Publications

May 2022
Case

Maestro Pizza: Coming in Hot!

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Fares Khrais

Maestro Pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of... View Details

Web

Research - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

Macroeconomic Expectations By: Pedro Bordalo , Nicola Gennaioli , Yueran Ma & Andrei Shleifer SEP 2020 What does predictability of forecast errors teach us about how market participants form expectations? The authors study the rationality... View Details

18 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Industrial Decarbonization: Confronting the Hard Challenges of Cement

Cities like Cairo; Chongqing, China; Delhi; and Kinshasa, Congo are experiencing population explosions accompanied by unprecedented demand for homes, offices, factories, and infrastructure. In the United States, the Biden Administration’s policy-driven infrastructure... View Details

Keywords: by by Janelle Conaway; Green Technology; Energy; Industrial Products; Manufacturing

10 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Minimum Wage Debate Is Really About Social Values

aware that the long-term economic path for the United States has some challenges. Spending outstrips our forecast for revenue by an enormous amount and that requires some adjustment. We'll have to either raise taxes or cut spending.... View Details

Keywords: by April White; Retail; Manufacturing

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Organizing the Family-Run Business

future goals and the company's strategies, where board members can analyze and forecast industry trends and decide what moves the company should make. Board members should also be willing and able to contribute their own business contacts... View Details

31 Jul 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Learning from Double-Digit Growth Experiences

Keywords: by Eric D. Werker

July 2019 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Acelerex

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In early 2019, Randell Johnson, Founder and Chief Executive of Acelerex, was reflecting on the company’s first year of rapid growth and the challenges of scaling the business that lay ahead. Acelerex was riding the waves of change taking place in electrical power grids... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Energy Sources; Growth Management; Expansion; Global Strategy; Cash Flow; Energy Industry; Web Services Industry; Consulting Industry

Web

About - Business History

He specializes in business, labor, and economic history. He is author of Fortune Tellers: The Story of America's First Economic Forecasters (2013) and Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America(2004). He is currently... View Details

October 1994 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Sport Obermeyer Ltd.

By: Janice H. Hammond and Ananth Raman

The case describes operations at a skiwear design and merchandising company and its supply partner. Introduces production planning for short-life-cycle products with uncertain demand and allows students to analyze a reduced version of the company's production planning... View Details

Keywords: Product; Supply Chain; Demand and Consumers; Production; Planning; Globalized Markets and Industries; Forecasting and Prediction; Industry Growth; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; United States; Hong Kong

04 Dec 2019
Book

Creating the Experimentation Organization

When customers log onto Booking.com—the world’s largest online accommodations platform—they might naturally assume they are seeing the same website as every other customer logged on at the same time. In fact, Booking is running quadrillions (millions of billions) of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

October 1991 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Butler Lumber Company

By: Thomas R. Piper

The Butler Lumber Co. is faced with a need for increased bank financing due to its rapid sales growth and low profitability. Students must determine the reasons for the rising bank borrowing, estimate the amount of borrowing needed, and assess the attractiveness of the... View Details

Keywords: Commercial Banking; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Strategy; Financing and Loans; Capital Structure; Forecasting and Prediction

01 Feb 1999
News

Too Much of a Good Thing?

overseas, trade friction, and government intervention. Recession - and fears of even worse - often follow. Forecasts and the Eye of the Beholder Lately, such repercussions have been felt around the world, particularly in Asia. Along with... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons

TeachingInterests

Decision Making Under Uncertainty

By: David E. Bell

Many of the decisions we face are made complicated by having uncertain consequences: how should I set my inventory when I don’t know what demand will be, should I refinance my mortgage when rates might go lower, how big a bet shall I make in a new business, and so... View Details

14 Oct 2021
In Practice

Reunited and It Feels (Not) So Good: Tips for Managing a Rocky Return

widespread and the timing and nature of the end of the virus as we know it so uncertain that it is impossible to know what the parameters of such an end state. Business leaders should, instead, think in terms of a “next normal.” Their back-to-work policies should... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

17 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Blue Skies, Distractions Arise: How Weather Affects Productivity

conducted the sessions of the study to take advantage of natural variation, and then we experimentally manipulated subjects' exposure to outside options," the authors explain in the paper. Half of the participants were asked to come to the lab on days View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

being possibly regulated as a publisher, and many, many other things! Unsurprisingly, people get valuations wrong all the time. That’s part of what makes finance so much fun and so interesting. People’s forecasts will differ, and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Box Office Power of Stars

relatively good forecasts of actual box office returns. In fact, the forecasting accuracy is what makes it such a valuable research setting. I used HSX to measure how the involvement of a movie star affects... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Entertainment & Recreation; Motion Pictures & Video

November 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Background Note

Assessing a Company's Future Financial Health

By: Thomas R. Piper

The case provides students with (1) an understanding of the essence of long-term financial health; (2) familiarity with the calculation and meaning of various financial ratios; and (3) an understanding of the influence of a company's operating and competitive... View Details

Keywords: Financial Condition; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment Return; Operations; Competitive Strategy