Publications

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04 Jul 2005
What Do You Think?

How Can Business Schools Be Made More Relevant?

of the graduates." Lisa Marks Dolan, a business school dean, feels that much of the problem lies in the way teachers are trained. She writes, "We're being asked to produce graduates who can integrate, adapt, manage global... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Background Note

Activity-Based Costing and Capacity

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Discusses the use of budgeted rather than historical data in an activity-based costing (ABC) model and argues for calculating rates using practical capacity, not actual utilization. An ABC model need not be limited to analysis of historical data. When cost driver rates... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Accounting Industry

August 2018 (Revised August 2019)
Technical Note

A Note on Compensation

By: Ethan Bernstein and Michael Norris

This note provides an overview of the important terms, concepts, and frameworks that a manager should know about compensation—whether it be their own or that of an employee. Because compensation in practice is fraught with pitfalls, this note presents an overview of... View Details

Keywords: Compensation Design; Benefits; Perks; Variable Compensation; Compensation and Benefits; Executive Compensation; Stock Options; Profit Sharing; Job Design and Levels; Labor Unions; Wages; United States

10 Feb 2022
News

Guiding Low-Wage Workers on the Upward Mobility Path Is a Win for Employees and Companies

Research Summary

Overview

By: Ayelet Israeli

Professor Israeli utilizes econometric methods and field experiments to study data driven decision making in marketing context. Her research focuses on data-driven marketing, with an emphasis on how businesses can leverage their own data, customer data, and market data... View Details

Keywords: Channel Management; Pricing; Pricing Policies; Online Marketing; E-commerce; Analytics; Econometrics; Field Experiments; Data Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; Value Of Data

3:30 PM – 4:30 PM EST, 25 Feb 2021
Virtual Programming

Books@Baker: Frank Cespedes

Sales is changing, but the practical impact of selling e-commerce, big data, artificial intelligence, and other megatrends is often misunderstood, says Harvard Business School Professor Frank Cespedes, author of Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World That... View Details

01 Apr 2020
News

White-Collar Job Security Exposes Huge Gap With Service Industry

14 Mar 2019
News

Failure to Phoenix: 7 Lessons to Learn from Failure

July 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

Charles Veillon, S.A. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Aldo Sesia

The top management team at Charles Veillon, a Swiss mail-order company, is considering whether to work with a human rights organization to monitor the labor practices of its suppliers. A particular concern is avoiding child labor and other forms of workplace coercion.... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Governance Controls; Labor; Rights; Nonprofit Organizations; Switzerland

07 Mar 2022
News

Risks to the Brain

17 Jun 2021
News

"Happiness Scholar" Cites Three Ways to Start Healing Rifts

28 Aug 2017
News

Basic Competence Can Be a Strategy

September 1992 (Revised August 2010)
Case

The Carried Interest

By: Henry B. Reiling

Makes the point that general partners and others frequently contract to receive a share of any profits that the venture they manage generates. This practice raises the question of whether the value of this contract right should be taxed when it is received or only when... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Cash Flow; Profit Sharing; Taxation; Contracts; Business or Company Management; Partners and Partnerships

Find at Harvard

18 Dec 2017
Op-Ed

Why Employers Must Stop Requiring College Degrees For Middle-Skill Jobs

Credit: Pixsooz American companies have a problem. Over the past decade, they have begun to demand a bachelor’s degree in hiring workers for jobs that traditionally haven’t required one. This uptick in credentialing, or “degree inflation,” rested on the belief that... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Fuller

October 2011 (Revised December 2013)
Case

Lehman Brothers and Repo 105

By: Anette Mikes, Gwen Yu and Dominique Hamel

The collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 was the largest bankruptcy in US history. The case examines the economics of the off-balance sheet transactions Lehman undertook prior to the collapse, and highlights the corporate governance challenges in situations where firms... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Policy; Accounting Audits; Corporate Governance; Financial Instruments; Risk Management; Financial Services Industry

April 1997
Background Note

Note on Value Drivers

By: Benjamin C. Esty

Presents a framework for analyzing strategic decisions. Takes as given the practice of value-based management whereby managers use value as a primary criterion when making financial, strategic, or investment decisions. Through a simple valuation model, it shows how... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Equity; Financial Strategy; Investment; Profit; Framework; Growth Management; Value Creation