Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(5,781)
- Faculty Publications (1,142)
- May 1998
- Article
Market Structure, Innovation and Vertical Product Differentiation
By: Shane Greenstein and Garey Ramey
We reassess Arrow's (1962) [Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention, in NBER, The Rate and Direction of Innovative Activity (Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ)] results concerning the effect of market structure on the returns from process... View Details
- April 1998 (Revised September 1998)
- Case
Classic Pen Company, The: Developing an ABC Model
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Classic Pen has diversified from its core blue and black pen business by introducing new specialized colors. But costs have risen and margins on blue and black pens are decreasing. The controller turns to activity-based costing (ABC) for an explanation. View Details
- March 1998 (Revised October 1999)
- Case
Electronic Data Systems (EDS)
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Thomas Dretler
Explores a global program of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) called "Global Volunteer Day" and examines the activities and business situation of the company in four countries. Asks students to address whether American values like "volunteerism" can be exported. View Details
- March 1998 (Revised April 1998)
- Case
Lehigh Steel
By: V.G. Narayanan and Laura Donohue
Lehigh Steel is a specialty steel manufacturer that plummeted from record profits to record losses in less than three years, driven by an inability to distinguish between profitable and unprofitable business. The scale and growth of service activities and overhead... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised March 1999)
- Case
Dell Online
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell
Dell started online commerce for its PCs in 1996, and by 1997 had achieved a sales rate of $3 million a day. The case describes the internal process that led to these dramatic results and poses the question of how the firm should leverage this activity to meet Michael... View Details
- February 1998 (Revised September 1998)
- Case
Insteel Wire Products: ABM at Andrews
By: V.G. Narayanan and Ratna G. Sarkar
Insteel implements an activity-based costing (ABC) system in 1996. It finds pallet nails to be its most profitable product and decides to expand the number of cells making pallet nails from two to four. A repeat of the ABC study in 1997 shows pallet nails have become... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised February 2006)
- Background Note
Creating Competitive Advantage
By: Pankaj Ghemawat and Jan W. Rivkin
A firm such as Schering-Plough that earns superior, long-run financial returns within its industry is said to enjoy a competitive advantage over its rivals. This note examines the logic of how firms create competitive advantage. It emphasizes two themes: First, to... View Details
- 1998
- Article
The Nature of Trust and Its Impact on Relationship Management Activities
By: Joseph P. Cannon, Greg Gundlach and Das Narayandas
- November 1997 (Revised May 1998)
- Teaching Note
Indianapolis: Activity-Based Costing of City Services (A) and (B) TN
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Teaching Note for (9-196-115) and (9-196-117). View Details
- July 1997
- Article
National Champions and Corruption: Some Unpleasant Interventionist Arithmetic
By: Alberto Ades and Rafael Di Tella
We present a hold-up model of investment where active industrial policy promotes both corruption and investment. Since corruption deters investment, the effect of industrial policy on investment is lower than when corruption is absent. We find evidence suggesting that... View Details
Keywords: Crime and Corruption
- June 1997
- Teaching Note
Innovation in Action: Product Development Projects and Action-Based Learning, Instructor's Note
By: Marco Iansiti
As a project-based course, Managing Product Development has been carefully designed so that classroom discussion and students' project team activities infuse each other: learning from course materials enhances project activities, which in turn enrich subsequent... View Details
- May 1997
- Teaching Note
Managing Product Development: Matching Technology with Context, Instructor's Note
By: Marco Iansiti
This overview to Managing Product Development (MPD) both previews course material, cases, exercises, and lectures--and provides its conceptual and academic underpinnings. Additionally, this note links these materials to the activities students will be undertaking in... View Details
- May 1997
- Teaching Note
Product Development Foundations, Instructor's Note
By: Marco Iansiti
As emphasized in the course overview, excellence in product development is built on three foundations: the activities aimed at generating, retaining, and integrating knowledge. They form the critical building blocks for the conceptualization and implementation of any... View Details
- May 1997
- Teaching Note
Product Development Performance, Instructor's Note
By: Marco Iansiti
Focuses on what constitutes product development performance and how it is assessed. Performance, as explained in both the note and in the materials for this three-session module, refers to the performance of both the product and the organizational process producing it.... View Details
- April 1997
- Background Note
Using ABC to Manage Customer Mix and Relationships
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Describes applying activity-based costing to manage customer relationships. Links cost-to-serve to net margins earned with individual customers. View Details
- March 1997 (Revised June 1999)
- Background Note
Using Activity-Based Costing with Budgeted Expenses and Practical Capacity
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Describes how activity-based costing (ABC) should be applied with: 1) budgeted, not historical, expenses and 2) assigning the costs of capacity resources. View Details
- February 1997 (Revised June 1999)
- Background Note
Committed and Flexible Resources
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Stresses the difference between costs committed in advance of knowing actual demand (committed costs) and cost incurred proportional to demand. Committed costs appear fixed since their supply is independent of the amount actually used. Flexible resources are supplied... View Details
Keywords: Cost
- February 1997 (Revised July 2001)
- Background Note
Introduction to Activity-Based Costing
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Introduces the fundamental notions of activity-based costing (ABC). Motivates ABC by means of a simple example, a single and a diversified pen factory. Proceeds to show how ABC assigns costs more accurately to products and customers by: 1) identifying the activities... View Details
Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management
- February 1997 (Revised April 1997)
- Case
Harrington Financial Group
By: Robert C. Merton and Alberto Moel
In early 1997, Harrington Bank, a small Indiana savings and loan (thrift) wondered what its next move should be. Harrington was acquired in 1988 by the principals of Smith Breeden Associates, a money-management and consulting firm specializing in the application of... View Details