Publications

November 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Accounting for Frequent Fliers

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Airline frequent flier programs offer members the opportunity to earn free flights by accumulating mileage. Accounting and reporting the obligations of airlines and the cost of frequent flier programs raises difficult measurement issues. In 1991, the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Fair Value Accounting; Policy; Air Transportation Industry; United States

19 Nov 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Do Bonuses Enhance Sales Productivity? A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Bonus-Based Compensation Plans

Keywords: by Doug J. Chung, Thomas Steenburgh & K. Sudhir

January 2003 (Revised January 2008)
Case

The British Motorcycle Industry at a Crossroads

By: Jan W. Rivkin

By 1975, the collapse of the British motorcycle industry is nearly complete. Only one British manufacturer, NVT, remains in operation. In this setting, the British government commissions the Boston Consulting Group to identify and evaluate strategic alternatives for... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Industry Structures; Business and Government Relations; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Consulting Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motorcycle Industry; Great Britain

13 Oct 2020
News

Despite JPMorgan’s record spoofing fine, deterrence questions remain

September 2013 (Revised January 2015)
Case

Wal-Mart Lobbying in India?

By: Karthik Ramanna and Vidhya Muthuram

In 2012, as part of a routine disclosure under U.S. law, Wal-Mart revealed it had spent $25 million since 2008 on lobbying to "enhance market access for investment in India." This disclosure, which came weeks after the Indian government made a controversial decision to... View Details

Keywords: Lobbying; India; Multinational Corporations; Business and Government Relations; Crime and Corruption; Retail Industry; India

January–February 2019
Article

Corporate Purpose and Financial Performance

By: Claudine Gartenberg, Andrea Prat and George Serafeim

We construct a measure of corporate purpose within a sample of U.S. companies based on approximately 500,000 survey responses of worker perceptions about their employers. We find that this measure of purpose is not related to financial performance. However, high... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Purpose; Purpose; Employee Motivation; Belief Systems; Corporate Performance; Human Capital; Middle Management; Culture; Corporate Culture; Meaning; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Employees; Perception; Values and Beliefs; Performance Effectiveness

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April 2011
Case

Designs by Kate: The Power of Direct Sales

By: John A. Deighton and Sarah Abbott

The sales representatives at Designs by Kate (DBK) sell private label jewelry at hosted parties and through online social media channels. They are also responsible for recruiting, training, and managing new sales reps. CEO and founder Kate Creevey designed the... View Details

Keywords: Direct Sales; Consumer Marketing; Marketing Management; Personal Selling; Sales Compensation; Sales Organization; Motivation and Incentives; Marketing Strategy; Salesforce Management; Performance; Compensation and Benefits; Apparel and Accessories Industry

January 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

ZBJ: Building a Global Outsourcing Platform for Knowledge Workers (A)

By: Feng Zhu, Weiru Chen and Shirley Sun

ZBJ.com (ZBJ), an online platform that connects knowledge workers to small- and medium-sized enterprises, is China’s largest outsourcing platform. Founded by Mingyue Zhu in 2006, ZBJ had grown into a unicorn with 4,000 employees and a daily transaction volume of RMB15... View Details

Keywords: Outsourcing; Disintermediation; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Problems and Challenges; Global Strategy; Information Technology Industry; China

February 2003 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Large Scale Change at The WSSC

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Corey B. Hajim

Describes the organizational transformation occurring at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), a public utility. Faced with the possibility of privatization after decades of providing service in the absence of competition or performance pressures, the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Change Management; Restructuring; Privatization; Resignation and Termination; Utilities Industry

February 2003 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Yahoo!: Becoming a Competitor in the Career Listings Space (B)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Nicole Nasser

After weighing the pros and cons of making an unsolicited bid for HotJobs.com (an online recruiting company already under contract to be acquired by TMP Worldwide), the executive team of Yahoo! decides to make an immediate move rather than wait for the Federal Trade... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Teams; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Process; Strategy

Jonas Heese is... View Details

June 2016
Case

Augustine Heard & Co.: Building a Family Business in the China Trade (B)

By: William C. Kirby and Joycelyn W. Eby

In 1861, the Heard brothers faced a decision: should they continue their family firm's business model that had made them a successful commission house in China, or was it time to make fundamental adjustments to their work? This case reveals that the brothers decided to... View Details

Keywords: China; Mercantilism; Family Business; China

2021
Working Paper

Measuring Employment Impact: Applications and Cases

By: Katie Panella and George Serafeim

Applying the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative’s employment impact methodology on eight leading companies, we document wide variability in employment impacts as a percentage of salaries paid, ranging between 59 and 80 percent. We identify opportunities for... View Details

Keywords: Impact Measurement; Employee Compensation; Accounting; Employees; Labor; Well-being; Diversity; Wages; Compensation and Benefits

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August 2009 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Calera Corporation

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Thomas J. Steenburgh and Lauren Barley

Brent Constantz, founder, CEO, and president of Calera Corporation, felt a surge of optimism as he gazed at the recently commissioned prototype flue gas processing line at Calera's R&D facility in Moss Landing, California. It was late May 2009, and Calera was an... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Product Design; Product Development; Environmental Sustainability; Commercialization; Green Technology Industry

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Dennis Yao is the Lawrence E. Fouraker Professor of Business Administration and Chair of the Doctoral Programs at Harvard Business School. He joined the faculty in 2004 after having been at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. From 1991-1994 he served as... View Details

Keywords: automotive; defense; federal government; high technology

20 Jun 2016
Working Paper Summaries

What Else Do Shareholders Want? Shareholder Proposals Contested by Firm Management

Keywords: by Eugene F. Soltes, Suraj Srinivasan, and Rajesh Vijayaraghavan

October 2014 (Revised June 2016)
Case

NuScale Power—the Future of Small Modular Reactors

By: Richard Vietor

NuScale Power, an entrepreneurial venture in Portland, Oregon, has designed the leading modular nuclear reactor in the United States. This Reactor will be the safest and simplest ever built. Started in 2007 as an entrepreneurial venture, the company is now two years... View Details

Keywords: Nuclear; Power; Technology; Risk; Energy; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Risk and Uncertainty; Energy Industry