Publications

September 2004 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Metso Paper: Globalization of Finnish Metal Workshops

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Marikka Heikkila and Kalle Lyytinen

Metso Paper, the world's largest producer of paper machines, aims to transform itself into a knowledge- and information-based service and solution provider for the paper industry by aggressively exploiting information technologies. In the fall of 2002, Jorma Hujala, a... View Details

Keywords: Production; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Knowledge Management; Machinery and Machining; Expansion; Service Delivery; Manufacturing Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Finland

October 1995
Case

Johnson-Grace: March 1994

Johnson-Grace is a cash-strapped start-up company negotiating a licensing agreement with America OnLine (AOL), a leading provider of on-line services in the United States. The Johnson-Grace technology would enable AOL to transmit visual images to its customers more... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Online Technology; Negotiation; Business Startups

Educators

20 Dec 2018
News

Consumer Rating Algorithms Score Big with Businesses, Governments

08 Dec 2016
News

A Simple Way to Measure Health Care Outcomes

April 2021
Case

ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Ashiana Jivraj and Jane Barrow

The case illustrates the application of value-based health care to dental medicine. ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers was a rapidly-growing network of dentist-owned independent implant clinics. The targeted market included 23 million people, 15% of the US adult... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Health Care; Dental Medicine; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Business Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Industry; United States

Educators

March 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Eliot Spitzer: Pushing Wall Street to Reform

By: Rawi Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella and Jonathan Schlefer

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer faced a decision about how to stop wrongdoing committed by major Wall Street firms during the Internet boom. The equities analysts of Merrill Lynch and other Wall Street firms were charged with objectively advising retail... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Decisions; Financial Institutions; Stocks; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Conflict of Interests; Internet; Financial Services Industry; United States

Educators

2008
Working Paper

Finding Missing Markets (and a disturbing epilogue): Evidence from an Export Crop Adoption and Marketing Intervention in Kenya

By: Nava Ashraf, Xavier Gine and Dean Karlan

In much of the developing world, many farmers grow crops for local or personal consumption despite export options which appear to be more profitable. Thus many conjecture that one or several markets are missing. We report here on a randomized controlled trial conducted... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Developing Countries and Economies; Trade; Profit; Product Marketing; Standards; Failure; Risk and Uncertainty; Non-Governmental Organizations; Service Industry; Service Industry; Kenya; Europe

Read Now

22 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

10 Reasons to Design a Better Corporate Culture

Why is it that many of the same companies appear repeatedly on lists of the best places to work, the best providers of customer service, and the most profitable in their industries? In their new book, The Ownership Quotient, HBS... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser & Joe Wheeler

06 Apr 2021
Cold Call Podcast

Disrupting the Waste Industry with Technology

Keywords: Re: Shai Benjamin Bernstein

07 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Fail—and How Their Founders Can Bounce Back

Internet boom, companies armed with nothing more than a PowerPoint presentation of a lousy idea could secure tens of millions of dollars—which sometimes gave them enough time to figure out a viable business plan through trial and error.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

David B. Yoffie

Professor David B. Yoffie is a Baker Foundation Professor and the Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration, Emeritus at Harvard Business School. A member of the HBS faculty since 1981, Professor Yoffie received his... View Details

Keywords: financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services

September 2020
Supplement

Comviva: Exploring New Frontiers (B)

By: Dante Roscini, Mahima Rao-Kachroo and Shreya Ramachandran

After articulating its ambitious growth plans, mobile services provider Mahindra Comviva, active in over 90 countries, is thinking about how to titrate and re-plan its growth strategy given the coronavirus pandemic. Its India headquarters considers its people costs,... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Growth and Development Strategy; Adaptation; India

Research Summary

The Value Profit Chain: Treat Employees Like Customers and Customers Like Employees

By: W. Earl Sasser

W. Earl Sasser, Jr., Leonard A. Schlesinger, and James L. Heskett complted a multi-firm study that provides further empirical verification of relationships established in their earlier examinations of 'breakthrough' service and the service profit chain.... View Details

A Social Strategy: How We Profit from Social Media

Almost no one had heard of social media a decade ago, but today websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have more than 1 billion users and account for almost 25 percent of Internet use. Practically overnight, social media seems indispensable to our... View Details

29 May 2006
What Do You Think?

How Important Is the “Service Sector Effect” on Productivity?

Respondents to this month's column appeared to be about equally divided on these issues. John Inman commented, "I sometimes feel that we are racing to the bottom to provide products and services at ever... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Service

April 2000 (Revised August 2002)
Case

The Holland House

By: William J. Poorvu and Michael A. Everett-Lane

In November 1993, Edward Geffner, executive director of Project Renewal, Inc. (PRI), is proposing that his not-for-profit firm develop Holland House at 351 West 42nd Street in New York City into a single- room occupancy hotel for homeless people. He has put together a... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Welfare; Construction; Poverty; Property; Real Estate Industry; Construction Industry; New York (city, NY)

Teaching Interest

Technology and Operations Management

By: Allison H. Mnookin

This course is taught in the MBA required curriculum. It provides students with the foundations necessary to be effective operating managers. During the course students learn to analyze decisions that drive the design, planning, and execution of the activities that... View Details

31 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Improving Fairness in Flight Delays

People who fly the friendly skies with any regularity have no doubt experienced the not-so-friendly feelings that come with missed connections, canceled flights, and general delays. Angry, powerless, they join the rebooking queue or camp out in the boarding area to... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Entertainment & Recreation; Air Transportation

November 2010
Case

Bling Nation

By: William A. Sahlman and Liz Kind

Bling Nation, a Palo Alto, CA startup, was founded in 2007 as a mobile payment service provider that bypassed industry participants such as Visa and MasterCard. Bling Nation partnered with local community banks and merchants in small towns. The banks provided their... View Details

Keywords: Culture