Publications

03 Jan 2017
First Look

January 3, 2017

implementation of strategic plans. This case stimulates reflections on the importance of costing systems, in particular Time-Driven Activity Based Costing, View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

January 2000 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network - The Primary Care Unit

By: V.G. Narayanan, Lisa Brem and Ryan Moore

The Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network needed to gain a better understanding of its unit-of-service costs, which had been rising at a rate of 10% per year. The network's step-down costing system gave only aggregate costing information, and there was some... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Accounting; Cost; Network Effects; Health Industry; Service Industry; Massachusetts

22 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Open Source Software: The $9 Trillion Resource Companies Take for Granted

making the two datasets complementary. Although they looked at all programming languages, they narrowed in on the top five based on data from GitHub: C (including C# and C++), Java, JavaScript, Python, View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Computer; Information Technology; Technology

June 2010 (Revised July 2011)
Case

China Environment Fund: Doing Well by Doing Good

By: Christopher Marquis and Nancy Dai

In early 2010, cleantech investment pioneer Tsing Capital was planning for the China Environment Fund IV and considering how to maintain its commitment to social and environmental practices. Tsing Capital embraced its philosophy of "Doing Well by Doing Good" and... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Strategy; Balance and Stability; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Energy Conservation; Business Organization; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Venture Capital; Financial Services Industry; China

30 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 30, 2008

disbursements are relatively more staggered. Download the paper from SSRN ($5): http://www.nber.org/papers/w14074 Attitude-Dependent Altruism, Turnout and Voting Author:Julio J. Rotemberg Abstract This paper presents a goal-oriented model... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2022
Working Paper

Why Do Index Funds Have Market Power? Quantifying Frictions in the Index Fund Market

By: Zach Y. Brown, Mark Egan, Jihye Jeon, Chuqing Jin and Alex A. Wu

Index funds are one of the most common ways investors access financial markets and are perceived to be a transparent and low-cost alternative to active investment management. Despite these purported virtues of index fund investing and the introduction of new products... View Details

Keywords: Mutual Funds; Passive Investing; Asset Management; Financial Markets; Investment Funds; Financial Management; Financial Services Industry; United States

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February 2006 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Sippican Corporation (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Presents a time-driven version of the Wilkerson Co. activity-based costing case (101092). Faced with declining profits, Sippican Corp. is struggling to understand why it is encountering severe price competition on one product line. The controller collects data that... View Details

Keywords: History; Business Model; Strategic Planning; Cost Accounting; Motivation and Incentives; Resource Allocation; Activity Based Costing and Management; Profit; Business Strategy; Budgets and Budgeting

26 Oct 2017
Research Event

In an Era of 'Fake News,' What is the Future of Advertising and Publishing?

things can be promoted to carefully targeted audiences. These audiences could number in the dozens, and the ads could cost as little as a dollar a day. These targeted ads on Facebook became problematic in... View Details

Keywords: by Jen Deaderick; Media & Broadcasting; Journalism & News

October 1990 (Revised April 1999)
Case

Hewlett-Packard: Queensferry Telecommunications Division

Queensferry Telecommunications Division has recently implemented an activity-based cost system. The case explores several issues. First, the role of variance analysis in an activity-based system. Second, the way to determine cost drive rates. Third, the evaluation of... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Telecommunications Industry

November 2020 (Revised September 2021)
Case

BRAC in 2020

By: Tarun Khanna and Shreya Ramachandran

In 2020, the largest non-governmental organization in the world, BRAC, headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has some big problems to tackle. Its founder, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, has left behind a challenge: take the 1981-founded organization from Bangladesh to every... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Education; Health; Social Issues; Poverty; Programs; Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Education Industry; Health Industry; Bangladesh; South Asia

October 22, 2015
Article

The Mayo Clinic Model for Running a Value-Improvement Program

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Derek A. Haas, Richard A. Helmers, March Rucci and Meredith Brady

Applying time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) in health care cannot be delegated to the finance function. The most successful implementations have had strong executive support, exceptional clinical leaders, and dedicated, multi-disciplinary project teams. The... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

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May 1987 (Revised November 1998)
Case

John Deere Component Works (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The division has recognized the inadequacies of its existing, traditional cost system for estimating product costs. Describes the innovative activity-based system that was developed to more accurately trace overhead costs to individual products. Provides students with... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Cost Accounting; Cost Management; Cost vs Benefits; Production; Budgets and Budgeting; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Consumer Products Industry

July 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Dharavi: Developing Asia's Largest Slum (A)

By: Lakshmi Iyer, John D. Macomber and Namrata Arora

Maharashtra state is accepting bids to redevelop Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia. A real estate developer assesses the risks and tenders a bid. The bid conditions include providing new free housing to tens of thousands of slum dwellers, which is anticipated to be... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Development Economics; Housing; Urban Development; Emerging Markets; Social Issues; Business and Government Relations; Real Estate Industry; Mumbai

22 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 22

use process mapping and time-driven activity-based costing to measure the costs of treating patients over a complete cycle of care for a specific medical condition. With valid... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 1997 (Revised December 1999)
Case

OXO International

By: H. Kent Bowen, Marilyn Matis and Sylvie Ryckebusch

OXO, a kitchen tools and gadgets company, was started by a businessman who had 30 years of experience in the housewares industry. With his wife and son as founders, he creates a new niche in the gadgets industry for high-end gourmet stores. The company has headquarters... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Supply Chain Management; Production; Design; Ownership; Business Startups; Acquisition; Consumer Products Industry; Asia; New York (city, NY); Connecticut

2012
Chapter

Integrated Reporting Requires Integrated Assurance

By: Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus and Liv A. Watson

In the wake of the recent financial crisis, increasing the effectiveness of auditing has weighed heavily on the minds of those responsible for governance. When a business is profitable and paying healthy dividends to its stockholders, fraudulent activities and... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Crime and Corruption; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Governance Compliance; Organizational Culture; Management Systems; Laws and Statutes; Information Management; Accounting Audits; Financial Crisis

31 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

American Idle: Workers Spend Too Much Time Waiting for Something to Do

completed, need not detract from productivity if it’s done right,” Amabile says. For managers concerned that offering such activities might lead to distraction or procrastination, they can be offered in... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September 2009
Article

The Technology Manager's Journey: An Extended Narrative Approach to Educating Technical Leaders

By: Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan and Shannon O'Donnell

Technology management poses particular challenges for educators because it requires a facility with different kinds of knowledge and wide-ranging learning abilities. We report on the development and delivery of an information technology (IT) management course designed... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Business Education; Multinational Firms and Management; Entertainment; Communication; Curriculum and Courses; Framework; Design; Goals and Objectives; Learning; Information Technology Industry

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February 2002 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Morgan Stanley Japan, 2002

By: Tarun Khanna and Louis P. DiLorenzo, Jr

Thierry Porte, president of Morgan Stanley Japan, had spent the brisk November day in Tokyo with Eric Best, Morgan Stanley's head of scenario planning, outlining the exercise that all of the managing directors in Japan would participate in shortly. Japan remained mired... View Details

Keywords: Planning; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Investment Banking; Multinational Firms and Management; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Japan; United States