Publications

Educators

August 2018
Article

Creative Sparks or Paralysis Traps? The Effects of Contradictions on Creative Processing and Creative Products

By: Goran Calic and Sébastien Hélie

Paradoxes are an unavoidable part of work life. The unusualness of attempting to simultaneously satisfy contradictory imperatives can result in creative outcomes that simultaneously satisfy both imperatives by inducing search for, and selection of, novel and useful... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Cognition and Thinking; Business or Company Management; Performance

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2012
Working Paper

Colonial Institutions, Trade Shocks, and the Diffusion of Elementary Education in Brazil, 1889–1930

By: Aldo Musacchio, Andre Martinez-Fritscher and Martina Viarengo

In this paper, we examine the role of trade shocks in promoting the diffusion of elementary education in subnational units in Brazil during a period (1889–1930) in which they had relative financial autonomy to collect export taxes and spend on public goods. The... View Details

Keywords: History; Literacy; Voting; Education; Spending; Performance Improvement; Government and Politics; Brazil

SSRN

04 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

The Real Cost of Bribery

employees in 840 companies about workplace morale. High-morale companies (those at which more than 75 percent of the workforce reported "overall satisfaction with their company") had significantly stronger year-over-year stock... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

June 2007
Article

Efficient Kidney Exchange: Coincidence of Wants in a Structured Market

By: A. E. Roth, Tayfun Sonmez and M. Utku Unver

Patients needing kidney transplants may have donors who cannot donate to them because of blood or tissue incompatibility. Incompatible patient-donor pairs can exchange donor kidneys with other pairs only when there is a "double coincidence of wants." Developing... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Size; Emotions; Human Needs; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Infrastructure; Supply Chain Management; Fairness; Performance Improvement; Health Industry

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22 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

Pulling Campbell’s Out of the Soup

to imagine that we could inspire high performance with no employee engagement." Conant decided to grow the soup business, and he championed the idea of "winning" on two fronts--in the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

18 Jan 2018
News

The Lessons of All-Day Breakfast

tend to have a really nice quality perception, it also helped improve our overall quality scores. So, it really was the trifecta in terms of overall performance. Morrell: So this pilot process begins in the... View Details

Keywords: Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

25 Mar 2015
News

The Greening of Houston

and mostly overlooked by outsiders. Gilbane is just one of several HBS alumni working with other Houstonians to expand and improve the treasured parks, which they see as key to the continued growth View Details

03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Box Office Power of Stars

the dynamics of star power. Can studios depend on a star's track record as a predictor of future success? Are two "A-list" stars better than one? Can stars improve a... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Entertainment & Recreation; Motion Pictures & Video

2017
Article

The Impact of Training Informal Healthcare Providers in India: A Randomized Controlled Trial

By: Jishnu Das, Abhijit Chowdhury, Reshmaan Hussam and Abhijit Banerjee

Health care providers without formal medical qualifications provide more than 70% of all primary care in rural India. Training these informal providers may be one way to improve the quality of care where few alternatives exist. We report on a randomized controlled... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; India; Business Training; RCT; Health Care and Treatment; Training; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; India

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Research Summary

Managing sustainability in supply chains

By: Michael W. Toffel

I am examining codes of conduct, management process standards, and government voluntary programs that address environmental and labor issues, seeking to understand what enables some of these programs to actually deliver on their promise of distinguishing organizations... View Details

Keywords: Environment; Environmental Performance; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Strategy; Regulation; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Service Industry; Construction Industry; United States; California

13 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

The Tricky Business of Nonprofit Brands

International Red Cross, UNICEF, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, and Amnesty International. Topics include managing growth, performance assessment, mission and strategy development, and most of all,... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

2010
Chapter

Revisiting the Meaning of Leadership

By: Joel Podolny, Rakesh Khurana and Marya Hill-Popper

During the past 50 years, organizational scholarship on leadership has shifted from a focus on the significance of leadership for meaning-making to the significance of leadership for economic performance. This shift has been problematic for two reasons. First, it has... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Economics; Leadership; Performance Improvement; Behavior

July 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Revenue Recognition at Stride Funding: Making Sense of Revenues for a Fintech Startup

By: Paul M. Healy and Jung Koo Kang

The case explores the challenges of revenue recognition and financial reporting for Stride Funding (Stride), a fintech startup that has disrupted the student loan market. Stride leveraged proprietary machine learning and financial models to underwrite alternative... View Details

Keywords: Revenue Recognition; Financial Reporting; Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Governance Compliance; Accrual Accounting; Financial Services Industry; United States

Educators

March 1998
Article

On the Sequencing of Privatization in Transition Economies

By: Gautam Ahuja and Sumit K. Majumdar

This paper presents an empirical criterion for establishing privatization priorities for state-owned enteiprises. The approach uses firm performance, defined as productive efficiency, as the basis for deciding the sequence in which firms are privatized. Sequencing is... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Performance Efficiency; Privatization; Developing Countries and Economies; Planning; Service Industry; India

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January 2017
Case

Danaher Corporation, 2007–2017

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On July 2, 2016, Danaher Corporation completed the spinoff of Fortive Corporation. The previous day, Danaher’s stock price had reached an all-time high. In 2015, Danaher had decided to split off its test and measurement, fuel and fleet management, and automation... View Details

Keywords: Danaher; Fortive; Larry Culp; Beckman Coulter; Pall; Life Sciences; Diagnostics; Environmental Operations; Water Management; Dental; Testing; Measurement; Fuel; Fleet Management; Automation; Toolmaking; Tools; Disease Management; Continuous Improvement; Toyota Production System; Divestiture; Spinoffs; Spin-off; Networks; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Divisions; Business Subsidiaries; Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Joint Ventures; Restructuring; Engineering; Chemicals; Construction; Machinery and Machining; Profit; Revenue; Globalized Firms and Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Medical Specialties; Business History; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Practices and Processes; Management Succession; Management Systems; Resource Allocation; Market Entry and Exit; Measurement and Metrics; Logistics; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Science; Genetics; Natural Environment; Wastes and Waste Processing; Science-Based Business; Opportunities; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Technology; Software; Technology Networks; Technology Platform; Value; Valuation; Aerospace Industry; Auto Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Computer Industry; Construction Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Health Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Retail Industry; Rubber Industry; Semiconductor Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Utilities Industry; United States; District of Columbia

Educators

25 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Fintech Borrowing

debt.) That’s a far more extensive sample of consumer credit behavior than previous studies, which tend to focus on data from a single fintech lender like LendingClub and provide no bank comparison. The authors then tracked View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services; Banking

07 May 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Broadening Focus: Spillovers and the Benefits of Specialization in the Hospital Industry

Keywords: by Jonathan R. Clark & Robert S. Huckman; Health

01 Feb 1999
News

Too Much of a Good Thing?

solve overcapacity dilemmas elsewhere in the world. Jensen, arguing for the salutary effects of the financial markets, says that merger and takeover activity - "the market for corporate control" - can, if it is permitted to, View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons

March 2017
Article

Variation in the Cost of Care for Primary Total Knee Arthroplasties

By: Derek A. Haas and Robert S. Kaplan

The study examined the cost variation across 29 high-volume U.S. hospitals for delivering a primary total knee arthroplasty without major complicating conditions. Hospital and physician personnel costs were calculated using time-driven activity-based costing.... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Performance Productivity; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry