Publications

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January 2018
Case

Kids & Company: Entering the U.S.

By: Boris Groysberg, Matthew G. Preble and Katherine Connolly Baden

In April 2017, Victoria Sopik and Jennifer Nashmi, CEO and CFO (respectively) of Kids & Company, a Canadian childcare provider that they had co-founded in the early 2000s and developed into a nearly 100-unit enterprise, are discussing how the company should proceed... View Details

January 2013 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Royal DSM: Fighting Hidden Hunger

By: Rebecca Henderson, Noah Fisher and Mary Shelman

In 2007 Royal DSM, a leading life science and materials company, entered a partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) to combat hidden hunger around the world by providing micronutrient solutions. The case investigates the unexpectedly large impact the partnership... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Human Needs; Partners and Partnerships; Global Range; Nutrition; Science-Based Business; Non-Governmental Organizations; Service Industry; Service Industry

February 2018
Article

Maintaining Beliefs in the Face of Negative News: The Moderating Role of Experience

By: Bradley R. Staats, Diwas S. KC and F. Gino

Many models in operations management involve dynamic decision making that assumes optimal updating in response to information revelation. However, behavioral theory suggests that rather than updating their beliefs, individuals may persevere in their prior beliefs. In... View Details

Keywords: Information; Announcements; Service Operations; Decision Making; Medical Specialties; Experience and Expertise; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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March 2019 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Fetchr: A New Way of Last Mile Delivery

By: V.G. Narayanan and Eren Kuzucu

By mid-2016, five years of aggressive growth had transformed Fetchr from a small logistics startup to a 1,000-employee, full-fledged last-mile delivery company operating across four countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Already beneficiaries of the... View Details

November 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Aviva plc: Examining Net Zero

By: Peter Tufano, Brian Trelstad and Matteo Gasparini

The board of Aviva Plc, one of the world’s largest insurers, must review its climate risk exposures and evaluate next steps. Risk experts at the firm have conducted a robust set of analyses prepared for its regulator, the Bank of England, simulating how various climate... View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Climate Change; Insurance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Risk Management; Adaptation; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; Europe; United Kingdom

February 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Mibanco: Meeting the Mainstreaming of Microfinance

By: Michael Chu and Gustavo A. Herrero

Mibanco, Peru's leading microfinance bank, faces intense competition as the banking industry rushes into low income segments. Companion video clips bring into the classroom the contemporary reality of a world-class microfinance institution, where the unpaved streets... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Profit; Business History; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Service Operations; Performance; Competition; Banking Industry; Peru

2013
Working Paper

The Impact of Conformance and Experiential Quality on Healthcare Cost and Clinical Performance

By: Claire Senot, Aravind Chandrasekaran, Peter T. Ward and Anita L. Tucker

The quality of operational processes is an important driver of performance in hospitals. In particular, processes that reliably deliver both evidence-based and patient-centered care, which we call conformance and experiential quality, respectively, have been argued to... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Experiential Quality; Conformance Quality; Clinical Outcomes; Cost Efficiency; Quality; Service Operations; Health Care and Treatment; Performance; Outcome or Result; Health Industry

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12 Dec 2006
First Look

First Look: December 12, 2006

innovations are focused on creating social change. Catalytic innovators are defined by five distinct qualities. First, they create social change through scaling and replication. Second, they meet a need that is either overserved (that is,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Career Coach

Jim Warner

Jim (HBS ’80, Yale ‘75) is a board member and advisor to technology and services companies in marketing and media and a veteran of the media and entertainment business. He guides students and alums interested in careers in entertainment,... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment / Media; Publishing / Communications / Advertising; Technology

04 Dec 2007
First Look

First Look: December 4, 2007

shape standards, and promoting modularity. An Empirical Study of System Improvement by Frontline Employees in Hospital Units Author:A. L. Tucker Periodical:Manufacturing & Service Operations Management... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

16 Nov 2021
Blog Post

How HBS Supported My Career Transitions During and After Graduation

Mike Anders (MBA 2020) grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC. After attending Northwestern University, he began a career in tech working for a legal services startup in Chicago called Envoy Global. He moved to San Francisco after HBS... View Details

24 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

Are Assets Only for America’s Wealthy?

insurance, CDs, and transaction accounts for the poorest families are difficult to build and scale to the many millions of families who live below the poverty line. Let's use the dot.com dividend to solve this problem.— Peter Tufano... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

September 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Interactive Insurance Services: Redefining Insurance Distribution

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Marla Malcom-Nagler

Founded in July 1995, Interactive Insurance Services provided personal lines of insurance over the World Wide Web. In June 1996, the company was acquired by Intuit for $7.5 million. The case details the competitive and organizational issues faced by this rapidly... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Restructuring; Growth and Development; Distribution; Business Processes; Competitive Strategy; Web; Insurance Industry

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May 1990 (Revised August 1990)
Case

Campbell Soup Co.

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Describes the engineering effort at Campbell Soup Co. to develop a microwavable package and product for the growing convenience segment. Focuses on the role of engineering services in developing the production process, acquiring and installing equipment, and getting... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Production; Engineering; Strategy; Business Processes; Innovation and Management; Planning; Competitive Advantage; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

08 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 8

empirical lacuna, we have developed a research program to measure the internal organization of firms—including their decentralization decisions—across a large range of industries and countries. Enamored with Scale: Scaling with Limited... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2020
Supplement

RBC: Transforming Transformation (B)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Aldo Sesia

In 2017, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), a Canadian financial icon, mandated a swat team of “enablers of collaboration” (their job description) to support the personal and commercial bank in the enterprise-wide RBC Cultural Transformation initiative. Historically,... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Transformation; Change Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Decision Making; Human Resources; Management Systems; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Canada

Professor Stuart Gilson is the Steven R. Fenster Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and former chairman of the Finance Unit. His research, teaching, and consulting focuses on the financial, business, and legal strategies that companies... View Details

Keywords: legal services; legal services

Article

The Cost Structure, Customer Profitability, and Retention Implications of Self-Service Distribution Channels: Evidence from Customer Behavior in an Online Banking Channel

By: Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

This paper uses the context of online banking to investigate the consequences of employing self-service distribution channels to alter customer interactions with the firm. Using a sample of retail banking customers observed over a 30-month period at a large U.S. bank,... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Service Operations; Distribution Channels; Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web; Banks and Banking; Technology Adoption; Service Delivery; Market Transactions; Market Participation; Profit; Retail Industry; Banking Industry; United States