Publications

August 2021
Supplement

Coats: Supply Chain Challenges: Spreadsheet Supplement

By: Willy C. Shih

Coats, the largest thread maker in the world, transformed its business to digital colour measurement so that it could respond better to customer demand in the garment industry for rapid product cycles and more fragmented colour choices. Its embrace of digital colour... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Management; Supply Chain; Inventory; Supply Chain Management; Operations; Growth and Development Strategy; Forecasting and Prediction; Demand and Consumers; Consolidation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Asia

Research Summary

Control in Inter-organizational Settings

By: V.G. Narayanan

Professor Narayanan is studying how franchise owners use measurement tools such as the Balanced Scorecard and mystery shopper survyes to mitigate incentive and information frictions that arise between franchisors and franchisees. He is also studying control issues that... View Details

July 2011 (Revised September 2012)
Case

Industrial Metrology: Getting In-Line? (A)

By: Willy Shih

Metrology plays a key role in the manufacture of mechanical components. Traditionally it is used extensively in a pre-process stage where a manufacturer does process planning, design, and ramp-up, and in post-process off-line inspection to establish proof of quality.... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Machinery and Machining; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Planning; Quality; Opportunities; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Segmentation; Technology Adoption; Theory; Manufacturing Industry

August 2021 (Revised November 2023)
Supplement

Coats: Supply Chain Challenges

By: Willy C. Shih

Coats, the largest thread maker in the world, transformed its business to digital colour measurement so that it could respond better to customer demand in the garment industry for rapid product cycles and more fragmented colour choices. Its embrace of digital colour... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Management; Supply Chain; Inventory; Supply Chain Management; Operations; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Asia

03 Apr 2019
News

Do Your Experiential Marketing Moves Produce Enough ROI?

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

business customers than at end consumers. There are some that consumers are increasingly seeing, like Fair Trade coffee or "sustainably harvested" labels for seafood. In handmade rugs you can find a number of labeling schemes like... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

September 2025
Article

Using Satellites and Phones to Evaluate and Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Farms in India

By: Shawn Cole, Tomoko Harigaya, Grady Killeen and Aparna Krishna

This paper evaluates a low-cost, customized soil nutrient management advisory service in India. As a methodological contribution, we examine whether and in which settings satellite measurements may be effective at estimating both agricultural yields and treatment... View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Mathematical Methods; Analytics and Data Science; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

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2025
Working Paper

Using Satellites and Phones to Evaluate and Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Farms in India

By: Shawn Cole, Grady Killeen, Tomoko Harigaya and Aparna Krishna

This paper evaluates a low-cost, customized soil nutrient management advisory service in India. As a methodological contribution, we examine whether and in which settings satellite measurements may be effective at estimating both agricultural yields and treatment... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Technology Adoption; Measurement and Metrics; Analytics and Data Science; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

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February 2023
Supplement

Coats Dyehouse Management

By: Willy C. Shih

Coats, the largest thread maker in the world, transformed its business to digital colour measurement so that it could respond better to customer demand in the garment industry for rapid product cycles and more fragmented colour choices. Its embrace of digital colour... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Management; Supply Chain; Inventory; Supply Chain Management; Operations; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Asia

21 May 2020
News

Using the Balanced Scorecard for Successful Health Care M&A Integration

2023
Working Paper

Targeting, Personalization, and Engagement in an Agricultural Advisory Service

By: Susan Athey, Shawn Cole, Shanjukta Nath and Jessica Zhu

ICT is increasingly used to deliver customized information in developing countries. We examine whether individually targeting the timing of automated voice calls meaningfully increases engagement in an agricultural advisory service. We define, estimate, and... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Knowledge Dissemination; Customization and Personalization; Performance Effectiveness

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September 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Elkay Plumbing Products Division

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The vice president of sales learns that the most profitable 1% of the division's customers generate 100% of profits, and that two of the division's largest customers lose 50% of profits. The division has just finished a project to install a time-driven activity-based... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Profit; Management Systems; Consumer Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry

August 2014
Case

Rent the Runway (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch

Two months after a successful launch In November 2009, the cofounders of Rent the Runway (RTR), a website that rented designer dresses, are debating whether to grow their startup at a measured pace and focus on improving operational effectiveness, or raise a new round... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Electronic Commerce; Fashion; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Fashion Industry

September 2011
Supplement

TopCoder (B)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Eric Lonstein and Stephanie Pokrywa

Metrology plays a key role in the manufacture of mechanical components. Traditionally it is used extensively in a pre-process stage where a manufacturer does process planning, design, and ramp-up, and in post-process off-line inspection to establish proof of quality.... View Details

Keywords: Industry Growth; Forecasting and Prediction; Change Management; Production; Machinery and Machining; Planning; Quality; Competition; Diversification; Technology Adoption; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Manufacturing Industry

March–April 2020
Article

Avoid the Pitfalls of A/B Testing

By: Iavor I. Bojinov, Guillaume Sait-Jacques and Martin Tingley

Online experiments measuring whether “A,” usually the current approach, is inferior to “B,” a proposed improvement, have become integral to the product-development cycle, especially at digital enterprises. But often firms make serious mistakes in conducting these... View Details

Keywords: A/B Testing; Experiment Design; Social Networks; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Measurement and Metrics; Social Media

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12 Feb 2019
HBS Seminar

Gary Loveman, Harvard Business School

2001
Article

The Economic Contribution of Information Technology: Towards Comparative and User Studies

By: Timothy F. Bresnahan and Shane Greenstein

By what process does technical change in information technology (IT) increase economic welfare? How does this process result in increases in welfare at different rates in different countries and regions? This paper considers existing literature on measuring the... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Welfare; Information Technology; Measurement and Metrics

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June 1997 (Revised May 1998)
Case

Mobil USM&R (A1)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

First of a two-part case on the development and use of a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) at Mobil's US Marketing and Refining Division. Split from the original (A) case to give students an opportunity to suggest objectives and measures for the division's initial BSC, without... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Measurement and Metrics; Restructuring; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Marketing Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; United States