Publications
Publications
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- Faculty Publications (391)
- December 2005 (Revised May 2007)
- Case
Cynthia Fisher and the Rearing of ViaCell
By: Robert F. Higgins, Richard G. Hamermesh and Ingrid Vargas
Describes the start up of Viacord, a Boston-based medical services firm founded by Cynthia Fisher (HBS MBA) in 1993. Told from Fisher's perspective, the entrepreneur details the conceptualization and launch of the business and the many obstacles and expenses faced in... View Details
- December 2005 (Revised September 2007)
- Case
Canyon Johnson Urban Fund
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Alexa Arena
Basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson and K. Robert Turner, managing partner of Canyon Johnson Urban Fund (CJUF), raised $271.7 million for investments in urban real estate. The fund considered two projects, both located in Hollywood, CA. The first was located on... View Details
- June 2005 (Revised March 2017)
- Teaching Note
Siebel Systems: Organizing for the Customer
By: Robert Simons
Teaching Note to (103-014). The Siebel Systems case describes the unusual accountability and organizing choices made by managers of a successful, rapidly growing software development company. The case is set in 2002, but details the critical decisions made by founder... View Details
- April 2005
- Article
Partisan Social Happiness
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
We use a new approach to study questions in political economy that relies on data on the subjective well-being of a large sample of people living in the OECD over the period 1975-1992. Controlling for the personal characteristics of the respondents, year and country... View Details
- March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
- Background Note
Activity-Based Costing and Capacity
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Discusses the use of budgeted rather than historical data in an activity-based costing (ABC) model and argues for calculating rates using practical capacity, not actual utilization. An ABC model need not be limited to analysis of historical data. When cost driver rates... View Details
- November 2004
- Article
Unemployment Benefits As a Substitute for a Conservative Central Banker
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
In the many years since their introduction, positive theories of inflation have rarely been tested. This paper documents a negative relationship between inflation and the welfare state (proxied by the parameters of the unemployment benefit program) that is to be... View Details
- August 2004
- Article
Inequality and Happiness: Are Europeans and Americans Different?
By: Rafael Di Tella, Alberto Alesina and Robert MacCulloch
We study the effect of the level of inequality in society on individual well-being using a total of 123,668 answers to a survey question about “happiness”. We find that individuals have a lower tendency to report themselves happy when inequality is high, even after... View Details
- April 2004 (Revised September 2007)
- Case
Accounting Fraud at WorldCom
By: Robert S. Kaplan and David Kiron
The principal players in WorldCom's accounting fraud included CFO Scott Sullivan, the General Accounting and Internal Audit departments, external auditor Arthur Andersen, and the board of directors. The case provides sufficient detail to allow for a full discussion of... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised April 2010)
- Case
Flextronics International, Ltd.
By: Robert S. Huckman and Gary P. Pisano
Describes Flextronics' evolution from providing outsourced manufacturing services for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the electronics industry to developing entire unbranded products for purchase by OEMs. In 2001, Flextronics began a development program that... View Details
- April 2003
- Tutorial
ABC Pen Factory Tutorial
By: Robert S. Kaplan
To preview this online product, Authorized Faculty can call our customer service department at 1-800-545-7685 or 617-783-7600. Illustrates, via a guided audio tour accompanied by dynamically changing spreadsheets, the role for activity-based cost systems. The numerical... View Details
Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants
- March 2003
- Article
Technological Development and Medical Productivity: The Diffusion of Angioplasty in New York State
By: David M. Cutler and Robert S. Huckman
A puzzling feature of many medical innovations is that they simultaneously appear to reduce unit costs and increase total costs. We consider this phenomenon by examining the diffusion of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA)—a treatment for coronary... View Details
- November 2002 (Revised August 2003)
- Case
MedSource Technologies
Considers the issues facing Richard Effress, MedSource's chairman and CEO, as the firm approaches the Precision Cut project--the first test of MedSource's capabilities as an integrated, contract manufacturer in the medical device industry. MedSource Technologies was... View Details
- January 2002
- Article
How Communication Improves Efficiency in Bargaining Games
By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Leigh Thompson, Robert Gibbons and Max H. Bazerman
- December 2001 (Revised February 2008)
- Case
Borealis
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Bjorn N. Jorgensen
When Borealis, a European producer of plastics, used a traditional, time-consuming budgeting process, the budget was quickly out of date in a competitive environment characterized by continually changing input and output prices and dynamic market conditions. This case... View Details
- September 2001
- Background Note
Financial Reporting Environment, The
Provides a framework for understanding the role of financial reporting and various intermediaries as mechanisms for reducing both adverse selection and moral hazard problems in capital markets. Financial reports reduce adverse selection by providing basic information... View Details
- September 2001 (Revised October 2018)
- Case
DIENA
By: Robert Simons and Indra Reinbergs
Requires students to draw a new organization structure diagram for a rapidly evolving business. A/S DIENA is a newspaper publisher founded during Latvia's 1990/91 struggle for independence from the USSR with a clear social mission to support democracy. With the help of... View Details
- April 2001
- Case
Corruption in International Business (B)
By: Robert E. Kennedy and Rafael M. Di Tella
Focuses on efforts to combat corruption. Approaches include international laws, international agreements, efforts by international development organizations, and private efforts by firms and nongovernmental organizations. View Details
- 2001
- Working Paper
Contextuality Within Activity Systems
By: Michael E. Porter and Nicolaj Siggelkow
Research on the interactions among activities in firms and the extent to which these interactions help create and sustain competitive advantage has rapidly expanded in recent years. In this research, the two most common approaches have been the complementarity... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised March 2001)
- Case
eLance.com: Building a Professional Services Marketplace
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Kristin Kohler
Launched as an eBay for services, eLance promises to leverage the capabilities of the Internet to not only change the way services are bought and sold, but change the fundamental dynamics of the global economy. Building on theories posited in the HBR article by Tim... View Details
- 2000
- Working Paper
How Communication Improves Efficiency in Bargaining Games
By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Leigh Thompson, Robert Gibbons and Max Bazerman