Publications

January 2013 (Revised August 2013)
Case

First Solar: CFRA's Accounting Quality Concerns

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Ian McKown Cornell

The case relates to accounting quality analysis conducted by the leading research firm Center for Financial Research and Analysis (CFRA) on companies in the solar industry with a focus on First Solar Inc. In 2009, CFRA was concerned that First Solar, like much of the... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Accounting Quality; Financial Accounting; Financial Statement Analysis; Accounting Fraud; Accounting Red Flags; Accounting Scandal; Risk and Uncertainty; Quality; Earnings Management; Valuation; Crime and Corruption; Financial Statements; Energy Sources; Green Technology Industry; Accounting Industry; Energy Industry

04 Aug 2014
News

Improving Your Business with Management System Standards

August 1994
Case

Kyocera Corporation: The Amoeba Management System

Describes Kyocera's unusual approach to profit centers. The firm's basic units of operation are profit centers called "amoebas," which are sales or manufacturing units with full responsibility for their planning, decision making, and administration. Amoebas are... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Organizational Structure; Profit; Management Systems; Manufacturing Industry

August 1988 (Revised November 1988)
Case

Texas Instruments: Cost of Quality (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Texas Instruments implements a Cost of Quality (COQ) system as part of a company-wide "Total Quality Thrust." After several years of operation, group management questions whether or not the COQ system should be updated to make it more useful in identifying areas for... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Performance Improvement

August 2002 (Revised December 2002)
Case

Quality Imaging Products (QIP)

Martin Stein, a recent business school graduate, is the new owner of Quality Imaging Products (QIP), a $10-million-a-year remanufacturer of printer and copier ink cartridges. Within weeks of buying the company, QIP's vp for finance, gives an ultimatum: a raise or he... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Organizational Culture; Crisis Management; Manufacturing Industry

March 1981 (Revised February 1993)
Case

Hank Kolb, Director, Quality Assurance

By: Frank S. Leonard and W. Earl Sasser

Designed to introduce the systemic nature of product quality and the complexity of quality problems. Uses a new director, quality assurance, and the discovery of a quality problem. The new director has to decide if it is a real problem, what to do about it, and how to... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Product; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Quality; Attitudes; Complexity

July 2006
Case

Paul Chesler, Director, Quality Assurance

Introduces the systemic nature of product quality and the complexity of quality problems. A new director of quality assurance discovers an apparent quality problem. The actions of different departments and functions contribute to the problem. The new director must... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Production

10 Aug 2011
News

Quality Management Systems: The 10 Most Common Myths

Research Summary

Managing Innovation in the Emerging Industrial Research System

The second track of Chesbrough's research looks at issues of how firms manage technology in an environment where research capability is increasingly distributed across the globe. Chesbrough sees the research system in the United States undergoing significant change,... View Details

April 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Levels: The Remote, Asynchronous, Deep Work Management System

By: Joseph B. Fuller and George Gonzalez

Levels is a highly innovative startup in the health care space. They intend to revolutionize health by linking behavior—eating, exercise, sleeping, etc.—to changes in metabolism. They believe metabolic health can be managed through careful monitoring of changes in... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Business Startups; Organizational Culture; Management Style; Technology Industry; United States

25 Nov 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Effect of Systems of Management Controls on Misreporting

Keywords: by Aishwarrya Deore, Susanna Gallani, and Ranjani Krishnan

01 Jul 2016
News

P&G Overhauls Bonus System for Managers

fall 2003
Article

Why Total Quality Management Programs Do Not Persist: The Role of Management Quality and Implications for Leading a TQM Transformation

By: Michael Beer

Keywords: Quality; Management; Transformation

2010
Chapter

Managing Technical Debt in Software-Reliant Systems

By: Alan MacCormack, N. Brown, Y. Cai, Y. Guo, R. Kazman, M. Kim, P. Kruchten, E. Lim, R. Nord, I. Ozkaya, R. Sangwan, C. Seaman, K. Sullivan and N. Zazworka

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

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January–February 2022
Article

Operational Disruptions, Firm Risk, and Control Systems

By: William Schmidt and Ananth Raman

Operational disruptions can impact a firm's risk, which manifests in a host of operational issues, including a higher holding cost for inventory, a higher financing cost for capacity expansion, and a higher perception of the firm's risk among its supply chain partners.... View Details

Keywords: Operational Risk; Operational Disruptions; Information Asymmetry; Control Systems; Operations; Disruption; Risk Management

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July 1991 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Eastman Kodak Co.: Managing Information Systems Through Strategic Alliances

By: Lynda M. Applegate

In January 1988, Colby Chandler, Kodak CEO, created the Corporate Information Systems (CIS) and appointed Katherine Hudson head. She at once became the first head of IT and first woman corporate vice president in the company. Throughout 1989, Hudson inaugurated a... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Information Technology; Partners and Partnerships; Organizational Structure; Success; Trends; Information Management; Service Operations; Manufacturing Industry

September 1980 (Revised April 1984)
Background Note

Note on Japanese Management and Employment Systems

By: Michael Beer

Keywords: Management; Employment