Publications

August 1994
Case

Topcon Corporation: Production Control System

By: Robin Cooper and Robert S. Kaplan

Keywords: Production

June 1989 (Revised September 1992)
Case

Dominion Motors & Controls Ltd.

The leading manufacturer of motors in Canada is threatened by a loss of market share in oilfield pumping motors because a major customer, having tested several competing motor brands, finds a competitor's motor to be superior. A central issue is whether to make a... View Details

Keywords: Product; Competition; Product Marketing; Manufacturing Industry; Canada

2002
Working Paper

Control Systems for Customer Behavior

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

August 2017
Case

Infection Control at Massachusetts General Hospital (Abridged)

By: Robert S. Huckman and Nikolaos Trichakis

The case explores the challenges facing Massachusetts General Hospital concerning the adoption of a new infection control policy, which promises to improve operational performance, patient safety, and profitability. The new policy requires coordination between... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Integration; Health Care and Treatment; Policy; Health Industry; Boston

18 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Who Controls Water?

Although much of the globe is awash in it, the allocation of water for human consumption is anything but easy. As the planet's population grows, urbanizes, and is subjected to climate change, many experts foresee a global water crisis (and resulting food shortages and... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Agriculture & Agribusiness

November 1986
Background Note

Quality Control in Antibiotic Therapy

November, 2021
Article

Self Control and Smartphone Use: An Experimental Study of Soft Commitment Devices

By: Ruru Hoong

Public discussion and discourse amongst researchers suggest that smartphone use is excessive from an individual welfare standpoint, but evidence for this remains limited. I implement a randomized intervention encouraging a subset of 629 participants to adopt soft... View Details

Keywords: Social Media; Commitment; Randomized Controlled Trial; Smartphones; Addiction; Technological Change: Choices And Consequences; Behavior; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Well-being

1994
Chapter

Separation of Ownership and Control

By: Michael C. Jensen and Eugene F. Fama

Keywords: Ownership; Power and Influence; Governance

SSRN

June 1984
Background Note

First Year Control Course Overview

March 1989
Case

U.S. Controls on Technology Exports

March 2005 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Capital Controls in Chile in the 1990s (A)

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

In 1991, Chile adopted a framework of capital controls focused on reducing the massive flows of foreign investment coming into the country as international interest rates remained low. Capital inflows threatened the Central Bank's ability to manage the exchange rate... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Capital; Governance Controls; Business and Government Relations; Chile

Research Summary

Cost Management and Management Control Systems in Hospitals

By: V.G. Narayanan

Hospitals tend not to have very good cost accounting and control systems. More broadly, there is enormous opportunity for managing costs and aligning incentives in the health care industry. I am studying how cost accounting methods can be used to... View Details

Research Summary

Exclusivity and Control (joint with A. Hagiu)

We analyze platform competition for content in the presence of strategic interactions between content distributors and content providers. Contrary to standard results concerning double marginalization and pricing of complementary goods, we prove that a platform gaining... View Details

19 Aug 2021
Op-Ed

Don't Ignore Your Employees' Misery—TAKE Control

and leaders. First step, TAKE control Even though military units face many of the same struggles as corporate teams, the approaches officers use to connect with their chains of command offer lessons for companies now. The military’s ethos... View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and MaShon Wilson

2008
Other Unpublished Work

Accounting, Risk Management and the Aftermath of a Control Debacle

By: Anette Mikes

Despite the widespread adoption of risk management systems in the financial services industry, recent control debacles highlight the apparent lack of top managerial attention to risk controls. Yet in order to understand the workings and uses of risk controls (or any... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Governance Controls; Management Systems; Accounting; Conflict and Resolution; Trends; Financial Services Industry

25 Nov 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Effect of Systems of Management Controls on Misreporting

Keywords: by Aishwarrya Deore, Susanna Gallani, and Ranjani Krishnan

19 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

A Brand Manager’s Guide to Losing Control

Thanks (or no thanks) to social media, brand managers have lost the power to control the perception of their products through carefully orchestrated advertising campaigns. These days, consumers are in command. With an angry tweet, a happy... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

2024
Working Paper

The Consequences of Export Controls in Target Countries

By: Xueyue Liu, Yu Liu and Jaya Y. Wen

Export controls are a common instrument of national security, but their economic consequences are not well understood. This paper evaluates how these controls affect firm performance and adaptation in targeted countries. We use variation in a 2007 US policy,... View Details

Keywords: National Security; Trade; Business and Government Relations; Policy; Performance Productivity; Adaptation

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July 2004
Article

Determinants of Control System Design in Divisionalized Firms

By: Margaret A. Abernethy, Jan Bouwens and Laurence van Lent

We investigate two determinants of two choices in the control system of divisionalized firms, namely decentralization and use of performance measures. The two determinants are those identified in the literature as important to control system design: (1) information... View Details

Keywords: Design; Organizational Design; Business Divisions; Management Systems; Performance Evaluation