Publications

2007
Chapter

Collaborative R&D in Management: The Practical Experience of Fenix and TruePoint in Bridging the Divide Between Scientific and Managerial Goals

By: Michael Beer and Niclas Adler

The gap between theory and practice has been of concern to both practitioners and academics, yet other than pleas to close the gap with more accessible writing by academics and more interest in research by practitioners few systematic efforts have been made to close... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Knowledge Management; Management; Goals and Objectives; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Improvement; Practice; Research and Development; Social and Collaborative Networks; Theory; Value; United States

October 1991 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Maxwell Appliance Controls

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A profitable manufacturing division of a large company is looking for new ways to identify sources of productivity improvements. Led by its senior finance officer, an activity-based cost system is developed to identify activities performed for its highly varied product... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Management Teams; Quality; Performance Improvement; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Production; Manufacturing Industry

Kris Ferreira is the Edgerley Family Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) Unit. She teaches the Supply Chain Management course in the MBA elective curriculum and analytics in numerous Executive Education... View Details

Keywords: retailing

2025
Working Paper

How Firms Respond to Worker Activism: Evidence from Global Supply Chains

By: Yanhua Bird, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Social movement pressures can lead organizations to concede and improve social performance to avoid disruption costs, but we theorize that such responses evoke concession costs that prompt organizations to shift resources and attention from other social domains whose... View Details

Keywords: Worker Activism; Labor Standards; Tradeoffs; Global Supply Chains; Internal Governance Structure; Public Opinion; Supply Chain; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Working Conditions

SSRN

28 May 2015
News

Breaking the Death Grip of Legacy Technologies

2013
Working Paper

The Operational Consequences of Private Equity Buyouts: Evidence from the Restaurant Industry

By: Albert W. Sheen and Shai Bernstein

What, if anything, do private equity firms do with businesses they acquire? We find evidence of significant operational changes in 101 restaurant chain buyouts between 2002 and 2012. Analysis of health inspections conducted for over 50,000 stores in Florida shows that... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Quality; Private Equity; Food; Management Practices and Processes; Leveraged Buyouts; Performance Efficiency; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Florida

November 2004 (Revised July 2006)
Case

Patrimonio Hoy

By: Arthur I Segel, Michael Chu and Gustavo Herrero

Patrimonio Hoy is a program targeting the housing needs of the low-income population by CEMEX, a major Mexican company and a leading global cement producer. Originally conceived as a project to understand the customers in the self-construction segment better, a major... View Details

Keywords: Housing; Construction; Product Design; Globalized Firms and Management; Microfinance; Income; Market Entry and Exit; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Construction Industry; Mexico

June 2024
Article

Going Digital: Implications for Firm Value and Performance

By: Wilbur Chen and Suraj Srinivasan

We examine firm value and performance implications of the growing trend of non-technology companies engaging in digital transformation. We measure digital activities in firms based on the disclosure of digital words in the business description section of 10-Ks. Digital... View Details

Keywords: Digital Technologies; Valuation; Return Predictability; Financial Statement Analysis; Performance; Value; Information Technology

March 2022
Case

Unilever: Remote Work in Manufacturing

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Susie L. Ma

In December 2021, Unilever—one of the world’s largest producers of consumer goods—was in the midst of a pilot project to digitize its manufacturing facilities and enable remote work for factory employees. This was possible because of an earlier project to retrofit a... View Details

Keywords: Change; Globalization; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Human Resources; Jobs and Positions; Operations; Education; Training; Manufacturing Industry

2017
Working Paper

Innovation, Reallocation and Growth

By: Daron Acemoglu, Ufuk Akcigit, Harun Alp, Nicholas Bloom and William R. Kerr

We build a model of firm-level innovation, productivity growth, and reallocation featuring endogenous entry and exit. A new and central economic force is the selection between high- and low-type firms, which differ in terms of their innovative capacity. We estimate the... View Details

Keywords: Entry; Growth; Industrial Policy; Innovation; R＆D; Reallocation; Selection; Business Ventures; Resource Allocation; Performance Productivity; Policy; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development; United States

2018
Article

Prior Ties and the Limits of Peer Effects on Startup Team Performance

By: Sharique Hasan and Rembrand Koning

We conduct a field experiment at an entrepreneurship bootcamp to investigate whether interaction with proximate peers shapes a nascent startup team's performance. We find that teams whose members lack prior ties to others at the bootcamp experience peer effects that... View Details

Keywords: Field Experiment; Peer Effects; Office Space; Knowledge Spillovers; Accelerators; Entrepreneurship; Knowledge Sharing; Performance; Technology Industry; India

11 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

U.S. Tops Business Competitiveness Index 2006

low quality of management education. "Overall it is clear that euphoria about China is moderating as the realities of its competitiveness become more apparent," the report concludes. India moved up four rankings to 27, aided by View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

May 1994 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation 's Leveraged Recapitalization (A)

Less than a year after Sealed Air embarked on a program to improve manufacturing efficiency and product quality, the company borrowed almost 90% of the market value of its common stock and paid it out as a special dividend to shareholders. Management purposefully and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Finance; Manufacturing Industry

June 1989 (Revised November 1991)
Supplement

Ingersoll-Rand (B): Managing Multiple Channels--1986

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Peter Baldwin takes over Clabough's job and is charged with the responsibility to improve sales force morale, control expenses, and improve market share. View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Supply and Industry; Management Teams; Industrial Products Industry

September 2001
Background Note

Financial Reporting Environment, The

By: Paul M. Healy, Amy P. Hutton, Robert S. Kaplan and Krishna G. Palepu

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

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Capital Markets; Venture Capital; Corporate Disclosure; Conflict of Interests

June 2013
Case

Hess Corporation

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kathleen Durante

On January 29, 2013, Elliott Management, a hedge fund run by Paul E. Singer, which owned 4.5% of Hess Corporation stock, put forward a slate of five independent directors it wanted elected to improve the company's performance. Elliott argued that Hess lacked focus and... View Details

Keywords: Takeover Attempt; Board; Hess; Governing and Advisory Boards; Organizational Structure; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry; Energy Industry

Fall 2014
Article

How to Win in an Omnichannel World

By: David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno

The omnichannel environment presents new challenges and opportunities for both information and product fulfillment. While all retailers need to effectively and efficiently manage fulfillment and information provision, there are important nuances to how this happens,... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; United States