Publications

11 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Mixing Open Source and Proprietary Software Strategies

competes through a proprietary business model and the other opens one module, generally the extensions. As the quality difference grows, cannibalization concerns lessen, and both competitors elect to compete... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Web Services

August 2013 (Revised November 2013)
Supplement

Ford vs. GM: The Evolution of Mass Production (B)

By: Willy Shih

This case explores the very different paths taken by the Ford Motor Company and the General Motors Corporation in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Henry Ford's Model T was a car for the masses. After considerable experimentation, Ford Motor... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Exploration; Dominant Design; Business Growth and Maturation; Business History; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Product Design; Product Development; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Vertical Integration; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Michigan

14 Nov 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Process and Performance

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles, Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim; Accounting

April 2013
Article

What Roger Fisher Got Profoundly Right: Five Enduring Lessons for Negotiators

By: James K. Sebenius

Roger Fisher, who died in 2012, enjoyed a remarkable career that modeled one way that an academic, especially in a professional school such as law or business, could make a significant, positive, and lasting difference in the world. Distinctive aspects of his career... View Details

Keywords: Bargaining; Conflict Resolution; Dealmaking; Negotiation; Personal Development and Career; Conflict and Resolution

Find at Harvard

May–June 2025
Article

Slowly Varying Regression Under Sparsity

By: Dimitris Bertsimas, Vassilis Digalakis Jr, Michael Lingzhi Li and Omar Skali Lami

We consider the problem of parameter estimation in slowly varying regression models with sparsity constraints. We formulate the problem as a mixed integer optimization problem and demonstrate that it can be reformulated exactly as a binary convex optimization problem... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Analytics and Data Science

Research Summary

Is Deposit Insurance a Good Idea, and if so, Who Should Pay for it?

Joint work with Alan Morrison, Saïd Business School, Oxford.

Deposit insurance schemes are becoming increasingly popular around the world and yet there is little understanding... View Details

February 2009 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Shanghai Diligence Law Firm (A)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Catherine Zhang

Shanghai Diligence Law Firm, started in January 2006, is a rapidly growing law firm in China's burgeoning legal services market. In addition to the usual challenges facing all professional service firms (picking and retaining talent and building a desired client... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Motivation and Incentives; Legal Services Industry; China

August 2012 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (A)

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred

Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), a U.S. network of four privately owned oncology focused factory hospitals, was weighing options for growth. CTCA was entirely cancer focused and specialized in treating patients with complex and advanced-stage cancers, who... View Details

03 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Transforming Manufacturing Waste into Profit

It's been said that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." HBS Assistant Professor Deishin Lee, however, has taken that old adage a step further in her recent working paper Turning Waste into By-Product by showing how it's possible for companies to turn... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing

28 Jan 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Agglomerative Forces and Cluster Shapes

Keywords: by William R. Kerr & Scott Duke Kominers; Technology

April–June 2022
Other Article

Commentary on 'Causal Decision Making and Causal Eﬀect Estimation Are Not the Same... and Why It Matters'

By: Edward McFowland III

There has been a substantial discussion in various methodological and applied literatures around causal inference; especially in the use of machine learning and statistical models to understand heterogeneity in treatment effects and to make optimal decision... View Details

Keywords: Causal Inference; Treatment Effect Estimation; Treatment Assignment Policy; Human-in-the-loop; Decision Making; Fairness

Find at Harvard

19 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Fed Up Workers and Supply Woes: What's Next for Dollar Stores?

question. You are definitely seeing competition for labor from Amazon, from Walmart. Dollar Tree and Family Dollar are not quite the pure model Dollar General has become, but they’re all at that low end of... View Details

Keywords: by Christine Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Retail

Article

Bargaining with Imperfect Enforcement

By: Lucy White and Mark Williams

The game-theoretic bargaining literature insists on non-cooperative bargaining procedure but allows 'cooperative' implementation of agreements. The effect of this is to allow free-reign of bargaining power with no check upon it. In reality, courts cannot... View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Body of Literature; Contracts; Motivation and Incentives; Code Law; Game Theory

Find at Harvard

September 1992 (Revised October 1992)
Case

Acid Rain: The Southern Co. (B)

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

In addition to the issues of expected cost minimization elucidated in Acid Rain: The Southern Co. (A), problems involving regulatory uncertainty are critical to the firm's Clean Air Act compliance strategy. The regulatory uncertainty affects, and is affected by, the... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Business Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Cost vs Benefits; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategic Planning; Investment Return; Government Legislation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Business and Government Relations; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; United States

2020
Working Paper

Sex Selection and the Indian Marriage Market

By: Reshmaan N. Hussam

I consider the widespread phenomenon of sex ratios skewed by parental preference. Edlund (1999) proposes that if parents prefer sons and permit only women to marry up in social class, sexes will segregate by wealth in equilibrium. Using data on 30,000 Indian children,... View Details

Keywords: Sex Selection; Marriage Market; Bargaining Power; Gender; Information Technology; Household; Outcome or Result; India

2017
Working Paper

Firm Selection and Corporate Cash Holdings

By: Juliane Begenau and Berardino Palazzo

Among stock market entrants, more firms over time are R&D intensive with initially lower profitability but higher growth potential. This sample-selection effect determines the secular trend in U.S. public firms’ cash holdings. A stylized firm industry model allows us... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Market Entry and Exit; Supply and Industry; Research and Development

SSRN

2012
Article

Patent Policy, Patent Pools, and the Accumulation of Claims in Sequential Innovation

By: Gaston Llanes and Stefano Trento

We present a dynamic model where the accumulation of patents generates an increasing number of claims on sequential innovation. We compare innovation activity under three regimes—patents, no-patents, and patent pools—and find that none of them can reach the first best.... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Taxation; Innovation and Invention

March 2021 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Blue Meridian Partners (A): Scaling for Impact

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

In 2018, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation in a bold move transferred all its assets to a fund pooled with other General Partners and Limited Partners, called Blue Meridian Partners, to focus substantial long range investments in a few carefully chosen nonprofits.The... View Details

Keywords: Venture Philanthropy; Scaling; COVID-19 Pandemic; Social Justice; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Venture Capital; Business Model; Social Issues; Poverty; Values and Beliefs; Decisions; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Investment Portfolio

2019
Working Paper

Optimal Interventions for Increasing Healthy Food Consumption Among Low Income Households

By: Retsef Levi, Elisabeth Paulson and Georgia Perakis

The federal government currently spends over $100 billion per year on policies aimed to increase fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption among low income households. These include price-, nutrition education-, and access-related interventions. Currently, the government... View Details

Keywords: Bi-level Optimization; Optimal Subsidies; Public Policy; Food Policy; Central Planner; Government Administration; Poverty; Food; Nutrition

SSRN