Publications

Article

Evaluating and Managing Tramp Shipping Lines Performances: A New Methodology Combining Balanced Scorecard and Network DEA

By: Ying-Chen Hsu, Cheng-Chi Chung, Hsuan-Shih Lee and H. David Sherman

The shipping industry is essential for the economic development of nations like Taiwan as a means delivering and receiving cargo. Shipping has been depressed since 2008 as a result of the financial crisis increasing pressure for the shipping lines to operate more... View Details

Keywords: Network Data Envelopment Analysis; Shipping Line; Centralized Approach; Cross-efficiency; Balanced Scorecard; Performance Evaluation

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June 1994 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Cunard Line Ltd.: Managing Integrated Marketing Communications

By: Stephen A. Greyser

Cunard, the world's oldest luxury line company, is confronted with several key issues involving its marketing and marketing communications strategy. One concerns the balance between image/positioning advertising and short-term-oriented promotional... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Structure; Identity; Balance and Stability; Shipping Industry

January 1990 (Revised February 1990)
Case

MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line

By: Robert J. Dolan

MSA has commissioned a major market research study to assess demand potential for a computer software system designed for aerospace and defense contractors. Students must evaluate the results of the study (including a conjoint analysis) to assess whether MSA should... View Details

Keywords: Product; Marketing; Mathematical Methods; Software

August 1994 (Revised May 1999)
Teaching Note

Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation: Product Line Cost System TN

By: Robin Cooper and Robert S. Kaplan

Keywords: Cost; System

2025
Working Paper

Management and Firm Dynamism

By: Nicholas Bloom, Jonathan S. Hartley, Raffaella Sadun, Rachel Schuh and John Van Reenen

We show better-managed firms are more dynamic in plant acquisitions, disposals, openings and closings in U.S. Census and international data. Better-managed firms also birth better-managed plants, and improve the performance of the plants they acquire. To explain these... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices; Productivity; Management Practices and Processes; Mergers and Acquisitions; Competition; Business or Company Management; Performance Productivity

1999
Chapter

Managing Short-Lifecycle Products

By: A. Raman and Marshall Fisher

Keywords: History

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

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Teaching Interest

Product Management 101 & 102

By: Julia B. Austin

Julia previously taught Product Management 101 & 102 (PM 101/102). This is a two-semester project-based course that uses a learning-by-doing approach to build basic product management skills. Students evaluate user needs and specify functional requirements... View Details

March 2022
Teaching Note

Sustainable Product Management at Solvay

By: George Serafeim

This teaching note is designed to be used in conjunction with the case “Sustainable Product Management at Solvay,” HBS No.120-081 and its related products to help faculty deepen students’ comprehension of business issues and energize classroom discussion. View Details

August 2019
Case

Subscription Lines Dilemma

By: Victoria Ivashina and Terrence Shu

This case follows a fictional managing partner of a private equity firm, as she contemplates whether to utilize subscription lines of credit in her firm’s funds. Subscription lines are revolving lines of credit secured by commitments from a fund’s investors. Private... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Credit; Strategy

Here is an in-depth guide to the most powerful available benchmarking technique for improving service organization performance — Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The book outlines DEA as a benchmarking technique, identifies high cost service units, isolates... View Details

June 2009 (Revised March 2011)
Module Note

The Creative Industries: Managing Products and Product Portfolios

By: Anita Elberse

This module note examines the way in which professional content producers in the creative industries approach product and product portfolio management, and explores the underlying reasons for their strategies. View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Management Practices and Processes; Marketing; Product Development; Production; Creativity

15 Nov 2021
News

As Supply Lines Strain, Some Corporations Rewrite Production Playbook

2017
Working Paper

Management as a Technology?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

Are some management practices akin to a technology that can explain firm and national productivity, or do they simply reflect contingent management styles? We collect data on core management practices from over 11,000 firms in 34 countries. We find large cross-country... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices; Productivity; Competition; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Productivity

SSRN

May 2018
Article

Selection and Market Reallocation: Productivity Gains from Multinational Production

By: Laura Alfaro and Maggie X. Chen

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

Keywords: Productivity Gains; Multinational Production; Selection; Market Reallocation; And Within-firm Productivity; Multinational Firms and Management; Production; Performance Productivity; Competition; Mathematical Methods

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September 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Digital Microscopy at Carl Zeiss: Managing Disruption

By: Willy Shih

Ulrich Simon, the head of the Microscopy business group at Carl Zeiss AG knew that his unit was facing a disruptive threat, so he chartered a special team to tackle the industrial segment. Given a high degree of autonomy, the project team developed an understanding of... View Details

Keywords: Modularity; High Technology Products; Emergent Strategy; Product Lines; Corporate Strategy; Digital Platforms; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Industry; Germany

July 2015 (Revised April 2016)
Case

Lomography: Analog in a Digital World

By: John T. Gourville, Karol Misztal and Emer Moloney

In spite of the world's move to digital photography, in 2013 Lomography continues to design and offer analog (film) cameras to a loyal following of artistic photographers. Now it must decide whether to stick to its traditional offerings, to expand into artistic lenses... View Details

Keywords: Positioning; Product Lines; Product Line Management; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technological Innovation; Brands and Branding; Fine Arts Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry

February 1983 (Revised May 1984)
Case

Managing Product Safety: The Ford Pinto

Presents an accounting of Ford Motor Company's handling of a product safety controversy (1970-77) surrounding its Pinto subcompact car. May be used as part of a series, Managing Product Safety, that provides an opportunity to compare and contrast the social response... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Crisis Management; Product; Auto Industry; United States