Publications

24 Feb 2022
Op-Ed

Want to Prevent the Next Hospital Bed Crisis? Enlist the SEC

attempts to avoid bed shortages by sharing capacity have generally failed, in part, because of the persistence of an independent hospital culture. As COVID-19 surged in 2020, capacity varied widely even among hospitals in the same city, according to View Details

Keywords: by Regina Herzlinger and Richard Boxer; Health

08 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, August 8, 2017

subsumed by the other three. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53024 August 2017 Obstetrics & Gynecology Relationship Between Labor and Delivery Unit Management Practices and Maternal Outcomes By:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2025
Teaching Note

AI at QuantumBlack: McKinsey’s Open Source Dilemma

By: Frank Nagle, Sam Boysel and Susan Pinckney

In 2019, QuantumBlack by McKinsey considered releasing Kedro, a proprietary machine learning data pipeline tool as an open source software offering. View Details

13 Nov 2014
News

Network Admins Wanted: New Ideas for Filling 'Middle-Skill' Jobs

Research Summary

Overview

By: Ethan C. Rouen

Relying on empirical archival methodologies—as well as techniques in data science—to develop and structure new sources of data by which to approach questions of looming disclosure changes, Professor Rouen has focused on one of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s... View Details

November–December 2022
Article

Your Company Needs a Space Strategy. Now.

By: Matthew Weinzierl, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Alan MacCormack and Brendan Rosseau

Space is becoming a potential source of value for businesses across a range of sectors, including agriculture, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, and tourism. To understand what the opportunities are for your company, the authors advise you to consider the four ways in... View Details

Keywords: Space Strategy; Emerging Markets; Natural Resources; Analytics and Data Science; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Adaptation; Competition; Aerospace Industry

Forthcoming
Article

No Line Left Behind: Assortative Matching Inside the Firm

By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Vittorio Bassi, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo

How do firms pair workers with managers, and which constraints affect the allocation of labor within the firm? We characterize the sorting pattern of managers to workers in a large readymade garment manufacturer in India and then explore potential drivers of the... View Details

Keywords: Assortative Matching; Productivity; Global Buyers; Readymade Garments; Labor; Organizational Design; Performance Productivity; Fashion Industry

October 1977 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Japan (D1): A Strategy for Economic Growth

By: Bruce R. Scott and Audrey T. Sproat

Data on Japan's unparalleled economic growth in the post-war era: How was it achieved and what future risks might be foreseen in 1971? View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Japan

December 2021
Article

Employee Responses to Compensation Changes: Evidence from a Sales Firm

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton

What are the long-term consequences of compensation changes? Using data from an inbound sales call center, we study employee responses to a compensation change that ultimately reduced take-home pay by 7% for the average affected worker. The change caused a significant... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Wages; Compensation and Benefits; Change; Performance; Resignation and Termination; Retention; Analysis

01 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 1

advantage. Read the article: http://hbr.org/2011/11/how-great-companies-think-differently/ar/1 Managing the Multiple Dimensions of Risk—Part I Authors:Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes Publication:Balanced Scorecard Report 13, no. 4... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2013
Working Paper

Span of Control and Span of Attention

By: Oriana Bandiera, Andrea Prat, Raffaella Sadun and Julie Wulf

Using novel data on CEO time use, we document the relationship between the size and composition of the executive team and the attention of the CEO. We combine information about CEO span of control for a sample of 65 companies with detailed data on how CEOs allocate... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Analytics and Data Science; Leadership Style; Management Style; Managerial Roles; Time Management; Planning

SSRN

May 2023
Article

Incentive Effects of Subjective Allocations of Rewards and Penalties

By: Wei Cai, Susanna Gallani and Jee-Eun Shin

We examine the incentive effects of subjectivity in allocating tournament-based rewards and punishments. We use data from a company where reward and punishment decisions are based on a combination of objective metrics and subjective performance assessments. Rankings... View Details

Keywords: Subjectivity; Tournament-based Incentives; Rewards; Penalties; Expectancy Theory; Employees; Compensation and Benefits; Management; Decisions; Performance; Measurement and Metrics

25 Mar 2018
News

When consumer packaged goods start acting like software

2020
Article

Mutual Funds: Skill and Performance

By: Jonathan B. Berk, Jules van Binsbergen and Max Miller

The authors summarize the recent literature on mutual fund manager skill and performance. They discuss the latest contributions in the field and reinterpret them through the lens of the rational expectations framework (efficient market hypothesis). They further discuss... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Financial Management; Performance Evaluation; Measurement and Metrics

Register to Read

12 Sep 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Can Remote Surgeries Digitally Transform Operating Rooms?

Keywords: Health

September 2015 (Revised July 2016)
Case

Unidentified Industries: Australia 2014

By: Benjamin Esty and William E. Fruhan, Jr.

Helps students to understand how the characteristics of a business are reflected in the firm's financial statements. In this exercise, students are given balance sheet data in percentage form (common-size balance sheets) and other selected financial ratios for a set of... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Finance; Financial Management; Australia

Educators

2021
Working Paper

Supply- and Demand-Side Effects in Performance Appraisals: The Role of Gender and Race

By: Iris Bohnet, Oliver P. Hauser and Ariella Kristal

Performance reviews in firms are common but controversial. Managers’ subjective appraisals of their employees’ performance and employees’ self-evaluations might be affected by demographic characteristics, interact with each other as self-evaluations are typically... View Details

Keywords: Performance Appraisals; Gender; Race; Performance Evaluation

Research Summary

Optimal Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Inventory control problems in supply chains. In this stream of theoretical research, Professor Goh has investigated how inventory should be optimally managed in supply chains. Specifically, he has studied how supply chains can make decisions to operate... View Details

2008
Working Paper

The Effect of Labor on Profitability: The Role of Quality

By: Zeynep Ton

Determining staffing levels is an important decision in retail operations. While the costs of increasing labor are obvious and easy to measure, the benefits are often indirect and not immediately felt. One benefit of increased labor is improved quality. The objective... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Selection and Staffing; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Quality; Retail Industry