Publications

February 2025
Article

Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency

By: Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi

Through a large-scale field experiment with 393,036 customers considering opening a credit card account with a nationwide retail bank, we investigate how providing transparency into an offering’s tradeoffs affects subsequent rates of customer acquisition and long-run... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Customer Selection; Customer Compatibility; Retention; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Australia

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May 2002 (Revised July 2002)
Background Note

U.S. Educational System:The, Key Issues and the Role of Business Leadership

Explores the area of education and ways in which corporations have played a role in its improvement. Not intended to cover all examples of corporate involvement but, instead, to provide a sense of the range of ways that corporations have become involved, either... View Details

Keywords: Education; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Education Industry

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21 Nov 2006
First Look

First Look: November 21, 2006

that future work should develop more precise and context-specific theories to help guide research and practice in disparate task and industry domains. Working paper not available. Why Do Firms Hold So Much Cash? A Tax-Based Explanation... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 1997 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Precision Controls, Inc.

By: James K. Sebenius and David T. Kotchen

Precision Controls is a Minnesota-based manufacturer of electronic control devices. To enhance its product line, Precision would like to establish an artificial intelligence research group, either through internal development or, preferably, by merging with or... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Valuation; Research and Development; Negotiation Process; Stock Shares; Negotiation Tactics; Mergers and Acquisitions; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Minnesota

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Web

Global Impact of the Collapse | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Introduction 1840s – 1880s General Merchants to Commodities Brokers 1880s – 1920s Investment Banking & Securities Underwriting 1920s – 1960s Investing in Emerging Industries 1850–1968 Lehman Brothers Family Partners 1960s – 2000s... View Details

June 2023 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Collaboration Wars: Slack vs. Microsoft Teams 2023

By: David B. Yoffie, Kriti Gupta, Mehek Punatar, Poonam Sacheti and Poorvi Vijay

What's the future of corporate communications? Email? Corporate messaging? The battle for corporate messaging in 2023 was stacking up as a fight between Slack, which had been recently acquired by Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams. This case explores a classic judo... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Acquisition; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

January 2017 (Revised May 2020)
Case

Sesame Workshop (A): Bringing Big Bird Back to Health

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ryan Raffaelli and Jonathan Cohen

Sesame Workshop was transforming in 2016. CEO Jeff Dunn had reorganized and shifted the iconic institution to respond to digital disruption and a consensus culture. This case examines his efforts to turn Sesame Workshop around. It notes Sesame's storied history and the... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Information Technology; Education; Media; Strategy; Education Industry

January 1985 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Turner Construction Co.

By: Frank V. Cespedes

In June, 1984, a vice president at Turner Construction Co. must decide whether to approve a construction project being considered by one of Turner's territorial offices and how to manage that territory general manager's apparent reluctance to pursue another account... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Projects; Market Entry and Exit; Integration; Contracts; Marketing Strategy; Sales; Business or Company Management; Business Offices; Geographic Location; Construction Industry

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Rapid Response: Inside the Retailing Revolution

and John T. Dunlop of the Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and David Weil of Boston University. Their recent book, A Stitch in Time: Lean Retailing and the Transformation of Manufacturing—Lessons from the Apparel and Textile View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Consumer Products; Manufacturing; Retail

15 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

The Coming Transformation of Social Enterprise

nation's social enterprise organizations. Today, the United States has more than 1.4 million non-profit organizations, and they account for 5 percent of GDP. Annual contributions have grown faster than the economy for years, and experts... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson

Web

Business & Environment - Faculty & Research

Management ; Shipping Industry ; Tourism Industry ; Transportation Industry ; Travel Industry ; Norway ; Europe Citation Educators Related Kaps,... View Details

October 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Ayala Corporation

Ayala Corporation is the oldest conglomerate in the Philippines and has been controlled by the Zobel de Ayala family for seven generations. Over the past 25 years, Ayala has evolved from a real estate family business into a highly diversified and professionally managed... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Family Business; Business Conglomerates; Valuation; Financial Strategy; Public Ownership; Real Estate Industry; Philippines

April 2010 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Supply Chain Partners: Virginia Mason and Owens & Minor (A) (Abridged)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

Owens & Minor (O&M) performed lean inventory services for Virginia Mason (VM) as its Alpha Vendor, but the outdated industry pricing model created perverse incentives and could not capture O&M's costs. Together, O&M and VM created an activity-based pricing model: Total... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Partners and Partnerships; Activity Based Costing and Management; Business Model; Non-Governmental Organizations; Nonprofit Organizations; Motivation and Incentives; Asset Pricing; Cost Accounting; Fair Value Accounting; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

January 2025 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Creating Value by Splitting Aster: Can One Minus One Equal Two?

By: V.G. Narayanan and Kairavi Dey

Aster DM Healthcare (Aster), founded by Dr. Azad Moopen in 1987, is a prominent healthcare conglomerate with operations spanning hospitals, clinics, retail pharmacies, and diagnostic centers across India and the GCC. After its 2018 listing on India’s National Stock... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Leadership; Change Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Restructuring; Negotiation; Valuation; Health Industry; Asia; India; Middle East; United Arab Emirates

Web

Online Business Courses & Certifications | HBS Online

Accounting with a final exam. 10-17 weeks, 8-15 hrs/week Apply by May 12 $2,650 Credential Business Analytics Professor Janice Hammond Unlock actionable insights by mastering data analysis techniques to solve real-world business... View Details

Web

General Management - Faculty & Research

Immigrant Visa (SIV) program. As the organization expanded, the board had sought to professionalize NOLB’s governance, systematize its fundraising, and strengthen the accountability and reporting mechanisms that many donors expected. That... View Details

07 Jul 2022
HBS Case

How a Multimillion-Dollar Ice Cream Startup Melted Down (and Bounced Back)

That shop is currently thriving. Lessons for those on the rebound About half of failed founders relaunch a new business within five years of a business closing, says Hyde. They often jump right back into the same industry and repeat the... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

January 2025
Case

Shifting Winds: DEI in Corporate America

By: Clayton S. Rose, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and David Lane

In the 2020s, intense and conflicting social and political pressures challenged organizational leaders around the world. Prominent among these were powerful competing views on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI) in the United States. Public... View Details