Publications

February 1991
Case

Burlington Northern: The ARES Decision (A)

By: Julie H. Hertenstein and Robert S. Kaplan

Burlington Northern's decision whether to invest in ARES, an automated train control system, is a ($350 million) strategic investment in information technology. Although set in a service industry (railroad) the issues around this decision arise in many organizations... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Rail Transportation; Information Technology; Competitive Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Performance Effectiveness; Cost vs Benefits; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Customers; Quality; Rail Industry

October 1990
Case

Manufacturers Hanover Corp.: Customer Profitability Report

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Banking company noting declining profitability from its traditional lending activities has started to measure the total profitability of its lending relationships. A loan pricing model estimates the profit and return-on-equity from commercial loans. Additional work was... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Revenue; Commercial Banking; Banks and Banking; Customer Value and Value Chain; Banking Industry

July 1990
Case

Ceramics Process Systems Corp. (B)

By: Kim B. Clark and Brent D. Barnett

Ceramics Process Systems (CPS) is an advanced ceramics company facing problems with lead time in product/process development, and late delivery of prototype parts to its customers. Engineering is confronted with difficult technical problems and multiple objectives... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Business Processes; Management Practices and Processes; Supply Chain Management; Machinery and Machining; Goals and Objectives; Resource Allocation; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Manufacturing Industry

July 1989 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Colonial Homes

By: David E. Bell

Colonial Homes supplies a complete raw materials package to build entire homes. The price of the package is guaranteed at the signing of the sales contract, while delivery (and payment) are not effected for up to six months. In an effort to reduce its exposure to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Contracts; Price; Price Bubble; Fluctuation; Monopoly; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Accommodations Industry; Real Estate Industry

April 1989 (Revised March 1990)
Case

Burlington Northern (B)

By: Janice H. Hammond

Describes the experiences of a seasoned Burlington Northern (BN) sales representative after the introduction of ShipSmart, a decision support system developed by the BN to help its employees and customers analyze logistics problems. After a brief description of a... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Expansion; Rail Transportation; Logistics; Distribution Channels; Truck Transportation; Innovation and Invention; Sales; Rail Industry; United States

2018
Chapter

Are Licensing Markets Local? An Analysis of the Geography of Vertical Licensing Agreements in Bio-Pharmaceuticals

By: Juan Alcacer, John Cantwell and Michelle Gittelman

As the value chain of the pharmaceutical industry disaggregates, upstream discovery is increasingly carried out by small research-specialized firms while downstream development, testing and marketing is conducted by global pharmaceutical firms. Licensing plays an... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Local Range; Rights; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

Research Summary

Customer-Centricity as a Vehicle for Organic Growth

By: Ranjay Gulati

This body of work examines the mechanics of how firms grow profitably in commoditizing markets. Underlying the "customer-centricity" that many firms embrace today is a factor that will determine their success with this effort: enabling collaboration across... View Details

Research Summary

Distributed Innovation in Open Systems—The Role of Modularity

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

Distributed innovation in open systems is an important trend in the modern global economy. As education levels rise and communication costs fall, more people have the means and motivation to innovate. Supply chains now stretch around the world as firms outsource... View Details

Research Summary

Evolution of firm structure in vertical specialized technology supply chains

By: Willy C. Shih

The global market in many everyday products has been transformed by the internationalization of production. In many industries, semiconductors and electronic products in particular, a sequential mode of production has evolved in which goods are produced... View Details

Keywords: Globalization Of Supply Chain; Globalization; Technological Innovation; Manufacturing Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Auto Industry; United States; Asia; China

Research Summary

Global Supply Chains: The Looming “Great Reallocation”

By: Laura Alfaro

Global supply chains have come under unprecedented stress as a result of US-China trade tensions, the Covid-19 pandemic, and geopolitical shocks. We document shifts in the pattern of US participation in global value chains over the last four decades, in terms of... View Details

Research Summary

Internalizing Global Value Chains: A Firm-Level Analysis

By: Laura Alfaro

In recent decades, advances in information and communication technology and falling trade barriers have led firms to retain within their boundaries and in their domestic economies only a subset of their production stages. A key decision facing firms worldwide is the... View Details

Research Summary

Management Control Systems in Multiunit Companies

By: Tatiana Sandino

Professor Sandino conducts research on early-stage multiunit companies that introduce management control systems to help maintain operations, as well as company culture, as they grow, but also to enable adaptation to the different markets that they serve. Building... View Details

Research Summary

Managing Marketspace Service Interfaces

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Jeffrey F. Rayport is focusing on the strategic challenges that face businesses selling information-intensive products and services. A key strategic issue in such businesses is the dematerialization of information-intensive products and services as a consequence of... View Details

Research Summary

Managing Networked Businesses

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Platform-based businesses that leverage network effects face a distinctive set of management challenges. A platform encompasses components and rules that facilitate interactions between the platform's users. A platform-based product or service exhibits a network... View Details

2015
Other Teaching and Training Material

Marketing Reading: Digital Marketing

By: Sunil Gupta and Joseph Davin

Digital technology has changed how consumers search for information, interact with each other, and buy products. The popularization of these technologies has made it possible for companies to have a better understanding of their customers' decision journey and... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Buzz Marketing; Internet Marketing; Marketing; Marketing Management; Social Media; Social Networks; Viral Marketing; Word-of-mouth Marketing; Digital; Internet; Marketing Channels; Marketing Reference Programs; Online Advertising; Advertising Industry