Publications

Find at Harvard

02 Mar 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is the Government’s Role in US Health Care?

Butler believes that it could come in the form of a two-tiered system of private treatment at personal expense layered on a service free to all with protections for healthcare givers and the elimination of third party insurance. Are these... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

February 2020
Case

Rotoplas: Bringing More and Better Water

By: John D. Macomber and Carla Larangeira

Private companies were being turned to for potable water in the world’s megacities due to impacts of climate change including droughts and flooding. Mexico City had endured several water-related crises, with its population suffering from floods, droughts, water... View Details

Keywords: Water Supply; Water Management; Finance; Infrastructure; Urban Development; Business and Government Relations; Latin America; Mexico

01 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Better by the Bundle?

has been thin. Do shoppers prefer them? Do sales increase when companies bundle their offerings? Or, would a bundle cannibalize sales from its existing products leading to lower overall revenues? To help answer these questions, Kumar teamed with Timothy Derdenger of... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

19 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Supply Learning on Customer Demand: Model and Estimation Methodology

Keywords: by Nathan Craig, Nicole DeHoratius & Ananth Raman; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion

June 2015
Case

Beacon Group of Hong Kong: Finding Light in the Shadow Education Industry

By: Christopher Marquis, Qi Li and Guy Leung

After more than 25 years of operation, Beacon Group had grown from having 3 small classrooms on the fourth floor of a commercial building, to a network of 21 centers across Hong Kong with over 60,000 students enrolled per year. The key long-term challenge for the... View Details

Keywords: Online Education; Education; Tutoring; Incentives; Hong Kong; Motivation and Incentives; Internet and the Web; Family Business; Education Industry; Hong Kong

2015
Book

How the Internet Became Commercial: Innovation, Privatization, and the Birth of a New Network

By: Shane Greenstein

In less than a decade, the Internet went from being a series of loosely connected networks used by universities and the military to the powerful commercial engine it is today. This book describes how many of the key innovations that made this possible came from... View Details

20 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

Incubators: The New Venture Capitalists?

kicking off a panel discussion at Cyberposium 2000. "But I think it's fair to characterize the incubator space as rather a sleepy one." Until now, that is. Once largely the domain of universities and public economic development... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

August 2024
Case

Ashesi University: The Journey from Vision to Reality

By: Ranjay Gulati and Caroline de Lacvivier

In 1997, Patrick Awuah had a dream: to bring liberal arts education to Ghana. Amid the country’s declining economy and pervasive corruption problems, Awuah saw education as an opportunity to reverse its fortunes by investing in the next generation of African leaders.... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship; Leadership Development; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Private Ownership; Education Industry; Ghana

March 2009
Case

Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit

By: Boris Groysberg, Nitin Nohria and Deborah Bell

Barbara Norris struggles to address the many problems facing her as a recently promoted nurse manager in the General Surgery Unit (GSU) at Eastern Massachusetts University Hospital (EMU). She has inherited a unit with the lowest employee satisfaction scores and highest... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Leading Change; Service Delivery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Groups and Teams; Motivation and Incentives; Satisfaction; Health Industry

14 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Should You Bring Advertising Expertise In-House?

developing in-house advertising capabilities, especially in technology-oriented and creative industries. Working with Silk on the study were Sharon Horsky of Bar-Ilan University and Steven C. Michael (HBS PhDBE '93) of the View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Advertising

12 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Michael Porter’s Prescription For the High Cost of Health Care

Under positive-sum competition, providers would not attempt to match competitors' every move. Instead, they would develop clear strategies around unique expertise and tailored facilities in those areas where they can become distinctive. Most hospitals would retain a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter; Health

Research Summary

Overview

Inside the State: Bureaucratic Norms and Primary Education in Rural India (Book manuscript in progress)

When and how do poor democracies implement primary education effectively? India has earned accolades for its robust democracy. Yet the state’s historic... View Details

Keywords: Education Reform; Bureaucracy; Policy Implementation; India

11 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Calling All Managers: How to Build a Better Call Center

company can triumph. That's especially true in the financial services industry, where call centers have moved beyond their most obvious function—as low-cost channels for resolving a myriad of customer concerns—to become powerful means of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service; Service

May 2007 (Revised July 2011)
Case

The West German Headache Center: Integrated Migraine Care

By: Michael E. Porter, Clemens Guth and Elisa M. Dannemiller

Describes the joint efforts of the German health plan KKH and Essen University Hospital to develop an integrated practice unit (IPU), and the West German Headache Center's efforts to improve the quality of migraine care. Provides an overview of the German health care... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Industry Structures; Service Delivery; Integration; Health Industry; Germany

2023
Working Paper

The Politics of Philanthropy in China

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yuhai Wu

This working paper looks historically at business philanthropy in China. In the West, the literature has distinguished between entrepreneurial and customary philanthropy, while the phenomenon of spiritual philanthropy has been identified in many emerging markets. This... View Details

Keywords: China; Philanthropy; Ethics; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Moral Sensibility; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Economic Systems; Economic Sectors; China

Read Now

23 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 23

Incumbents Fare in the Face of Increased Service Competition? Authors:Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei Abstract We explore the conditions under which service competition leads to customer... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Oct 2015
First Look

October 13, 2015

2015 Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World By: Friedman, Jeremy Abstract—The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War has... View Details

10 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

Learning Curve: Making the Most of Outsourcing

the vendor of outsourced services can improve the efficiency and perhaps the quality of services delivered—particularly in health care, where outsourcing is on the rise. In research recently published in the... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry; Health

January 2019
Case

AIME High: A Social Entrepreneur's Moon Shot

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the entrepreneurial leadership of Jack Manning Bancroft (JMB), a young Indigenous Australian university student who created the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), a nonprofit organization he formed to respond to the problem of Indigenous high... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Mission; Organization Culture; Non-profit; NGO; Social Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Global Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Secondary Education; Organizational Culture; Service Industry; Service Industry; Australia; United States