Publications

Article

Strategic Management of Product Recovery

By: Michael W. Toffel

Manufacturers of an expanding range of durable products are facing regulatory and market pressures to manage the products they manufactured upon their end of life (EOL). In part, this attention is motivated by a growing number of countries—especially across Europe and... View Details

Keywords: Product; Environmental Sustainability; Cost Management; Government Legislation; Logistics; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Europe; Asia; United States

Find at Harvard

Read Now

03 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

When Showing Know-How Backfires for Women Managers

Most of us would like to impress the people we work with. But new research from Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Alexandra Feldberg finds that, for women managers, this aspiration can undermine performance. Feldberg discovered that women View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Retail; Consumer Products

Fall 2018
Article

The Value of Fit Information in Online Retail: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

By: Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno

Online channels generate frictions when selling products with nondigital attributes, such as apparel. Customers may be reluctant to purchase products they have not been able to try on, and those customers who do purchase may return products when they do not fit as... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Information; Fit Uncertainty; Online Retail; Randomized Field Experiment; Virtual Fitting Room; Digital Retail; Customization and Personalization; Internet and the Web; Value; Performance Improvement; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

Research Summary

Management Control Systems in Multiunit Companies

By: Tatiana Sandino

Professor Sandino conducts research on early-stage multiunit companies that introduce management control systems to help maintain operations, as well as company culture, as they grow, but also to enable adaptation to the different markets that they serve. Building... View Details

30 Apr 2024
Book

When Managers Set Unrealistic Expectations, Employees Cut Ethical Corners

pressures to deliver ever greater returns have intensified. Consider some of the high-profile cases that have made the headlines over the years since the article was published: healthcare fraud at Columbia/HCA (1997), labour abuses in the View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

November 2011
Case

Comfort Class Transport: Does Customer Service Need an Overhaul?

By: Michael J Roberts and Paul E. Morrison

The general manager of a chauffeured limousine transport company is concerned about underperformance at the company's customer service call center. The eight-person call center handles almost all customer interaction including discussing company services with... View Details

Keywords: Capacity Utilization; Supply ＆ Demand; Operations Management; Customer Service; Management; Demand and Consumers; Service Operations; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Performance Capacity; Customer Satisfaction; Transportation Industry

March 2018
Case

EKOL Logistics: Thinking Outside the Box

By: Willy C. Shih and Esel Çekin

This case describes Ekol, an intermodal transportation and logistics company, and how it manages capacity planning. Its busiest routes linked motor vehicle assemblers in Germany and Turkey with many of their parts suppliers, but it had also developed key links in... View Details

September 2013
Case

Management Levels at Staples (A): Company and Organization (Abridged)

By: David A. Garvin

Abridged version of one of six cases that describe the roles and responsibilities of managers at each of the hierarchical levels of management within the U.S. Stores business unit of Staples, the world's largest office supply company. Together, the cases form a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Managerial Roles; Organizational Design; Management Practices and Processes; Job Design and Levels; Business Processes; Consumer Products Industry; United States

27 Apr 2020
News

Managing Through Crisis: How MBAs Are Bring PPE to Boston Hospitals

22 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

Manager Visibility No Guarantee of Fixing Problems

the "long tail" of problems. While it's highly visible mistakes such as medication errors that make the headlines, health-care managers need also be concerned about less dramatic infrastructure-type problems—such as insufficient... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

July 2010
Technical Note

Note on the Asset Management Industry

By: Clayton S. Rose and Scott Waggoner

This note provides an overview of the structure and function of the asset management industry, with a primary focus on the U.S. It was designed to support the HBS MBA course "Managing the Financial Firm." View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Business or Company Management; Industry Structures; Financial Services Industry; United States

May 2018
Supplement

Video Supplement to Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A. case (693-019): An updated video of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Georgetown, KY site showing seat installation

By: Willy C. Shih

This is an updated video of the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) assembly facility in Georgetown, KY. It is meant to be paired with the 693-019 Toyota Motor Manufacturing U.S.A. case, but with higher quality video. The vidoe shows a line tour of Assembly Two... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; Manufacturing Strategy; Lean Management; Toyota Production System; Just-in-time; Lean Production; Automotive Industry; Automobile Manufacturing; Automotive; Automotive Supply Chain; Production; Operations; Logistics; Auto Industry; United States

9 AM – 9 AM EDT, 09 Oct 2018

HBX Economics for Managers

Gain the knowledge and skills to craft successful business strategy, whether you are an aspiring marketing professional, strategy consultant, or entrepreneur, preparing for an MBA, or just looking to contribute more to business decision making. Program Dates: October... View Details

March 2019
Teaching Note

Zespri Grows

By: David E. Bell and John Masko

Teaching Note for HBS No. 519-047. View Details