Publications

July 1999
Background Note

Comments on Standard Times and the Division of Labor

By: Roy D. Shapiro

A brief note on the origins and uses of standard times in production process flow diagrams and on the benefits and drawbacks of division of labor. A rewritten version of two earlier notes. View Details

Keywords: Labor; Management Practices and Processes; Standards; Production

May 1984 (Revised May 1989)
Case

Cleveland Twist Drill (B)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Describes events at Cleveland Twist Drill between April 1982 and February 1983. Jim Bartlett's approach to the union and the implementation of the "move strategy" are described. Students are asked to evaluate these actions and to develop plans for dealing with current... View Details

Keywords: History; Management Style; Leadership Style; Standards; Power and Influence

Article

Transforming the Balanced Scorecard from Performance Measurement to Strategic Management: Part II

By: Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Transformation; Performance; Measurement and Metrics; Strategy; Management

April 2020
Article

Digital Emotion Contagion

By: Amit Goldenberg and James J. Gross

People spend considerable time on digital media, and during this time they are often exposed to others’ emotion expressions. This exposure can lead their own emotion expressions to become more like others’ emotion expressions, a process we refer to as digital emotion... View Details

Keywords: Emotion; Emotion Contagion; Digital Media; Emotions; Media; Internet and the Web; Measurement and Metrics; Social Media

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2013
Working Paper

iPosture: The Size of Electronic Consumer Devices Affects Our Behavior

By: Maarten W. Bos and Amy J.C. Cuddy

We examined whether incidental body posture, prompted by working on electronic devices of different sizes, affects power-related behaviors. Grounded in research showing that adopting expansive body postures increases psychological power, we hypothesized that working on... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Behavior; Health; Size; Outcome or Result; Power and Influence

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August 2011
Teaching Note

Subprime Crisis and Fair-Value Accounting (TN)

By: Paul Healy, Krishna G. Palepu and George Serafeim

Teaching Note for 109-031. View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Mortgages; Standards; Financial Crisis

August 2010
Supplement

Batson International, S.A. (C)

By: David F. Hawkins

Senior management must sign a management letter. An internal audit reveals a number of questionable accounting practices (B case). How should senior management respond? View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Managerial Roles; Standards; United States

February 1991 (Revised April 1991)
Case

Zenith and High-Definition Television--1990

By: Benjamin Gomes-Casseres, David B. Yoffie and Heather A. Hazard

Describes Zenith's strategy in HDTV and high resolution monitors. Includes overview of HDTV industry with profiles of major competitors worldwide and policies of U.S., Japanese, and European governments. Focuses on competition over standards setting, industrial policy,... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Standards; Production; Corporate Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Electronics Industry; Technology Industry

2008
Chapter

Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan

David Norton and I introduced the Balanced Scorecard in a 1992 Harvard Business Review article. The article was based on a multi-company research project that studied performance measurement in companies whose intangible assets played a central role in value... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Measurement and Metrics; Performance Improvement; Strategy

28 Feb 2025
News

Alumni Startup Enters the Shark Tank

This Friday night, Remento enters the Shark Tank. The startup, cofounded by CEO Charlie Greene (MBA 2021) in 2021, will be featured on this week’s episode of the long-running business show, pitching its “no-write life story book” vision to Sharks at 8/7c on ABC. We... View Details

22 Aug 2016
Blog Post

Section Life: Your HBS Family

my section mates hailed from. Sections are diverse on every metric ranging from work experience to political beliefs to undergraduate fields of study. Because you take all your classes together RC year, diversity is critical to the... View Details

01 Jun 2017
News

Inbox: From Das’s Desk

research has focused on various aspects of customer management in B2B contexts, including customer selection and portfolio management; managing a spectrum of customer engagements, from transactions to long-term relationships; developing appropriate View Details

Keywords: Das Narayandas

01 Dec 2006
News

Rowing Upstream

most of his peers, Coach P used a variety of quantifiable metrics for each rower to determine who would sit in the varsity boat. Says Polzer, “The highest-performing individual rowers typically go in the varsity boat, just as a business... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Sep 2014
News

3-Minute Briefing: Mark Pincus (MBA 1993)

should be a hard-ass and fire people all the time. I definitely was not that kind of CEO. I probably erred on the side of consensus and collaboration. The external environment is a big factor in creating company culture. For us, it is a hard environment. We get our... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; alumni

May 2014
Case

Goldman Sachs: Anchoring Standards After the Financial Crisis

By: Rajiv Lal and Lisa Mazzanti

Goldman Sachs, a longtime venerable financial institution headquartered in New York City, had a partnership culture that was known to value its clients. But when the financial crisis hit in 2008 and Goldman Sachs emerged relatively unscathed, its public image took a... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Public Image; Corporate Accountability; Reputation; Standards; Financial Crisis; Brands and Branding; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

Spring 2013
Article

Does Mandatory IFRS Adoption Improve the Information Environment?

By: Joanne Horton, George Serafeim and Ioanna Serafeim

We examine the effect of mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on firms' information environment. We find that after mandatory IFRS adoption, consensus forecast errors decrease for firms that mandatorily adopt IFRS relative to forecast... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Financial Reporting; Standards; Information; Quality; Earnings Management

SSRN

September 2011
Article

How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Health Care

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Michael E. Porter

Existing health care costing systems have serious flaws that make it impossible to measure costs accurately at the individual patient and medical condition level. This gap has severely limited meaningful cost reduction throughout the system. The paper describes a new... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Health Care and Treatment; Measurement and Metrics; Service Delivery; Outcome or Result; Quality; Health Industry

April 2006
Background Note

Understanding Corporate-Value-at-Risk through a Comprehensive and Simple Example

By: Marc L. Bertoneche and Frantz Maurer

Using a comprehensive and simple example of a firm exposed to foreign exchange risk, interest rate risk, and commodity price risk, shows how to use corporate-value-at-risk to measure and manage a firm's global exposure to risk. View Details

Keywords: Financial Markets; Interest Rates; International Finance; Globalization; Risk Management; Measurement and Metrics; Value