Publications

11 Oct 2022
News

Righting the Ship

is, the more people you had working at your subsidiary, the more resources you got for buildings and equipment,” explains Stuckey. “Think about that from a fairness perspective: If you were a smaller division, with really old, aging, and... View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon

August 2019
Teaching Note

MoviePass

By: Willy C. Shih

Teaching Note for HBS No. 619-052. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Resource Allocation; Two-Sided Platforms; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

2011
Working Paper

The 'IKEA Effect': When Labor Leads to Love

By: Michael I. Norton, Daniel Mochon and Dan Ariely

In a series of studies in which consumers assembled IKEA boxes, folded origami, and built sets of Legos, we demonstrate and investigate the boundary conditions for what we term the "IKEA effect&"—the increase in valuation of self-made products. Participants saw their... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Labor; Resource Allocation; Valuation

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June 2005
Case

Billy Beane: Changing the Game

Describes how Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's baseball team, employs statistical methodologies to select who is undervalued in the marketplace. Examines why few teams have imitated his organization's successful strategy. Explores threats to Oakland's... View Details

Keywords: Resource Allocation; Competitive Advantage; Sports; Sports Industry; California

15 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

Want Your Employees to Plan Better for Retirement? Don't Do This

“Defined benefit (DB) plans have largely gone the way of the dodo,” Beshears said in a recent interview. “They’ve been replaced with defined contribution (DC) plans. In those situations, it’s incumbent upon the individual to be saving enough and View Details

Keywords: Re: John Beshears; Financial Services

30 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Tuning Jobs to Fit Your Company

questions: "What resources do I control to accomplish my tasks?" "What measures will be used to evaluate my performance?" "Who do I need to interact with and influence to achieve my goals?" "How much... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

01 Jun 2007
News

More Faculty Honors

teaching and research. Professor Joseph Bower is the coeditor of From Resource Allocation to Strategy, which was named Best Management Book of 2006 by strategy + business magazine. A book coauthored by... View Details

Keywords: awards; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

April 5, 2021
Article

Defining a Post-Pandemic Channel Strategy

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Companies have experienced a surge of online orders during the pandemic. As the crisis eases, leaders need to decide whether the shift to e-commerce is a permanent “new normal” or a temporary increase. Across sectors, forecasts aimed at answering this question form the... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Marketing Channels; Strategy; Resource Allocation; E-commerce

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March 2018
Article

Making the Numbers? 'Short Termism' and the Puzzle of Only Occasional Disaster

By: Hazhir Rahmandad, Rebecca Henderson and Nelson P. Repenning

Much recent work in strategy and popular discussion suggests that an excessive focus on "managing the numbers"—delivering quarterly earnings at the expense of longer-term investments—makes it difficult for firms to make the investments necessary to build competitive... View Details

Keywords: Capability; Short-termism; System Dynamics; Tipping Point; Business or Company Management; Earnings Management; Resource Allocation

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Web

Strategy Execution - Course Catalog

systems and structures, we will teach you how to make the tough choices needed to ensure successful strategy execution. The course is divided into seven modules: Allocating resources to customers: You will... View Details

March 1996 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Wildfire Communications, Inc. (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Mary Connor

Founder and CEO Bill Warner is faced with critical decisions regarding the product lines, target markets, and technology platforms that his start-up, Wildfire Communications, Inc., will pursue. In addition to the question of strategic focus across these lines of... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Resource Allocation; Organizational Culture; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Communications Industry; Technology Industry

June 1991 (Revised April 1995)
Background Note

Corporate Strategy: A Conceptual Framework

By: David J. Collis

Provides a conceptual framework for the study of corporate strategy. First describes previous perspectives on corporate strategy and then develops a framework of four elements: resources, tasks, structure, and industries. This framework can be used to explain the value... View Details

Keywords: Resource Allocation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Value

Article

Orienteering for Electioneering

By: Jonah Kallenbach, Robert Kleinberg and Scott Duke Kominers

In this paper, we introduce a combinatorial optimization problem that models the investment decision a political candidate faces when treating his or her opponents’ campaign plans as given. Our formulation accounts for both the time cost of traveling between districts... View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; Resource Allocation; Time Management; Analysis

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Web

Your Commitment | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

responsibilities Other members of the project team (if any) Name, title, telephone number and fax number of project supervisor Level of administrative support available Human resources contact Facility and equipment View Details

01 Mar 2006
News

Faculty Books

From Resource Allocation to Strategy by Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert (Oxford University Press) Drawing on thirty years of research on resource allocation, Professor... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

09 Feb 2016
News

Applying Business Principles to Military Problems

Donald Reidy (MBA 1990) is director of strategic planning and resource allocation for the Naval Special Warfare Command, in California. In this video, he talks about applying business management principles... View Details

Portrait Project

Jen Wu

Those earmarked “sleep” were the easiest to redistribute, and any once allocated to introspection had long been dismissed as an indulgence. It never occurred to me, during this Tetris game of time allocation, that I could change time... View Details

February 2025
Article

Innovations in Evaluating Ambulatory Costs of Cystic Fibrosis Care: A Comparative Study Across Multidisciplinary Care Centers in Ireland and the United States

By: Emma Brady, Ryan C. Perkins, Kate Cullen, Gregory S. Sawicki, Robert S. Kaplan and Gerardine Doyle

Lead clinicians at two large pediatric cystic fibrosis (CF) centers in the United States and Ireland measured and compared their ambulatory care costs. The clinicians selected three strata of patients (0–11 months, 1–5 years, and 6–17 years of age). Process maps were... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Service Delivery; Resource Allocation; Health Industry

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June 2017 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Organizing for Performance: Four Vignettes

By: Robert Simons

This case provides four examples of organizations with very different business strategies: Walmart, Starbucks, Harvard Business School, and Google. To support their varying strategies, each of these organizations requires a specific configuration to provide the most... View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Organization; Span Of Control; Job Design; Resource Allocation; Organizational Design; Competitive Strategy; Value Creation