Publications

Research Summary

Mastering Strategy Execution

By: Robert Simons

Professor Robert Simons’ research encompasses three areas of management accountability that are the foundation for successful strategy execution: organization design, performance measurement and control, and risk management. In addition, Simons is interested in the... View Details

13 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 13

which was founded by actor/director Robert Redford to promote independent filmmaking. Started as a "Lab" where independent filmmakers could work on their film projects, the Institute soon expanded... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 19, 2024
Article

Value-Based Health Care Can Transform the Treatment of Patients with Substance Use Disorder

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Sarah E. Wakeman

U.S. overdose deaths currently exceed 100,000 per year. New facilities, known as bridge clinics, are broadening access to high-quality care by offering outpatient substance use disorder (SUD) treatment with few access barriers. But many of the critical services offered... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Adoption

Article

We Need Better Carbon Accounting. Here's How to Get There.

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

Any effective system of greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting needs to measure each company’s supply-chain carbon impacts accurately. Such information would provide visibility and incentives for the company to make more climate-friendly product-specification and purchasing... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; GHG; Carbon Accounting; Environmental Accounting; Environmental Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Supply Chain

December 2001 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Borealis

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Bjorn N. Jorgensen

When Borealis, a European producer of plastics, used a traditional, time-consuming budgeting process, the budget was quickly out of date in a competitive environment characterized by continually changing input and output prices and dynamic market conditions. This case... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment; Governance Controls; Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Manufacturing Industry; Europe

24 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 24

PublicationsBarriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India Authors:Shawn A. Cole, Xavier Giné, Jeremy Tobacman, Petia Topalova, Robert M. Townsend, and James Vickery Publication:American... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

29 Jan 2013
First Look

First Look: Jan. 29

utilize diverse levels of analysis. Paper: http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/obo/page/management Learning from Customers: Individual and Organizational Effects in Outsourced Radiological Services Authors:Clark, Jonathan R., View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2010 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes

The case, in a non-profit project-oriented setting, introduces fundamental risk management principles and processes that are easily applicable to private sector settings. Gentry Lee, senior systems engineer and de-facto chief risk officer, is applying a new... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Governance; Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Risk Management; Projects; Aerospace Industry; United States

September 2001
Background Note

Financial Reporting Environment, The

By: Paul M. Healy, Amy P. Hutton, Robert S. Kaplan and Krishna G. Palepu

Provides a framework for understanding the role of financial reporting and various intermediaries as mechanisms for reducing both adverse selection and moral hazard problems in capital markets. Financial reports reduce adverse selection by providing basic information... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Capital Markets; Venture Capital; Corporate Disclosure; Conflict of Interests

2010
Working Paper

Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard

David Norton and I introduced the Balanced Scorecard in a 1992 Harvard Business Review article (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). The article was based on a multi-company research project to study performance measurement in companies whose intangible assets played a central role... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Performance Improvement; Strategy

January 2008
Article

Mastering the Management System

By: Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

Companies have always found it hard to balance pressing operational concerns with long-term strategic priorities. The tension is critical: World-class processes won't lead to success without the right strategic direction, and the best strategy in the world will get... View Details

Keywords: Framework; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Systems; Operations; Performance Improvement; Strategy

May 2022
Article

Variance Analysis: New Insights from Health Care Applications

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Susanna Gallani

We use a health care application to illustrate how variance analysis can be used to benchmark costs across similar service delivery sites. Variances for personnel costs, typically the largest cost component in service organizations, are calculated for price, quantity,... View Details

Keywords: Variance Analysis; Benchmarking; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Health Care; Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Service Industry

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January 2024
Article

A Cost Model for a Low Threshold Clinic Treating Opioid Use Disorder

By: Sarah E. Wakeman, Elizabeth Powell, Syed Shehab, Grace Herman, Laura Kehoe and Robert S. Kaplan

The US fee-for-service payment system under-reimburses clinics offering access to comprehensive treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD). The funding shortfall limits a clinic’s ability to expand and improve access, especially for socially marginalized patients with... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Equality and Inequality; Health Industry

12 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 12

Framework Authors:Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes Publication:Harvard Business Review 90, no. 6 (June 2012)... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 1992 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Porsche AG

Describes the financial management of the research and development departments of an automobile manufacturer and technology supplier. Existing cost systems measure accurately the costs incurred by department and by project. But little formal information is provided... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Cost Accounting; Research and Development; Machinery and Machining; Auto Industry; Technology Industry

01 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 1

advantage. Read the article: http://hbr.org/2011/11/how-great-companies-think-differently/ar/1 Managing the Multiple Dimensions of Risk—Part I Authors:Robert S. Kaplan and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Risk Management—The Revealing Hand

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes

Many believe that the recent emphasis on enterprise risk management function is misguided, especially after the failure of sophisticated quantitative risk models during the global financial crisis. The concern is that top-down risk management will inhibit innovation... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management

2018
Working Paper

Reverse the Curse of the Top-5

The past 40 years has seen a large increase in the number of articles submitted to journals ranked in the top-5 of their discipline. This increase is the rational response, by faculty, to the overweighting of publications in these journals by university promotions and... View Details

Keywords: Information Publishing; Journals and Magazines; Power and Influence; Research

SSRN

June 1987 (Revised May 1990)
Case

John Deere Component Works (B)

Having installed an activity-based system, the division is now exploring the insight provided by that system. In particular, it is studying the economics of lot-size process planning and product mix management. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Production; Business or Company Management; Planning; Cost Accounting; Cost Management; Product Marketing; Management Practices and Processes; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry