Publications

September 2012 (Revised September 2012)
Case

Inkaterra

By: Diego Comin, Rohan Gopaldas and Diego Rehder

The case presents the unique business model of Inkaterra, a leading eco-tourism organization in Peru, and the different strategies the company can pursue to grow. Through the experience of Inkaterra the case studies two general issues. First, it discusses the potential... View Details

Keywords: Inkaterra; Ecotourism; Tourism; Environment; Peru; Informal Sector; Regulation; Economic Development; Bottom Of The Pyramid; Technology Diffusion; Competitiveness; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Natural Environment; Market Entry and Exit; Conflict Management; Tourism Industry; Peru

1 Aug 2010
Conference Presentation

Lords of the harvest: Symbolic signaling and regulatory approval of genetically modified organisms in the nascent U.S. agriculture-biotechnology sector

By: Shon R. Hiatt and Sangchan Park

Keywords: Science; Information Technology; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

Article

Hurry or Wait: The Pros and Cons of Going Fast or Slow on Climate Change

By: Eleanor Denny and Jurgen Weiss

Climate change risk will likely force the de-carbonization of our electricity sector and thus involve massive investments in long-lived assets using many new and emerging technologies. Since technological progress (independent or dependent on deployment) will likely... View Details

Keywords: Electricity Sector; Environmental Risks; Fat Tails; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Climate Change; Information Technology; Investment; Technological Innovation; Cost vs Benefits

November 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

MiDAS: Automating Unemployment Benefits

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In 2015, the state of Michigan considered whether to nominate its Michigan Integrated Data Automated System (MiDAS) for a prestigious state technology award. Launched in 2013 amid severe budget pressures, the $47 million automated fraud detection system was designed to... View Details

March 2006 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Slots, Tables, and All That Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel

By: Dennis Campbell, Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, Marc Epstein and Joshua Bellin

The MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas had detailed information on loyal gaming customers, but could its information systems also be tailored to nongaming customers? As the nongaming business sectors became increasingly profitable both at the MGM Grand and in Las Vegas... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Accommodations Industry; Nevada

July 1990 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Singapore TradeNet: A Tale of One City

Describes the development of a new information technology-based trade document administration environment for the city-state of Singapore. A considerable effort, involving many governmental and private sector organizations, results in a new set of practices and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Information Technology; Emerging Markets; Policy; Public Administration Industry; Singapore

February 2012
Article

Americans Do IT Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

US productivity growth accelerated after 1995 (unlike Europe's), particularly in sectors that intensively use information technologies (IT). Using two new micro panel datasets we show that US multinationals operating in Europe also experienced a "productivity miracle."... View Details

Keywords: IT Productivity; American IT Productivity; Information Technology; Performance Productivity; Multinational Firms and Management; Management Practices and Processes; United States; Europe

Article

Las Microfinanzas: Creación simultánea de impacto social y valor comercial

By: Michael Chu

Microfinance is the best known and most successful expression of inclusive business. When the disbursement of financial services in small sizes to enterprising people in the informal sectors of the economy is capable of yielding superior commercial returns, it enables... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Economy; Investment Return; Service Operations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Poverty

2016
Working Paper

Are 'Better' Ideas More Likely to Succeed? An Empirical Analysis of Startup Evaluation

By: Erin L. Scott, Pian Shu and Roman M. Lubynsky

This paper studies the uncertainty associated with screening early stage ventures. Using data on 652 ventures in high-growth industries, we examine whether experienced entrepreneurs, executives, and investors can predict the outcomes of early stage ventures by reading... View Details

Keywords: Commercialization; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups

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November 2007
Background Note

Asset Allocation I

By: Joshua D. Coval, Erik Stafford, Rodrigo Osmo, John Jernigan, Zack Page and Paulo Passoni

The goal of these simulations is to understand the mathematics of mean-variance optimization and the equilibrium pricing of risk if all investors use this rule with common information sets. Simulation A focuses on five to 10 years of monthly sector returns that are... View Details

Keywords: Asset Pricing; Capital; Investment Return; Risk Management; Mathematical Methods

Research Summary

Professor Hiatt’s research is aimed at discovering how institutional factors can affect sector growth and technology development and adoption by mediating and moderating uncertainty. His work encompasses two related research questions:

1) How can... View Details

May 2004
Article

The Case for International Coordination of Electricity Regulation: Evidence from the Measurement of Efficiency in South America

A decade of experience has shown that monitoring the performance of public and private monopolies is the hardest part of electricity sector reform in South America—because operators control most of the information needed for effective regulation. South American... View Details

Keywords: Information; Mathematical Methods; Monopoly; Globalization; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; South America

August 2023
Case

WayCool: Reimagining the Food Supply Chain

By: Paul Gompers and Kairavi Dey

Founded in 2015, WayCool, is an Indian agri-tech start-up that built a B2B operation acquiring fruits and vegetables from product-specific agriculture companies and small-holding farmers. It sold them to business customers, such as local retail stores, restaurants, and... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Digital Transformation; Operations; Business Strategy; Supply Chain; Performance; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; South Asia

Spring 2012
Article

The Need for Sector-Specific Materiality and Sustainability Reporting Standards

By: Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus, Jean Rogers and George Serafeim

Even though the supply of sustainability information has increased considerably in the last decade, companies are still failing to disclose material information in a comparable format. We believe this has two downsides. On the one hand, companies are not adequately... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Reporting; Standard Setting; Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Accounting; Standards; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Corporate Disclosure; Competitive Advantage; Capital Markets; Accounting Industry; United States

December 1998
Case

Pioneer Hi-Bred: Turning Seeds Into Factories

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

The agricultural sector is among the preeminent information technology users in our economy," exclaimed an August 1998 Forbes ASAP survey of the U.S. economy's best and worst users of information technology (IT). The survey designated Pioneer Hi-Bred International,... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Multinational Firms and Management; Information Management; Infrastructure; Business Strategy; Information Technology; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Iowa

2019
Working Paper

Industrial Change, the Boundary of the Firm, and Racial Employment Segregation

By: John-Paul Ferguson and Rembrand Koning

Racial employment segregation between large workplaces in America has grown over the last generation. We know little about how changes in patterns of employment by economic sector have contributed to this growth, though. While there are many stylized narratives about... View Details

Keywords: Workplace Segregation; Firm Boundaries; Organizations; Employees; Segmentation; Race; Change; United States

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September 2019
Case

Starling Trust Sciences: Measuring Trust in Organizations

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and James Weber

Stephen Scott needed to decide whether to keep his behavioral analytics startup in the people analytics sector or shift his company into the RegTech sector. Starling had develop technology that enabled its customers to anticipate and shape the behavior of their... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Analytics; Financial Institutions; Banks and Banking; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; United Kingdom

September – October 2011
Article

The Rise and Consequences of Corporate Sustainability Reporting

By: Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

For many decades the cornerstone of corporate reporting has been financial information that is presented in a company's annual, semi-annual, and quarterly reports. These comprehensive financial reports—required by law for public companies in most countries... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; ESG Reporting; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Annual Reports; Operations; Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Performance; Business Model; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Disclosure

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June 2024
Article

Real Growth in Space Manufacturing Output Substantially Exceeds Growth in the Overall Space Economy

By: Tina Highfill and Matthew Weinzierl

Accurately measuring real economic output in the space economy is made difficult by the rapid increase in capabilities and decrease in prices of launch and satellite technologies achieved over the past two decades. Nominal measures of output in space will tend to... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Economic Growth; Price; Production; Aerospace Industry