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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,346)
- People (3)
- News (242)
- Research (882)
- Events (1)
- Multimedia (5)
- Faculty Publications (336)
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- 2008
- Working Paper
The Effect of Labor on Profitability: The Role of Quality
By: Zeynep Ton
Determining staffing levels is an important decision in retail operations. While the costs of increasing labor are obvious and easy to measure, the benefits are often indirect and not immediately felt. One benefit of increased labor is improved quality. The objective... View Details
Keywords: Profit; Selection and Staffing; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Quality; Retail Industry
Ton, Zeynep. "The Effect of Labor on Profitability: The Role of Quality." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-040, September 2008. (Revised July 2009.)
- January 2004 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Ford Motor Company: Quality of Earnings Growth Analysis (A)
By: David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen
Even though Ford Motor Co. reports improved profitability, an equity analyst issues a sell recommendation and Standard & Poor's downgrades long-term debt. View Details
Keywords: Quality; Business Earnings; Valuation; Investment Return; Profit; Financial Statements; Revenue; Auto Industry; Consulting Industry
Hawkins, David F., and Jacob Cohen. "Ford Motor Company: Quality of Earnings Growth Analysis (A)." Harvard Business School Case 104-059, January 2004. (Revised April 2004.)
- October 1993 (Revised July 1997)
- Case
Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A)
By: Roy D. Shapiro and Michael D. Watkins
AT&T's Universal Card Services (UCS) has been extremely successful during its short lifetime. Dedicated to improving service quality and customer satisfaction, chief quality officer Rob Davis and his quality team have designed and put into place an unusual measurement... View Details
Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Policy; Compensation and Benefits; Performance Evaluation; Quality; System; Telecommunications Industry
Shapiro, Roy D., and Michael D. Watkins. "Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A)." Harvard Business School Case 694-047, October 1993. (Revised July 1997.)
- Article
Defining, Measuring, and Improving Value in Spine Care
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Derek Haas
This chapter discusses how to measure and improve spine care outcomes and costs. Today’s commonly used outcome metrics, such as readmission and complication rates, are actually process and quality metrics. They are not the outcomes, such as improvement in pain and... View Details
Keywords: Spine Care; Outcomes Measurement; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Measurement and Metrics; Performance Improvement; Value
Kaplan, Robert S., and Derek Haas. "Defining, Measuring, and Improving Value in Spine Care." Seminars in Spine Surgery 30, no. 2 (June 2018): 80–83.
- 13 Nov 2008
- Working Paper Summaries
The Effect of Labor on Profitability: The Role of Quality
Keywords: by Zeynep Ton
- 23 Apr 2009
- Working Paper Summaries
Does Public Ownership of Equity Improve Earnings Quality?
- 2006
- Book
Service Productivity Management: Improving Service Performance Using Data Envelopment Analysis
By: H. David Sherman and Joe Zhu
Here is an in-depth guide to the most powerful available benchmarking technique for improving service organization performance—Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The book outlines DEA as a benchmarking technique, identifies high cost service units, isolates specific... View Details
Sherman, H. David, and Joe Zhu. Service Productivity Management: Improving Service Performance Using Data Envelopment Analysis. Boston, MA: Springer, 2006.
- March 2018
- Supplement
Sandra Brown Goes Digital (C): Raising Quality in a Healthcare Company
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen
Using digital and social media tools and lessons learned from prior change campaigns as a middle manager in a large biotech company, Sandra Brown continued in a new role in the quality division, engaging staff in a quality movement at the company. She had found a new... View Details
Keywords: Digital; Grassroots Movement; Managing Change; Career Path; Stakeholder Engagement; Engagement; Health Care Industry; Quality; Leading Change; Performance Improvement; Personal Development and Career; Social Media; Health Industry
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, and Jonathan Cohen. "Sandra Brown Goes Digital (C): Raising Quality in a Healthcare Company." Harvard Business School Supplement 318-084, March 2018.
- Spring 2013
- Article
Does Mandatory IFRS Adoption Improve the Information Environment?
By: Joanne Horton, George Serafeim and Ioanna Serafeim
We examine the effect of mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on firms' information environment. We find that after mandatory IFRS adoption, consensus forecast errors decrease for firms that mandatorily adopt IFRS relative to forecast... View Details
Keywords: International Accounting; Financial Reporting; Standards; Information; Quality; Earnings Management
Horton, Joanne, George Serafeim, and Ioanna Serafeim. "Does Mandatory IFRS Adoption Improve the Information Environment?" Contemporary Accounting Research 30, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 388–423.
- August 28, 2018
- Article
How Intermittent Breaks in Interaction Improve Collective Intelligence
By: Ethan Bernstein, Jesse Shore and David Lazer
People influence each other when they interact to solve problems. Such social influence introduces both benefits (higher average solution quality due to exploitation of existing answers through social learning) and costs (lower maximum solution quality due to a... View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Social Influence; Collective Intelligence; Interaction; Problem Solving; Collaboration; Intermittant; Breaks; Always On; Communication Technologies; Communication; Design; Information; Management; Leadership; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information Technology
Bernstein, Ethan, Jesse Shore, and David Lazer. "How Intermittent Breaks in Interaction Improve Collective Intelligence." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115, no. 35 (August 28, 2018).
- 2018
- Working Paper
How Scheduling Can Bias Quality Assessment: Evidence from Food Safety Inspections
By: Maria Ibanez and Michael W. Toffel
Many production processes are subject to inspection to ensure they meet quality, safety, and environmental standards imposed by companies and regulators. Inspection accuracy is critical to inspections being a useful input to assessing risks, allocating quality... View Details
Keywords: Assessment; Bias; Inspection; Scheduling; Econometric Analysis; Empirical Research; Regulation; Health; Food; Safety; Quality; Performance Consistency; Performance Evaluation; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry
Ibanez, Maria, and Michael W. Toffel. "How Scheduling Can Bias Quality Assessment: Evidence from Food Safety Inspections." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 17-090, April 2017. (Revised October 2018. Formerly titled "Assessing the Quality of Quality Assessment: The Role of Scheduling". Featured in Forbes, Food Safety Magazine, and Food Safety News.)
- 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
- 28 Sep 2009
- Research & Ideas
Improving Accountability at the World Bank
becomes routine practice, the Bank should revise its internal incentives for staff to improve participation through increased budgetary support, time allowances, capacity building, and performance appraisals that reward View Details
Keywords: by Alnoor Ebrahim
- 18 Aug 2014
- Research & Ideas
Have a Better Idea To Improve Health Care?
system, while 20 percent felt "strongly negative." The feedback resulted in a call to arms, a report that detailed five imperatives to improve the situation. Among these imperatives: the need to integrate newly developed approaches into... View Details
- February 2013
- Supplement
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Video Supplement 2012
By: Anita Tucker and Amy Edmondson
Keywords: Process Improvement; Leadership Succession; Healthcare; Quality And Safety; Transparency; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Succession; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Improvement; Business Processes; Health Industry; Ohio
Tucker, Anita, and Amy Edmondson. "Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Video Supplement 2012." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 613-710, February 2013.
- February 2025
- Article
Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency
By: Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi
Through a large-scale field experiment with 393,036 customers considering opening a credit card account with a nationwide retail bank, we investigate how providing transparency into an offering’s tradeoffs affects subsequent rates of customer acquisition and long-run... View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Customer Selection; Customer Compatibility; Retention; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Australia
Buell, Ryan W., and MoonSoo Choi. "Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency." Management Science 71, no. 2 (February 2025): 1335–1355.
- August 2015
- Article
Hospital Board and Management Practices Are Strongly Related to Hospital Performance on Clinical Quality Metrics
By: Thomas C Tsai, Ashish K. Jha, Atul A. Gawande, Robert S. Huckman, Nicholas Bloom and Raffaella Sadun
National policies to improve health care quality have largely focused on clinical provider outcomes and, more recently, payment reform. Yet the association between hospital leadership and quality, although crucial to driving quality improvement, has not been explored... View Details
Keywords: Hospitals; Quality; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Practices and Processes; Service Delivery; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry
Tsai, Thomas C., Ashish K. Jha, Atul A. Gawande, Robert S. Huckman, Nicholas Bloom, and Raffaella Sadun. "Hospital Board and Management Practices Are Strongly Related to Hospital Performance on Clinical Quality Metrics." Health Affairs 34, no. 8 (August 2015): 1304–1311.
- March 2002
- Background Note
Virtuous Cycles: Improving Service and Lowering Costs in E-Commerce
Illustrates how various elements in a customer's encounter with Internet services relying on physical service (labor-intensive customer support and/or logistics) affect one another. Presents a framework that suggests: 1) that improving service quality in specific... View Details
Keywords: Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Performance Efficiency; Performance Effectiveness; Service Industry
Hallowell, Roger H. "Virtuous Cycles: Improving Service and Lowering Costs in E-Commerce." Harvard Business School Background Note 802-155, March 2002.
- April 1996 (Revised June 2001)
- Case
Partners HealthCare System, Inc. (B): Cardiac Care Improvement
By: Gary P. Pisano and Maryam Golnaraghi
Explores the challenges confronting the CEO at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in the wake of radical changes in the health care environment. As pressures have risen for cost containment in health care, the hospital has embarked on a series of reengineering efforts to... View Details
Keywords: Consolidation; Health Care and Treatment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Management Teams; Operations; Innovation and Invention; Cost Management; Health Industry; Massachusetts
Pisano, Gary P., and Maryam Golnaraghi. "Partners HealthCare System, Inc. (B): Cardiac Care Improvement." Harvard Business School Case 696-063, April 1996. (Revised June 2001.)
- Spring 2013
- Article
Salience in Quality Disclosure: Evidence from the U.S. News College Rankings
By: Michael Luca and Jonathan Smith
How do rankings affect demand? This paper investigates the impact of college rankings, and the visibility of those rankings, on students' application decisions. Using natural experiments from U.S. News and World Report College Rankings, we present two main... View Details
Luca, Michael, and Jonathan Smith. "Salience in Quality Disclosure: Evidence from the U.S. News College Rankings." Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 22, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 58–77.