Publications

SSRN

Read Now

2017
Article

Self-Managing Organizations: Exploring the Limits of Less-Hierarchical Organizing

By: Michael Y. Lee and Amy C. Edmondson

Fascination with organizations that eschew the conventional managerial hierarchy and instead radically decentralize authority has been longstanding, albeit at the margins of scholarly and practitioner attention. Recently, however, organizational experiments in radical... View Details

Keywords: Self-Managed Organizations; Self-Managed Teams; Self-organizing Systems; Self-managing Organizations; Flat Organization; Decentralization; Organization Design; Non-hierarchical Organizations; Less-hierarchical Organizing; Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Research

10 Jan 2017
Blog Post

From Product Development to Business School

to clean it again through my novel filter. I had filed the patent. Lined up suppliers. Met the ridiculous margin requirements of a Fortune 500 company. The category was declining. Our last two product launches fared poorly. The buyer... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Manufacturing; Consumer Products / Retail

June 2010 (Revised September 2013)
Case

IDFC India: Infrastructure Investment Intermediaries

By: John D. Macomber and Viraal Balsari

Indian financial intermediary matching international capital to local infrastructure decides how to balance range of services, risk-adjusted return, margin pressure, and nation building. IDFC was chartered with partial ownership from the Indian government to help... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Infrastructure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; State Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Financial Services Industry; India

Educators

January 2014
Supplement

J.C. Penney's 'Fair and Square' Strategy (C): Back to the Future

By: Elie Ofek, Jill Avery and Jose B. Alvarez

Rehired in April 2013, Myron E. "Mike" Ullman III was brought back to stabilize the retailer's business. Under Ron Johnson's "Fair and Square" program, sales had declined rapidly and quarterly losses and expensive capital investments had put severe pressure on cash... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Marketing Strategy; Retail Industry

10 Sep 2014
News

Jeremy Rifkin prévoit la fin du capitalisme pour 2060

08 Aug 2017
News

Great News For Everyone! Elon Musk Is Building A Hyperloop

25 Oct 2024
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Announces Latest RISE Fellows

to MBA candidates in each class who, prior to enrolling at HBS, have demonstrated exemplary commitment to serving Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, and other marginalized communities of color within the US. “This cohort of fellows... View Details

2011
Working Paper

Observation Bias: The Impact of Demand Censoring on Newsvendor Level and Adjustment Behavior

By: David F. Drake

In an experimental newsvendor setting we investigate three phenomena: Level behavior — the decision-maker's average ordering tendency; adjustment behavior — the tendency to adjust period-to-period order quantities; and observation bias — the tendency to let the degree... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making; Prejudice and Bias; Profit

This case analyzes the creation, loss, and attempted re-creation of competitive advantage. At one time, Bed Bath & Beyond was one of the most successful specialty retailers in the United States-it's growth and profit margins far exceeded rates at peer... View Details

April 2008
Article

A New Approach to Measuring Technology with an Application to the Shape of Diffusion Curves

By: Diego Comin, Bart Hobijn and Emilie Rovito

This paper documents the sources and measures of the cross-country historical adoption technology (CHAT) data set that covers the diffusion of about 115 technologies in over 150 countries over the last 200 years. We use this comprehensive data set to explore the shape... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Measurement and Metrics; Technology Adoption; Logistics; Knowledge Dissemination

Read Now

September 1991 (Revised November 1997)
Case

Gillette's Launch of Sensor

By: Pankaj Ghemawat and Benjamin C. Esty

The introduction of the Sensor Shaving System, one of the biggest product launches ever, forced Gillette to reevaluate its strategy in its shaving and non-shaving business. It had to decide whether to go ahead with the launch and if so, at what scale. Permits analysis... View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Business Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Measurement and Metrics; Consumer Products Industry

Educators

2017
Interviews

Tina Opie

Article

More-Experienced Entrepreneurs Have Bigger Deadline Problems

By: Andy Wu, Aticus Peterson and Amy Meeker

Professor Andy Wu and doctoral candidate Aticus Peterson of Harvard Business School tracked 314 entrepreneurs who launched multiple technology hardware products on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter from September 2010 to June 2019. The more projects the founders... View Details

Keywords: Deadlines; Entrepreneurship; Projects; Time Management

Register to Read

January 2021
Article

The Effects of Menu Costs on Retail Performance: Evidence from Adoption of the Electronic Shelf Label Technology

By: Ioannis Stamatopoulos, Achal Bassamboo and Antonio Moreno

We use the adoption of electronic shelf labels (ESLs) by an international grocery retailer in 2015 to identify the effects of physical menu costs (i.e., labor and material costs of price adjustment) on retail performance. We find that the installation of ESLs increased... View Details

Keywords: Retail Operations; Dynamic Pricing; Revenue Management; Operations; Price; Revenue; Management; Retail Industry

28 Feb 2011
News

Harvard 'Ohio Competitiveness' report shows Kasich has a steep mountain to climb

12 Jul 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Sticky Capital Controls

Keywords: by Miguel Acosta-Henao, Laura Alfaro, and Andrés Fernández

April 1995 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Pillsbury: Customer Driven Reengineering

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Pillsbury is transforming itself from an integrated producer of flour and bakery products to a value-added supplier of premium branded products. After initial successes applying activity-based costing to manufacturing operations, two senior executives decide to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Production; Cost Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Food and Beverage Industry

Educators