Publications

May 2011
Article

The Growing Power of Non-financial Reports

By: Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

We are exploring the value of forcing corporations to issue sustainability reports, which provide information about corporate performance in terms of social, environmental and governance issues. In a breakthrough study they asked, what is the effect of mandatory... View Details

Keywords: Value; Reports; Performance; Management Practices and Processes; Globalization; Power and Influence; Natural Environment; Governance; Social Issues

August 2000 (Revised February 2001)
Case

Plum Creek Timber (A)

By: Max H. Bazerman, Hannah Bowles, Dov Brachfeld and Jack Troast

Plum Creek Timber Co., the nation's sixth largest private timberland owner and forest products company, must decide whether to enter negotiations with the U.S. government to establish a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) on its Pacific Northwest properties for a... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Participants; Environmental Sustainability; Business and Government Relations; Forest Products Industry; United States

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20 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 20, 2008

highlight a two-stage process for marketing resource allocation. In stage one, a model of demand is estimated. This model empirically assesses the impact of marketing actions on consumer demand of a company's product. In stage two,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

23 Oct 2019
News

Hands-on Simulations Complement the Case Method

During a hands-on simulation, first-year MBA students work in teams to design and implement a complex process to produce electronic circuit boards. During a hands-on simulation, first-year MBA students work in teams to design and... View Details

Keywords: Educational Innovation

23 Sep 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Operational Failures and Problem Solving: An Empirical Study of Incident Reporting

Keywords: by Julia Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer & Michael W. Toffel; Health

2017
Article

Natural Environmental Responsibility in Indian Corporations: A Mixed Method Study

By: Shashank Shah

The world is going through unprecedented environmental crisis. The type of destruction and dissolution of natural resources and elements by individuals and institutions that has been witnessed in the last century is much more than that witnessed in the previous... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Natural Environment; Management Practices and Processes; Research; Framework; India

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March 2010 (Revised December 2012)
Background Note

A 'Rich-vs.-King' Approach to Term Sheet Negotiations

By: Noam Wasserman, Furqan Nazeeri and Kyle Anderson

This note offers a new approach to venture capital term-sheet negotiations, with actionable steps based on insights from Professor Wasserman's "Rich-vs.-King" approach to founder decisions. A core thesis of this note is that trying to negotiate all terms in a term... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Framework; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

July 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Cable & Wireless America

By: Guhan Subramanian and Eliot Sherman

Describes the auction of Cable & Wireless America (CWA), a bankrupt subsidiary of the British telecommunications company Cable & Wireless. While an initial "stalking-horse" bid valued the assets at $125 million, after a long day and night of bidding between eight... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Process

August 2001
Background Note

Work Methods Design: Note on Time Standards

By: H. Kent Bowen

Looks at production design. Helps students observe and work with procedures and consider cost reduction ideas using a view of methods improvement. View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Management Practices and Processes; Standards; Production; Performance Improvement; Perspective

November 1999 (Revised February 2000)
Case

Woodland Partners: Field of Dreams?

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda and Theodore D. Seides

Elizabeth Lilly, Richard Rinkett, and Richard Jensen are pondering whether to launch a new investment management firm and, if so, what growth strategy to chart for the potential firm. View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Decision Making; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Business Processes; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry

01 Dec 2019
News

Organic Matter

above: Neil Black (left) and N. Ross Buckenham at a California Bioenergy partner dairy in Bakersfield, California (photo by Christina Gandolfo) Cars and coal—not cows—are most frequently cited as drivers of climate change. But bovine burps and manure are also... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; green business; agriculture; alternative energy; Agriculture

28 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

Rethinking the Fairness of Organ Transplants

the points accumulated for a matching profile," says Trichakis. The end result: the allocation process "no longer meets the needs of the patients." So, despite the best efforts of those involved, the current transplant... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Health

14 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Growing CEOs from the Inside

ad hoc process. CEOs and their boards seem to believe they have done their job if there is a "name in the envelope." That means if the CEO is hit by a truck, they know who to appoint. But this is nothing like a well-managed succession View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Employment

16 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

HBS Center Focuses on Europe

the head office, often the CEO. However, once the CEO or chairman is on board with the project, the case writing process flows very smoothly. The approval process may require a substantial amount of effort... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

Web

Frequently Asked Questions | MBA

attractive candidate? Why do I need work experience before applying? Do internships count as work experience? Application: Recommendations Who should recommendations come from? What is the process for recommenders? Is the recommendation... View Details

02 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Mapping Your Corporate Strategy

performance against the strategy. Some organizations call this person the "Chief of Staff." In large organizations, the process is run by a new organization called the Office of Strategy Management—which reports directly to the CEO or... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

December 1994
Case

AB SKA (Sweden)

By: David F. Hawkins, V.G. Narayanan and Robert L. Simons

A senior manager faces three accounting and control decisions related to a new R&D project: to expense or capitalize, how to implement management control over the R&D function, and how to use activity-based cost drivers for product costing. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Management Practices and Processes; Cost Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Research and Development; Sweden

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2012
Working Paper

Relational Contracts and Organizational Capabilities

By: R. Gibbons and R. Henderson

A large literature identifies unique organizational capabilities as a potent source of competitive advantage, yet our knowledge of why capabilities fail to diffuse more rapidly-particularly in situations in which competitors apparently have strong incentives to adopt... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Contracts; Competency and Skills; Relationships; Complexity

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2007
Article

Convictions, Conventions and the Operational Risk Maze—The Cases of Three Financial Services Institutions

By: Anette Mikes

Making sense of operational risk practices in the financial services sector is a challenge. There is a temptation to explain the wide variety of approaches as a characteristic of the early stage of development in which the genre resides.
Based on the evidence of... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Conflict and Resolution; Organizations; Financial Services Industry