Publications

17 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 17

Customer lifetime value is a metric that allows managers to understand the overall value of their customer base and relate it to three customer strategies firms employ: asset acquisition-attracting new customers to the firm; asset... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2010 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Assembling Smartphones: Takt Time ≠ Cycle Time?

By: Willy Shih and Ethan Bernstein

The case was prepared to be used as part of a process review in the first year Technology and Operations Management course at HBS. It offers students an opportunity to discuss the context of a manufacturing process choice, and then examine actual production numbers... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Research and Development; Design; Six Sigma; Measurement and Metrics; Production

August 2009 (Revised July 2010)
Case

Choosing a GAAP for Canada

By: Karthik Ramanna and Beiting Cheng

Explores Canadian regulators' decision to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The Canadian decision in 2005 to adopt IFRS is particularly interesting because Canada had well-developed domestic accounting standards and because a significant... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Cost vs Benefits; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Standards; Accounting Industry; Canada

09 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

A Diagnostic for Disruptive Innovation

customers by providing them adequate functionality in return for lower prices. The technology of this sort of disruptive innovation offers "good enough" performance along traditional metrics and is supported by a business model... View Details

Keywords: by Scott D. Anthony, Mark W. Johnson & Matt Eyring

May 2004 (Revised March 2005)
Case

Instant Messaging

By: David B. Yoffie and Deborah Freier

Explores the usage and technology of instant messaging (IM). IM enables two or more users to communicate almost instantaneously over the Internet with short, private text messages. Most IM service providers chose to remain proprietary and, therefore, a user of most IM... View Details

Keywords: Network Effects; Standards; Communication Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Web Services Industry

Find at Harvard

14 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 14

each distribution over the feasible subsets. Our rules can be interpreted as distance minimization-selecting the order closest to the population's preferences, using a metric on the orders that reflects the distribution over the possible... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

September 1996 (Revised September 1999)
Case

Mobil USM&R (A): Linking the Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The CEO of the marketing and refining division of a major oil company is in the midst of implementing a profit turnaround. He transforms the strongly centralized, functionally-organized division into 17 independent business units and 14 internal service companies. The... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Measurement and Metrics; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Balanced Scorecard; Corporate Strategy; Mining Industry; Energy Industry

2010
Working Paper

Growth through Heterogeneous Innovations

By: Ufuk Akcigit and William R. Kerr

We study how exploration versus exploitation innovations impact economic growth through a tractable endogenous growth framework that contains multiple innovation sizes, multi-product firms, and entry/exit. Firms invest in exploration R&D to acquire new product lines... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Decision Choices and Conditions; Economic Growth; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Size; Research and Development; United States

28 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Minimum Wage Hikes Drive (Lousy) Restaurants Out of Business

its release can be quite long, with some government data taking up to two years before it can be viewed. “You can look at Yelp data to get metrics that aren’t in government datasets, and you can look at data more quickly. It’s all sitting... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

11 Feb 2008
Research & Ideas

Does Democracy Need a Marketing Manager?

services to citizens can institute service improvements and metrics modeled after those in the private sector. They can call on social marketers to aid in communicating with customers and creating attractive exchanges that will achieve... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2023
Working Paper

The Limits of Algorithmic Measures of Race in Studies of Outcome Disparities

By: David S. Scharfstein and Sergey Chernenko

We show that the use of algorithms to predict race has significant limitations in measuring and understanding the sources of racial disparities in finance, economics, and other contexts. First, we derive theoretically the direction and magnitude of measurement bias in... View Details

Keywords: Racial Disparity; Paycheck Protection Program; Measurement Error; AI and Machine Learning; Race; Measurement and Metrics; Equality and Inequality; Prejudice and Bias; Forecasting and Prediction; Outcome or Result

SSRN

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April 2012
Article

The Impact of Relative Standards on the Propensity to Disclose

By: Alessandro Acquisti, Leslie John and George Loewenstein

Two sets of studies illustrate the comparative nature of disclosure behavior. The first set investigates how divulgence is affected by signals about others' readiness to divulge. Study 1A shows a "herding" effect, such that survey respondents are more willing to... View Details

Keywords: Rights; Surveys; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Judgments; Consumer Behavior; Standards

07 Aug 2017
Research & Ideas

'Be Yourself (Within Reason)' and Other Job Search Survival Tips

thinking that “the best” is based on easily quantifiable metrics like publication counts. In reality, we are in a creative field and should look for an environment that will help us thrive creatively. To find that environment, it helps to... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Accounting; Education

09 Mar 2016
Lessons from the Classroom

In This Classroom, Beer Can Improve Your Grade

harder for breweries to fall into bailout loans, which happened to many teams last year, Casadesus-Masanell says. Enhanced graphics include waterfall charts for just about every metric imaginable on a team’s own brewery and its... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Education; Food & Beverage

03 Jun 2015
What Do You Think?

Is the Time Right for Self-Management?

company's vision." Charlie Efford added that "The key to self-management becoming embedded is changing the mindset of the management team. Most corporations haven't made this shift." Denis Collet suggested "it's all about clear goals and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

04 Jan 2012
What Do You Think?

Income Inequality: What’s the Right Amount?

income mobility has not declined in the US, said "This metric of income inequality (ignoring mobility) causes meaningless chasing of rainbows Folks move up through the quintiles of earning all the time (therefore mitigating the issue... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

March 2011
Case

Insight Communications

By: Rajiv Lal and Natalie Kindred

After undertaking a multi-year, metrics-driven operational and cultural overhaul, in April 2010 Insight Communications was planning the next phase of its development. Insight was a New York-based provider of cable, landline phone, and high-speed Internet service to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Improvement; Growth Management; Management Systems; Business Processes; Measurement and Metrics; Employees; Telecommunications Industry; New York (state, US)

September 2008
Teaching Note

Chi Mei Optoelectronics (TN)

By: Willy C. Shih

Teaching Note for [608-123]. View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Information Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Standards; Industry Clusters; Supply Chain; Production; Experience and Expertise; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Taiwan; Asia; Korean Peninsula; China

November 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Australian Vintage Ltd.

By: David F. Hawkins

Following International Financial Reporting Standards guidance company records a number of significant losses and a related deferred tax asset. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; International Accounting; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Taxation; Business or Company Management; Asset Management; Assets; Financial Management; Standards; Australia