Publications

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27 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Building Businesses in Turbulent Times

One IBM. Not only is IBM surviving, it is thriving once again. Q: Is a recession really the time for a company to make major changes? A: Change is coming anyway, so leaders need to take control. At HBS, our motto is, "Never let a... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

August 1976 (Revised October 1976)
Background Note

Cash Flow and the Time Value of Money

With the use of charts and examples, gives a detailed description of cash flows, the time value of money, and discounted cash flow analysis. View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Value

November 2009
Article

Fast or Fair? A Study of Response Times

This paper uses a modified dictator game to investigate the relationship between response times and social preferences. We find that faster subjects more often chose the option with the highest payoff for themselves. Moreover, our within-analysis reveals that, for a... View Details

Keywords: Relationships; Time Management; Social Issues; Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Profit

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2021
Working Paper

Time and the Value of Data

By: Ehsan Valavi, Joel Hestness, Newsha Ardalani and Marco Iansiti

Managers often believe that collecting more data will continually improve the accuracy of their machine learning models. However, we argue in this paper that when data lose relevance over time, it may be optimal to collect a limited amount of recent data instead of... View Details

Keywords: Economics Of AI; Machine Learning; Non-stationarity; Perishability; Value Depreciation; Analytics and Data Science; Value

SSRN

July 1999
Background Note

Comments on Standard Times and the Division of Labor

By: Roy D. Shapiro

A brief note on the origins and uses of standard times in production process flow diagrams and on the benefits and drawbacks of division of labor. A rewritten version of two earlier notes. View Details

Keywords: Labor; Management Practices and Processes; Standards; Production

11 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Adding Time to Activity-Based Costing

error-prone by using employees' subjective time estimates. Also, in the mid-1980s, we failed to fully understand the critical role played by capacity when estimating cost driver rates. The insight about the... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

09 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Uncompromising Leadership in Tough Times

extended vacations, a sabbatical, leaves of absence, or a shorter work week. – Ask everyone to share the pain by taking a pay cut. Senior management should take a larger one. Hewlett Packard used this approach several View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

10 Nov 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

Research News and Tips: Innovating Across Time Zones

Researchers at Harvard Business School publish hundreds of studies around business management each year, often in collaboration with peers from other institutions. Here are insights collected from papers and journal articles published over the last few months. Overcome... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

August 2001
Background Note

Work Methods Design: Note on Time Standards

By: H. Kent Bowen

Looks at production design. Helps students observe and work with procedures and consider cost reduction ideas using a view of methods improvement. View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Management Practices and Processes; Standards; Production; Performance Improvement; Perspective

2013
Working Paper

An Empirical Study of the Spillover Effects of Workload on Patient Length of Stay

By: Jillian Berry Jaeker and Anita Tucker

We use two years of inpatient data from 243 California hospitals to quantify the relationship between hospital-level workload and patient length of stay (LOS), and its "spillover" effects across patient types. Patients are categorized as medical or surgical, and the... View Details

Keywords: Workload; Processing Times; Healthcare; Working Conditions; Performance Productivity; Time Management; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; California

20 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

US Competitiveness at Risk

Editor's note: When did America's declining global competitiveness begin? One starting spot might be 2008, the last year the country topped the World Economic Forum's list of most globally competitive nations. Four years later, the US has... View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael E. Porter & Jan W. Rivkin

02 Apr 2024
What Do You Think?

What's Enough to Make Us Happy?

The result is measured in terms of outcomes that may be more or less than we expected, just as customer satisfaction is measured in terms of whether our expectations were met or exceeded. But how many of us take View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

December 1996
Background Note

Financial Engineering and Tax Risk: The Case of Times Mirror PEPS

By: Peter Tufano

Provides general background on the taxation of corporate securities, and shows how the inconsistent taxation of functionally-similar securities can permit financial engineers to bear tax risk to earn positive returns. Designed to be used with Times Mirror Co. PEPS... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Taxation; Corporate Finance

16 Aug 2022
Op-Ed

Now Is the Time for Entrepreneurs to Play Offense

dust has settled a bit, I am seeing the best entrepreneurs realize that now is the time to play offense. The "play offense" playbook is well known to many, but hard to execute during a downturn. With the start of the football season... View Details

Keywords: by Jeffrey Bussgang

2018
Book

Varieties of Green Business: Industries, Nations and Time

By: Geoffrey Jones

Published at a time of ever-increasing warnings that the pace of climate change and other environmental changes risk making the Earth unsustainable within our own lifetimes, this book looks at the past of green business to identify lessons for the future. It provides... View Details

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August 2, 2016
Article

Uncalculating Cooperation Is Used to Signal Trustworthiness

By: Jillian J. Jordan, Moshe Hoffman, Martin A. Nowak and David G. Rand

Humans frequently cooperate without carefully weighing the costs and benefits. As a result, people may wind up cooperating when it is not worthwhile to do so. Why risk making costly mistakes? Here, we present experimental evidence that reputation concerns provide an... View Details

Keywords: Social Evaluation; Experimental Economics; Moral Psychology; Cooperation; Reputation; Decision Making