Publications

November 2013 (Revised February 2016)
Case

A Long, Bumpy and Unfinished Road: Education Reform in Memphis, Tennessee

By: Allen Grossman, J. Puckett and Nithya Vaduganathan

In 2010 the Memphis City School District merged with the neighboring Shelby County School system under the supervision of a single board of education and superintendent. It promised much more than just administrative synergies—it was an opportunity to change a... View Details

Keywords: Education Reform; Public Education; Business Engagement; Public Sector; Education; Business and Community Relations; Education Industry; Tennessee

October 2023
Article

Laboratory Safety and Research Productivity

By: Alberto Galasso, Hong Luo and Brooklynn Zhu

Are laboratory safety practices a tax on scientific productivity? We examine this question by exploiting the substantial increase in safety regulations at the University of California following the shocking accidental death of a research assistant in 2008.... View Details

Keywords: Economics Of Science; Risk Perception; Safety Regulations; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Working Conditions; Safety; Performance Productivity

October 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

BC Partners: Acuris

By: Victoria Ivashina and Terrence Shu

This case follows Nikos Stathopoulos, Managing Partner of BC Partners, as he and his team evaluate the potential sale of one of BC Partners’ portfolio companies, Acuris. Acuris was a global financial intelligence, news, and data company that had been acquired by BC... View Details

Keywords: Fund Management; Fund Raising; Leveraged Buyout; Buyout; Portfolio Management; Operations Improvement; Exit; Exit Strategy; Valuation Ratios; Finance; Private Equity; Leveraged Buyouts; Operations; Performance Improvement; Acquisition; Valuation

October 2012
Article

The Preference for Potential

By: Zakary L. Tormala, Jayson Jia and Michael I. Norton

When people seek to impress others, they often do so by highlighting individual achievements. Despite the intuitive appeal of this strategy, we demonstrate that people often prefer potential rather than achievement when evaluating others. Indeed, compared with... View Details

Keywords: Preferences; Persuasion; Uncertainty; Risk and Uncertainty; Performance Expectations; Attitudes

Find at Harvard

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

was hired in lieu of a bagel or doughnut because it was relatively tidy and appetite-quenching, and because trying to suck a thick liquid through a thin straw gave customers something to do with their boring commute. Understanding the job... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Service; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

11 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 11, 2008

Working PapersTesting Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24 Authors:Dennis Campbell, Srikant M. Datar, Susan L. Kulp, and V.G. Narayanan Abstract We analyze balanced scorecard data... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

14 Dec 2021
Op-Ed

To Change Your Company's Culture, Don't Start by Trying to Change the Culture

performance management systems." Pain is part of the cost of successful knee surgery, but that doesn’t mean banging someone on the knee with a hammer is successful knee surgery. Culture is how a group does the things it does. It changes... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

Web

Technology & Operations Management - Faculty & Research

beliefs in settings where output quantities and input prices are unobservable, and we use it to evaluate allocative efficiency in the market for science. Our model of researchers’ labor supply shows that their willingness to pay for their... View Details

Web

Program Requirements - Doctoral

their third year, all students are required to obtain approval of their dissertation proposal by their Dissertation Chair. Oral Examination Students are required to complete a dissertation proposal oral examination. In evaluating the... View Details

December 1992 (Revised June 1993)
Case

ACTC Customer Service Department

Focuses on the young general manager of a new cable TV system and on its customer service department. Jeanne LaFrance, the general manager, has an uneasy feeling about the way in which the department is being managed. She sees symptoms of what she suspects are serious... View Details

Keywords: Management; Problems and Challenges; Planning; Customer Focus and Relationships; Performance Evaluation; Telecommunications Industry

Research Summary

Overview

Grant uses a combination of laboratory and field experiments to harness consumers' cognitive and affective resources to increase their well-being. Consumers make countless daily decisions in the pursuit of happiness -- whether and how to spend or save their money, what... View Details

Keywords: Well-being; Judgment And Decision Making; Health; Prosocial Behavior

July 2008 (Revised December 2009)
Case

Infosys' Relationship Scorecard: Measuring Transformational Partnerships

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, Robert S. Kaplan and Katherine Miller

This case analyzes Infosys' innovative approach to measuring performance in client relations. Infosys' strategy is evolving to build transformational partnerships from its original position as an outsourcer of end-to-end IT projects. A transformational partner helps... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Performance Evaluation; Attorney and Client Relationships; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Balanced Scorecard; Competitive Strategy; Commercialization; Competitive Advantage; Economic Growth; Growth and Development Strategy; Consulting Industry; Information Technology Industry; India

09 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Clayton Christensen’s “How Will You Measure Your Life?”

is taught in every fundamental course in finance and economics. That is, in evaluating alternative investments, we should ignore sunk and fixed costs, and instead base decisions on the marginal costs and revenues that each alternative... View Details

Article

Defining, Measuring, and Improving Value in Spine Care

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Derek Haas

This chapter discusses how to measure and improve spine care outcomes and costs. Today’s commonly used outcome metrics, such as readmission and complication rates, are actually process and quality metrics. They are not the outcomes, such as improvement in pain and... View Details

Keywords: Spine Care; Outcomes Measurement; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Measurement and Metrics; Performance Improvement; Value

28 Sep 2009
Research & Ideas

Improving Accountability at the World Bank

governance are the most daunting because the very foundations of governance—vote allocation proportionate to economy, representation by finance ministries, absence of parliamentary scrutiny, and the relative voicelessness of the poorest... View Details

Keywords: by Alnoor Ebrahim

2012
Working Paper

Colonial Institutions, Trade Shocks, and the Diffusion of Elementary Education in Brazil, 1889–1930

By: Aldo Musacchio, Andre Martinez-Fritscher and Martina Viarengo

In this paper, we examine the role of trade shocks in promoting the diffusion of elementary education in subnational units in Brazil during a period (1889–1930) in which they had relative financial autonomy to collect export taxes and spend on public goods. The... View Details

Keywords: History; Literacy; Voting; Education; Spending; Performance Improvement; Government and Politics; Brazil

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