Publications

June 2012 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Business-driven Research at IBM Research India

By: Willy Shih, Margaret Pierson, Pankaj Agarwal, Diego Medicina and Juan Prajogo

What is the right mix between business-driven and pure research? This case considers the question in the setting of IBM Research India, where a management push for balance between exploratory research and the fulfillment of business needs meets some resistance from... View Details

Keywords: R＆D; Computer Services Industries; IT R＆D; Internet; Web-enabled Application; Technological Planning; Emerging Technologies; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Research and Development; Projects; Practice; India

October 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Twiga Foods: Revolutionizing African Retail (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Pippa Tubman Amerding and Wale Lawal

Twiga is a leading agricultural produce supplier in Kenya offering services to mostly informal retailers. Under Peter Njonjo, a co-founder and Twiga’s new CEO, the company is considering multiple options for expanding its business, including offering packaged foods and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Retail Industry; Nairobi

October 2019
Case

Leading Bank Leumi into the Future

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Allison M. Ciechanover, Nicole Keller and Danielle Golan

An unlikely but highly effective leader of a traditional bank, Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, simultaneously leads a classic change effort and an unconventional effort to innovate. She focuses her initial energy on making the bank more efficient in the face of industry... View Details

Article

Fly-by-Night Firms and the Market for Product Reviews

By: Gerald R. Faulhaber and Dennis A. Yao

This paper presents a model that permits third-party information provision in a market characterized by information asymmetries and reputation formation. The model is used to examine how the market for information provision affects prices and supply in the primary... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Reputation; SWOT Analysis; Mathematical Methods; Price Bubble; Inflation and Deflation; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Cost; Information; Quality; Price; Competitive Advantage; Information Industry

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March 1992
Case

Merv Griffin's Resorts

Discusses a management team that used computer-based information to micro market and provide superior products and service in a highly competitive market. The company is a leading firm in the gaming industry, and their extensive internal systems allowed them to track... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Marketing

Find at Harvard

April 2014 (Revised January 2015)
Background Note

Note on Mobile Healthcare

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

Delivering health care to the global population was a challenge. Health care costs accounted for ten percent of world GDP by 2013. In the U.S., health care costs were expected to top $3.1 trillion in 2014. New technologies, shortages of trained personnel and... View Details

July 2009 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Alacra, Inc.

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Aldo Sesia

In 2009, the CEO of Alacra, a venture-backed information services firm that provides customized data primarily to financial services firms, must decide how to respond to the global economic crisis. View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Crisis Management; Information Industry

30 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

The Upside of Highlighting a Product's Downsides

When booking an international flight, the choice often comes down to “expensive but direct” or “cheap with connections.” But what if an airline warned customers that the direct flight was frequently delayed? Would customers appreciate knowing that they might spend more... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

September 2002 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Transformation at the IRS

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim

Describes the service transformation occurring at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Plagued by a history of poor service, enormous complexity, and an insular employee base, the 100,000-person organization grapples with a turnaround process that attempts to change... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Service Operations; Organizational Structure; Taxation; Organizational Culture; Transformation; Public Administration Industry; United States

February 2010 (Revised January 2013)
Case

The Dabbawala System: On-Time Delivery, Every Time

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Mona Sinha

Describes the Mumbai-based Dabbawala organization, which achieves very high service performance (6 Sigma equivalent or better) with a low-cost and very simple operating system. The case explores all aspects of their system (mission, information management, material... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Logistics; Alignment; Management Systems; Human Resources; Innovation and Invention; Mumbai

22 Apr 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Competing with Privacy

Keywords: by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell & Andres Hervas-Drane; Publishing

01 Dec 2017
News

2017 in Finance: Helping Consumers Improve Their Financial Life

that consumers often feel overwhelmed by the topic of finances. They don’t feel as if they are in control. In other aspects of their life—for instance, in their shopping habits—consumers have access to a lot of information that in turn... View Details

Keywords: Omer Ismail (MBA 2007), chief commercial officer, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, the firm’s digital consumer financial services business; Finance

January 1989 (Revised March 1991)
Case

General Electric Canada: Designing a New Organization

By: Lynda M. Applegate and James I. Cash Jr.

General Electric Canada used sociotechnical design techniques to restructure its financial, administrative, facilities, and information technology service from a decentralized, hierarchical organization to a centralized organization composed of self-managing,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Information Technology; Groups and Teams; Change; Communication; Information; Industrial Products Industry; Canada

2021
Working Paper

Accounting for Product Impact in the Consumer-Packaged Foods Industry

By: Amanda Rischbieth, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the consumer-packaged goods industry. We design a methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates on customer... View Details

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2020
Working Paper

Accounting for Product Impact in the Consumer Finance Industry

By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor credit card providers within the consumer finance industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates... View Details

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July 1989 (Revised November 1992)
Supplement

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.: MIS Reorganization (B)

Describes the vice president of Management Information Services (MIS) Division's response to the dilemma facing him. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Decision Making