Publications

June 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Muddy Waters vs. eHealth: The Debate of a 'Lifetime'

By: Jonas Heese and Cristo Liautaud

In May 2020, an analyst was assessing eHealth’s performance. eHealth was an online / tele-sales broker of health insurance products. The stock had recently hit all-time highs, closing at a peak of $146 on March 4, 2020. But now, May 4, 2020, eHealth traded at $103. The... View Details

Keywords: Revenue Recognition; Health; Insurance; Online Technology; Insurance Industry

20 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, February 20, 2018

economics, demonstrating a persistent concern with market fairness—not only fair prices for consumers but also fair competition among businesses. Proponents of fair trade collaborated with regulators to create codes of fair competition... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Feb 1998
News

Women at the Top

explore a wide range of contemporary business issues and top management concerns. Beyond that, the program was aimed at giving these leaders the opportunity to reap the benefits of spending time with other... View Details

Keywords: Marguerite Rigoglioso and Susan Young

01 Jun 1997
News

Blockbuster Deals

A wave of mergers is sweeping the country, activity that recalls the 1980s, the 1960s, and even, some say, the empire-building of a century ago. In the following article, nine HBS professors comment on the current M&As; phenomenon View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons and Nancy O. Perry

16 Jan 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 16, 2018

companies offer a direct stake in the company's performance through stock, a share in profits, or both. Companies with employee stock ownership plans report significantly higher sales growth and higher View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 1999
News

The Message and the Media: Advertising's Brave New World

Long defined almost exclusively in terms of print and broadcast outlets, mass media as an industry has been undergoing a major transformation - and that means big changes for the advertising industry, too.... View Details

Keywords: Peter K. Jacobs

01 Apr 1996
News

Stasis and Turmoil: HBS Research for the Real World

are wreaking havoc on the workplace. Reengineering, for example, destabilizes and changes the rules by which organizations operate, he says. "Many of these programs are actually designed to make life easier for top View Details

23 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research: May 23, 2017

technology firms, we show that founders who received advice from other founders with more “hands-on” management styles were more likely to reorient their own management activity and, subsequently, experience... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

February 2000 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Owens & Minor, Inc. (B)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

After a manager at Owens & Minor, a national medical and surgical distribution company, proposes and develops a formalized activity-based pricing and activity-based management approach to sales and service provision, this case explore the outcome. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Logistics; Distribution; Price; Supply Chain Management; Sales; Outcome or Result; Management Style; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

25 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: July 25, 2017

doctrine, this essay proposes a synthesizing principle: if the deal process involves an adequate market canvass, meaningful price discovery, and an arms-length negotiation, then there should be a strong... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

September 2004 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Hedging Currency Risks at AIFS

By: Mihir A. Desai, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman

The American Institute for Foreign Studies (AIFS) organizes study abroad programs and cultural exchanges for American students. The firm's revenues are mainly in U.S. dollars, but most of its costs are in eurodollars and British pounds. The company's controllers review... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Forecasting and Prediction; Revenue; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Currency; Currency Exchange Rate; Education Industry; North and Central America

25 Oct 2013
News

How Pricey Will Twitter Be?

1999
Book

The Financing of Catastrophe Risk

By: Kenneth A. Froot

Keywords: Catastrophe Risk; Corporate Finance; Banking And Insurance; Hedging; Banking; Decision Choice And Uncertainty; Financial Markets; Insurance; Policy; Risk Management; Natural Disasters; Cost of Capital; Asset Pricing; Insurance Industry

Find at Harvard

January 2020 (Revised April 2020)
Teaching Note

Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods

By: Jill Avery

Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods (CPG), offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3.00 price point that promised... View Details

Keywords: Brand; Brand Management; DTC; Private Label; Groceries; Packaged Food; Personal Care; Startups; Retailing; Amazon; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Business Startups; Disruption; E-commerce; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; United States

13 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Can AI Save Physicians from Burnout?

patients during visits, plus more accurate visit notes. However, clinicians’ well-being is unfortunately not always the top priority for hospital executives. Currently, most US hospitals generate revenue based on “fee-for-service" payment... View Details

Keywords: by Susanna Gallani, Lidia Moura, and Katie Sonnefeldt; Health

17 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 17, 2017

organizations adopt these strategies, there may be tensions and multiple conflicting institutional logics. Additionally, we consider four strategic leadership topics and how they relate to platform,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2021
Case

Worldreader: Helping Readers Build a Better World

By: Marco Bertini, Elie Ofek and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2010, Worldreader was an international nonprofit organization that promoted reading to children around the world. For many years, Worldreader distributed e-readers to under-resourced communities and funded its operations primarily through philanthropic... View Details