Costs - Publications - Faculty & Research

15 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 15, 2009

Policies that would create net benefits for society but would also involve costs frequently lack the necessary support to be enacted because losses loom larger than gains psychologically. To reduce the harmful consequence of loss... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2010
Article

How Firms Respond to Being Rated

By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

While many rating systems seek to help buyers overcome information asymmetries when making purchasing decisions, we investigate how these ratings also influence the companies being rated. We hypothesize that ratings are particularly likely to spur responses from firms... View Details

Keywords: System; Information; Decisions; Cost; Opportunities; Performance; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Economics; Theory; System Shocks; Rank and Position

Citation

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September 2012 (Revised January 2013)
Case

SMARTBITES (A)

By: Michael Roberts, Jeronimo Silva and Amar Bhide

The case describes a Turkish brother-sister team who are evaluating the option of acquiring and operating a franchise of a US bakery/cafe in Turkey. They are comparing this option to that of simply starting a similar business. View Details

Keywords: Franchising; Start-up; Franchise Ownership; Family Ownership; Business Startups; Cost vs Benefits; Multinational Firms and Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; Turkey; United States

Citation

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25 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

How Disruptive Innovation is Remaking the University

That is no longer true, though, for any but a relative handful of institutions. Costs have risen to unprecedented heights, and new competitors are emerging. A disruptive technology, online learning, is at work in higher education,... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen & Henry J. Eyring; Education

01 Jun 2024
News

Crash Pad

When 4753 North Broadway opened in 1924, the neoclassical tower represented the height of American architectural design, a terra-cotta temple of capitalism at the heart of Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Over the next century, a series of banks occupied the spacious... View Details

Keywords: Amy Crawford; illustrations by Kathleen Fu; building coversion; housing crisis; innovation; real estate; Real Estate

08 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Twenty-first Century Skill: Trading Carbon Credits

reinforces the role of uncertain prices in a cap-and-trade mechanism," Coles says. "It contrasts with a simple command-and-control approach to regulation that specifies maximum pollution levels allowed by industry, or a carbon tax with a known View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

01 Dec 2009
News

Up on the Green Roof

BEFORE AND AFTER: Step one involved removing the stones (top) that covered the old, leaky roof. Areas not suitable for a green roof were covered with sheets of white PVC (above) that reflect the sun’s rays. A living roof can cost more... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Construction of Buildings; Construction

01 Mar 2009
News

A New Approach to Health-Care Reform

patients’ needs. Today’s doctors work in a system where they are rewarded by Medicare and insurance companies for the number and cost of the services they provide rather than by the value of those services in helping patients. In short,... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Health, Social Assistance

23 May 2016
Research & Ideas

A Little Understanding Motivates Copyright Abusers to Pay Up

they approached was already trying a kinder-and-gentler tactic by waiving the fee to recoup enforcement costs ($400 per image) and just asking for the actual cost of licensing the image that averages between... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Media & Broadcasting; Publishing

24 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 24

engaging in dishonest behavior allows further dishonest behavior in a subsequent task (Experiment 5). Download working paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2563196 Measurement Errors of Expected-Return Proxies and the Implied Cost of Capital... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Feb 2016
HBS Case

Bigbelly's Big Bet on the Digital Trash Can

connectivity is also increasingly desired by smartphone users who want to cut data costs while streaming high-bandwidth content. “I’ve been surprised at how popular it still is, both to bridge the digital divide and for people who like... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy

09 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Catching Up With Boards--Jay Lorsch

impact. Nonetheless, boards have been focusing strictly on monetary rewards as an incentive for CEOs to achieve desired results, tying the returns that go to stockholders to the size of the chief executive's paycheck. At the same time, consultants have been hiking up... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

11 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ’The Future of Boards’

have been slower to that realization, and tend to view governance as something that the lawyers are driving. And therefore it is something that, at the attitude level, slows things down; it's a cost to the enterprise. It gets in the way... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Lorsch

09 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

How to Revive Health-Care Innovation

networks arise, disrupting the old. Hence, disruptive business models such as value-adding process clinics, retail clinics, and facilitated networks must be married with disruptive innovations in insurance and reimbursement in order to reap the full impact in View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Jerome H. Grossman, M.D. M.D. & Jason Hwang; Health

31 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

The New CEO’s Wrong Message

calendar became a bottleneck, and organizational decision making virtually ground to a halt. For a while, the CEO was oblivious to the high cost of his intrusive approach. As an outsider new to the company, he felt good about being part... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Jay W. Lorsch & Nitin Nohria

02 Aug 2024
HBS Case

How a Mission to Cut Food Waste Launched a Multimillion-Dollar Venture

On a hectic Friday in October 2016, Josh Domingues wondered if he had made a mistake quitting the security of a well-paying job managing contracts for professional hockey players to start a new venture selling nearly expired groceries at discount prices. After all, a... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Technology; Information Technology

14 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

New Agenda for Corporate Accountability Reporting

to its control. 3. A sound system of accountability has to compare benefits with costs over time. This is especially true when corporate activities concern factors where the output of actions is not felt until well into the future.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Accounting; Energy; Utilities

23 Sep 2024
Blog Post

2024 Summer Internships in Business & Environment

suited to synthesize cost effective clean ammonia with renewable energy for fertilizers, maritime fuel or as an energy carrier. Ian's roles prior to HBS were Business Development at Walmart and Management Consulting at Bain & Company.... View Details

22 Sep 2021
Blog Post

Student Spotlight: Jesse Lou (MBA 2022) – Working to Change the Food System

oils, using a lot less land and resources. It’s no secret that these are powerful organisms, but past attempts to scale production have faced challenging unit economics (high up-front capital costs for facilities, selling into commodity... View Details

01 Jun 2013
News

Five Bright Ideas

European Computer Driving License, a basic requirement for any IT job in Europe, which otherwise can cost as much as $500 per course.) English language, computer skills, and business management curricula are especially popular. Explains... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Elementary and Secondary Schools; Educational Services

Publications