Publications

Educators

12 Jul 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Sticky Capital Controls

Keywords: by Miguel Acosta-Henao, Laura Alfaro, and Andrés Fernández

January 2007
Article

Introducing the First Management Control Systems: Evidence from the Retail Sector

By: Tatiana Sandino

Focusing on a sample of US retailers, I study the management control systems (MCS) that firms introduce when they first invest in controls, and identify four categories of initial MCS, which are defined in terms of the purposes these MCS fulfill. The first category,... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Firm Growth; Corporate Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Management Systems; Growth and Development Strategy

SSRN

Many firms can choose between an employment mode, in which the firm controls service provision by employing professionals, sales representatives or other types of agents, and an agency (or platform) mode, in which these agents take control... View Details

2013
Working Paper

The Appeal of the Appropriate: Accounting, Risk Management, and the Competition for the Supply of Control Systems

By: Anette Mikes

How do certain risk measurements in organizations come to be seen as more reliable and acceptable than others? Taking a multiple-control perspective, I investigate the aftermath of a control debacle at a financial services company (MultiBank), focusing on its insurance... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Multiple Control Systems; Interactive Control Systems; Performance Measurement; Risk Measurement; Financialization Of Accounting; Institutional Logics; Banking; Risk Management; Fair Value Accounting; Insurance; Financial Services Industry

Read Now

October 1996 (Revised December 1996)
Case

United Electric Controls

By: H. Kent Bowen, Jody H. Gittell and Sylvie Ryckebusch

United Electric Controls (UE) was a small, traditional family-owned manufacturing company when Dave Reis, the youngest member of the Reis family, took over the business. This case describes Reis's efforts to change UE's traditional work practices in order to make the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Family Business; Production; Business Strategy; Human Resources; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decisions; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Technology; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

February 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Background Note

Note on Measuring Controlling Shareholder's Ownership, Voting, and Control Rights

Founders and their families can raise equity without relinquishing control of their companies through the use of mechanisms such as dual-class stock, pyramidal ownership, voting agreements, and disproportionate board representation. The use of these mechanisms in... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Measurement and Metrics; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations; Valuation

Educators

June 2003
Module Note

Control in Inter-organizational Settings

By: V.G. Narayanan

Describes the main themes of the module on control in interorganizational settings, which instructors can teach as part of a second-year MBA course on control. Identifies the root causes of control problems in interorganizational settings and identifies principles for... View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Governance Controls; Policy; Organizational Design; Problems and Challenges

2011
Case

Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes: Transforming the Management Control System in Time of Crisis

By: Ning Jia, F. Warren McFarlan and Xiaohui Li

Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes Co. is a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) that manufactures cast pipe products and steel products. The company had grown to become a dominant player in the ductile iron pipe industry, holding more than 40% domestic market share and nearly... View Details

Keywords: Control Systems; Cost Centers; Manufacturing; Profit Centers; China

Research Summary

Control in Inter-organizational Settings

By: V.G. Narayanan

Professor Narayanan is studying how franchise owners use measurement tools such as the Balanced Scorecard and mystery shopper survyes to mitigate incentive and information frictions that arise between franchisors and franchisees. He is also studying control issues that... View Details

26 Mar 2019
News

Rent Control

Research Summary

When Should Control Be Shared?

The right to participate in control is one of the primary instruments for protecting stakeholder interests in a firm. A basic question is how control should be allocated across a firm's various stakeholders, including investors, employees, customers, and suppliers.... View Details

Research Summary

Corporate Control and Valuation

By: Richard S. Ruback

Richard S. Ruback's research and course development focus on applied corporate finance-in particular, corporate control transactions and valuation. His research on corporate control has yielded case studies on major transactions, such as the View Details

September 2003 (Revised September 2005)
Background Note

Financial Reporting and Control Framework

Details the framework adopted in the core Financial Reporting and Control course. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting

June 2023
Case

Rent Control in Boston, Again?

By: Robin Greenwood, Richard S. Ruback, Robert Ialenti and Tom Quinn

This case explores the merits and drawbacks of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposal to bring rent control back to the city in 2023. It lays out the features, objectives, and potential unintended consequences of this policy, before highlighting the expected impact of... View Details

Keywords: Renting or Rental; Housing; Urban Development; Policy; Boston; Massachusetts

Educators

Article

Total Cost Control in Project Management via Satisficing

By: Joel Goh and Nicholas G. Hall

We consider projects with uncertain activity times and the possibility of expediting, or crashing, them. Activity times come from a partially specified distribution within a family of distributions. This family is described by one or more of the following details about... View Details

Keywords: Project Management; Time And Cost Control; Robust Optimization; Satisficing; Linear Decision Rule; PERT; Management; Cost Management; Projects

1971
Book

Controlling Foreign Operations

By: David Hawkins, E. Bursk, J. Dearden and V. Longstreet

Keywords: Operations