Publications

April 2010 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Mercadona

This case presents the predicament of a company trying to do right by its customers and its employees as the economic crisis of 2008 hits home. Fifteen years earlier, this Spanish supermarket chain had adopted its own version of total quality management, called the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Relationship Management; Service Operations; Business Processes; Retail Industry; Spain

October 2008
Case

Tegan c.c.c.

Examines a struggling IT outsourcing project from the perspective of the customer--Tegan. It should be used in conjunction with Hrad Technika (9-609-039), which illustrates the supplier's point of view. When Tegan, a Welsh toy distributor, outsources the development of... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Information Technology; Service Operations; Business Processes; Information Technology Industry; Wales; Czech Republic

As fires, floods, and droughts increasingly threaten homes, businesses, and other institutions, climate risk has become financial risk. Mortgages written on homes in exposed locations are being shed by banks and absorbed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,... View Details

10 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 10, 2009

magnitude of the current financial crisis reflects the failure of an economic and regulatory philosophy that had proved increasingly influential in policy circles over the past three decades. This paper suggests (1) that contrary to the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Oct 2023
What Do You Think?

Do Leaders Learn More From Success or Failure?

being a two-case series in which success is rescued from the challenge (not necessarily failure) described in the first case. Edmondson’s work raises questions about our natural bias for emphasizing success vs. failure in the View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

31 Mar 2008
HBS Case

JetBlue’s Valentine’s Day Crisis

of February 13, independent of this event. Do they think the elements of the structure and systems within the JetBlue operation are internally consistent with one another and externally consistent with the organization's overall business... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Air Transportation

21 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Common Strategy Mistakes

"Michael Porter didn't get to be a giant in the field of competition and strategy by hunting small game." Joan Magretta begins her new book on Harvard Business School's Michael Porter's work by noting that, from the start of his... View Details

Keywords: by Joan Magretta

2012
Working Paper

Clear and Present Danger: Planning and New Venture Survival Amid Political and Civil Violence

By: Shon Hiatt and Wesley Sine

Although entrepreneurs constitute a key economic driving force for many emerging economies, they often face unstable environments due to the failure of governments to maintain civil and political order. Yet, we know very little about how environments characterized by... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Developing Countries and Economies; Government and Politics; Crime and Corruption; Balance and Stability; Strategic Planning

Read Now

24 Jan 2024
Op-Ed

Why Boeing’s Problems with the 737 MAX Began More Than 25 Years Ago

quality standards. The cost of reputational damage When we discuss the Boeing cases in my classes at Harvard Business School, I ask participants, “Are Boeing’s problems caused by individual leadership View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Air Transportation; Transportation; Aerospace

18 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 18

Publications 2006 Emotion Review The Power of the Cognition/Emotion Distinction for Morality By: Bazerman, Max H., Francesca Gino, Lisa L. Shu, and Chia-Jung Tsay Abstract—No abstract available. Publisher's link: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/ 2006... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

January 2009 (Revised November 2011)
Case

The Tip of the Iceberg: JP Morgan Chase and Bear Stearns (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose, Daniel Baird Bergstresser and David Lane

"Bear Stearns & Co. burned through nearly all of its $18 billion in cash reserves during the week of March 10, 2008, and an unprecedented provision of liquidity support from the Federal Reserve on Friday, March 13 was insufficient to reverse the decline in Bear's... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Crisis; Capital; Financial Liquidity; Financial Strategy; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Competition; Valuation; Financial Services Industry

2015
Working Paper

Implied Materiality and Material Disclosures of Credit Ratings

By: Robert G. Eccles and Tim Youmans

This first of three papers in our series on materiality in credit ratings will examine the materiality of credit ratings from an "implied materiality" and governance disclosure perspective. In the second paper, we will explore the materiality of environmental, social,... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Markets; Credit

SSRN

Read Now

I have come to a conclusion that may surprise you: trying to apply management practices... View Details

10 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Commodity Busters: Be a Price Maker, Not a Price Taker

two primary competitors, Checkpoint and Sensormatic, went at each other mercilessly, unbridled competition can be destructive. Sensible business managers focus primarily on their own success, not on creating View Details

Keywords: by Benson P. Shapiro

February 2018
Case

Robert K. Steel at Wachovia (A)

By: Gautam Mukunda, Nien-hê Hsieh and David Lane

In September 2008, Robert Steel presided over the sale of Wachovia, a top U.S. bank, less than three months after becoming its CEO. Wachovia’s exposure to risky home loans led depositors and creditors to flee the bank on Friday, September 26, after the FDIC seized and... View Details