Publications

08 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

Thinking Twice About Supply-Chain Layoffs

increasing the amount of labor at a store is associated with an increase in profit margin. This did not come about through the impact of more labor on service quality, but through its impact on conformance quality—those "boring... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

March 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Supply Chain Close-Up: The Video Vault

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

The owners of the Video Vault struggle to determine the optimal stocking levels of home videos in an industry fraught with new technology, new pricing paradigms, and stiff competitive pressure from large national chains. Teaching Purpose: To demonstrate the role of... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Competition; Motivation and Incentives; Price; Technological Innovation; Service Delivery; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

19 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 19, 2019

was not clear that the business was profitable. Rapid scale had come at a cost. In June 2016, BlackBuck had $5 million in the bank and two months of runway. BlackBuck’s focus had been on raising capital and hiring operational staff to manage the complex View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

How Much Is Freedom Worth? For Gig Workers, a Lot.

drivers would likely quit dashing; the researchers estimate that a strict assignment to the most frequently worked delivery shifts would result in more than 30 percent of drivers leaving DoorDash entirely. Understanding dashers and their... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Technology

June 2017
Article

A Systematic Approach to Discussing Active Surveillance with Patients with Low-risk Prostate Cancer

By: Behfar Ehdaie, Melissa Assel, Nicole Benfante, Deepak Malhotra and Andrew Vickers

A systematic approach to counseling—using appropriate framing techniques derived from principles studied by negotiation scholars—can be taught to physicians in a one-hour lecture. We found evidence that even this minimal intervention can decrease overtreatment of... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Service Delivery; Negotiation; Health Industry

August 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Teaching Note

The UCLA Medical Center: Kidney Transplantation (TN)

By: Michael E. Porter and Jennifer F Baron

Teaching Note for 711410. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Price; Programs; Measurement and Metrics; Health Industry

May 1992
Case

Sunday River Ski Resort

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Martha Epstein

Sunday River is a ski area in Bethel, ME which has been run by entrepreneur Les Otten since 1980. The year before Otten purchased the area, it posted a loss of $235,000 on revenues of $541,000. Under Otten's leadership, however, Sunday River posted year after year of... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Competitive Advantage; Entrepreneurship; Success; Transformation; Tourism Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Maine

02 Apr 2014
What Do You Think?

Has the Post-Capitalist Economy Finally Arrived?

entrepreneurship " Peter McCann pointed out that things are déjà vu all over again. "There will be increased productivity but the day of zero marginal cost for more than a small set of goods and services is not even on the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Service

September 2006 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Arizona Department of Public Health: The Challenges of Preparing for a Public Health Emergency

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Ajay Vinze, T. S. Raghu and Minu Ipe

In the post-9/11 era information technology enablement for emergency preparedness and response have taken on increased significance. Public health organizations like ADHS play a critical role in any statewide preparation for large scale emergencies. With issues like... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Information Technology; Health Care and Treatment; Business Processes; Service Delivery; National Security; Health Industry; Public Administration Industry; Arizona

February 2007 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Wikipedia (A)

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Andrew P. McAfee

Wikipedia has emerged as a robust model for content production by volunteers working asynchronously on the Internet with a unconventional model for distributed decision making. The "Articles for Deletion" process in Wikipedia provides unique insight into the inner... View Details

Keywords: Information Publishing; Information Management; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Globalization; Service Delivery; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Management; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry

10 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution

brick and clicks are Home Depot and Pet Smart. What did Home Depot do right? Rajiv Lal: Home Depot thought about the challenges facing their business very strategically. They've gone category by category and asked: What is the best way to View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

January 1994 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Xerox: Design for the Environment

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

In 1990, Xerox undertook an "Environmental Leadership Program" designed to make Xerox an industry leader in non-polluting operations, recycling, and products actually designed for the environment. This effort flowed naturally out of the system of total quality... View Details

Keywords: Product Design; Production; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Organizational Design; Environmental Sustainability

February 1996 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Eli Lilly and Company: Innovation in Diabetes Care

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Summarizes Eli Lilly's history of innovation in its business, describing how the dimensions along which innovations have been made in the industry have changed. Lilly's innovation strategy has been to pursue ever higher performance products, while others in the... View Details

Keywords: Change; Product; Service Delivery; Product Development; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry

August 2002
Case

MassEnvelopePlus

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Brooke Bartletta and Michelle Heskett

Describes the challenges Steve Grossman, a fourth-generation owner of a small commercial printing company, must face amid industry consolidation, technological changes, and his own run for public office. View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Family Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Leadership; Change Management; Information Technology; Personal Development and Career; Service Delivery; Service Industry; Massachusetts

May 2011
Article

Think Customers Hate Waiting? Not So Fast...

By: Ryan W. Buell and Michael I. Norton

Managers typically look for ways to reduce wait time to increase customer satisfaction. New research suggests there's a better approach: showing customers a representation of the effort, whether literal or not, being expended on their behalf while they wait. (The... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Service Delivery; Consumer Behavior; Performance Effectiveness; Customer Satisfaction

Read Now

January 2010 (Revised March 2011)
Case

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Network Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter, Carolyn Daly and Andrew Peter Dervan

In 2009 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) had been recognized as the best children's hospital in the country for six years in a row; but leadership saw CHOP as more than the large main campus in western Philadelphia. Beginning in the 1990s, CHOP had created a... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Networks; Integration; Health Industry; Philadelphia

05 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

Reinventing the Dowdy Savings Bond

institutions, particularly the mutual fund industry. His work has focused on the determinants of fund flows, the impact of alternative governance structures on fee setting, the evolution of competition, and underlying economics of the industry. Recently, he has been... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services; Financial Services

January 2025
Teaching Note

Vytal: Packaging-as-a-Service

By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel and Stacy Straaberg

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 124-007. The Germany-based startup Vytal operated the largest digital-native reusable packaging-as-a-service network globally, having raised nearly €15 million, established a large network of restaurant partners, and prevented the use of... View Details