Publications

Article

Core Earnings: New Data and Evidence

By: Ethan Rouen, Eric C. So and Charles C.Y. Wang

Using a novel dataset, we show that components of firms' GAAP earnings stemming from ancillary business activities or transitory shocks are significant in frequency and magnitude. These components have grown over time and are dispersed across various sections of the... View Details

Keywords: Core Earnings; Transitory Earnings; Non-operating Earnings; Quantitative Disclosures; Equity Valuation; Big Data; Business Earnings; Financial Reporting; Valuation; Analytics and Data Science

February 2021
Article

Testing the Waters: Behavior across Participant Pools

By: Erik Snowberg and Leeat Yariv

We leverage a large-scale incentivized survey eliciting behaviors from (almost) an entire university student population, a representative sample of the U.S. population, and Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to address concerns about the external validity of experiments... View Details

Keywords: Lab Selection; External Validity; Experiments; Behavior; Surveys; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis

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December 2019
Case

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Shaping the Vaccine Manufacturing Ecosystem (Abridged)

By: Willy Shih

This case describes the efforts of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to lower the cost of producing vaccines to prevent polio infections. It is an abridged version of HBS Case No. 620-021 with less emphasis on comparison between traditional and the new compact... View Details

Keywords: Vaccine; Manufacturing; Barriers To Entry; Production; Cost; Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Pharmaceutical Industry

Article

Managing the Use and Dissemination of Information about Biomarkers: The Importance of Incentive Structures.

By: Ariel Dora Stern

The use of biomarkers holds great promise for the development of new therapeutics and the acceleration of clinical research. However, biomarkers must be validated—a complex and costly endeavor. Importantly, biomarker validation is meaningfully shaped by economic and... View Details

Keywords: Biomarkers; Information Management; Health Care and Treatment; Motivation and Incentives

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June 2019
Teaching Note

Michael Rubin and Fanatics (A) and (B)

By: Robert F. Higgins and John Masko

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 819-077 and 819-082. View Details

Keywords: Fanatics; Licensed Merchandise; Sports; Internet and the Web; Vertical Integration; Expansion; Strategy; Sports Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

April 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

BlackRock (D): Organizing for the Future (with video links)

By: Ranjay Gulati, Jan W. Rivkin and Aldo Sesia

By the end of 2015, BlackRock had succeeded beyond any of the early dreams of its founders. The firm remained the world’s largest asset manager, with more than $4.6 trillion under management, and other financial services companies used BlackRock’s Aladdin platform to... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Asset Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; United States

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

2003
Case

E-Business Innovation at Cisco

By: Vijay Govindarajan, Philip Anderson, Chris Trimble and Katrina Veerman

As of March 2001, Cisco Systems prides itself as an "end-to-end networking company." The phrase describes not only their product line but the way they run their business. They created many of the e-business practices that later became cornerstones of the software... View Details

Keywords: Technology Networks; Technological Innovation; Innovation and Management; Business Strategy; Web Services Industry

September 1988
Case

Frontier Airlines, Inc. (A) (Condensed)

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Describes a regional airline that is on the losing end of a strategic application of information technology. Management is focusing on internal data processing issues while its principal, and larger, competitor is using its computerized reservations system to gain... View Details

Keywords: Adoption; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry

September 2003 (Revised January 2005)
Case

Emergence, Valhalla, and Orchid: Divergent Models for Venture Capital Funds

By: William A. Sahlman and Matthew Willis

Compares and contrasts three different venture capital funds from the perspective of a potential investor. The first fund has a technology-enabled services preference, the second a Mid-Atlantic region preference, and the third a seed round preference. Students are... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Entrepreneurship; Service Operations; Information Technology; Venture Capital

April 2001 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Mark Pitts

Describes Peoplestreet, an Internet business being developed at Cambridge Incubator. Peoplestreet is attempting to hire a VP of business development and has identified a candidate, Mark Pitts. Asks students to assess which interview techniques seemed most effective in... View Details

Keywords: Recruitment; Internet and the Web; Job Interviews; Massachusetts

January 1995
Teaching Note

Northern Telecom (A): Greenwich Investment Proposal (Condensed)and Northern Telecom (B): The Norstar Launch TN

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Teaching Note for (9-594-051) and (9-593-104). View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Investment; Product Launch; Product Development; Telecommunications Industry; Canada

April 1993 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Northern Telecom (B): The Norstar Launch

By: Robert J. Dolan

Northern Telecom has spent $50 million to develop a new family of telephone systems for small businesses. The investment proposal was justified on the basis of appreciable market share impact. Now, the project team must develop the appropriate supporting marketing... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Investment; Product Launch; Product Development; Telecommunications Industry; Canada; United States

Article

Trade-offs between Productivity and Quality in Selecting Software Development Practices

By: Alan MacCormack, Chris F. Kemerer, Michael A. Cusumano and Bill Crandall

Keywords: Quality; Applications and Software; Research and Development; Practice; Performance Productivity

March 2024
Case

Transforming a Region: Gothenburg’s path from Shipyards to E-Mobility

By: Christian H.M. Ketels and Orjan Solvell

The case profiles the economic development of the Gothenburg region in Western Sweden, and the efforts of the regional economic development agency. During this period the region’s traditionally strong automotive cluster started to transform towards e-mobility... View Details

Keywords: Regional Economic Activity; Cluster; Economic Development; Economic Growth; Government and Politics; Transformation; Green Technology; Auto Industry; Sweden