Publications

14 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

Deflategate and the Sustained Success of the New England Patriots

on the Ideal Gas Law and its effects on a football’s pounds per square inch (PSI) of air pressure. TRADITION OF SUCCESS The class discussion evolved from whether the Patriots were guilty of doctoring footballs to the larger issue of how the team sustains such a high,... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Sports

15 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 15

economic reasons. The conventional wisdom is that politically motivated aid is less effective in promoting developmental objectives. We examine the ex-post performance ratings of World Bank projects and generally find that projects that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Responsible Leadership in an Unforgiving World

company-no matter how large-was immune to failure, and that the lessons he was learning from startups could be applied far more broadly. "I realized it wasn't just small companies who were fragile, and whose leaders were facing high uncertainty and intense View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

29 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Decoding Insider Information and Other Secrets of Old School Chums

the paper The Small World of Investing: Board Connections and Mutual Fund Returns, the three scholars found that portfolio managers placed larger bets on firms when there was an alumni connection, and that these bets performed especially... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

13 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 13, 2007

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=905067 Performing Industry Research to Inform Investment Decisions Harvard Business Note 207-069 Conducting thorough research about an industry is often an important component... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Manager or Mentor? Why You Must Be Both

aisles. That shows the students that you're in charge. "Managers who manage for performance are more likely to be blindsided by events they should have foreseen and in many cases fixed." While Thomas did not automatically... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2024
News

The Exchange: Takeaways from the Takedown

Professors Eugene Soltes and Aiyesha Dey; image by John Ritter When Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted in 2023 of all seven charges against him related to the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the jury needed less than five hours to deliberate after a months-long trial. The... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance

01 Feb 1999
News

Short Takes

members of a work team believe that well-intentioned efforts, regardless of outcome, will neither be seen negatively nor lead to punishment or rejection? New research by HBS assistant professor Amy C. Edmondson shows that such teams are more able to learn - and,... View Details

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

September 2017
Teaching Note

The Productivity Decline: Demographics, Robots, or Globalization?

By: Laura Alfaro and Hayley Pallan

In the early 21st century, there was a noticeable trend of declining productivity growth. Despite the persistent decline in productivity growth, a consensus on its explanation had not been reached. Some of the debate focused on the technicalities of productivity... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Measurement and Metrics; Technological Innovation; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Globalization; Business and Government Relations

November 2016 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Improving Access at VA

By: Ryan W. Buell, Robert S. Huckman and Sam Travers

In 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ran the largest healthcare system in the United States, with over 1,700 sites of care that served nearly 9 million veterans. One year earlier, a scandal had erupted over a cover-up of the excessive wait times veterans... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Service Delivery; Social Issues; Health Care and Treatment; Government Administration; Performance Improvement; Public Administration Industry; Health Industry; United States

May 1995 (Revised April 1998)
Case

AT&T Paradyne

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A company making data communication devices has adopted a Total Quality philosophy for working with suppliers, employees, and customers. The finance group finds its existing cost system has become obsolete because of a shift from manual to automatic production... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Product; Corporate Accountability; Activity Based Costing and Management; System; Performance Efficiency; Financial Reporting; Operations; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry

June 2008 (Revised November 2010)
Supplement

Patient Flow at Brigham and Women's Hospital (B)

By: Anita L. Tucker and Jillian Alexandra Berry

The B Case is an email from the ED Director. He clarifies where the process deviations occurred. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Health Care and Treatment; Service Operations; Business Processes; Performance Productivity; Conflict and Resolution; Health Industry; Massachusetts

March 1997 (Revised December 1999)
Case

Alden Products, Inc.--European Manufacturing

By: Robert H. Hayes

The European organization of Alden Products, Inc. is contemplating a doubling of unit sales over the next ten years. Their largest plant, located in Holland, was set up 25 years earlier to supply all demands of the EEC countries on the continent. It has since expanded... View Details

Keywords: Production; Growth Management; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Strategic Planning; Performance Capacity; Business Strategy; Netherlands; Europe

December 2002
Article

The Persistence of Emerging Market Equity Flows

By: K. A. Froot and J. Donohue

Keywords: Asset Pricing; Equity Investment; Forecasting and Prediction; Behavioral Finance; Stocks; Investment Return; Market Transactions; Performance Expectations; Financial Services Industry

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January 2018
Case

Environmental Technology Fund Partners and E-Leather

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Aldo Sesia

It is 2014 and Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF) Partners, a UK-based venture capital firm, has an opportunity to invest in a privately held UK company that manufactured engineered composition leather extracted from waste leather using an environmentally friendly... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Venture Capital; Investment Strategy; Investment; Strategy; Ownership; Valuation; Energy Conservation; Equity; Technological Innovation; Environmental Sustainability; Performance Efficiency; Manufacturing Industry; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

2013
Working Paper

Digital Dark Matter and the Economics of Apache

By: Shane Greenstein and Frank Nagle

Researchers have long hypothesized that spillovers from government, university, and private company R&D contribute to economic growth, but these contributions may be difficult to measure when they take a non-pecuniary form. The growth of networking devices and the... View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Internet and the Web; Performance Productivity; Applications and Software; Economic Growth; Research and Development

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2010
Working Paper

Valuation When Cash Flow Forecasts Are Biased

By: Richard S. Ruback

This paper focuses adaptations to the discount cash flow (DCF) method when valuing forecasted cash flows that are biased measures of expected cash flows. I imagine a simple setting where the expected cash flows equal the forecasted cash flows plus an omitted downside.... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Performance Expectations; Prejudice and Bias; Valuation