Publications

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Article

Dying Is Unexpectedly Positive

By: Amelia Goranson, Ryan S. Ritter, Adam Waytz, Michael I. Norton and Kurt Gray

In people’s imagination, dying seems dreadful; however, these perceptions may not reflect reality. In two studies, we compared the affective experience of people facing imminent death with that of people imagining imminent death. Study 1 revealed that blog posts of... View Details

Keywords: Death; Language; LIWC; Positivity; Affective Forecasting; Open Materials; Perspective; Attitudes

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November 2011
Book Review

Smokeless Sugar: The Death of a Provincial Bureaucrat and the Construction of China's National Economy, in Twentieth-Century China

By: Elisabeth Koll

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26 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

National Health Costs Could Decrease if Managers Reduce Work Stress

negative health outcomes. They determined, among other findings, that workplace stress contributes to at least 120,000 deaths each year. The biggest factor in this calculation is lack of health insurance (leading to lack of treatment),... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

October 1982 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Johnson & Johnson: The Tylenol Tragedy

By: Stephen A. Greyser

In October 1982, Johnson & Johnson was confronted with a major crisis when seven deaths were attributed to poisoned Tylenol. The case reviews the facts as known a week after the incident occurred, and raises a wide range of questions regarding consumer behavior,... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competitive Strategy; Crisis Management; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry

April 2005 (Revised July 2009)
Case

IBM's Decade of Transformation: Turnaround to Growth

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Robert D. Austin and Elizabeth Collins

Describes IBM's decade of transformation. Provides background on the company's history and the factors that led to its near death in the early 1990s and to its remarkable turnaround during Gerstner's reign as CEO. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: History; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy

November 2017 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods

By: Jill Avery

Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods, offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3 price point that promised an... View Details

June 2002
Background Note

Note on the Value of Life

By: Michael A. Wheeler and Carlos Gonzalez

This case summarizes how American courts measure damages in wrongful death suits. Various standards are compared, as are their implications for business management. View Details

Keywords: Judgments; Courts and Trials; Business or Company Management; Standards; Negotiation; United States

March 1980 (Revised September 1982)
Case

Parker Brothers (B)

Describes the recall program designed by Parker Brothers following the death of two children, which may have been related to a new product. View Details

Keywords: Safety; Risk Management; Product; Consumer Products Industry

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

enters a kind of death spiral. Reversing that downward trend requires deliberate efforts by the CEO to address each of the pathologies. ... Sparking Collaboration Turnaround leaders know that problem solving requires collaboration across... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

October 2003
Case

Fire at Mann Gulch

Describes the 1949 firefighting tragedy in Montana that led to the deaths of 12 smoke jumpers. Explores the myriad of poor decisions by the firefighting crew and their foreman. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Crisis Management; Public Administration Industry; Montana

August 2008 (Revised November 2015)
Supplement

Yataro Iwasaki: Founding Mitsubishi (B)

By: Geoffrey G. Jones, Masako Egawa and Mayuka Yamazaki

This brief (B) case documents the fate of Mitsubishi and the shipping company NYK after the death of Yataro Iwasaki in 1885. The case supplements case 808-158, “Yataro Iwaski: Founding Mitsubishi (A).” View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Globalized Firms and Management; Business History; Leadership; Japan

March 1980 (Revised July 1985)
Case

Parker Brothers (A)

Focuses on the decision required of Parker Brothers regarding the necessity and advisability of recalling a new product that may have been related to the death of two children. View Details

Keywords: Safety; Risk Management; Product; Consumer Products Industry

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Why E-commerce Didn’t Die With the Fall of Webvan

Times were hard for Webvan this year. Like other online grocers and delivery services that hit the screen in 2001—among them, Homegrocer, Kozmo, and Streamline—Webvan finally called it quits in July after two years in business. Webvan may be gone, but the forces that... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products; Retail

14 Dec 2007
Op-Ed

When Your Product Becomes a Commodity

Editor's Note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge. How often have you heard a manager blame "commoditization" for... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

March 1999 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Ann Winslow

Describes the death of a cancer patient in one of the nation's premier cancer treatment centers and examines the organizational and process characteristics that may have contributed to the medical error. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Quality; Service Operations; Management Practices and Processes; Business Processes; Failure; Health Industry

March 5, 2020
Editorial

Murky Data Calls into Question Quarantine Strategy

By: Amar Bhide

Like sepsis, a life-threatening, uncontrolled immune response to infections, draconian efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak may cause more harm than the infection itself. Yet the measures now paralysing the western world before many have actually died are based... View Details

Keywords: Coronavirus; Coronavirus Pandemic; Data; Health Pandemics; Data and Data Sets