Publications

Robert Simons is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School. For over 35 years, Simons has taught accounting, management control, and strategy execution courses in both the Harvard MBA and Executive Education Programs. For 2024/25, he is teaching a... View Details

July 2005 (Revised September 2016)
Case

24 Hour Fitness (A): The Rise, 1983–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

In October 2004, Mark S. Mastrov, CEO of 24 Hour Fitness, reflected on how far his company had come in just over 20 years. From humble beginnings in 1983 in San Leandro, California, 24 Hour Fitness had grown to become the largest privately-owned health-club chain in... View Details

Keywords: 24 Hour Fitness; Mark Mastrov; Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Weight Loss; Exercise; Personal Training; Retention; Sales Force Compensation; Incentive Systems; Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Private Equity; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Nutrition; Business History; Employees; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Operations; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Technology Platform; Web; Web Sites; Capital Structure; Performance; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; United States; California; San Francisco

10 Feb 2025
Video

AI Governance: Navigating the complex landscape of artificial intelligence

April 2009
Case

SAP AG: Orchestrating the Ecosystem

By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

Business ecosystems require careful orchestration and strategic choices regarding make/buy/partner decisions and membership access. This case examines the strategic and technological issues related to managing SAP's thriving ecosystem of user communities, software... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Structure; Partners and Partnerships; Business Strategy; Technology Industry

22 May 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Strategy-Proofness versus Efficiency in Matching with Indifferences: Redesigning the NYC High School Match

Keywords: by Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Parag A. Pathak & Alvin E. Roth

September 2024
Article

Investing in the Next Generation: The Long-Run Impacts of a Liquidity Shock

By: Patrick Agte, Arielle Bernhardt, Erica M. Field, Rohini Pande and Natalia Rigol

How do poor entrepreneurs trade off investments in business enterprises versus children's human capital, and how do these choices influence intergenerational socio-economic mobility? To examine this, we exploit experimental variation in household income resulting from... View Details

Keywords: Socio-economic Mobility; Entrepreneurship; Education; Income; Literacy; Poverty

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August 2021
Article

Hoping for the Worst? A Paradoxical Preference for Bad News

By: Kate Barasz and Serena Hagerty

Nine studies investigate when and why people may paradoxically prefer bad news—e.g., hoping for an objectively worse injury or a higher-risk diagnosis over explicitly better alternatives. Using a combination of field surveys and randomized experiments, the research... View Details

Keywords: Decision Avoidance; Difficult Decisions; Judgment And Decision Making; Medical Decision-making; Decision Making; Behavior

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04 Feb 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Risk Preferences and Misconduct: Evidence from Politicians

Keywords: by Dylan Minor; Public Administration; Financial Services

2008
Working Paper

Taste Heterogeneity, IIA, and the Similarity Critique

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Andrew Ainslie

The purpose of this paper is to show that allowing for taste heterogeneity does not address the similarity critique of discrete-choice models. Although IIA may technically be broken in aggregate, the mixed logit model allows neither a given individual nor the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Mathematical Methods; Behavior; Prejudice and Bias

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2016
Working Paper

An Evaluation of Compensation Benchmarking Peer Groups Based on Mutual Peer-Designating Behaviors

By: Jee Eun Shin

In this paper, I argue that firms mutually recognizing each other as compensation benchmarking peers constitute viable competitors in the same CEO labor market, and that non-mutual peer relationships can serve as a tool to evaluate firms’ executive compensation... View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation

SSRN

October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Fortinet: Cybersecurity Pioneer Ken Xie Considers the Long Game

By: Tsedal Neeley, Jeff Huizinga and Emily Grandjean

Ken Xie, cofounder of cybersecurity giant Fortinet, faced a critical decision that would validate his leadership. Fortinet became the industry’s second-largest pureplay cybersecurity firm by developing differentiated hardware and investing in R&D. However, after a... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Marketing Strategy; Communication Strategy; Cybersecurity; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology Industry; United States; Sunnyvale

2022
Book

Purpose + Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World

By: George Serafeim

The roadmap and best practices to reap the enormous value that can emerge when your business prioritizes social and environmental goals—such as climate change, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability—right alongside the pursuit of profit.

We not only... View Details

Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Profitability; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Goals and Objectives; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Value Creation; Organizational Change and Adaptation

February 1992 (Revised July 1993)
Case

Telefonica de Argentina S.A.

Deals with the privatization of the Argentine telephone industry. Focuses on the restructuring aspect. Commercial banks owned sovereign debt of Argentina trading at a deep discount to par. The question is whether the banks should exchange their sovereign debt... View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Restructuring; Privatization; Commercial Banking; Telecommunications Industry; Argentina

April 2010
Case

METRO Cash & Carry in China, 2010

By: Tarun Khanna and David Lane

International wholesaler METRO Cash & Carry in 2010 had little choice but to expand swiftly in Asia to facilitate growth beyond its increasingly mature markets in Western Europe. China was of particular note to MCC, but the company had broken even there only in 2008... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Strategy; Strategic Planning; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Retail Industry; China

October 2008 (Revised November 2009)
Case

Obama versus Clinton: The YouTube Primary

By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

What was the role of the Internet in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination between Senators Obama and Clinton? How does the role change in the shift from the Primary to the National election? The case examines media and content choices by each... View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing Channels; Media; Internet; United States

December 1986 (Revised November 1989)
Case

Hewlett-Packard: Manufacturing Productivity Division (A)

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Lawrence B. Levine

In late summer 1986, the management of the Manufacturing Productivity Division (MPD) of Hewlett-Packard (HP) was in the process of making major market selection and product policy decisions. MPD is a small division which develops and markets manufacturing productivity... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Marketing; Product Marketing; Market Entry and Exit; Production; Research and Development; Manufacturing Industry