Publications

SSRN

Read Now

June 2016
Article

Managing the High Intensity Workplace: An 'Always Available' Culture Breeds a Variety of Dysfunctional Behaviors

By: Erin M. Reid and Lakshmi Ramarajan

People today are under intense pressure to be “ideal workers”—totally committed to their jobs and always on call. But after interviewing hundreds of professionals in many fields, the authors have concluded that selfless dedication to work is often unnecessary and... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Working Conditions; Work-Life Balance; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture

Register to Read

28 Jun 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Leviathan in Business: Varieties of State Capitalism and their Implications for Economic Performance

Keywords: by Aldo Musacchio & Sergio G. Lazzarini

Article

The Effects of Product Line Breadth: Evidence from the Automotive Industry

By: Antonio Moreno and Christian Terwiesch

Using a detailed data set from the U.S. automotive industry, we enrich the existing literature on product line breadth with new results that highlight previously unexplored operational aspects of its benefits and costs. We find that expanding product line breadth has a... View Details

Keywords: Variety; Pricing; Automotive Industry; Marketing/operations Interface; Platforms; Empirical Operations Management; Product Marketing; Production; Management; Auto Industry

2007
Working Paper

Proprietary vs. Open Two-Sided Platforms and Social Efficiency

By: Andrei Hagiu

This paper identifies a fundamental economic welfare tradeoff between two-sided open platforms and two-sided proprietary (closed) platforms connecting consumers and producers. Proprietary platforms create two-sided deadweight losses through monopoly pricing but at the... View Details

Keywords: Two-Sided Markets; Platforms; Indirect Network Effects; Product Variety; Social Efficiency; Two-Sided Platforms; Network Effects; Welfare or Wellbeing

Read Now

August 2019
Article

When and How to Diversify—A Multicategory Utility Model for Personalized Content Recommendation

By: Yicheng Song, Nachiketa Sahoo and Elie Ofek

Sometimes we desire change, a break from the same or an opportunity to fulfill different aspects of our needs. Noting that consumers seek variety, several approaches have been developed to diversify items recommended by personalized recommender systems. However,... View Details

Keywords: Recommender Systems; Personalization; Recommendation Diversity; Variety Seeking; Collaborative Filtering; Consumer Utility Models; Digital Media; Clickstream Analysis; Learning-to-rank; Consumer Behavior; Media; Customization and Personalization; Strategy; Mathematical Methods

26 Sep 2023
Research & Ideas

Unpacking That Icky Feeling of 'Shopping' for Diverse Job Candidates

they know it's the more morally licensed or acceptable way to get out of doing it.” Overcoming the credibility deficit In future research, Jackson plans to map the growing variety of DEI tools available to business leaders today. She also... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

09 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization

[Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a continuing series on issues that 600 CEOs told us keeps them awake at night. Today's topic: The challenges of making organizational decisions in this uncertain environment.] While we may be living in unprecedented... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

01 May 2024
What Do You Think?

Have You Had Enough?

out: Twenty-four years and 287 columns on a variety of management-related topics, my record as of this month. This month marks my last column in this long-running series for Working Knowledge. I’ve always ended my columns with the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

04 Nov 2015
What Do You Think?

Why Does Gender Diversity Improve Financial Performance?

Does Gender Diversity in Management Enhance Performance? Why? A variety of explanations for the positive correlation between gender diversity and better business performance found in a recent McKinsey study were advanced in responses to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Sam Walton: Great From the Start

States in 1945. Why wouldn't this one be among the many that didn't make it? Surely, any analyst of the situation in 1945 would have found in Walton a good candidate for failure. As he himself put it, "For all of my confidence I hadn't had a day's experience in... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow; Retail

December 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Four Seasons Goes to Paris: '53 Properties, 24 Countries, 1 Philosophy'

By: Roger H. Hallowell, David Bowen and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Illustrates how Four Seasons manages hotels in countries with strong and distinct national cultures. Focuses on how the chain meets its exacting service standards in a variety of settings worldwide, with special attention on France. View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Global Range; Global Strategy; Standards; Accommodations Industry; Paris

April 1982
Supplement

General Electric: John F. Welch, Jr., Chairman of the Board, Video

By: Francis Aguilar and Richard G. Hamermesh

Welch discusses a variety of topics. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Governing and Advisory Boards; Spoken Communication; Industrial Products Industry

August 2013 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Amazon in 2024

By: Sunil Gupta and Margaret L. Rodriguez

Amazon launched its website in July 1995 to sell books online and by 2020 it has grown to become a digital giant with over $280 billion in annual sales. A large part of its growth came from expanding into a variety of businesses that some see as unrelated. Has it... View Details

Keywords: Platforms; Complements; Showrooming; Ecosystem; Growth Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Network Effects; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Retail Industry; Publishing Industry

June 2002
Background Note

Note on Customer Management

By: Das Narayandas

Lays out a framework for the management of customers using examples of forms in a variety of industries. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Framework

November 2004 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Launching the New MINI

By: Douglas B. Holt and John A. Quelch

Focuses on how strategy is transformed into creative branding materials. Reports on the development of a wide variety of brand communication materials produced to support the MINI launch in the United States. MINI USA executives worked with their ad agency Crispin... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Creativity; Auto Industry; United States

2007
Text Book

Business Analysis and Valuation: Using Financial Statements

By: Paul M. Healy and Krishna G. Palepu

Financial statements are the basis for a wide range of business analysis. Managers, securities analysts, bankers, and consultants all use them to make business decisions. There is strong demand among business students for course materials that provide a framework for... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Framework; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Statements

Read Now

September 1995 (Revised October 1995)
Case

Loblaw Companies Limited: Differentiation in the 90s and Beyond

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Thomas N. Urban Jr and Jane L. Wertz

Loblaw wants to develop long-term relationships with its customers and is testing a variety of strategies to do this. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy