Publications

August 1998 (Revised July 2002)
Case

Innovation at 3M Corporation (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how 3M Corp. introduces and learns a new and innovative methodology called Lead User research to understand future customer and market needs. A team from 3M's Medical-Surgical Markets Division applies the Lead User methodology to the field of surgical... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Managerial Roles; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Market Timing; Product Development; Problems and Challenges; Business Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Web

Demonstration Policy | About

other form of collective action on the HBS campus should register with HBS Operations at least three business days in advance of the desired date. Groups that may necessitate additional security should aim to register as far in advance as... View Details

01 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

First Minutes are Critical in New-Employee Orientation

the new workplace. There's a lecture about the firm's history and another about standard operating procedures. There's a packet of information from human resources, emblazoned with the firm's logo, and maybe a coffee mug to match. The... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Web Services; Service; Telecommunications

Web

Finance Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Finance Section of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) for "Patent Trolls: Evidence from Targeted Firms” (December 2019) with Umit Gurun and Scott Duke Kominers. Benjamin C. Esty : Recognized as one... View Details

01 Jan 2010
News

James Dimon, MBA 1982

Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Return to Alumni Achievement Awards main page Earlier Education: B.A., Economics and Psychology, Tufts University, 1978 On Leadership: “Set and meet high standards of integrity, performance, and service. You have to be... View Details

18 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 18

reasons, namely worker fatalities. No company had ever done so before. Carroll felt that operating a company whose goal was anything less than "zero harm" (meaning no fatalities or serious injuries) was unacceptable. As the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2015
Case

Eco7: Launching a New Motor Oil

By: John Quelch and Sunru Yong

Aaron Jonnerson, vice president of marketing at the automotive division of Avellin, must make marketing mix decisions for the launch of Eco7, a new environmentally-friendly motor oil. The company's performance has been mediocre, shareholder pressure is increasing, and... View Details

Keywords: Distribution Channels; Environmental Sustainability; Product Launch; Transportation; Energy Sources; Auto Industry

01 Jan 2013
News

Thai Lee, MBA 1985

revenue. As a new CEO, Lee again operated with a long-term perspective, gradually building a company where people wanted to work, creating hundreds of jobs, and fostering a community of employees who worked together to meet the same goal:... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

June 2014 (Revised July 2014)
Background Note

An Overview of Project Finance and Infrastructure Finance—2014 Update

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Carla Chavich and Aldo Sesia

Provides an introduction to the fields of project finance and infrastructure finance, and gives a statistical overview of project-financed investments over the years from 2009 to 2013. Examples of project-financed investments include the Kashagan oil field development... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Capital Expenditures; International Finance; Data; Financial History; Economic Development; Corporate Governance; Contracts; Industry Analysis; Banking; Capital Investments; Municipal Finance; Project Finance; Infrastructure; Investment; Projects; Trends

Web

The New Role for Government & NGOs - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

implementing new shared value business models Governments Tax and regulate business; operate social programs Make platform investments and support shared value strategies; regulate to encourage shared value solutions Companies Donate to... View Details

2019
Working Paper

The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

This paper investigates the impact of customer compatibility – the degree of fit between the needs of customers and the capabilities of the operations serving them – on customer experiences and firm performance. We use a variance decomposition analysis to quantify the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Compatibility; Satisfaction; Profitability; Customer Relationship Management; Service Operations; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Retail Industry

SSRN

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2009
Chapter

Nonlinear Pricing

By: Raghuram Iyengar and Sunil Gupta

A nonlinear pricing schedule refers to any pricing structure where the total charges payable by customers are not proportional to the quantity of their consumed services. We begin the chapter with a discussion of the broad applicability of nonlinear pricing schemes. We... View Details

Keywords: Price; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Monopoly; Service Operations; Research

Blog

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

has the potential to transform knowledge workers' roles, processes, and practices. To understand AI's potential, we must differentiate between its applications as externally facing—enhancing product offerings—and internally facing—aimed at improving View Details

10 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

High Commitment, High Performance Management

values underlying the transformation and will carry on the journey to HCHP after current leaders have left the scene. Recognize that HCHP transformations are a unit by unit process, and must occur at the corporate as well as the business, regional, and View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Overview

My research lies in the intersection of economic growth and political economy focusing on the role of historical legacies, biogeography and culture in shaping contemporary economic performance. As growth economists our understanding of comparative economic development... View Details

Keywords: Institutions; Ethnicity; Economic Growth; Development Economics; Macroeconomics; Culture; Religion; Africa; Asia

March 2025
Article

Is Personal Identity Intransitive?

By: J. De Freitas and L. J. Rips

There has been a call for a potentially revolutionary change to our existing understanding of the psychological concept of personal identity. Apparently, people can psychologically represent people, including themselves, as multiple individuals at the same time. Here... View Details

Keywords: Identity; Judgments

Find at Harvard

December 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Yellow Corporation: On the Verge of Bankruptcy

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

Yellow Corporation, one of the country’s oldest and largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, was nearing its 100th anniversary in 2024. Whether it would reach that milestone, however, was uncertain as the company was attempting to restructure its operations to... View Details

Keywords: Labor Unions; Labor and Management Relations; Capital Structure; Restructuring; Financial Management; Ethics; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Strategy; Truck Transportation; Change Management; Transportation Industry; Shipping Industry; United States

July 2021
Teaching Plan

Aligning Mission and Margin at Southern Bancorp

By: Rebecca Henderson, Brian Trelstad and Eren Kuzucu

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 321-099. In October 2020, after spending almost a decade to turnaround Southern Bancorp, an Arkansan bank founded with the mission to provide financial services to rural, underserved communities, CEO Darrin Williams is wondering how... View Details

Keywords: Racial Wealth Gap; Banks and Banking; Growth and Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Going Public; Investment Return; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; Arkansas

September–October 2021
Article

Internalization of Advertising Services: Testing a Theory of the Firm

By: Alvin J. Silk, Birger Wernerfelt and Shuyi Yu

In 1956, a group of trade associations representing publishers and independent advertising agencies signed a consent decree aimed at ending a set of trade practices that for half a century effectively precluded advertisers from owning and operating in-house agencies.... View Details

Keywords: Internationalization; Specialization; Theory Of The Firm; Advertising Agencies; Advertising; Organizational Structure; Theory