Publications

August 2022
Case

Air Wars: Deregulating the U.S. Airline Industry

By: Tom Nicholas and James Weber

In the early decades of the twentieth century, the U.S. government assisted in the development of an airline industry by subsidizing the delivery of mail and allowing mail carriers to also fly passengers. Because the government awarded mail routes to the lowest... View Details

22 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

Can Amazon Remake Health Care?

things earlier, we would be spending less on most of their conditions. That’s certainly possible, but we’ve never figured out how to deliver this aspiration in a systematic manner. The aspiration might even be possible—like putting a View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Health

04 Apr 2022
What Do You Think?

As Disney Board Chair, What Would You Advise CEO Bob Chapek Regarding 'Don’t Say Gay'?

150 other companies in signing a Human Rights Campaign letter opposing the legislation. He decided to make no public statements to support or reject the governor’s expected signature of the bill—that is, until Disney’s annual meeting with... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

15 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 15

Practices of Trade: Jurisdictional Disputes in the U.S. Commerce in Cadavers Author:Michel Anteby Publication:Administrative Science Quarterly 55, no. 4 (2010) Abstract This study examines the U.S. commerce in human cadavers for medical... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 12, 2018

Agarwal Abstract—Machine learning process technologies usher new questions regarding their potential complementarity with existing human capital. Within the context of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

07 May 2014
What Do You Think?

How Should Wealth Be Redistributed?

could those returns be taxed much more than so-called "earned" income? Or should a progressive consumption tax be considered, as suggested by New York Times columnist David Brooks? In his words, the purpose would be to lift "people from the bottom with... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

17 Jan 2019
Blog Post

MBA Curriculum Spotlight: Short Intensive Programs (SIPs)

will be a combination of case discussions, guests, panels, and workshops. Fintech: Disruptions in Credit, Payments and Real Estate The advent of new technologies and big data promise to revolutionize the finance world by disintermediate... View Details

25 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

The Economic Cost of Physician Burnout

sign up for the job to stare at a screen. They are doing this to provide care for people,” says one of the study’s co-authors, Joel Goh, a visiting scholar in the Technology & Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School. “It... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

August 2014
Case

Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats

Valve, one of the world's top video game software companies, has also become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee... View Details

31 May 2023
News

Alumni Achievement Awards 2023

perspective, and I really enjoyed that.” Pivot: “A few years after medical school, I was teaching, seeing patients, and researching interesting science problems, but I wasn’t transforming human disease. I realized that what I wanted to do... View Details

Keywords: leadership; management; work-life balance

15 Dec 2003
Research & Ideas

The New Global Business Manager

company like India's Infosys illustrates both trends. Another big change is that companies are finally recognizing that being global is not just about entering incremental overseas markets. It is also about accessing scarce resources. And the scarcest of all resources... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

Profile

Molly Welch

tremendous impact on human problems -- but that its impact would depend on how systems are developed and the problems to which they are applied. I came to the joint MBA/MPP program interested in more directly shaping the governance and... View Details

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

When Benchmarks Don’t Work

of benchmarking when used to assess the performance of human resources, information technology, finance, and other internal support or shared services groups. In our forthcoming book, Alignment, David Norton and I devote a chapter to... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan; Service

30 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Repugnant Markets and How They Get That Way

paper, he and fellow economists have found themselves handicapped by a problem just as real as any technological barrier or requirement of incentives and efficiency: the downright distaste that some people feel for particular... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2017 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells and Carole A. Winkler

In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016 had triggered a national storm of protests, and many attributed Trump’s victory to... View Details

16 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

buell) is the Finnegan Family Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management Unit. Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury: Remote work will become strategic I’ve been studying remote work for years now,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

12 Nov 2021
News

Alumni Business Leaders on Confronting the Climate Change Challenge

question: The data and analysis in the latest IPCC report amplified the reality that climate change is widespread, rapidly intensifying, and attributable to human activity. It also signaled both a responsibility and a real opportunity to... View Details

March 2011 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Arck Systems

By: Ian Larkin

The Arck Systems series of cases describes the dilemmas faced by a senior sales manager in determining a sales compensation plan at an enterprise software company. The existing compensation plan is aggressive and highly rewards "star" performers. The cases track a... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Performance Effectiveness; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Software; Information Technology Industry