Publications

28 Sep 2009
Research & Ideas

Improving Accountability at the World Bank

accountability and effectiveness today? What should it do about them? With a detailed description of the Bank's challenges of democratic accountability, its constraints, and recommendations for the future, HBS professor Alnoor Ebrahim testified before the Committee on... View Details

Keywords: by Alnoor Ebrahim

September 2011 (Revised February 2013)
Case

Cleveland Clinic: Improving the Patient Experience

By: Ananth Raman and Anita L. Tucker

Healthcare has traditionally focused on medical outcomes and financial performance. The big question is always, "How much is it going to cost?" What would happen, though, if healthcare also considered the question of "How does the patient feel?" This case looks at the... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Customer Satisfaction; Performance Improvement; Service Delivery; Value Creation; Personal Characteristics; Human Needs

31 Mar 2022
Op-Ed

Navigating the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in Professional Services

easy. Small firms operate informally. Continuing an informal approach to management strains performance as a firm grows. Costs begin to increase and errors in operations and service delivery begin to cumulate. Formal systems and processes... View Details

Keywords: by Ashish Nanda

03 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The State of Customer Service Leadership

to improved efficiency and productivity. Yet you write that there are dangers in overdoing it. How so? Schlesinger: Technology can be used effectively to replace low-contact service work. But when Starbucks... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Retail

February 2025
Article

Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency

By: Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi

Through a large-scale field experiment with 393,036 customers considering opening a credit card account with a nationwide retail bank, we investigate how providing transparency into an offering’s tradeoffs affects subsequent rates of customer acquisition and long-run... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Customer Selection; Customer Compatibility; Retention; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Australia

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Article

Vungle Inc. Improves Monetization Using Big-Data Analytics

By: Bert De Reyck, Ioannis Fragkos, Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Casey Lichtendahl, Hammond Guerin and Andrew Kritzer

The advent of big data has created opportunities for firms to customize their products and services to unprecedented levels of granularity. Using big data to personalize an offering in real time, however, remains a major challenge. In the mobile advertising industry,... View Details

Keywords: Big Data; Monetization; Data and Data Sets; Advertising; Mobile Technology; Customization and Personalization; Performance Improvement

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26 Aug 2016
News

Improving Wellness Through Better Nutrition

recovery and health maintenance plans. “Much of my job is to educate health care decision-makers about the importance of food in improving patient outcomes.” A “first-class Girl Scout” growing up, with parents who emphasized the... View Details

September 1992 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Royal Automobile Club Rescue Services Division: Transformation Through Technology

By: W. Earl Sasser and Roger H. Hallowell

The Royal Automobile Club uses a new computer and telephone system to improve its service standards and profitability. After the initial impact of changes from technology, the organization faces a need to choose between future technological development or... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Service Industry; Service Industry; United Kingdom

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13 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Experimental Researcher Helps Improve Health Care in Zambia

Sometimes big ideas start with small experiments. That's been the experience of Harvard Business School professor Nava Ashraf, whose experimental approach to research in developing countries has produced insights that have influenced government policies. Ashraf, an... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Health

10 Jan 2017
News

Research: Performing a Ritual Before a Stressful Task Improves Performance

September 2016 (Revised July 2018)
Case

United Airlines: More Out-and-Back Flying?

By: Ryan W. Buell, Willy Shih and Mike Toffel

This case looks at United Airlines when it is facing a decision on whether to shift its aircraft routing to more "out-and-back" routing in order to try to improve its on-time performance. As one of the world's largest airlines, United had a very large fleet and... View Details

Web

News - Research Computing Services

improvements to our HBSGrid environment. Our next maintenance will occur on Monday, May 5. If you have any questions/comments, please email us at research@hbs.edu . Close HBSGrid Maintenance 7/7 02 JUL 2025 Our next maintenance is... View Details

Jul 29 2015
Testimonial

Developing a Service Firm's Greatest Asset

25 Jan 2016
News

Helping Young African Managers Find Their Way Home

supporting business school applications, helping improve representation of Africans in business school,” Igun says. “When we started the MBA mentorship program, the first year it was just us and our friends doing the mentoring. We have... View Details

Keywords: Constantine von Hoffman

26 May 2009
Research & Ideas

Improving Market Research in a Recession

product categories, or stores. Some are even changing long-held attitudes toward consumption. To many folks, filling the home with more stuff or keeping up with the Joneses is no longer appealing. As a result, the degree of uncertainty in... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

2023
Working Paper

Can Digitalization Improve Public Services? Evidence from Innovation in Energy Management

By: Robyn C. Meeks, Jacquelyn Pless and Zhenxuan Wang

This paper examines how digitalization impacts public service provision through a study of the U.S. power sector. We exploit the staggered timing of electric utilities’ investments in “smart” meters and find that electricity losses per unit sold decrease by 3.6%. This... View Details

Keywords: Electric Utility; Energy Management; Smart Meters; Energy; Climate Change; State Ownership; Private Ownership; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; United States

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February 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Sekisui House and the In-Home Early Detection Platform

By: John D. Macomber and Akiko Kanno

To address an aging population and sales declines, a major Japanese homebuilder considers pivoting to provide and support an in-home health detection platform, in competition with tech companies. This case considers the point of view of major builders regarding how... View Details

Keywords: Voice Assistants; Architecture; Smart Home; Aging Society; Digitalization; Real Estate; Home Automation; Sensors; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Health Care and Treatment; Housing; Age; Real Estate Industry; Construction Industry; Health Industry; Japan