Publications

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Aiyesha Dey

Financial Reporting and Control
Throughout their careers, business leaders are required to measure and evaluate their organization's economic performance, improve resource allocation and strategy implementation within their organizations, and build accountability... View Details

February 1996 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Indianapolis: Activity-Based Costing of City Services (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A new administration in the City of Indianapolis is initially determined to privatize many municipal services. Before taking this action, however, the city managers want to know the current cost of performing these services with the municipal workers. Existing... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Public Sector; Activity Based Costing and Management; Service Delivery; Privatization; City; Indianapolis

16 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Data.gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation

may have not ” Joined in class by the Chief Information Office (CIO) of the United States, Vivek Kundra, who oversees Data.gov, Lakhani led the case discussion for 50 technology executives in a weeklong HBS executive education course,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

Research Summary

New Technologies and the Future of Food and Nutrition

By: Ray A. Goldberg

Ray A. Goldberg has been investigating the impact of new technologies on, and the functioning of, the global agribusiness system in the twenty-first century. He is currently developing a seminar to bring scientists, business leaders, academics, and consumer... View Details

1979
Article

Approximating the Efficiency Gain of Tax Reforms

By: Jerry R. Green and Eytan Sheshinski

Proper analysis of tax reform requires evaluation of the welfare effects induced by a change from one tax system to another. We present two methods for estimating these changes using only local information pertaining to an initial equilibrium with distortive taxes. It... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Change; Analysis

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May 2016
Article

When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint Versus Separate Evaluation

By: Iris Bohnet, Alexandra van Geen and Max Bazerman

We examine a new intervention to overcome gender biases in hiring, promotion, and job assignments: an "evaluation nudge," in which people are evaluated jointly rather than separately regarding their future performance. Evaluators are more likely to focus on individual... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Selection and Staffing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Performance; Gender

Find at Harvard

12 Dec 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Bottlenecks, Modules and Dynamic Architectural Capabilities

Keywords: by Carliss Y. Baldwin

28 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Helping Yelp Create More Accurate Reviews

extract more information from the reviews." Most of the average difference between the team's system and Yelp's falls in the area of restaurant quality. "This is because the simple average weights a... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Food & Beverage

January 2025
Technical Note

AI vs Human: Analyzing Acceptable Error Rates Using the Confusion Matrix

By: Tsedal Neeley and Tim Englehart

This technical note introduces the confusion matrix as a foundational tool in artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) for assessing the performance of classification models, focusing on their reliability for decision-making. A confusion matrix... View Details

Keywords: Reliability; Confusion Matrix; AI and Machine Learning; Decision Making; Measurement and Metrics; Performance

2013
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: General Gale Pollock and Services for the Vision Impaired

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins

In July 2012, retired United States Army Major General Gale Pollock created Elevivo, a venture that worked on developing a comprehensive disease management software system to support the growing number of visually impaired individuals by providing them with tailored... View Details

Keywords: Disease Management; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Education; Information Technology; Insurance; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

2006
Working Paper

Managing Functional Biases in Organizational Forecasts: A Case Study of Consensus Forecasting in Supply Chain Planning

To date, little research has been done on managing the organizational and political dimensions of generating and improving forecasts in corporate settings. We examine the implementation of a supply chain planning process at a consumer electronics company, concentrating... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Business or Company Management; Supply Chain Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Planning; Electronics Industry

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October 2017
Article

Progress In Interoperability: Measuring US Hospitals' Engagement In Sharing Patient Data

By: A Jay Holmgren, Vaishali Patel and Julia Adler-Milstein

Achieving an interoperable health care system remains a top US policy priority. Despite substantial efforts to encourage interoperability, the first set of national data in 2014 suggested that hospitals’ engagement levels were low. With 2015 data now available, we... View Details

Keywords: Health; Technology; Electronic Health Records; Health Care and Treatment; Data and Data Sets; Technology Networks; Policy; United States

Find at Harvard

October 2000 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Cisco Systems: Web-enablement

By: Richard L. Nolan, Kelley Porter and Christina Akers

Describes how Cisco web-enabled their ERP systems and developed the "front office" systems to electronically link to their customers and suppliers. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web; Service Operations; Information Technology Industry

February 2025
Tutorial

Preparing Business Leaders for an Era of Climate Instability: Understanding and Managing Physical Climate Risk

By: Michael W. Toffel and Spencer Glendon

In this compelling video, Spencer Glendon, founder of Probable Futures and Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, describes the profound implications of climate change for businesses, the economy, and societies around the world. Drawing from his background in... View Details

Keywords: Modeling; Climate Change; Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Forecasting and Prediction

May 28, 2019
Other Article

How Russia Found a Disinformation Haven in America

By: Rawi Abdelal and Galit Goldstein

The Mueller Report established that “the Russians” undertook information operations campaigns to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Though this has been clear for a long time, Americans continue to discuss Russian information operations in the wrong way.... View Details

Keywords: Elections; Donald Trump; Political Elections; National Security; Information Technology; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Social Media; Russia; United States

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June 1977 (Revised May 1997)
Case

University of Trent

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Focuses on two issues: 1) technical systems that can be employed in nonprofit organizations for control and motivational purposes. Systems discussed range from payroll monitoring systems to zero-base budgeting and 2) the managerial environment needed for serious... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Motivation and Incentives; Business or Company Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Governance Controls; Education Industry

Teaching Interest

Financial Reporting and Control

Throughout their careers, business leaders are required to measure and evaluate their organization's economic performance, improve resource allocation and strategy implementation within their organizations, and build accountability for performance through effective... View Details

January–February 2020
Article

Are You Undervaluing Your Customers?: It’s Time to Start Measuring and Managing Their Worth

By: Rob Markey

Leaders recognize that they should manage their businesses to maximize the value of the customer base. But too often, earnings pressures result in cost-cutting measures that hurt customers.

Loyalty-leading companies operate differently. They create systems for... View Details

Keywords: Customer Experience; Customer Value; Customer Centric Initiative; Customer Focused Organization; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Operations; Business Strategy

August 1997 (Revised March 1999)
Case

VeriFone (1997)

By: Richard L. Nolan, Anne Donnellon and Donna B. Stoddard

VeriFone, a leading manufacturer of payment systems technology, was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in June 1997. The case describes the strategic challenges that VeriFone faces as it positions itself to compete in the Internet payment systems marketplace. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Internet; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Business Strategy; Information Technology Industry