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- All HBS Web
(2,568)
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- News (475)
- Research (1,643)
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- August 2018 (Revised July 2019)
- Background Note
Conducting a Kaizen
By: Willy Shih
Kaizen, meaning change for the better in Japanese, is a set of activities directed at improving standardized work, equipment, and procedures for carrying out daily production or other business operations. It was popularized by Toyota as an integral part of its Toyota... View Details
Keywords: Best Practices; Continuous Improvement; Kaizen; Process Improvement; 5S; Muda; Toyota Production System; Production; Service Operations; Performance Improvement; North and Central America; Asia; Japan
Shih, Willy. "Conducting a Kaizen." Harvard Business School Background Note 619-016, August 2018. (Revised July 2019.)
- 2024
- Working Paper
The Revised-Is-Quality Heuristic: Why Consumers Prefer Products Labeled as Revised
By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Leslie K. John, Ed O’Brien and Michael I. Norton
From downloading never-ending updates to tracking ever-newer releases, consumers
today are surrounded by revised products that purport to have improved upon their predecessors.
Seven experiments examine when and why consumers rely on a “revised-is-quality”... View Details
Keywords: Product Change; Versioning; Expectancy Effects; Heuristics; Intuitive Processing; Product Marketing; Change; Perception; Consumer Behavior
Garcia-Rada, Ximena, Leslie K. John, Ed O’Brien, and Michael I. Norton. "The Revised-Is-Quality Heuristic: Why Consumers Prefer Products Labeled as Revised." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-087, February 2019. (Revised September 2024. Revise and resubmit, Journal of Marketing Research.)
- 15 Jul 2013
- Research & Ideas
Five Imperatives for Improving Health Care
innovation efforts traditionally have focused on new products such as drugs and devices, survey respondents ranked process improvements in care delivery as the most promising opportunity for View Details
- Research Summary
Selection and Market Reallocation: Productivity Gains from Multinational Production
By: Laura Alfaro
Assessing the productivity gains from multinational production has been a vital topic of economic research and policy debate. Positive aggregate productivity gains are often attributed to within-firm productivity improvement; however, an alternative, less emphasized... View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
Online Word of Mouth and Product Review Disagreement
By: Frank Nagle and Christoph Riedl
Studies of online word of mouth have frequently posited―but never systematically conceptualized and explored―that the level of disagreement between existing product reviews can impact the volume and the valence of future reviews. In this study we develop a theoretical... View Details
Keywords: Online Word Of Mouth; Online Communities; Viral Marketing; Online Product Reviews; Quality; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Reference Programs; Social and Collaborative Networks; Digital Marketing; Analytics and Data Science
Nagle, Frank, and Christoph Riedl. "Online Word of Mouth and Product Review Disagreement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-091, May 2013. (Revised May 2015, selected for AOM Best Paper Proceedings.)
- March 1999 (Revised February 2001)
- Background Note
New Product Development Imperative, The
By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Edward T Smith
Introduces students to the best practices for managing new product development projects. Includes concepts and tools related to structuring teams consistent with the project objectives as well as concepts and processes for improving project execution. View Details
Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams
Wheelwright, Steven C., and Edward T Smith. "New Product Development Imperative, The." Harvard Business School Background Note 699-152, March 1999. (Revised February 2001.)
- Article
Improving the Rhythm of Your Collaboration
By: Ethan S. Bernstein, Jesse Shore and David Lazer
In this article, we summarize our research on the value of intermittency for complex problem solving at work and give practical advice on how organizations can improve the rhythm of their people's collaboration. Executives have been counseled to be collaborative... View Details
Bernstein, Ethan S., Jesse Shore, and David Lazer. "Improving the Rhythm of Your Collaboration." MIT Sloan Management Review 61, no. 1 (Fall 2019).
- 2016
- Working Paper
Workplace Design: The Good, the Bad, and the Productive
By: Michael Housman and Dylan Minor
We study the effects of performance spillover in the workplace-both positive and negative-on several dimensions, and find that it is pervasive and decreasing in the physical distance between workers. We also find that workers have different strengths, and that while... View Details
Keywords: Strategic Human Resource Management; Peer Effects; Productivity; Spillovers; Toxic Worker; Strategy; Working Conditions; Performance Productivity; Human Resources
Housman, Michael, and Dylan Minor. "Workplace Design: The Good, the Bad, and the Productive." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-147, June 2016.
- June 1994 (Revised March 1995)
- Background Note
New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes
Addresses the common mistakes made in new product development and launch. Many times customers' and suppliers' perceptions of the degree of product/market innovation do not match. One of them may view the innovations as a "breakthrough," but the other may view it only... View Details
Rangan, V. Kasturi. "New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes." Harvard Business School Background Note 594-127, June 1994. (Revised March 1995.)
- 23 Apr 2012
- Research & Ideas
How to Brand a Next-Generation Product
notice a new name.” Like Apple, most consumer-centric companies deal with the dilemma of how to brand the next- generation of an existing product. Product upgrades make up the majority of corporate research and development activity.... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel
- April 2017
- Case
Luminopia: Improving Treatment for Visual Disorders
By: Doug J. Chung and Sarah Mehta
Luminopia—a start-up founded in January 2016 by three Harvard College freshmen—uses virtual reality technology to treat amblyopia (more commonly called “lazy eye”), the single biggest cause of visual disorders among children. By February 2017, the three founders had... View Details
Keywords: Pricing; Virtual Reality; Startup; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Business Startups; Price; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Cambridge; Massachusetts; United States
Chung, Doug J., and Sarah Mehta. "Luminopia: Improving Treatment for Visual Disorders." Harvard Business School Case 517-065, April 2017.
- 07 Jul 2003
- What Do You Think?
Can We Have Too Much Productivity Improvement?
Summing Up There was a wide divergence of opinion on this month's column. A surprising number of respondents concluded that an economy could suffer, at least in the short-run, from too much productivity improvement. But many suggested... View Details
Keywords: by James Heskett
- August 1998
- Case
Electronic Commerce at Air Products
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey
In 1998,chief information officers (CIOs) in the highly competitive international gases and chemicals business faced the reality that electronic commerce capability was a strategic necessity. The results of annual surveys of technology officers in the chemical industry... View Details
Keywords: Management Teams; Information Technology; Globalized Markets and Industries; Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Business Strategy; Chemical Industry; United States
McFarlan, F. Warren, and Melissa Dailey. "Electronic Commerce at Air Products." Harvard Business School Case 399-035, August 1998.
- March 2004 (Revised April 2005)
- Case
Midwest Office Products
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Presents an easy introduction to time-driven activity-based costing (ABC) that allows students to build a simple ABC model of order profitability. Midwest's time-driven ABC approach is based on two categories of parameter estimates. The first is the cost per hour of... View Details
Keywords: Cost; Price; Activity Based Costing and Management; Time Management; Financial Reporting; Profit; Performance Improvement; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Performance Evaluation
Kaplan, Robert S. "Midwest Office Products." Harvard Business School Case 104-073, March 2004. (Revised April 2005.)
- December 1987 (Revised August 1990)
- Case
Florida Power & Light's Quality Improvement Program
Describes a major electric utility's highly successful effort to institute a comprehensive quality improvement program throughout the organization. Designed to be used in a comparative analysis of the quality improvement effort described in Paul Revere Insurance Co.... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Quality; Performance Productivity; Utilities Industry; Florida
Hart, Christopher. "Florida Power & Light's Quality Improvement Program." Harvard Business School Case 688-043, December 1987. (Revised August 1990.)
- August 2018
- Case
Performance Improvement Consulting and Hi-R-Me: Making Sales Calls
By: Frank V. Cespedes and David Mattson
This case study focuses on a professional services firm (“Performance Improvement Consulting”) and its sales calls on Hi-R-Me, a potential client. The case is supplemented by videos showing the initial contact call, a follow-up discovery call, and a face-to-face... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V., and David Mattson. "Performance Improvement Consulting and Hi-R-Me: Making Sales Calls." Harvard Business School Case 819-043, August 2018.
- July 1987
- Case
Altoona Corp.: Computer Products Division
By: Roger E. Bohn and Robert H. Hayes
A relatively small manufacturer of computer memory disks has achieved a major market position through the use of its statistical quality control (SQC) program. It is now expanding the production of a new line of disks and is encountering problems getting the process... View Details
Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Volatility; Performance Consistency; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity; Quality; Mathematical Methods; Hardware; Manufacturing Industry
Bohn, Roger E., and Robert H. Hayes. "Altoona Corp.: Computer Products Division." Harvard Business School Case 688-010, July 1987.
- Article
How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition
By: Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann
Information technology is revolutionizing products. Once composed solely of mechanical and electrical parts, products have become complex systems that combine hardware, sensors, data storage, microprocessors, software, and connectivity in myriad ways. These "smart,... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Transformation; Information Technology Industry
Porter, Michael E., and James E. Heppelmann. "How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition." Harvard Business Review 92, no. 11 (November 2014): 64–88.
- Article
Improved Bounds on the Sizes of S.P Numbers
By: Paul Myer Kominers and Scott Duke Kominers
A number which is S.P in base r is a positive integer which is equal to the sum of its base-r digits multiplied by the product of its base-r digits. These numbers have been studied extensively in The Mathematical Gazette. Recently, Shah Ali... View Details
Keywords: Mathematical Methods
Kominers, Paul Myer, and Scott Duke Kominers. "Improved Bounds on the Sizes of S.P Numbers." Mathematical Gazette 94, no. 529 (March 2010): 127–129.
- Forthcoming
- Article
Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency
By: Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi
Through a large-scale field experiment with 393,036 customers considering opening a credit card account with a nationwide retail bank, we investigate how providing transparency into an offering’s tradeoffs affects subsequent rates of customer acquisition and long-run... View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Customer Selection; Customer Compatibility; Retention; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Australia
Buell, Ryan W., and MoonSoo Choi. "Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency." Management Science (forthcoming). (Pre-published online May 8, 2024.)