Publications

February 1991
Case

Burlington Northern: The ARES Decision (A)

By: Julie H. Hertenstein and Robert S. Kaplan

Burlington Northern's decision whether to invest in ARES, an automated train control system, is a ($350 million) strategic investment in information technology. Although set in a service industry (railroad) the issues around this decision arise in many organizations... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Rail Transportation; Information Technology; Competitive Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Performance Effectiveness; Cost vs Benefits; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Customers; Quality; Rail Industry

11 Feb 2008 - 12 Feb 2008
Keynote Speech

Forces Affecting the Competitive Landscape in Health Care

Conference composed of 300 mid-level, senior health care executives focused on strategies to improve care, increase care margins, and grow clinical volumes in orthopedic service delivery. Presentation focused on major forces affecting care delivery: 1) quality and cost... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

October 2005
Case

Wipro Technologies: The Factory Model

Based in Bangalore, Wipro Technologies is a rapidly growing software services company. Wipro is experimenting with a new software service delivery model that draws on the principles of the Toyota production system and "lean" manufacturing. Addresses the advantages and... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Service Operations; Applications and Software; Standards; Information Technology Industry; Bangalore

Feng Zhu is the MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he leads the Platform Lab within the Digital, Data, and Design Institute, co-chairs the Harvard Business Analytics Program, and serves as the course head for the... View Details

Article

Drive Innovation with Better Decision-Making

By: Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards and Taran Swan

Despite their embrace of agile methods, many firms striving to innovate are struggling to produce breakthrough ideas. A key culprit, according to the authors, is an outdated, inefficient approach to decision-making. Today’s discovery-driven innovation processes involve... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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November 2022 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Hugging Face (A): Serving AI on a Platform

By: Shane Greenstein, Daniel Yue, Sarah Gulick and Kerry Herman

It is fall 2022, and open-source AI model company Hugging Face is considering its three areas of priorities: platform development, supporting the open-source community, and pursuing cutting-edge scientific research. As it expands services for enterprise clients, which... View Details

Keywords: Community; Open-source; AI and Machine Learning; Product Development; Networks; Service Delivery; Research; Governance; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Information Industry; Information Industry; United States

Article

The Value of Intermediation in the Stock Market

By: Marco Di Maggio, Mark Egan and Francesco Franzoni

We estimate a structural model of broker choice to quantitatively decompose the value that institutional investors attach to broker services. Studying over 300 million institutional equity trades, we find that investors are sensitive to both explicit and implicit... View Details

Keywords: Financial Intermediation; Institutional Investors; Research Analysts; Broker Networks; Equity Trading; Institutional Investing

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Alexandra (Allie) Feldberg is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School.

Professor Feldberg uses qualitative and quantitative methods to examine intersections between gender,... View Details

09 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

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

insights and practices as pandemic recovery plans are developed. Consider these five elements of organizational decision-making: information gathering; strategy; combining long-term thinking with short-term actions; clear communication... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

September 1992 (Revised March 1994)
Case

Warsaw Marriott: New Competition for Warsaw's Marriott Hotel

A very successful luxury hotel in Warsaw, Poland is faced with its first serious competition as new luxury hotels enter the Warsaw market. The case raises the general issue of how to sustain a competitive advantage in an international service business. A variety of... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Globalized Markets and Industries; Accommodations Industry; Poland

Professor McFarlan earned his AB from Harvard University in 1959, and his MBA and DBA from the Harvard Business School in 1961 and 1965 respectively. He has had a significant role in introducing materials on Management Information Systems to all major programs at... View Details

Keywords: information; information; information; information; information; information; information

September 2016
Case

Hewlett Packard Enterprise: The Dandelion Program

By: Gary P. Pisano and Robert D. Austin

This case describes Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s “Dandelion Program," which has developed a new service offering for the company’s clients by drawing on the special talents of people with autism. The company has deployed “pods” organized around 8 or 9 employees with... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Talent and Talent Management; Service Operations; Training; Diversity; Innovation and Invention; Technology Industry

July 2001 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Jamcracker

Jamcracker, a well-financed, young company is attempting to transform how IT services are delivered during a period of high-tech pessimism. Jamcracker is trying to popularize an "application service provider" (ASP) model of service delivery that will, if successful,... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

03 Jan 2013
Working Paper Summaries

The Value of Advice: Evidence from Mobile Phone-Based Agricultural Extension

Keywords: by Shawn A. Cole; Agriculture & Agribusiness

17 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Women Receive Harsher Punishment at Work Than Men

authorized by the United States government to monitor financial firms. The data included all employment information for financial advisors from 2005 to 2015, including when employees were hired, when they left each firm, and whether they... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

June 2000
Case

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Four Seasons has a love/hate relationship with technology, including the best Web site in the industry. This case examines how a leading service delivers high-tech/high-touch, and looks at its progressive human resource strategy. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Service Operations; Accommodations Industry

08 May 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate and Integrated Reporting: A Functional Perspective

Keywords: by Robert Eccles & George Serafeim

June 2024
Article

Real Growth in Space Manufacturing Output Substantially Exceeds Growth in the Overall Space Economy

By: Tina Highfill and Matthew Weinzierl

Accurately measuring real economic output in the space economy is made difficult by the rapid increase in capabilities and decrease in prices of launch and satellite technologies achieved over the past two decades. Nominal measures of output in space will tend to... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Economic Growth; Price; Production; Aerospace Industry