COST Control - Publications - Faculty & Research

January 2009
Teaching Note

Consumer Payment Systems — United States and Japan

By: Benjamin Edelman and Andrei Hagiu

Teaching Note for [909006] and [909007]. View Details

Keywords: Cash; Cost; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Efficiency; Technology; Alliances; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States; Japan

Citation

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12 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

Regulators Ease Up on Companies Generating Political Benefits

levers that politicians pull to spring the trap, including appointment of favored regulators, control of budget appropriations, and direct arm bending of regulators on behalf of companies they favor. In all these models, the cycle of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

05 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Fixing the ‘I Hate Work’ Blues

empowerment, engagement, and innovation are subordinated to control aspects. No wonder people aren't engaged and having fun! Finally, we have lost sight of the importance of first-line employees—the people actually doing the work—and have... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

01 Sep 2003
News

Incentives and Operational Excellence

Operational problems can be the cause of an organization’s demise. Often they can be traced to poor controls in interorganizational settings, according to HBS associate professor V.G. Narayanan, a specialist in measurement systems and... View Details

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

August 2009 (Revised July 2010)
Case

Choosing a GAAP for Canada

By: Karthik Ramanna and Beiting Cheng

Explores Canadian regulators' decision to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The Canadian decision in 2005 to adopt IFRS is particularly interesting because Canada had well-developed domestic accounting standards and because a significant... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Cost vs Benefits; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Standards; Accounting Industry; Canada

Citation

Educators

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02 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Investor Protection: The Czech Experience

Protection in a Converging World," the expropriation and its aftermath "illustrate the interaction of property and contract rights in a global setting, how corporate control is shaped by geography, and how multinational firms... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Media & Broadcasting; Entertainment & Recreation

23 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

Bringing the Environment Down to Earth

sound when talking about environmental issues. They take that approach because they associate it not just with extra costs but also with a loss of control over their own operations. But, as the examples in... View Details

Keywords: by Forest Reinhardt

01 Dec 2007
News

Where Are the Innovators in Health Care?

entrepreneur than as a doctor. Luckily there is a solution, but there is only one: consumer-driven health care. Let’s take back our $2.2 trillion from the entrepreneur-suppressing status quo and allow consumers to reward those entrepreneurs who lower View Details

Keywords: Regina E. Herzlinger; Health, Social Assistance; Management

10 Jun 2015
Research & Ideas

The Transparency Revolution in Corporate Reporting

has become more concentrated in recent years, with most of it now controlled by just 1,000 companies. That allows economies of scale and scope and very high returns of capital, all of which give those companies tremendous power. With that... View Details

Keywords: Re: George Serafeim

29 Sep 2011
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Leveraging Intellectual Property

File-Sharing and Copyright Researchers Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf argue that file-sharing technology has not undermined the incentives of artists and entertainment companies to create, market, and distribute new works. Key concepts include: Digital... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

30 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Tuning Jobs to Fit Your Company

lower level. Finally, executives can use accounting and control systems to adjust the span of influence. For example, the span will be wider for managers who are forced to bear the burden of indirect cost... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

03 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Web Services

Before this can occur, however, issues such as complexity of installation and management, software quality, and cost must be addressed. Some other unsolved problems, Scott added, are quality of service and scale. "We produce nine or... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Service

01 Dec 2003
News

HBS Releases 2003 Financial Report

increase established for the MBA class that entered the School in September 2002. In response to the revenue shortfall, the School implemented vigorous cost controls, made all the more challenging because of the fixed-cost nature of... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Let Customers Call the Shots

definition of that for the layman? How long has the concept been around in marketing? Wathieu: The idea involves letting consumers take control of variables that are conventionally pre-determined by marketers: product characteristics,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

17 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 17

forthcoming Handbook of International Trade and Transportation Transportation Cost and the Geography of Foreign Investment By: Alfaro, Laura, and Maggie Chen Abstract—Falling transportation costs and rapid... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 May 2016
News

Can Brian Shortsleeve Fix the MBTA’s Budget Woes?

table.” The answers, Aloisi said, will have to come from Baker and from Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, not from Shortsleeve, who serves as more of a chief financial officer than lead visionary. But Shortsleeve said View Details

09 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Starbucks’ Lessons for Premium Brands

coffee, revitalizing the quality of its standard beverages. But none of these moves addressed the fundamental problem: Starbucks is a mass brand attempting to command a premium price for an experience that is no longer special. Either you have to cut price (and that... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Retail

13 May 2019
Research & Ideas

The Unexpected Way Whistleblowers Reduce Government Fraud

contracts.” In fixed-price contracts, the supplier provides a product or service to the government at a fixed price. In cost-plus contracts, the supplier bills the government based on reported production costs and profit margin, making it... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Service; Construction

01 Sep 2010
News

Start-Ups Make Their Pitch

today goes to telecom, high tech, or software,” said Mahesh, founder and CEO of Sundaram Medical Devices in Chennai. Mahesh trained at Stanford as an engineer and worked for McKinsey and Toyota before attending HBS. He plans to apply engineering and View Details

Keywords: awards; Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

Article

Regulating Hospital Prices Based on Market Concentration Is Likely to Leave High-Price Hospitals Unaffected

By: Maximilian J. Pany, Michael E. Chernew and Leemore S. Dafny

Concern about high hospital prices for commercially insured patients has motivated several proposals to regulate these prices. Such proposals often limit regulations to highly concentrated hospital markets. Using a large sample of 2017 US commercial insurance claims,... View Details