Publications

14 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

The New Measures for Improving Nonprofit Performance

For-profit businesses have a common goal: create value for owners or shareholders by creating value for customers. It's a focus that must seem enviably straightforward from the perspective of nonprofit organizations and social enterprises... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

January 2010
Article

Does Public Ownership of Equity Improve Earnings Quality?

We compare the quality of accounting numbers produced by two types of public firms-those with publicly traded equity and those with privately held equity that are nonetheless considered public by virtue of having publicly traded debt. We develop and test two... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Business Earnings; Public Equity

09 Mar 2016
Lessons from the Classroom

In This Classroom, Beer Can Improve Your Grade

In a large circular classroom called The Hives, Ramon Casadesus-Masanell is roaming the floors this week as he oversees the second running of Strategic Brew, a computerized business simulation designed for first-year MBA students at... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Education; Food & Beverage

January 1997 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Improving the Product Development Process at Kirkham Instruments Corp.

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Describes the efforts of a manufacturer of scientific instruments to implement new methods of managing new product development, which its executives had learned in a Harvard Business School seminar. The executives left the seminar excited to implement a new way of... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Product Launch; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; United States

November 29, 2023
Article

To Earn Trust, Climate Alliances Need to Improve Transparency

By: Peter Tufano, Chris Thomas, Knut Haanaes, Matteo Gasparini, Robert Eyres and Christopher Chapman

Businesses are increasingly joining together as part of climate alliances to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. But these alliances raise antitrust issues: When competitors collaborate, it can come at the expense of customers or workers. To mitigate... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Partners and Partnerships; Corporate Disclosure; Energy Sources

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13 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Experimental Researcher Helps Improve Health Care in Zambia

Sometimes big ideas start with small experiments. That's been the experience of Harvard Business School professor Nava Ashraf, whose experimental approach to research in developing countries has produced insights that have influenced... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Health

08 Mar 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Can the Proposed American Health Care Act Improve on 'Obamacare'?

substantial financial losses. Consumers had fewer options to choose from and many of the remaining plans raised their premiums. Therefore, politics aside, the question everyone should be asking is: Will this new plan improve choice, cost,... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch, Dr. Gordon Moore, and Emily Boudreau

August 2018 (Revised July 2019)
Background Note

Conducting a Kaizen

By: Willy Shih

Kaizen, meaning change for the better in Japanese, is a set of activities directed at improving standardized work, equipment, and procedures for carrying out daily production or other business operations. It was popularized by Toyota as an integral part of its Toyota... View Details

Keywords: Best Practices; Continuous Improvement; Kaizen; Process Improvement; 5S; Muda; Toyota Production System; Production; Service Operations; Performance Improvement; North and Central America; Asia; Japan

Article

Crowdsourcing City Government: Using Tournaments to Improve Inspection Accuracy

By: Edward Glaeser, Andrew Hillis, Scott Duke Kominers and Michael Luca

The proliferation of big data makes it possible to better target city services like hygiene inspections, but city governments rarely have the in-house talent needed for developing prediction algorithms. Cities could hire consultants, but a cheaper alternative is to... View Details

Keywords: User-generated Content; Operations; Tournaments; Policy-making; Machine Learning; Online Platforms; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; City; Infrastructure; Business Processes; Government and Politics

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24 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

How Cost Accounting is Improving Healthcare in Rural Haiti

in rural Haiti. Using a costing system developed at Harvard Business School, researchers found that the cost of care varied dramatically from clinic to clinic. The research and the concerns it raises are detailed in a recent case study,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

21 Sep 2021
Cold Call Podcast

Why JPMorgan Chase Is Committed to Improving Racial Equity in Banking

Keywords: Re: Joseph L. Bower; Financial Services; Banking

June 2023 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Doing Business in Lima, Peru

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Max Hancock

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Peru. It highlights Peru's economic transformation in the decades leading up to 2024 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. The case gives an overview of some of the main obstacles... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Strategy; Mining Industry; Peru; Latin America

09 May 2018
Research & Ideas

A Simple Way for Restaurant Inspectors to Improve Food Safety

stores, schools, and other food-handling establishments, checking whether they adhere to public health regulations. The rules are strict. Food businesses where serious violations are found must clean up their acts quickly or risk being... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Service

February 2017
Case

Yemeksepeti: Growing and Expanding the Business Model through Data

By: William R. Kerr, Gamze Yucaoglu and Eren Kuzucu

In October 2016, Nevzat Aydin, co-founder and CEO of Yemeksepeti, the Turkish online food-ordering company, was looking over the company's quarterly results and projections for the upcoming year with his management team. It had been almost a year and a half since Aydin... View Details