Publications

05 Sep 2008
What Do You Think?

Is Case Method Instruction Due for an Overhaul?

the situation and arrive at intellectual gems ...." Paul Karres put it this way: "The problem is not whether the case method is valid. The problem is in the design of the specific case for a specific class, and the delivery... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Education

2011
Working Paper

Non-Audit Services and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from 1978-1980

By: Kevin Koh, Shiva Rajgopal and Suraj Srinivasan

We provide evidence for the long-standing concern on auditor conflicts of interest from providing non-audit services (NAS) to audit clients by using rarely explored NAS fee data from 1978 to 1980. Using this earlier setting, we find cross-sectional evidence of improved... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Financial Reporting; Stocks; Price; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Service Delivery; Quality; Research

SSRN

November 2000 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Oracle Corporation

By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

Oracle Corp., the world's second-largest independent software company (behind Microsoft) was the world's dominant supplier of database software. Oracle also sold application software, such as the popular enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Internet and the Web; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Applications and Software; Management Teams; Innovation and Invention; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry

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29 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Research Symposium 2014

to find ways to get our students to engage with this idea," he said. "Our students will be tomorrow's participants in thin political markets." (To learn more about thin political markets, see the story A Manager's Moral Obligation to Preserve Capitalism. ) Value-based... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Accounting; Health

21 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Missing the Wave in Ship Transport

notes the folly of that strategy, quoting marine historian Martin Stopford, author of Maritime Economics, a leading treatise on shipping: "If so many owners had not had the same idea, this would have been a successful strategy." The heavy View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Transportation

05 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

Reinventing the Dowdy Savings Bond

institutions, particularly the mutual fund industry. His work has focused on the determinants of fund flows, the impact of alternative governance structures on fee setting, the evolution of competition, and underlying economics of the industry. Recently, he has been... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Banking; Financial Services

26 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

David, Goliath, and Disruption

audience. "But it's also a hell of a lot of fun. If you have something that truly is new and different and better, if you can focus it on a market ... you can do amazing things against some awfully big competitors." "Disruption often comes in service... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

April 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Partners In Health: HIV Care in Rwanda

By: Michael E. Porter, Scott S. Lee, Joseph Rhatigan and Jim Yong Kim

In 2005, Partners in Health (PIH) was invited by the Rwandan Ministry of Health to assume responsibility for the management of public health care in two rural districts in Eastern Rwanda and create an HIV treatment program at these sites. PIH successfully implemented a... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Medical Specialties; Service Delivery; Nonprofit Organizations; Expansion; Health Industry; Rwanda

January 2001 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Ninth House: e-Learning Software

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim

Jeff Snipes, CEO of the Ninth House Network, a San Francisco-based E-Learning company, considers a strategy shift to address a recent slump in sales and to attract more customers. The revised strategy would require creating shorter, more directed content that could be... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Service Operations; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Culture; Learning; Sales; Service Delivery; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; Education Industry; San Francisco

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18 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 18

and physical therapists. The Center was created to address what its founder, James Weinstein, M.D., saw as the uncoordinated and inefficient delivery of spinal care in the United States. The Center emphasized using non-surgical treatments... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2015
Case

Monte-Carlo Weddings

By: Anat Keinan and Sandrine Crener

Monte-Carlo Weddings, established by Frank Damgaard in 2005, is the most respectable and exclusive wedding planning business in the South of France. Frank has organized the largest, most expensive and luxurious weddings in Europe, serving celebrities, CEOs, and other... View Details

July – August 2011
Article

Deliberate Learning to Improve Performance in Dynamic Service Settings: Evidence from Hospital Intensive Care Units

By: I. M. Nembhard and A. L. Tucker

Dynamic service settings-characterized by workers who interact with customers to deliver services in a rapidly changing, uncertain, and complex environment (e.g., hospitals)-play an important role in the economy. Organizational learning studies in these settings have... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Performance Improvement; Quality; Groups and Teams; Cooperation; Health Industry

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15 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Find Your Pragmatic Path through Radical Uncertainty

activities. These days, we need to plan more carefully because small decisions can have dire consequences for ourselves and for others. Consider the newly stressful task of grocery shopping. Should I order groceries online for home View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson, Eugene B. Kogan, and Shirley Spence

12 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 12

Anand Piramal and his team sought to "democratize healthcare" in India through the development of a new service delivery model. If Henry Ford could build and deliver cars to everyone in the United States, Piramal thought, then... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

How IT Shapes Top-Down and Bottom-Up Decision Making

rise in leased lines and corporate intranets would lead to a rise in centralized decision-making at the top of the corporate ladder. Enabling Micromanagement In the past, communication often depended on faxes, overnight delivery services,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

24 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 24, 2006

throughout the hospital, starting with the labor and delivery ward. POE systems replace paper-based and oral medication ordering processes with an information system; the physician uses the system to enter medication orders, which are... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Can AI Save Physicians from Burnout?

systems that are trained on past behaviors. This could lead to AI scribes being biased toward upcoding, reflecting volume-based revenue maximization incentives. What needs to be done? The promise of AI to improve provider well-being and align the health care system... View Details

Keywords: by Susanna Gallani, Lidia Moura, and Katie Sonnefeldt; Health

September 1999 (Revised September 1999)
Case

Convergys Corporation

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter

Focuses on the important issue of capturing the synergies between the two sides of the business, Information Management Group (IMG) and Customer Management Group (CMG). In addition, the case also addresses strategic issues from each of the individual businesses. For... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Information Industry; Service Industry

November 2017
Teaching Note

Tencent

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 718-426. Tencent had undergone many transformations since it was founded in 1998 as a simple messaging service. In 2017, it was the largest online games provider in China with a wide range of game types, China’s largest social networking... View Details

Keywords: Tencent; Tencent Holdings; WeChat; Social Networking; Social Networks; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Video Games; Computer Games; Mobile Gaming; Portals; Payments; Mobile Payments; O2O; Online-to-offline; E-commerce; Messaging; Subscription Model; Freemium; Mobile App Industry; Smartphone; PC; Monetization Strategy; Antitrust; Streaming; Cloud Computing; Artificial Intelligence; Big Data; Alibaba; Facebook; JD.com; Tesla; Bundling; Synergies; Digital Strategy; Imitation; Licensing; Agility; Entry Barriers; Online Platforms; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Joint Ventures; Restructuring; Communication Technology; Blogs; Interactive Communication; Interpersonal Communication; Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Price; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business History; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Social Marketing; Network Effects; Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Industry Growth; Monopoly; Media; Distribution Channels; Service Delivery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Government Relations; Groups and Teams; Networks; Opportunities; Social and Collaborative Networks; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Value Creation; Emerging Markets; Product Development; Segmentation; Business Units; Communication; Profit; Communications Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Financial Services Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; China; Canton (province, China)