Publications

22 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Open Source Software: The $9 Trillion Resource Companies Take for Granted

staggering scope of the findings could help put a value on the work, so senior leaders and non-tech managers at firms understand just how important hiring open source expertise is to success. The results... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Computer; Information Technology; Technology

April 1988 (Revised July 1990)
Case

Schulze Waxed Containers, Inc.

Schulze Waxed Containers has recently lost 20% of its business. The firm's cost accounting system spreads fixed costs over the volume produced. The 1987 costs reflect the lower production volume and are higher. The firm has recently adopted a minimum mark up. The... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Production; Management Systems; Manufacturing Industry

Web

Doubling Down on Women’s Health Innovation and Leveraging the Private Sector in a Post-Roe v. Wade Era - Blog: Health Supplement

right to determine if and when to have children. No matter what one’s personal or religious views are, the impact will be felt by all - health systems and payors bearing costs... View Details

June 2001
Teaching Note

Role of Intermediaries in Supply Chains TN

By: Ananth Raman

Describes the role of intermediaries in the Coordinating and Managing Supply Chains elective course at HBS. Contrary to many observers' predictions, intermediaries have continued to survive and even grow. This module examines the ways in which intermediaries can add... View Details

Keywords: Cost of Capital; Cost Management; Labor; Supply Chain Management; Motivation and Incentives

01 Apr 1996
News

Stewards of the Seventh Generation

things to different people," says HBS assistant professor Forest L. Reinhardt, who teaches the MBA elective Business Management and the Natural Environment. "For example, many economists, in particular, take... View Details

Keywords: Marguerite Rigoglioso, Garry Emmons, Linda Goodspeed, and Elaine Gottlieb

May 1994
Background Note

Designing Channels of Distribution

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Presents a framework and a method for addressing the new product channel choice decision. Offers a six-step method that involves: 1) disaggregating and prioritizing a distribution channel by customers' channel function requirements; 2) obtaining and combining... View Details

Keywords: Distribution Channels; Framework; Cost; Customers; Cost vs Benefits; Management

24 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 24, 2017

an established cost accounting method, time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC), to assess the costs of performing an abdomen View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Jan 2020
News

China-based Fuyao Glass Considers Manufacturing in the U.S.

08 Nov 2016
News

CVS expects to lose 40 million prescriptions to Walgreens

15 Dec 2015
News

The Year in Ideas 2015

entrepreneur; your Airbnb host is an entrepreneur; your Etsy craftsperson is an entrepreneur. Because of technology, individuals don’t need to work for a company, and the cost of entry is just plain easier.... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna, Christine Lejeune, Dan Morrell, and April White

June 15, 2021
Article

Cutting the Gordian Knot of Employee Health Care Benefits and Costs: A Corporate Model Built on Employee Choice

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman

President Joe Biden’s promise to give every American access to affordable health insurance is well-intentioned, but his plan’s policy elements—a public option, a permanent expanded tax credit—require congressional approval and would expend significant political and... View Details

Keywords: Health Insurance; Health Insurance Marketplaces; Health Care Delivery; Health Care Financing; Health Care Industry; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Service Delivery; Cost Management; Health Industry; United States

Read Now

December 1997
Case

Wriston Manufacturing Corporation

By: Janice H. Hammond

Wriston Manufacturing is a broad-line maker of components for the automotive industry. It has developed a network of nine plants as its product line has grown. Newer, higher-volume products tend to be made in newer, focused, high-volume plants, while older product... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost Management; Business or Company Management; Production; Performance Efficiency; Auto Industry

May 2016 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Supply Chain Finance at Procter & Gamble

By: Benjamin C. Esty, E. Scott Mayfield and David Lane

In April 2013, Procter & Gamble (P&G), the world’s largest consumer packaged goods (CPG) company, announced that it would extend its payment terms to suppliers by 30 days. At the same time, P&G announced a new supply chain financing (SCF) program giving suppliers the... View Details

May 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Case

MassChallenge

By: Rembrand Koning, Andy Wu, Nataliya Langburd Wright and Tarun Khanna

The case explores the strategic decision of global non-profit startup accelerator MassChallenge on whether to pursue a for-profit spinoff, discussing: (1) the costs and benefits of this decision, (2) how best to manage the risks of the decision, and (3) alternative... View Details

Keywords: Accelerators; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Startups; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Cost vs Benefits; Risk Management; Decision Making; Strategy

December 1984
Case

Expense Tracking System at Tiger Creek

By: Shoshana Zuboff

Mill manager Carl Adelman learns that a group of senior managers is soon to visit the Tiger Creek mill to learn more about the success of the newly implemented Expense Tracking System. The System had been installed on two paper machines to give workers real time cost... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Success; Cost Management; Technology; Pulp and Paper Industry

28 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

How to Avoid a Price Increase

a box of cereal should cost, say, $3.29, and then adjust the quantity accordingly. If the cost to make the cereal is high, the result is a box with fewer ounces and fewer... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

13 May 2020
Video

Cas Coovadia

Cas Coovadia, the long-running Managing Director of the Banking Association South Africa, discusses how the banking sector has been crucial to financing SMEs and providing low cost housing, and gives his belief... View Details

March 1989 (Revised March 1999)
Case

Metabo GmbH & Co. KG

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A privately owned German power tool company was dissatisfied with its existing cost system. The system could not produce timely accurate reports on cost center operations, and newly purchased automated machines were attracting large overhead costs. A new, highly... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Cost; Budgets and Budgeting; Capital Budgeting; Cost Management; Reports; Private Ownership; Business or Company Management; Consumer Products Industry; Germany