Publications

October 2014
Case

McKinsey & Company, 2012

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2012, McKinsey & Company (McKinsey) was the world's premier management consultancy, providing advice to CEO's and top executives of leading companies around the globe. Many consulting firms were bigger but few could match the reputation McKinsey had built over more... View Details

Keywords: Consulting Firms; McKinsey; Strategy; Consulting Industry; North America

September 2022 (Revised April 2023)
Case

Cesaro e Associati

By: Christina R. Wing and Amram Migdal

This case describes the leadership succession planning process at Cesaro e Associati (Studio Cesaro), founded in 1986 by Franco Cesaro in the northeastern Italian state of Veneto. In 2022, Franco was contemplating retirement and passing leadership of his firm, which... View Details

2018
Chapter

Behavioral Empirics and Field Experiments

By: Maria Ibanez and Bradley R. Staats

As the study of behavioral operations has continued to grow, an increasing number of researchers are turning to the field (e.g., conducting observational studies or natural or field experiments) to push deeper in order to find the answers to relevant behavioral... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Operations; Empirical Operations; Empirical Operations Management; Field Experiments; Behavior; Operations; Management; Research

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June 2013 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa

By: Geoffrey Jones and Elliot R. Benton

This case considers the strategies of Charles W. Engelhard, an American mining magnate who made large investments in apartheid-era South Africa. Engelhard was widely believed to have been the model for the James Bond villan Auric Goldfinger. During the 1950s and 1960s... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; Business History; FDI; Corporate Social Responsibility And Impact; South Africa; Mining; Ethics; Globalization; Government and Politics; History; Mining Industry; Africa; South Africa

March 2005 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc.: Web Services Strategy

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Fernando Suarez

Microsoft and IBM have excluded Sun Microsystems from the board of the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I), an industry consortium that will shape the evolution of Web services standards. Sun managers must decide whether to join WS-I as a contributing... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Standards; Corporate Governance; Power and Influence; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry

February 1984 (Revised February 1986)
Case

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.: Titanium Dioxide

By: W. Carl Kester, Robert R. Glauber, David W. Mullins Jr. and Stacy S. Dick

Disequilibrium in the $350 million TiO2 market has prompted Du Pont's Pigments Department to develop two strategies for competing in this market in the future. The growth strategy has a smaller internal rate of return than the alternative strategy due to large capital... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cash Flow; Investment Return; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategic Planning; Projects; Chemical Industry

2012
Book

Strategic IQ: Creating Smarter Corporations

By: John R. Wells

In today's world, only the smartest survive. The competitive landscape is littered with graves of well-known firms whose revenues, profits and stock prices rose for decades until they suddenly imploded.
In fast-changing business environments, firms must adapt... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Competition; Business Growth and Maturation; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Decision Making; Innovation and Invention

January 2001
Background Note

Country Analysis in a "Global Village"

By: Bruce R. Scott

Substantially rewritten to establish the relevance of countries in the global context. It does so in terms of their differing economic performance in recent decades, and also by contrasting those that have "converged" toward the rich country norm (as theory would... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Economies and Regions; Macroeconomics; Trade; Business Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Industry Growth; Currency; Policy; Development Economics

28 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 28, 2018

different types of physicians. By understanding the dynamic effect of sales calls across heterogeneous physicians, we provide guidance on the design of optimal call patterns for route sales. The findings reveal that the long-term... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

17 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 17

Publications September 2013 Management Science Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from oDesk and India By: Ghani, Ejaz, William R. Kerr, and Christopher Stanton Abstract—This study examines the role of the Indian diaspora in the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 5, 2008

Working PapersWellsprings of Creation: Perturbation and the Paradox of the Highly Disciplined Organization Authors:David James Brunner, Bradley R. Staats, Michael L. Tushman, and David M. Upton Abstract Organizations face simultaneous... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2013
Article

The Ergonomics of Dishonesty: The Effect of Incidental Posture on Stealing, Cheating, and Traffic Violations

By: Andy J. Yap, Abbie S. Wazlawek, Brian J. Lucas, Amy J.C. Cuddy and Dana R. Carney

Can the structure of our everyday environment lead us to behave dishonestly? Four studies found that expansive postures incidentally imposed by our ordinary living environment lead to increases in dishonest behavior. The first three experiments found that individuals... View Details

Keywords: Dishonesty; Embodiment; Human Factors; Nonverbal Behavior; Power; Design; Behavior; Crime and Corruption; Situation or Environment; Power and Influence

Find at Harvard

17 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 17, 2007

Working PapersPublic Action for Public Goods Authors:Abhijit Banerjee, Lakshmi Iyer, and Rohini Somanathan Abstract This paper focuses on the relationship between public action and access to public goods. It begins by developing a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2019
Case

Data.gov (Abridged)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Robert D. Austin and Yumi Yi

This case presents the logic and execution underlying the launch of Data.gov, an instantiation of President Obama's initiative for transparency and open government. The process used by Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO, and his team to rapidly develop the website and to... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Rights; Analytics and Data Science; Internet and the Web; Ethics; Cost vs Benefits; Innovation and Management; Information Management; Public Administration Industry; Information Industry; United States

January 2014
Case

Steven Carpenter at Cake Financial (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Joseph B. Fuller and Shikhar Ghosh

Steven Carpenter reflects on the successes and failures of his recent venture, Cake Financial. Carpenter had just sold the four-year-old startup and was at work on a new business plan. But first, he wanted to understand why Cake Financial, a service that allowed users... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Internet; Financial Services Industry; Web Services Industry

2005
Working Paper

Additive Rules for the Quasi-linear Bargaining Problem

By: Christopher P. Chambers and Jerry R. Green

We study the class of additive rules for the quasi-linear bargaining problem introduced by Green. We provide a characterization of the class of all rules that are e¢ cient, translation invariant, additive, and continuous. We present several subfamilies of rules: the... View Details

Keywords: Econometric Models

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2016
Working Paper

Immigrant Entrepreneurship

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

We examine immigrant entrepreneurship and the survival and growth of immigrant-founded businesses over time relative to native-founded companies. Our work quantifies immigrant contributions to new firm creation in a wide variety of fields using multiple definitions.... View Details

Keywords: Immigrants; Entrepreneurs; Entry; Firms; Growth; High-tech Marketing; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Immigration; United States