and staff health and well-being at work. The authors propose that these are... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Outcome or Result; Safety; Well-being; Health Industry

Read Now

07 Oct 2019
News

In praise of dissenters

24 May 2016
News

Build a Culture of Health

17 May 2012
News

Harvard study: workplace inspections save money

July 2024
Case

Titan: OceanGate's Tragedy of Titanic Proportions

By: Aiyesha Dey, Joseph Pacelli, James Barnett and ZeSean Ali

In June 2023, OceanGate’s Titan submersible imploded attempting to reach the Titanic shipwreck site 3,800 meters below sea level. All five passengers aboard died, including OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush. Before the tragedy, many in the deep-sea exploration... View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Decision Making; Ethics; Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Technology Industry; Tourism Industry; Transportation Industry; Atlantic Ocean; North America; Washington (state, US)

June 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Goodbye IMF Conditions, Hello Chinese Capital: Zambia's Copper Industry and Africa's Break with Its Colonial Past

By: Rafael Di Tella, Vincent Pons, Sarah Mehta and David Lane

Over the past several decades, rapid growth in Chinese investment and trade has created for Africa a new development partner. China represents an alternative to U.S. and European nations whose past imperialism, resource avarice, and economic dictates—through the... View Details

Keywords: Copper; Imperialism; IMF; World Bank; ODA; Debt Relief; Growth and Development; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Labor and Management Relations; History; Development Economics; China; Zambia; Africa