Publications

2009
Working Paper

Altruistic Dynamic Pricing with Customer Regret

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

A model is considered where firms internalize the regret costs that consumers experience when they see an unexpected price change. Regret costs are assumed to be increasing in the size of price changes and this can explain why the size of price increases is less... View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Price; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Mathematical Methods

October 1998 (Revised September 1999)
Case

Brazil Confronts an Interdependent World

By: George C. Lodge and Cate Reavis

Discusses the politics of change and how Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, elected in 1994, has fought to promote systemic change in Brazil. While his Real Plan has stabilized inflation and attracted foreign investment, the nation's deficit continues to... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Government and Politics; Inflation and Deflation; Foreign Direct Investment; Equality and Inequality; Change; Social Issues; Public Administration Industry; Brazil

October 2012 (Revised September 2013)
Teaching Note

The Dabbawala System: On-Time Delivery, Every Time

By: Stefan H. Thomke

The Mumbai-based dabbawalas are a 5,000 or so person organization that achieves exceptional service performance with a semi-literate workforce. Every working day, they deliver and return about 130,000 lunchboxes to offices throughout Mumbai. This entails more than... View Details

Keywords: Systems Design; Organization Design; Service; Organizational Design; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Mumbai

November 1994 (Revised January 1995)
Background Note

A Note on Capital Cash Flow Valuation

By: Richard S. Ruback

Presents the capital cash flow method for valuing risky cash flows. In this method cash flows are calculated to include the benefits of interest tax shields. In a capital structure, with just ordinary debt and common equity, capital cash flows equal the flows available... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Cash Flow; Valuation

August 1993
Case

Nestle S.A.: International Marketing (B)

By: John A. Quelch

Describes organization changes announced by Nestle's chariman in 1991 and updates the description of Nestle's marketing organization. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Structure; Globalization; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Switzerland

14 Jan 2014
News

‘Hot Stove’ simmering

February 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Prime Coalition: Catalytic Capital for Climate Innovation

By: Ramana Nanda, Benjamin N. Roth and Olivia Hull

With long development timelines and high risk, new energy technologies were often left to languish in the “valley of death,” unable to raise enough funds to bring a product to market. In 2014, Sarah Kearney founded the nonprofit Prime Coalition to solve this problem.... View Details

Keywords: Energy Conservation; Renewable Energy; Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Mission and Purpose; Science-Based Business; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Enterprise; Energy Industry; Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States

March 2000 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Microsoft: Competing on Talent (A)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Meg Wozny

Describes the evolution of Microsoft's human-resource philosophies, policies, and practices and how they used as a core of the company's competitive advantage. In particular, the focus is on how Microsoft tried to retain its ability to recruit, develop, motivate, and... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Retention; Recruitment; Competitive Advantage; Motivation and Incentives; Business Startups; Talent and Talent Management

09 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

Who Sways the USDA on GMO Approvals?

it's less clear how companies sway the regulatory agencies that enforce them, which are more isolated from the direct effects of money or persuasion. “If a company can get enough farmers to support the product and they write letters, then... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Biotechnology; Agriculture & Agribusiness

January 1995 (Revised September 2011)
Supplement

Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (B)

Updates CEO Beers' progress two years after her initiation of a massive organizational change effort. Designed as an in-class handout. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Advertising Industry; Public Relations Industry

14 Jan 2019
Video

Why Employers Should Care About the Care Economy

March 1992 (Revised April 2000)
Case

Adam Opel AG (A)

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

Focuses on the strategic issue of how to approach the East German market after the Berlin wall came down in late 1989. Within an unusually rich economic-political and organizational-personal context, the chairman of GM's German subsidiary has to respond to Volkswagen's... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Government and Politics; Organizations; Business and Government Relations; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Germany

January 1995 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (A)

By: Herminia M. Ibarra and Nicole Sackley

Examines Beer's actions on assuming leadership of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, the world's sixth largest advertising agency, during a period of rapid industry change and organizational crisis. Focuses on how Beers, the first outsider CEO, engages and leads a senior team... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Advertising; Organizational Structure; Advertising Industry

Web

Alumni

the store into a "town square for music." Some of the changes include more floor space for the free shows that helped put the Austin record store on the map, a podcast studio, cafe, and a dedicated space... View Details

March 1990 (Revised November 2004)
Case

O.M. Scott & Sons Co. Leveraged Buyout

By: George P. Baker III and Karen Wruck

Documents the organizational changes that took place at O.M. Scott & Sons Co. in response to their leveraged buyout. Provides the opportunity for students to discuss the effects of high leverage on management decision making, and the differences between operating as a... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Capital Structure; Borrowing and Debt; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management; Business Conglomerates; Cost of Capital; Financial Services Industry

Research Summary

Democratic Governance and Decision Making

By: David A. Moss

Under what conditions are public policies in a democracy determined by special interests or, alternatively, by the general interest? A good deal of academic work, particularly associated with the economic theory of regulation, suggests that special interests... View Details

2002
Book

Organizations, Policy and the Natural Environment: Institutional and Strategic Perspectives

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and Marc Ventresca

This book brings together emerging perspectives from organization theory and management, environmental sociology, international regime studies, and the social studies of science and technology to provide a starting point for discipline-based studies of environmental... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Regulation

Find at Harvard

Research Summary

On-line social networks

Professor Piskorski's current research examines why and how people use on-line social networks, both in the US and abroad. Using extensive fieldwork and large scale empirical analyses, he constructed theories of social failures and networks as covers... View Details

Keywords: Social Networks

November 2015 (Revised August 2016)
Case

Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

In January 2009, when Paul Polman was appointed CEO of Unilever, he inherited a company in long-term decline at the beginning of a major global financial crisis. As the first outsider ever recruited to lead the company, Polman lost little time in challenging the... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competitive Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Consumer Products Industry