Publications

October 2005 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Volkswagen of America: Managing IT Priorities

Describes the efforts of Volkswagen of America, the U.S. subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, to arrive at a process for setting IT funding priorities so that they align with business priorities and the company's overall strategy. The process is carefully thought out and... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Business Subsidiaries; Resource Allocation; Information Technology; Alignment; Auto Industry; United States

July 1993 (Revised September 1995)
Supplement

Block 16: Environmental Groups' Perspectives

By: Malcolm S. Salter and Susan E.A. Hall

Supplements Block 16: Conoco's Green Oil Strategy (A). Provides the environmental groups' perspective on Conoco's Ecuadorian strategy. Designed to be distributed to students who will be playing the role of Ecuadorian environmentalists. View Details

Keywords: Resource Allocation; Marketing Strategy; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Perspective; Corporate Strategy

15 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

Are the Most Talented Employees the Highest Paid? Yes—If They’re Bankers

1.8 percent in the 1980s and in the 2000s, respectively. "We're observing what the market does," Vallée says. "And what the market seems to do is take the most talented engineers and allocate them to finance." View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking

March 2008
Case

Novartis AG: Science-Based Business

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

Novartis is a science-based drug company, which has important implications for its business strategy. It is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world with over $38B in sales in 2007. Pharmaceuticals account for slightly over $24B of that total. In 2007,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Resource Allocation; Product Development; Partners and Partnerships; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Pharmaceutical Industry

March 2000 (Revised January 2001)
Case

First USA and Internet Marketing

By: Rajiv Lal and Amy H. Nelson

Explores First USA's decision to use the Internet for acquiring customers. Tom Brenner needs to decide on the terms of the deals demanded by the portals and justify the recommendations to his boss. View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Resource Allocation; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web

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Web

Hacking AI with HBS IT | Information Technology

cases for the technology being discovered every day. The tech world continues to evolve, and HBS IT strives to remain at the forefront. The teams put their heads together and generated project ideas that fell into six buckets: communication, automated workflows,... View Details

23 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 23

Trichakis Publication:Management Science (forthcoming) Abstract This paper deals with a basic issue: How does one approach the problem of designing the "right" objective for a given resource View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Dec 2017
News

Helping HBS Make Big Bets

how her unrestricted contributions allow the School to allocate resources where they are most needed. “I admire and trust the HBS leadership team, and I support their efforts to experiment and make big... View Details

December 2010 (Revised April 2011)
Supplement

Boston Properties (B)

By: Ryan D. Taliaferro and Aldo Sesia

The B case briefly recounts the action that investment manager Eliza Baena takes in the matter of the Boston Properties (BXP) bonds described in the A case. She must decide what to do next. View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Bonds; Financing and Loans; Investment; Resource Allocation

03 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

NFL Black Monday: How Much Do Coaches Really Matter?

produce a loss of productivity in another resource bundle. As a result, a team’s performance on the field depends not only on the productivity of the team’s resource bundles, but also on the coach’s ability... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg & Abhijit Naik; Sports

07 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Market Investors Pay More for Resilient Companies

The steep market drop in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis is being used as a laboratory to study the importance of companies investing in stakeholder relations with their employees, suppliers, and customers, and how those investments could be strategic resources... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

October 2001 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Le Petit Chef

By: Alan D. MacCormack, Sandra J. Sucher and Suraj Rangashayi

Brigitte Gagne, Le Petit Chef's director of microwave R&D, is deciding on the product development agenda for next year. She has to decide which of the available projects to fund, and evaluate the overall portfolio of projects currently under development. The recent... View Details

Keywords: Production; Product Development; Projects; Planning; Research and Development; Performance; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Resource Allocation

June 1997
Case

VeriFone: The Transaction Automation Company (A) Abridged

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Describes VeriFone's new organizational model and its role in catapulting VeriFone to a market leadership position. Examines the impact of information technology and information access on the ability to leverage global resources, market responsiveness, and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Organizational Structure; Globalized Markets and Industries; Information Management; Strategic Planning; Resource Allocation; Leadership Development; Information Technology Industry

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14 Feb 2017
Blog Post

Why I Love My Job: Leticia Tavares On Marriott's Management Acceleration Program

Annual Atlanta Community Food Bank Big Dish, as a restaurant manager, as a housekeeper, as a server, and have spent time learning Marriott’s sales processes in our Southeast sales office. My next role will be in Human Resources at the... View Details

17 Nov 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Equity Concerns Are Narrowly Framed

Keywords: by Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

2021
Working Paper

Equity Concerns Are Narrowly Framed

By: Christine L Exley and Judd B. Kessler

Distributional decisions regularly involve multiple payoff components. In a series of experiments, we show that subjects frequently exhibit narrow equity concerns: individuals apply their fairness preferences narrowly, on a specific component of payoffs, rather... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Equality and Inequality; Fairness; Perception; Outcome or Result; Resource Allocation; Behavior

SSRN

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September 2013
Case

Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion

By: Anita Elberse, Joseph Ferrer, Elizabeth Gough and Victoria Katsarou

In March 2013, Susan Plagemann, vice president and publisher of Vogue—widely regarded as the world's most influential fashion magazine, and publishing conglomerate Condé Nast's marquee title—is seeking answers to two questions. First, how she can best approach the... View Details

Keywords: Creative Industries; Fashion; Publishing; Digital Technology; Entertainment; Product Portfolio Management; Magazines; Journals and Magazines; Internet and the Web; Change Management; Resource Allocation; Creativity; Media; Advertising; Fashion Industry; Publishing Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

20 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 20, 2008

managers may be trying to categorize their firms as small firms when investors favor small firms. Purchase the paper from SSRN ($5): http://papers.nber.org/papers/w13762 Allocating Marketing Resources... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 1999 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Pandesic: The Challenges of a New Business Venture (A)

By: Joseph L. Bower and Clark Gilbert

Pandesic is a joint venture of SAP and Intel designed to develop turnkey information architectures for marketspace companies. The case explores the problems of developing the joint venture from the perspective of its general management. Describes the development of its... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Design; Information; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Marketing Communications; Performance