Publications

Research Summary

Managing the Manufacturer-Retailer Interface

By: Janice H. Hammond

Janice H. Hammond is studying the impact of coordination on the performance of manufacturing and retail channels. The focus of her research is on the supply "channel", the set of firms that undertakes the chain of activities that begins with acquisition of raw... View Details

21 Jun 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Information Technology and Boundary of the Firm: Evidence from Plant-Level Data

Keywords: by Chris Forman & Kristina McElheran

October 1994 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Sport Obermeyer Ltd.

By: Janice H. Hammond and Ananth Raman

The case describes operations at a skiwear design and merchandising company and its supply partner. Introduces production planning for short-life-cycle products with uncertain demand and allows students to analyze a reduced version of the company's production planning... View Details

Keywords: Product; Supply Chain; Demand and Consumers; Production; Planning; Globalized Markets and Industries; Forecasting and Prediction; Industry Growth; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; United States; Hong Kong

December 2012 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Lit Motors

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alex Godden

In mid-2012 Lit Motors had created both engineering and design prototypes and conducted initial customer tests on less than $750,000 of investment. Lit Motors' founder, Daniel Kim, had started the company to design and manufacture an efficient electric 2-wheeled... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Prototyping; Electric Vehicle; Urban Vehicle; Customer Tests; Gyroscope; Entrepreneurs; Development Stage Enterprises; Creativity; Disruptive Technologies; Consumer Surveys; Market Segmentation; Manufacturing Costs; Entrepreneurship; Auto Industry; United States; California

Trevor Fetter is a Senior Lecturer and the Henry B. Arthur Fellow at Harvard Business School, where he has been on the faculty since 2019. He teaches two MBA required courses: Financial Reporting and Control and Leadership and Corporate Accountability. He has also... View Details

June 2014
Teaching Note

Lit Motors

By: Thomas Eisenmann

In mid-2012 Lit Motors had created both engineering and design prototypes and conducted initial customer tests on less than $750,000 of investment. Lit Motors' founder, Daniel Kim, had started the company to design and manufacture an efficient electric 2-wheeled... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Prototyping; Electric Vehicle; Urban Vehicle; Customer Test; Gyroscope; Entrepreneurs; Development Stage Enterprises; Creativity; Disruptive Technologies; Consumer Surveys; Market Segmentation; Manufacturing Costs; Entrepreneurship; Auto Industry; United States; California

03 Oct 2019
HBS Seminar

Christopher Tang, UCLA Anderson School of Management

Article

A Cost Comparison of Cataract Surgeries in Three Countries—United States, India, and Nepal

By: Jiayin Xue, John Hinkle, Mary-Grace Reeves, Luo Luo Zheng, Vengadesan Natarajan, Shyam Vyas, Radhika Upreti Oli, Matt Oliva, Robert S. Kaplan, Arnold Milstein, Geoff Tabin, Jeffrey L. Goldberg and Kevin Schulman

U.S.-based cataract surgeries are costly compared with those performed in high-quality Indian and Nepalese eye centers. The authors used time-driven activity-based costing to evaluate phacoemulsification surgery across four sites: a U.S.-based academic hospital... View Details

Keywords: Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Cost Accounting; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; India; Nepal; United States

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February 2002 (Revised December 2003)
Case

H-E-B Own Brands

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

H-E-B is a $9 billion grocery chain located in Southwest Texas. This case focuses on H-E-B's private label strategy, a product category that accounts for 19% of H-E-B's sales and one that earns gross margins 50% higher than national brands. A leader in its markets,... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Sales; Strategy; Competitive Strategy

May 1995
Case

Hannaford Brothers: Leading the Grocery Channel Transformation

The merchandising manager of a supermarket chain leads an effort to reorganize the process of buying and delivering products from manufacturers to their warehouse for further distribution to stores. The company is an early mover in implementing efficient consumer... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Supply Chain Management; Distribution Channels; Customer Focus and Relationships; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

Research Summary

Innovations in Logistics: The Impact of Channel Coordination

By: Janice H. Hammond

Roy D. Shapiro (with Janice H. Hammond and Marshall L. Fisher) is studying innovative systems and management approaches that integrate and coordinate material and information flows through the supply chain so as to reduce or eliminate the redundant activities that tend... View Details

14 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 14

launch of new products. A series of questions are presented that companies should keep in mind when poised to launch a product. Questions about advertising, pricing, and branding are explored, as well as who in a product's supply View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Food for Thought: Exiting Russia? (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose, Hugo Etchegoyhen and Lena Duchene

In September 2022, the French food companies Bonduelle and Danone each grappled with the difficult decision of whether to exit Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February. Both companies were deeply embedded in Russia’s agricultural supply chains and local... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Ethics; Market Entry and Exit; Public Opinion; War; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; France; Russia

January 2012 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Tough Decisions at Marks and Spencer

By: George Serafeim

In 2007, under the leadership of CEO Stuart Rose, the iconic British retailer Marks and Spencer, with great fanfare, announced its "Plan A" initiative. Based on the five essential pillars of climate change, waste, sustainable materials, fair partnership, and health,... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry

October 1994
Case

Kamakura Ironworks Company, Ltd.

Describes cost management techniques in a supplier chain in the Japanese automotive industry. Exposes students to interorganizational cost management systems and explores when cost systems are required and when they can be switched off. Also illustrates supportive... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Cost Management; Supply Chain; Auto Industry; Japan

2019
Article

Time-Driven Activity-Based Cost Analysis for Outpatient Anticoagulation Therapy: Direct Costs in a Primary Care Setting with Optimal Performance

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Rohit A. Bobade, Richard A. Helmers, Thomas M. Jaeger, Laura J. Odell and Derek A. Haas

Objectives: To determine how overall cost of anticoagulation therapy for warfarin compares with that of Novel Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs). Also, to demonstrate a scientific, comprehensive, and an analytical approach to estimate direct costs involved in monitoring and... View Details

Keywords: Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Analysis

September 2015
Article

Codes in Context: How States, Markets, and Civil Society Shape Adherence to Global Labor Standards

By: Michael W. Toffel, Jodi L. Short and Melissa Ouellet

Transnational business regulation is increasingly implemented through private voluntary programs—like certification regimes and codes of conduct—that diffuse global standards. But little is known about the conditions under which companies adhere to these standards. We... View Details

Keywords: Transnational Regulation; Labor Standards; Consumer Politics; Codes Of Conduct; Compliance; Governance Compliance; Operations; Globalization; Labor

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September 2010
Case

Quanta Research Institute: Rainforest or Hothouse?

By: Willy C. Shih, Jyun-Cheng Wang and Ho Howard Yu

Barry Lam, the CEO and founder of Quanta Computer (the largest notebook computer manufacturer worldwide), has recognized for many years that he had to transform the company to decrease its dependence on producing commodity hardware for other global brands and move the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Research and Development; Computer Industry; Taiwan

April 2002
Case

Contingent Workforce Planning at Motorola, Inc.

Details the rationale for and design of a unique organizational response by Motorola to the challenges of contingent staffing at its semiconductor facility in Austin, Texas. The new outsourcing strategy is built on principles of supply chain management and business... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Semiconductor Industry; Texas