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Research Summary

Health-care Applications

Active postmarketing drug surveillance. There is substantial interest within the U.S. health community and among health policymakers in developing a surveillance system that scans public health databases in order to proactively detect potential drug safety... View Details

2016
Chapter

Ignore, Avoid, Abandon, and Embrace: What Drives Firm Responses to Environmental Regulation?

By: David F. Drake and Robin L. Just

A regulator's ability to incentivize environmental improvement among firms is vital in achieving long-term sustainability. However, firms can and do respond to environmental regulation in a variety of ways: complying with its intent; avoiding the regulation by... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Environmental Operations; Regulation; Cost vs Benefits; For-Profit Firms; Operations; Environmental Sustainability

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06 Oct 2016
HBS Seminar

John Van Reenen, MIT Sloan School of Management

March 1996 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Arborite

Describes the competitive position of Arborite, a Canadian manufacturer of high-pressure laminates (HPL) (a product sold under the Formica name in the United States). Arborite's market share has slipped, and a new general manager must evaluate whether a change in... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Consumer Behavior; Manufacturing Industry; Canada

July 2007 (Revised July 2008)
Case

The Beijing Dream

By: Arthur I Segel, Voon Siang Lee, Jialei Tian and Ying Laura Wang

The purchase of a single-family home is generally the major investment for most young couples in China. Shows in detail the process that a young couple goes through in late April 2007 to find, finance, and close on an apartment in Beijing within what they believe to be... View Details

Keywords: Property; Investment; Cost; Emerging Markets; Financing and Loans; Acquisition; Activity Based Costing and Management; Internet and the Web; Management Practices and Processes; Real Estate Industry; Beijing; United States

June 2015
Article

The Capital Purchase Program and Subsequent Bank SEOs

By: Mozaffar N. Khan and Dushyantkumar Vyas

We find that in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis banks replenished only 12% of crisis-related losses through SEOs in 2009 and 2010. However, SEOs are disproportionately conducted by Capital Purchase Program (CPP) recipients, and this is not explained by CPP... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Capital; Equity; Financial Crisis; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

October 2006
Article

Location Choices across the Value Chain: How Activity and Capability Influence Collocation

By: Juan Alcacer

There has been a recent revival of interest in the geographic component of firm strategy. Recent research suggests that two opposing forces—competition costs and agglomeration benefits—determine whether firms collocate in a given geographic market. Unexplored is (1)... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Sales; Research and Development; Cost Accounting; Cost Management; Markets; Production; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Distribution; Cost vs Benefits; SWOT Analysis; Telecommunications Industry

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March 1987 (Revised July 1996)
Case

Kansas City Zephyrs Baseball Club, Inc.

By: Kenneth A. Merchant, Krishna G. Palepu and Joseph P. Mulloy

Describes a dispute between the owners of the major league baseball teams and the players' union about the profitability of the baseball teams. The issue is important because of the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations. A consultant is brought in to decide... View Details

Keywords: State Ownership; Compensation and Benefits; Entrepreneurship; For-Profit Firms; Accounting; Activity Based Costing and Management; Resource Allocation; Cost Accounting; Cost Management; Labor and Management Relations; Financial Management; Sports; Sports Industry; Kansas

August 2000 (Revised January 2001)
Background Note

Asset Reporting

By: Paul M. Healy and Preeti Choudhary

Using historical cost and conservatism to identify and value assets, this case explains the criteria for asset reporting in straightforward situations and then examines scenarios where implementing the criteria for recognition and valuation of assets is conceptually... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Assets; Problems and Challenges; Accounting Industry

29 May 2006
What Do You Think?

How Important Is the “Service Sector Effect” on Productivity?

concerning the accounting and payment for work and failure to provide healthcare. All of this raises a number of questions. In the cost-driven U.S. service economy, are benefits to workers being sacrificed in the name of lower-cost... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Service

06 Dec 2011
Working Paper Summaries

What Impedes Oil and Gas Companies’ Transparency?

Keywords: by Paul Healy, Venkat Kuppuswamy & George Serafeim; Energy; Utilities

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Publications - Faculty & Research

effective policy instruments. The differing perspectives are due in part to a lack of empirical studies that look at the intensive margin of controls, which in turn has prevented a quantitative... View Details Keywords: Capital Controls ; Macroprudential Policies ;... View Details

15 Dec 2011
News

A Manifesto for Sustainable Capitalism

23 Jun 2015
News

The High Price of Safer Banks

April 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Supply Chain Partners: Virginia Mason and Owens & Minor (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

Virginia Mason Medical Center (VM) hired Owens & Minor (O&M) as its alpha vendor for medical/surgical supplies in 2004. By 2005, O&M was performing Just-in-Time and Low Unit of Measure services for VM, but they believed the pricing model in the industry was outdated.... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Price; Distribution; Supply Chain Management; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Innovating in Healthcare offers effective approaches for designing, reworking, and implementing innovative healthcare services, products, and business models. It will help anyone working in healthcare service or product development, from hospitals to... View Details

What Professional Service Firms Must Do to Thrive

During times of economic turbulence, consulting, law, and accounting firms often start offering services and taking on clients they really shouldn’t, just to keep the lights on. This path is perilous. If a firm’s practices have a diffuse mix of clients and unclear... View Details

Web

Faculty & Research

bias with naive beliefs. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each with a different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty. Collected penalties are rebated lump sum. When households have homogeneous present bias, , the social optimum is well... View Details

June 2004 (Revised March 2005)
Background Note

Question of LIFO or FIFO, The; Which Is Preferable?

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Sharon M. Bruns

Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of alternative inventory flow assumptions allowed in the United States. A single exhibit shows that in Year 2, a company using LIFO in Year 1 could report higher net income by switching to FIFO at a cost of higher income... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Taxation; Revenue