Publications

21 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: December 21

(its stock price was down more than 70% during 2008); and third, Rohm's forecast sales, earnings, and value declined precipitously thereby reducing its attractiveness as an acquisition target. Given this confluence of events, Dow sued to... View Details

01 Jun 2010
News

MBAs on a Mission

supplies ebbed and flowed, as did the electricity needed to refrigerate it. “We had to forecast our needs for certain commodities and procure accordingly,” he observes with a laugh. Kim’s milk-procurement issues serve as a metaphor for... View Details

Keywords: Sarah Auerbach;Deborah Blagg;Julia Hanna; Corporate Services; Management; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

21 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 21, 2015

Across three studies, we show that gift givers mis-predict appreciation for socially responsible gifts and that their mis-predictions depend on the nature of their relationship to the recipient. Drawing on research on affective View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2021
Case

Aster DM Healthcare: Budgeting for a Crisis

By: V.G. Narayanan and Amy Klopfenstein

In April 2020, Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, a network of clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies in the Middle East and India, must create her company’s budget for the 2021 fiscal year in light of the onset of Covid-19. The pandemic had... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Judgments; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost vs Benefits; Budgets and Budgeting; Health Pandemics; Health Industry; Asia; India; United Arab Emirates; Dubai

July 2010 (Revised December 2011)
Background Note

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Pricing and Profitability Analysis

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery

Pricing is one of the most difficult decisions marketers make and the one with the most direct and immediate impact on the firm's financial position. This toolkit will introduce the fundamental terminology and calculations associated with pricing and profitability... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Price; Profit; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Measurement and Metrics; Strategic Planning; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

November 1999 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.

By: Paul M. Healy and Jacob Cohen

Pre-Paid Legal Services' business model reveals two key issues--managing the sales force and sales growth and managing claims. Students analyze the economics of the business and consider how to measure firm performance, how to evaluate and reward the sales force, and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Salesforce Management; Marketing Strategy; Accrual Accounting; Business Cycles; Forecasting and Prediction; Insurance; Business Growth and Maturation; Insurance Industry

January 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Caterpillar, Inc. (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

2010 Healthcare Reform Act eliminates Medicare Part D subsidy and Caterpillar recognizes a $100 million change. View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Employment; Cost vs Benefits; Forecasting and Prediction; Change Management; Asset Management; Financial Strategy; Activity Based Costing and Management; Business or Company Management; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

October 2010
Article

Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity

By: Eric Van den Steen

This paper develops an economic theory of the costs and benefits of corporate culture-in the sense of shared beliefs and values in order to study the effects of "culture clash" in mergers and acquisitions. I first use a simple analytical framework to show that shared... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Organizational Culture; Economics; Information Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Values and Beliefs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Framework; Satisfaction; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Communication

Find at Harvard

01 Sep 2009
News

E Ink’s Wild Ride

now has 140 employees and forecasted revenues of $125 million in 2009. Behind those figures, however, is the story of a company that has survived more than one brush with the void by reinventing itself through continuous, deep-seated... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; e-books; e-reading; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

03 Jan 2007
First Look

First Look: January 3, 2007

Kendall Square Research was a small competitor in the supercomputer industry. Sales grew rapidly in 1992 and early 1993 and the company sold stock to the public for the first time. Analysts forecast higher earnings for 1993, then the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2025
Case

'Net Zero in Action': Impact Investing at the McKnight Foundation

By: Lauren Cohen, Christina R. Wing and Sophia Pan

Elizabeth McGeveran, Vice President of Investments at the McKnight Foundation, reflected on how to effectively advance the organization’s net-zero strategy. The foundation had committed 10% of its endowment to building a portfolio of impact investments and was among... View Details