Publications

Find at Harvard

Research Summary

The Role of Information Technology in the Provision of Services

By: James I. Cash

James I. Cash, Jr. is exploring the role of information technology in service management. Specifically, he is studying the implications of the ubiquity of information technology at three levels in service-providing organizations. (In the United States today, service... View Details

December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Blockbuster Inc. & Technological Substitution (C): The Internet Changes the Game

Investigates how the rise of the Internet as a vehicle for renting and buying movies has disrupted the video rental industry and how market leader Blockbuster Inc. can and should respond to these developments. Explores how the emergence of e-commerce affects the degree... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Competition; Change Management; Service Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

November 10, 2020
Article

Value-Based Health Care in Four Different Health Care Systems

By: Mjåset Christer, Umar Ikram, Navraj S. Nagra and Thomas W. Feeley

Health care systems across the world have increasingly embraced a value-based health care (VBHC) agenda. They do so for different reasons, using different foundations, and variations on the tools and tactics to effect their strategic goals. The role of governments,... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Health Care; Comparative Analysis; Health Care and Treatment; Value; Global Range; Performance Improvement

Find at Harvard

Read Now

March 2010 (Revised April 2014)
Case

American Well: The Doctor Will E-See You Now

By: Elie Ofek and Ron Laufer

What is next for healthcare IT provider American Well, whose innovative Online Care technology allows physicians to deliver care to patients online in real time? Using American Well's platform, patients with non-emergency health concerns can communicate with physicians... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Service Delivery; Online Technology; Health Industry

April 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens

By: Antonio Moreno and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in February 2021 as Mohamad Ballout, co-founder and CEO of Kitopi, a Dubai-based managed cloud kitchen platform, is looking over the company’s 2020 results. Propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, delivery orders had been on the rise globally and dine-in... View Details

Keywords: Cloud Kitchens; Food; Operations; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Food and Beverage Industry; Middle East; North Africa

March 2016 (Revised May 2016)
Case

UFO Moviez—Gentle Disruption

By: Hong Luo, Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Saloni Chaturvedi

UFO Moviez is an Indian technology services provider that enables low-cost, digital delivery of films to cinemas. UFO’s satellite-based technology enables a significantly wider release of films compared to traditional analog prints and standard, higher-resolution... View Details

Keywords: Film Entertainment; Information Technology; Distribution; Disruption; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; India

September 2020
Case

Enabling Teamwork at the Cleveland Clinic

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Michaela J. Kerrissey

This case examines efforts to foster teamwork within and across work units in the Cleveland Clinic, a large, distributed healthcare delivery organization. With a long history of valuing teamwork since its founding in 1921, the Clinic had taken dramatic steps to further... View Details

Keywords: Teamwork; Teaming; Health Care; Health Care and Treatment; Groups and Teams; Health Industry; United States

2011
Case

The Secrets to Managing Business Analytics Projects

By: Thomas H. Davenport, Stijn Viaene and Annabel Van den Bunder

Managers have used business analytics to inform their decision making for years. And while few companies would qualify as being what management innovation and strategy expert Thomas H. Davenport has dubbed "analytic competitors," more and more businesses are moving in... View Details

Keywords: Analytics; Business or Company Management; Information Management

07 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 7

founded eBay Motors and turned it into a multi-billion dollar business and also advised several successful online marketplaces such as Lyft, Wanelo, and TaskRabbit. For his first investment as partner, Rothman was particularly interested in the food View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Massive Incorporated (A)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Clark Gilbert and Victoria Winston

How do you go to market with a brand new product in a new industry? How does a business develop an opportunity and then adapt its strategy to ensure success? Who are the early adopters and how does a business work with them? Katherine Hays, chief operating office at... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Product Launch; Digital Marketing; Business Startups; Advertising Industry

January 2015 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve

By: Ryan W. Buell, Ananth Raman and Vidhya Muthuram

Celebrated as one of the world's premiere luxury hotel brands, Oberoi Hotels attracts and serves some of the most quality-sensitive guests in the world. The case considers the challenge of how an organization, with a standardized service model, can repeatedly delight... View Details

Keywords: Service Quality; Service Management; Service Quality Competition; Customer Management; Customer Service Excellence; Employee Empowerment; Employee Engagement; Employee Training; India; Hospitality; Hotel Industry; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Quality; Accommodations Industry; India

08 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, August 8, 2017

subsumed by the other three. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53024 August 2017 Obstetrics & Gynecology Relationship Between Labor and Delivery Unit Management Practices and Maternal Outcomes By:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2015 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Trouble at Tessei

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan W. Buell

In 2005, Teruo Yabe is asked to revive Tessei, the 669-person JR-East subsidiary responsible for cleaning its Shinkansen ("bullet") trains. Operational mistakes, customer complaints, safety issues, and employee turnover are at or near all-time highs, even as the... View Details

Keywords: Service Management; Employee Engagement; Employee Motivation; Leadership And Managing People; Quality Improvement; Efficiency; Japan; Operational Transparency; Employee Coordination; Transparency; Leadership; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Employees; Quality; Transportation Industry; Japan

October 2007 (Revised December 2007)
Case

TiVo 2007: DVRs and Beyond

By: David B. Yoffie and Michael Slind

Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo, had placed multiple strategic bets on his company. In September 2007, that strategy was due for a major test. TiVo was a maker of digital video recorder (DVR) products and a distributor of DVR technology. Rogers believed that macro-trends in... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Business Model; Television Entertainment; Intellectual Property; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Distribution; Problems and Challenges; Partners and Partnerships; Research; Internet; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

03 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 3, 2009

control over pricing and associated revenues from the content to the content provider in order to reduce price competition at the platform level. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-009.pdf Applying the Care Delivery... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 May 2015
What Do You Think?

Are You Ready for Personalized Predictive Analytics?

Summing Up Personal Predictive Analytics: Should We Be Careful What We Wish For? The world of continuous monitoring of numerous sensors for machines and humans, limitless information storage capacity, and big data combined with rapid... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

December 2002
Case

Putnam Investments: Work@Home

Putnam Investments uses technology to enable many of its frontline service providers to work routinely and permanently from their homes. This case explores issues related to this strategy, from conceptualization to implementation and highlighting continuous... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Service Delivery; Financial Services Industry