Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(611)
- Faculty Publications (67)
- June 2010
- Supplement
FoldRite Furniture Company: Planning to Meet a Surge in Demand, Spreadsheet Supplement for Instructors (Brief Case)
By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Afarin Bellisario
- June 2010
- Article
What Causes Industry Agglomeration? Evidence from Coagglomeration Patterns
By: Glenn Ellison, Edward Glaeser and William R. Kerr
Why do firms cluster near one another? We test Marshall's theories of industrial agglomeration by examining which industries locate near one another, or coagglomerate. We construct pairwise coagglomeration indices for US manufacturing industries from the Economic... View Details
- November 2009 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
PureCircle
By: David E. Bell and Aldo Sesia
In December 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined that high-purity Rebaudioside A (Reb A), a natural and calorie-free product that a young company named PureCircle manufactured from the Stevia plant, could be used in beverages, foods, and as a... View Details
- September 2009
- Article
Are You Having Trouble Keeping Your Operations Focused?
As a business broadens over time, it can lose the operational edge that led to its original success. Core strengths atrophy, efficiency or quality suffers, and sharper rivals close in to take advantage of the loss of focus. In his classic article "The Focused Factory"... View Details
- February 2009 (Revised July 2012)
- Supplement
Jieliang Phone Home! (C)
By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria
At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators - bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and... View Details
Keywords: Globalization; Compensation and Benefits; Surveys; Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Production; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Labor and Management Relations; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; China
- January 2009 (Revised October 2012)
- Case
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation: 'Reverse BOT'
By: Willy Shih
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is executing a strategy that leverages the desires of municipalities in China to build clusters of high technology companies. By partnering with those cities to build new semiconductor fabs that SMIC would... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Modern Management: Good for the Environment or Just Hot Air?
By: Nicholas Bloom, Christos Genakos, Ralf Martin and Raffaella Sadun
We use an innovative methodology to measure management practices in over 300 manufacturing firms in the UK. We then match this management data to production and energy usage information for establishments owned by these firms. We find that establishments in better... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised October 2015)
- Case
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited: A Global Company's China Strategy
By: William C. Kirby, Michael Shih-Ta Chen and Keith Wong
After fifty-five years in the semiconductor industry, Morris Chang, founder and Chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), was seeing a change. After four decades of regular double-digit growth the industry was still growing-but now at a much slower... View Details
- December 2007
- Case
Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts
By: David A. Moss and Eugene Kintgen
In 1830, Governor Levi Lincoln, Jr. urged the Massachusetts state legislature to introduce a limited liability regime for manufacturing corporations similar to that adopted in neighboring states. At least since 1809, shareholders in the state's manufacturing... View Details
- August 2006
- Case
Dreyer's Slow Churned(TM) Ice Cream
By: Noel H. Watson, Steven C. Wheelwright and Brian DeLacey
Examines capacity forecasting and planning in a complex new product introduction scenario. The introduction at Dreyer's, a large dairy snack manufacturer, involves not only a new product but a new manufacturing process and product package, thus implying a significant... View Details
- December 2005 (Revised March 2010)
- Case
William Levitt, Levittown and the Creation of American Suburbia
By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson
Demand for low-cost housing after World War II far exceeded supply. Was this a profitable new market? New York developer William Levitt had to decide. During World War II, Levitt was eager to build basic housing for the working class—otherwise, Levitt & Sons would have... View Details
- September 2004 (Revised December 2004)
- Case
Metso Paper: Globalization of Finnish Metal Workshops
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Marikka Heikkila and Kalle Lyytinen
Metso Paper, the world's largest producer of paper machines, aims to transform itself into a knowledge- and information-based service and solution provider for the paper industry by aggressively exploiting information technologies. In the fall of 2002, Jorma Hujala, a... View Details
- September 2003
- Case
Driving Change at Seagate
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Douglas A Raymond and Lyn Baranowski
A new CEO, Steve Luczo, together with COO Bill Watkins, have led a turnaround of Seagate, raising productivity dramatically and increasing innovation through teamwork, cross-functional collaboration, and other transformations in the culture of this manufacturer of disk... View Details
- September 2003
- Case
Executive Compensation at Reckitt Benckiser plc
By: V.G. Narayanan, Krishna G. Palepu and Lisa Brem
Investors felt betrayed by the increasingly lucrative pay packages awarded to CEOs and other top executives at multinational companies. Yet, board members charged with adequately rewarding executives were forced to compete with rising packages of salaries and stock... View Details
- May 2003
- Case
Liz Claiborne, Inc.
By: Rajiv Lal, Walter J. Salmon and Edie Prescott
Discusses the business portfolio emphasis of a large multibrand manufacturer and the future of department stores as well as how relationships between manufacturers and key customers can be improved. View Details
- February 2003 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
Asociacion Colombiana de Industrias Plasticas (Acoplasticos)
Acoplasticos was established in 1961 as a lobbying group for Colombia's major plastics manufacturing companies. In the early 1980s, the organization shifted its focus toward improving the productivity of the Colombian plastics and rubber cluster, which also included... View Details
- Article
Control, Performance, and Knowledge Transfers in Large Multinationals: Unilever in the United States, 1945-1980
By: G. Jones
This article considers key issues relating to the organization and performance of large multinational firms in the post-Second World War period. Although foreign direct investment is defined by ownership and control, in practice the nature of that "control" is far from... View Details
- March 2002 (Revised January 2003)
- Case
Microsoft: Positioning the Tablet PC
By: Youngme E. Moon and Christina L. Darwall
Microsoft is preparing for the launch of the Tablet PC, which allows users to use a pen (stylus) to run Windows and Windows applications, annotate documents, and create handwritten documents for later reference or even conversion to text. Microsoft's original equipment... View Details
- August 1999 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
Cisco Systems, Inc.: Acquisition Integration for Manufacturing (A)
By: Steven C. Wheelwright, Charles A. Holloway, Nicole Tempest and Christian G. Kasper
Describes the procedures and processes used by Cisco Systems in its acquisition of high-technology firms. Its goal is to retain key engineering talent and to leverage existing product development efforts, but to quickly merge acquired companies its own systems and... View Details
Keywords: Information Technology; Leveraged Buyouts; Acquisition; Integration; Mergers and Acquisitions; Production; Activity Based Costing and Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; England
- April 1998
- Case
Jim Sharpe: Extrusion Technology, Inc. (C)
By: H. Kent Bowen and Barbara Feinberg
Jim Sharpe, president of Extrusion Technology, describes the first five years at the aluminum extrusion company he purchased. He begins with day one as he introduced himself to the employees in 1987 and assured them of the company's continuity. Over the next two years,... View Details