Publications

August 2017 (Revised July 2018)
Case

MannKind Corporation: Take a Deep Breath, This Time Afrezza Will Work

By: Elie Ofek and Amanda Dai

In June 2014, MannKind Corporation announced that after years of development and billions of dollars in expenses, the FDA had finally approved its drug, Afrezza. MannKind would thus be the only company with an inhalable insulin on the market. As an alternative to... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Adoption; Pharmaceutical Industry

June 2020
Background Note

Customer Management Dynamics and Cohort Analysis

By: Elie Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller

The digital revolution has allowed companies to amass considerable amounts of data on their customers. Using this information to generate actionable insights is fast becoming a critical skill that firms must master if they wish to effectively compete and win in today’s... View Details

Keywords: Cohort Analysis; Customers; Analytics and Data Science; Segmentation; Analysis; Customer Value and Value Chain

2006
Working Paper

Too Motivated?

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

I show that an agent's motivation to do well (objectively) may be unambiguously bad in a world with differing priors, i.e., when people openly disagree on the optimal course of action. The reason is that an agent who is strongly motivated is more likely to follow... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Employees; Wages; Measurement and Metrics; Outcome or Result; Performance; Agency Theory; Motivation and Incentives

SSRN

12 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Operations and the Competitive Edge

and, second, that simply assigning a group of people to work together makes them a team. We point out that assigning a team to carry out a job may not always be the best way. Sometimes it's more effective to let a gifted individual do it... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

07 May 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Broadening Focus: Spillovers and the Benefits of Specialization in the Hospital Industry

Keywords: by Jonathan R. Clark & Robert S. Huckman; Health

November 2003 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Flextronics International, Ltd.

By: Robert S. Huckman and Gary P. Pisano

Describes Flextronics' evolution from providing outsourced manufacturing services for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the electronics industry to developing entire unbranded products for purchase by OEMs. In 2001, Flextronics began a development program that... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Production; Service Operations; Performance Effectiveness; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry

07 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 7

minimizes a convex approximation of this metric. We further develop an exponential penalty approach and show that its computational performance is far superior and its trade-off between delay and fairness compares favorably. In our... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2022
Article

Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams and Michael I. Norton

Many products and services are designed to make caregiving easier, from premade meals for feeding families to robo-cribs that automatically rock babies to sleep. Yet, using these products may come with a cost: consumers may feel they have not exerted enough effort.... View Details

Keywords: Effor; Caregiving; Close Relationships; Symbolic Meaning; Signaling; Relationships; Consumer Behavior; Perception

June 2018
Article

Video Content Marketing: The Making of Clips

By: Xuan Liu, Savannah Wei Shi, Thales S. Teixeira and Michel Wedel

Consumers have an increasingly wide variety of options available to entertain themselves. This poses a challenge for content aggregators who want to effectively promote their video content online through original trailers of movies, sitcoms, and video games. Marketers... View Details

Keywords: Film Entertainment; Marketing; Digital Marketing; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Improvement

Teaching Interest

Executive Education: Finance for Senior Executives

By: Malcolm P. Baker

Finance for Senior Executives provides the frameworks to strategically use financial resources and position your company for future success. By examining corporate finance from both internal and external perspectives, this HBS Executive Education View Details

October 2008 (Revised June 2011)
Case

JetBlue Airways: Managing Growth

By: Robert S. Huckman and Gary P. Pisano

Considers the situation facing David Barger, President and CEO of JetBlue Airways, in May 2007 as he addresses the airline's need to slow its growth rate in the response to increasing fuel costs and the effects of major operational crisis for the airline in February... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Operations; Performance Capacity; Performance Efficiency; Competitive Strategy; Air Transportation Industry

24 Feb 2022
Other Presentation

The Fearless ICU

By: Amy C. Edmondson

The last 24 months have pushed ICU teams around the world to their limits. As we move forward, we need to heal and rebuild our critical care teams. Healthcare more than ever will require ICU teams to perform at the highest levels and to continuously innovate to deliver... View Details

Keywords: Psychological Safety; Teams; Critical Care; Health Care and Treatment; Groups and Teams; Performance Effectiveness

2020
Working Paper

The Impact of CEOs in the Public Sector: Evidence from the English NHS

By: Katharina Janke, Carol Propper and Raffaella Sadun

Abstract Governments worldwide have sought to reform the delivery of public services by mimicking private sector governance models that grant CEOs greater autonomy and give them responsibility for meeting key government targets. We examine the effectiveness of this... View Details

Keywords: CEOs; Management; Performance; Public Sector; Measurement and Metrics; Health Industry

Read Now

16 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 16, 2008

Platform Envelopment Authors:Thomas R. Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker, and Marshall Van Alstyne Abstract Due to network effects and switching costs, platform providers often become entrenched. To dislodge them, entrants generally must offer... View Details

11 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 11

particularly strongly and to construct risk indicators to predict taxpayers' responses. We show results from an application in Chile and describe lessons learned during the implementation. August 2013 JAMA Surgery Informal Peer Interaction and Practice Type as... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 30, 2020
Article

Scaling Up Behavioral Science Interventions in Online Education

By: Rene F. Kizilcec, Justin Reich, Michael Yeomans, Christoph Dann, Emma Brunskill, Glenn Lopez, Selen Turkay, Joseph J. Williams and Dustin Tingley

Online education is rapidly expanding in response to rising demand for higher and continuing education, but many online students struggle to achieve their educational goals. Several behavioral science interventions have shown promise in raising student persistence and... View Details

Keywords: Online Learning; Behavioral Interventions; Scale; Education; Online Technology; Performance Improvement