Publications

January 2014 (Revised November 2015)
Background Note

Rational Choice and Managerial Decision-Making

By: Willy Shih

This note discusses Herbert Simon's notion of bounded rationality: how managers may sometimes make suboptimal choices because of their limited ability to access or process information. View Details

Keywords: Rational Choice; Bounded Rationality; Satisficing; Herbert Simon; Agenda-setting; Choice; Alternatives; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Judgments

May 1990
Background Note

Conjoint Analysis: A Manager's Guide

By: Robert J. Dolan

Presents a non-technical description of the conjoint analysis methodology. Discusses the process by which such a study is done and cites areas of application. View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Mathematical Methods; Forecasting and Prediction

August 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Building to a Crescendo

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Vishesh Kumar

Examines the efforts of an early-stage venture capital firm to formalize processes and build a pyramidal organization in an industry dominated by informal, unpyramidal structures. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Organizational Structure; Business Startups

September 1995 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Argentina's YPF Sociedad Anonima (A)

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Examines the process of privatization and transformation the company underwent and identifies challenges facing the company as it seeks to become a global oil company. View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Globalization; Privatization; Problems and Challenges

Find at Harvard

25 May 2023
Video

HBS Online Management Essentials

Maximize your managerial effectiveness by shaping and influencing processes in the critically important treetop level between 50,000 feet (strategy) and ground level (daily tasks and activities). Program Dates: August 7, 2019 - October 2, 2019 View Details

August 2022 (Revised March 2023)
Technical Note

Real Estate iBuying

By: Michael Luca, Jesse M. Shapiro and Julia Kelley

This note provides an overview of real estate iBuying, or instant buying, a business model that involves buying homes and then reselling them at a profit. Introduced in the mid-2010s, iBuying streamlined the process of selling a home by offering instant, all-cash... View Details

Keywords: iBuying; Profit; Business Model; Technological Innovation; Real Estate Industry

April 1994 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition (1990-1992)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Describes the changes in structure, management systems, people, and processes instituted by the company. Provides students with an opportunity to explore the nature of "IT-enabled" organizational change and the process through which it is implemented. Also enables a... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Business Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

December 2020
Case

Urban Company

By: Krishna G. Palepu

Urban Company is an India-based market platform that helps customers book home services and at home beauty services. The company differentiated itself by investing heavily in building customer trust. Rather than merely positioning itself as a lead generating... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Emerging Markets; Strategy; Service Delivery; Trust; Technology Industry; Service Industry; India

01 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

The Slow, Steady Battle to Fix Cancer Care

faculty as a senior fellow to study health-care reform. Feeley, the Helen Shafer Fly Distinguished Professor of Anesthesiology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, is on a quest to make the payment process easier and,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

December 2004 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Innovation Corrupted: The Rise and Fall of Enron (B)

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Presents a brief historical overview of Enron's rise, its strategic successes and failures, the evolution of its business model, and the organizational processes relied upon by Enron's management to drive and monitor the business. A rewritten version of an earlier... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Risk Management; Management Practices and Processes; Success; Business Model; Strategy; Business History; Governance Controls; Innovation and Management; Failure; Business Processes; Energy Industry; United States

November 1995 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Massachusetts General Hospital: CABG Surgery (A)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and James Weber

A cross-functional team at Massachusetts General Hospital tries to reengineer the service delivery process (the "care path") for heart bypass surgery (CABG) in order to shorten hospital stays (and lower costs) while maintaining/enhancing the quality of care provided. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Business Processes; Mission and Purpose; Product Positioning; Product Marketing; Management Practices and Processes; Customer Satisfaction; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Fair Value Accounting; Ethics; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts

October 2016
Case

Addicaid: Scaling a Digital Platform for Addiction Wellness and Recovery

By: Robert S. Huckman and Sarah Mehta

In 2013, Sam Frons founded Addicaid—a mobile application (app) that allowed people in addiction recovery to track their progress, check in with counselors, and connect with others in recovery programs. The app was grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy and used the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Health Interventions; Substance Use Disorder; Addiction Treatment; Addiction Recovery; Scale; Innovation; Health; Health Disorders; Health Industry; New York (city, NY)

July 2010
Case

Metabical: Positioning and Communications Strategy for a New Weight Loss Drug

By: John A. Quelch and Heather Beckham

Cambridge Sciences Pharmaceuticals (CSP) expects final approval for its revolutionary weight loss drug, Metabical. Metabical will be the only weight loss drug with FDA approval that is also clinically proven to be effective for moderately overweight people. Barbara... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Marketing Communications; Product Launch; Consumer Behavior; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

October 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Exercise

Electric Maze Exercise, The

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

This team-based exercise uses an educational tool called "The Electric Maze," developed by Interel Corp., to teach insights about the social and psychological challenges facing employees who must engage in collaborative learning. The tool is a grid-patterned rug with... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Leadership; Learning; Groups and Teams; Risk and Uncertainty

June 2013 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Governance and Sustainability at Nike (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Nien-hê Hsieh and Lara Adamsons

Two members of Nike's executive team must decide what sustainability targets to propose to Nike's CEO and to the corporate responsibility committee of Nike's board of directors. Set in 2012, the case traces the evolution of Nike's approach to environmental and social... View Details

Keywords: Nike; Hannah Jones; Mark Parker; Phil Knight; Philip Knight; Eric Sprunk; Jill Ker Conway; Phyllis Wise; Don Blair; Sustainable Business And Innovation; SB＆I; Flyknit; DyeCoo; Footwear; Athletic Footwear; Apparel; Athletic Apparel; Sustainability; Greenpeace; Detox Campaign; Dirty Laundry; Water; Water Use; Water Pollution; Water Resources; Corporate Responsibility Committee; Judgment; Board Of Directors; Board Committees; Environmental And Social Sustainability; Footwear Industry; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Ethics; Fairness; Globalized Firms and Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance; Alignment; Supply Chain; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Judgments; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Asia; China; United States; Oregon; Portland

Research Summary

Senior Teams and Paradox

By: Michael L. Tushman

This research area explores processes senior teams employ in order to attend to and deal with... View Details

Research Summary

Decision making

Dr. Bos investigates how unconscious processes aid and improve performance. His work contests the common-sense notion that conscious deliberation always leads to the best outcomes. Dr. Bos and colleagues propose that, for complex decisions, the best outcomes result... View Details

October 1997
Case

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (B)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Elaine V. Backman

Outlines the process of strategy reinvention adopted by Planned Parenthood. It lays out the new strategic proposals, and the reactions of the various constituencies to those proposals. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Framework; Core Relationships; Risk and Uncertainty; Adaptation; Health Industry