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January 2014 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Showdown at Cracker Barrel

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Tim Gray

In the fall of 2011, activist investor, Sardar Biglari, has acquired nearly 10% ownership in the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain. He believes that the board and senior management have failed and the company has underperformed relative to its peers. When he is denied a... View Details

March 2001 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Montefiore Medical Center

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Syeda Noorein Inamdar

A large urban medical center implements the Balanced Scorecard management tool. Elaine Brennan, senior VP of operations, has reorganized a highly functional health care organization into decentralized patient care centers and support units. Having recently endured the... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Health Care and Treatment; Management Systems; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Leadership Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Reporting; Budgets and Budgeting; Cost Accounting; Corporate Accountability; Communication; Health Industry

January 2011 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Elizabeth Jacobs: Price-Earnings Ratios and Employee Stock Option Grants

By: David F. Hawkins

Analyst questions the value of accounting measurement of earnings per share and stock option costs for equity valuation purposes. View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Business Earnings; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Stock Shares; Employee Ownership; Stock Options; Equity; Accounting Audits; Valuation; Profit Sharing; Accounting Industry

Spring 2021
Article

Corporate Resilience and Response During COVID-19

By: Alex Cheema-Fox, Bridget LaPerla, George Serafeim and Hui (Stacie) Wang

The coronavirus pandemic caused a sharp market decline while raising heterogeneous responses across companies related to their employees, supply chain, and repurposing of operations to provide needed products and services. We study whether during the 2020 COVID-19... View Details

SSRN

2007
Book

Global Accountabilities: Participation, Pluralism, and Public Ethics

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and Edward Weisband

This edited volume contributes analytical depth to the diverse debates on accountability in modern organizations. It explores the nature, forms and impacts of accountability efforts in civil society organizations, public and inter-governmental agencies, and private... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Accountability; Business and Government Relations

January 1990 (Revised March 1991)
Case

American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region

By: Robert L. Simons

Recounts the financial difficulties and management changes experienced by American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region (NER) during the 1980s. After summarizing industry-wide changes in the collection, testing, and distribution of blood and blood products, the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Management; Restructuring; Health; SWOT Analysis; Social Enterprise; Marketplace Matching; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; North and Central America

THOMAS R. PIPER, Baker Foundation Professor and Lawrence E. Fouraker Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, is a faculty member in the Finance and Accounting Units at the Graduate School of Business Administration. He has taught in the MBA Program, as well... View Details

28 Feb 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Do Display Ads Influence Search? Attribution and Dynamics in Online Advertising

Keywords: by Pavel Kireyev, Koen Pauwels & Sunil Gupta; Advertising

August 2005 (Revised April 2007)
Case

DICOM Group plc and Captiva Software Corp.

By: Paul M. Healy

Compares two companies in the information capture software industry. Asks students to analyze and compare the performance of two companies (one in the United Kingdom and the other in the United States) from the perspective of a buy-side analyst reporting to the manager... View Details

Keywords: History; Financial Management; Environmental Accounting; Activity Based Costing and Management; Financial Reporting; Performance; Performance Evaluation; Financial Statements; Economic Growth; Fair Value Accounting; Information Industry; Computer Industry; United Kingdom; United States

Research Summary

Entrepreneurship in Education Reform

This work explores two questions in the US public education system. First, is there a correlation between improved leadership and management practices and increased student outcomes? And second, can the introduction of market forces such as customer choice among... View Details

2012
Book

The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force That Transforms Performance

By: James Heskett

The contribution of culture to organizational performance is both substantial and quantifiable. This book presents the results of field research that demonstrates how an effective culture can account for up to half of the differential in performance between... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Framework; Policy; Retention; Books; Analytics and Data Science; Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Performance Expectations; Research

July 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Kim Park (A): Long-lived Nonmonetary Assets

By: David F. Hawkins

A series of caselets exploring the accounting for long-lived nonmonetary assets. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Assets; Asset Management; Standards

February 2005 (Revised March 2005)
Case

Tots R Us

By: Thomas D. Fields and Susan L. Kulp

Presents an overview of many issues associated with cost accounting and control. View Details

Keywords: Management; Cost Accounting

June 1995 (Revised April 2012)
Background Note

Long-lived Fixed Assets

By: David F. Hawkins

Discusses accounting for long-lived fixed assets, depreciation, and asset impairments. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Asset Management; Goodwill Accounting

John D. Dionne has been a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School since 2014 and is a recently retired Senior Managing Director and Senior Advisor to Blackstone. He is also Managing Partner of Franconia Capital, a... View Details

19 Apr 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Top Executive Background and Financial Reporting Choice: The Case of Goodwill Impairment

Keywords: by Francois Brochet & Kyle Welch; Accounting

Christina R. Wing

Christina Wing is a Senior Lecturer in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research focuses on families in business, and she is the creator of Demystifying the Family Enterprise, a course that explores... View Details

March 2000 (Revised November 2000)
Case

IBM Corporation Turnaround

By: Robert D. Austin and Richard L. Nolan

Describes the details of IBM's dramatic corporate turnaround in the early 1990s led by CEO Louis V. Gerstner. Accounts of events are from interviews with IBM executives. Covers the factors that led to the company's decline and actions taken to recover. View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Restructuring; Management Teams; Management Practices and Processes; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Computer Industry; Information Technology Industry