Publications

December 2009 (Revised January 2024)
Case

A Letter from Prison

By: Eugene Soltes

Stephen Richards, the former global head of sales at Computer Associates, Inc. (CA), is serving a seven-year prison sentence for financial fraud. In the case, Richards responds to a number of questions about managerial responsibility and the manipulation of financial... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Managerial Roles

Educators

2020
Book

Management Accounting: Information for Decision Making

By: Anthony A. Atkinson, Robert S. Kaplan, Ella Mae Matsumura and S. Mark Young

An approach to management accounting from the perspective of a business manager. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Cost Accounting; Managerial Roles; Decision Making

27 Mar 2019
HBS Seminar

Caitlin Rosenthal, UC Berkeley, Department of History

Suraj Srinivasan

Suraj Srinivasan is the Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Business Administration, a member of the Accounting and Management faculty unit, and chair of the View Details

Keywords: accounting industry; accounting industry

May 2010
Article

Does Product Market Competition Lead Firms to Decentralize?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

There is a widespread sense that over the last two decades firms have been decentralizing decisions to employees further down the managerial hierarchy. Economists have developed a range of theories to account for delegation, but there is less empirical evidence,... View Details

Keywords: Product; Markets; Competition; Business Ventures; Geographic Location; Employees; Research; Programs; Decisions

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Research Summary

China and India in comparative perspective

China and India both have the potential of becoming economic superpowers. The conventional wisdom is that China is far ahead of India in economic reforms and economic performance. Together with my HBS colleague, Professor Tarun Khanna, we are re-examining this... View Details

Susanna Gallani

Susanna View Details

Keywords: health care

2007
Book

When Professionals Have to Lead: A New Model for High Performance

By: Thomas J. DeLong, John J. Gabarro and Robert Lees

For too long, professional services firms (PSFs) have relied on the "producer-manager" model, which works well in uncomplicated business environments. However, today's managing directors must balance conflicting roles, more demanding clients, tougher competitors, and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Service Operations; Performance Effectiveness; Strategy

November 2010
Technical Note

Technical Note: An Abridged History of the American Corporation

By: Rakesh Khurana, Andrew David Klaber and Eric Baldwin

This note examines the development of the corporate form in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present, focusing primarily on legal issues. It identifies several major trends in the history of the American corporation: the transition of corporations... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Corporate Accountability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; History; Code Law; Managerial Roles; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Private Ownership; United States

October 2018
Case

P-Will at DISCO

By: Ethan Bernstein, Naoko Jinjo and Yuna Sakuma

From the outside, DISCO—a Japan-based manufacturer of precision tools for semiconductor production devices—appeared to be a rather ordinary company that had achieved rather extraordinary success: it had simultaneously achieved 70% global market share, had lifted its... View Details

Keywords: Human Capital; P-Will; DISCO; Semiconductors; Self-Managed Organizations; Governance; Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Semiconductor Industry; Japan

Educators

Robert Simons

Robert Simons is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School. For over 35 years, Simons has taught accounting, management control, and strategy execution courses in both the Harvard MBA and Executive Education Programs. For 2024/25, he is teaching a... View Details

2003
Working Paper

The Flattening Firm: Evidence from Panel Data on the Changing Nature of Corporate Hierarchies

By: Raghuram G. Rajan and Julie Wulf

Using a detailed database of managerial job descriptions, reporting relationships, and compensation structures in over 300 large U.S. firms, we find that firm hierarchies are becoming flatter. The number of positions reporting directly to the CEO has gone up... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Managerial Roles; Jobs and Positions; United States

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09 Dec 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Does Management Matter in Schools?

Keywords: by Nicholas Bloom, Renata Lemos, Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen; Education

Political Standards

The University of Chicago Press November 2015.

Prudent, verifiable, and timely corporate accounting is a bedrock of our modern capitalist system. In recent years, however, the rules that govern corporate accounting have been subtly changed in... View Details

14 Aug 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Insider Trading Preceding Goodwill Impairments

Keywords: by Karl A. Muller III, Monica Neamtiu & Edward J. Riedl

02 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

Foreign Multinationals in the U.S.: A Rocky Road

profits and managerial problems in the United States between the 1950s and the 1980s. It seemed important to ascertain whether this was a problem unique to one firm, or part of a more general pattern. The upshot was a conference organised... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston & Martha Lagace

2024
Working Paper

Human-Computer Interactions in Demand Forecasting and Labor Scheduling Decisions

By: Caleb Kwon, Ananth Raman and Jorge Tamayo

We investigate whether corporate officers should grant managers discretion to override AI-driven demand forecasts and labor scheduling tools. Analyzing five years of administrative data from a large grocery retailer using such an AI tool, encompassing over 500 stores,... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Forecasting and Prediction; Working Conditions; Performance Productivity

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June 2005 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Financial Reporting Problems at Molex, Inc. (A)

By: Paul M. Healy

Following an accounting problem at Molex, the firm's auditors request changes in management. The board of directors has to decide whether the auditors' concerns have merit or whether, as management argues, the accounting issue is immaterial. View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Governing and Advisory Boards; Financial Reporting; Relationships; Resignation and Termination; Accounting Audits

Educators