Publications

May 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Exercise

Endeca Negotiation, The: Hardy Smith

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Students play the role of Hardy Smith, one of the founding investors of a venture-backed enterprise software company. In the challenging financing climate of the fall of 2001, he is trying to decide what terms to offer the company as an insider-funded C-round. Presents... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Process; Negotiation Offer; Management Teams; Venture Capital; Valuation; Software; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

August 1999 (Revised September 1999)
Case

Double Dealmaking in the Browser Wars (A)

By: James K. Sebenius

Recounts two complex negotiations in which Netscape and Microsoft compete to win a browser contract with AOL--then later with KPMG. After reviewing the web and browser sectors, this case recounts AOL's dramatic negotiations with Netscape and with Microsoft over which... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Deal; Web; Web Services Industry

March 1998 (Revised November 2004)
Case

FAG Kugelfischer-A German Restructuring

By: Stuart C. Gilson

A large German manufacturer of ball bearings and precision machinery experiences severe financial difficulty brought on by poor management practices, an ill-conceived acquisition of a former East German ball-bearings company, and an industry recession. The company... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Acquisition; Restructuring; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Machinery and Machining; Policy; Resignation and Termination; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Evaluation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Europe; Germany; United States

October 1988 (Revised February 1990)
Case

HCC Industries

Describes a corporation that switches its philosophy of budgeting from "stretch" targets to "minimum performance standard" targets. The change has implications for management incentives, compensation, and corporate planning. Early results suggest the concept was not... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Budgets and Budgeting

March 2022
Supplement

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (B)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting–and... View Details

22 Jan 2013
First Look

First Look: Jan. 22

heavy backpack on these behaviors. Our studies also examined the mechanism behind these effects and demonstrated that participants processed guilty stimuli more fluently when... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 26

Friedman-is that managers should act to maximize shareholder value, and thus that they should take every opportunity (within the bounds of the law) to structure market institutions so as to increase profitability. We maintain here that if... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 1994
Case

AB SKA (Sweden)

By: David F. Hawkins, V.G. Narayanan and Robert L. Simons

A senior manager faces three accounting and control decisions related to a new R&D project: to expense or capitalize, how to implement management control over the R&D function, and how to use activity-based cost drivers for product costing. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Management Practices and Processes; Cost Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Research and Development; Sweden

Find at Harvard

January 2012 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Ctrip: Scientifically Managing Travel Services

By: David A. Garvin and Nancy Hua Dai

Ctrip is a $437 million Chinese on-line travel services company with a scientific, data driven approach to management. The case explores Ctrip's founding and early growth, its expansion into multiple market segments including hotel reservations, air ticketing, leisure... View Details

Keywords: Scientific Management; Data-driven Management; Management; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Market Entry and Exit; Mathematical Methods; Business Processes; Information Management; Travel Industry; China

March 1994 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Reading Energy

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Reading Energy builds facilities that produce energy from nontraditional fuels. A privately held, entrepreneurial organization, it has spent six years developing a plan to build a waste-to-energy plant in the town of Robbins, Illinois. The plant would burn municipal... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Business and Community Relations; Business Plan; Agreements and Arrangements; Contracts; Risk and Uncertainty; Government and Politics; Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Illinois

Find at Harvard

07 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

Are Creative People More Dishonest?

evil and unoriginal. This raises a question: Is there a link between creativity and unethical behavior? “Dan and I started wondering whether there is something about the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

18 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 18

experience and performance fails to find a consistent effect of diversity in experience on performance. The problem is that diversity in experience improves a team's information processing capacity View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 7, 2007

H. Carpenter Abstract Front-line staff possess an immense amount of functional and experiential knowledge from which their organizations can learn. This paper examines two distinct processes for leveraging... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 1993
Case

United Way of America: Governance in the Nonprofit Sector (A), The United Way

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Discusses the management practices of William Aramony at the United Way of America (UWA). First, the case describes the United Way movement, focusing on both the local chapters and the national organization. Second, it sets forth the Washington Post reports that lead... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Nonprofit Organizations; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Crisis Management; Public Administration Industry; United States

September 1999 (Revised February 2004)
Case

WebSpective Software, Inc. (A)

By: Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter III, John T. Gourville and Sun Ming Wong

Describes the situation at WebSpective, a software company that develops products to help companies manage the network of servers that support their Websites. Describes the use of "concept engineering" tools to interview customers, determine their needs and the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Management Practices and Processes; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Communication Intention and Meaning; Product Development; Product Marketing; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Strategy; Information Technology Industry

22 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 22, 2008

common goal via information-sharing, joint decision-making, and coordination of activities. In contrast to prior work, we distinguish forms of collaboration by three organizational goals—unit management, routine production, View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Facebook’s Future

Editor's note: Now 10 years old, Facebook's growth is starting to slow. That's one reason it purchased What'sApp last month in a jaw-dropping deal valued at $19 billion. What might the next decade be like? Harvard Business School Associate Professor Mikolaj Piskorski,... View Details

Keywords: by Mikolaj Piskorski

October 2017
Supplement

Turnaround at Norsk Gjenvinning (B)

By: George Serafeim

The case describes the impact of Norsk Gjenvinning's (NG) transformation efforts on reducing corruption and non-compliance within the Norwegian waste management industry. View Details

Keywords: Change Leadership; Governance; Compliance; Waste Management; Environmental Impact; Social Responsibility; Industry Regulation; Regulatory Enforcement; Change Management; Crime and Corruption; Governance Compliance; Wastes and Waste Processing; Norway

February 2009 (Revised November 2016)
Exercise

Congo River Basin Project: Role for Dr. Beni

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Anne Starks Acosta, Deborah M. Kolb and Cailin B. Hammer

The director of a research coalition and the founder/coordinator of an NGO consortium meet to discuss the possibility of jointly drafting a proposal for an integrated research and development project in the Congo River basin. Approved projects will receive an annual... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Negotiation Process; Projects; Research and Development; Non-Governmental Organizations; Cooperation; Congo Basin