Publications

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May 1997
Teaching Note

Managing Product Development: Matching Technology with Context, Instructor's Note

By: Marco Iansiti

This overview to Managing Product Development (MPD) both previews course material, cases, exercises, and lectures--and provides its conceptual and academic underpinnings. Additionally, this note links these materials to the activities students will be undertaking in... View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Product Development; Knowledge Management; Performance; Projects; Management Practices and Processes; Opportunities; Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

25 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

New Learning at American Home Products

The success of American Home Products reflects a unique path of learning. The company originated with the merger of several companies in related businesses. During the seventy years following its formation in 1926, the company's senior... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Chemical; Health; Manufacturing; Pharmaceutical

September 2017
Teaching Note

The Productivity Decline: Demographics, Robots, or Globalization?

By: Laura Alfaro and Hayley Pallan

In the early 21st century, there was a noticeable trend of declining productivity growth. Despite the persistent decline in productivity growth, a consensus on its explanation had not been reached. Some of the debate focused on the technicalities of productivity... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Measurement and Metrics; Technological Innovation; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Globalization; Business and Government Relations

Research Summary

Surviving the Global Financial Crisis: Foreign Ownership and Establishment Performance

By: Laura Alfaro

We examine the differential response of establishments to the recent global financial crisis with particular emphasis on the role of foreign ownership. Using a worldwide establishment panel dataset, we investigate how multinational subsidiaries around the world... View Details

January 1982 (Revised November 1982)
Case

General Foods: Productivity Measurement Program

By: Robert H. Hayes and Kim B. Clark

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Performance Improvement; Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

November 2013
Article

The Performance of Corporate Alliances: Evidence from Oil and Gas Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico

By: John Beshears

I use data on oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to measure how a corporate alliance—a group of firms that jointly develops an offshore tract—performs relative to a solo firm. I employ a regression discontinuity strategy based on bids in first-price sealed-bid... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Form; Corporate Alliances; Oil And Gas Production; Lease Auctions; Regression Discontinuity; Alliances; Organizational Structure; Auctions; Performance; Energy Sources; Leasing; Energy Industry

2018
Article

Prior Ties and the Limits of Peer Effects on Startup Team Performance

By: Sharique Hasan and Rembrand Koning

We conduct a field experiment at an entrepreneurship bootcamp to investigate whether interaction with proximate peers shapes a nascent startup team's performance. We find that teams whose members lack prior ties to others at the bootcamp experience peer effects that... View Details

Keywords: Field Experiment; Peer Effects; Office Space; Knowledge Spillovers; Accelerators; Entrepreneurship; Knowledge Sharing; Performance; Technology Industry; India

13 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

The Problem with Productivity of Multi-Ethnic Teams

When Harvard Business School professor Vincent Pons went to Kenya to conduct research in advance of the 2013 national elections, he discovered surprising lessons about how the ethnic makeup of teams affects the work they do—now published in a new working paper,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

August 2018
Case

Performance Improvement Consulting and Hi-R-Me: Making Sales Calls

By: Frank V. Cespedes and David Mattson

This case study focuses on a professional services firm (“Performance Improvement Consulting”) and its sales calls on Hi-R-Me, a potential client. The case is supplemented by videos showing the initial contact call, a follow-up discovery call, and a face-to-face... View Details

Keywords: Sales Calls; Sales; Competency and Skills

Educators

09 Aug 2017
Sharpening Your Skills

Productivity Tips You Probably Haven't Considered Before

taking breaks help or hinder getting things done? The researchers also address questions you've likely never considered, such as how weather affects productivity and why collaboration may make you less able to solve problems. Hiding From... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

June 2000 (Revised December 2001)
Case

Performance Pay at Safelite Auto Glass (B)

By: Brian J. Hall, Edward Lazear and Carleen Madigan

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Performance Productivity; Change; Compensation and Benefits; Service Industry; Auto Industry

Educators

06 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

Latest Isn’t Always Greatest: Why Product Updates Capture Consumers

associate professor at the University of Chicago. Consumers put on blindfolds The researchers performed dozens of experiments, using products ranging from gummy candy to dictionaries, and testing out labels... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

Article

R&D: A Small Contribution to Productivity Growth

By: Diego Comin

In this paper I evaluate the contribution of R&D investments to productivity growth. The basis for the analysis are the free entry condition and the fact that most R&D innovations are embodied. Free entry yields a relationship between the resources devoted to R&D and... View Details

Keywords: Research and Development; Investment; Interest Rates; Performance Productivity; Technological Innovation; Perspective; United States

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March 2021
Teaching Note

Performance Improvement Consulting and Hi-R-Me: Making Sales Calls

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 819-043. This case study focuses on concepts, tools, and behaviors relevant to making sales calls along a typical progression with a prospect: from an initial phone call thru more in-depth discovery to a go/no-go meeting. The teaching... View Details

Keywords: Sales Calls; Sales; Competency and Skills

Web

Product Management - Course Catalog

Pursuing Adjacent Products. How to find a new product adjacency? How to develop a MVP for a new product adjacency? How to shut down a poor performing View Details

08 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Surviving the Global Financial Crisis: Foreign Direct Investment and Establishment Performance

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Maggie Chen

December 2014
Article

Private Equity, Jobs, and Productivity

By: Steven J. Davis, John Haltiwanger, Kyle Handley, Ron Jarmin, Josh Lerner and Javier Miranda

Private equity critics claim that leveraged buyouts bring huge job losses. To investigate this claim, we construct and analyze a new dataset that covers U.S. private equity transactions from 1980 to 2005. We track 3,200 target firms and their 150,000 establishments... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Leveraged Buyouts; Performance Productivity; Jobs and Positions; United States

01 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Keeping Track: Performance Measurement, Control & Strategy

professor Robert Simons has been adding to that body of knowledge and practice through an extensive research agenda that has resulted in numerous books, articles, and case studies. Working Knowledge editor Jim Aisner sat down recently with Professor Simons to talk... View Details

Keywords: Re: Robert Simons

Article

You Can't Always Get What You Want: The Real Exchange Rate and Manufacturing Performance in a World of Global Value Chains

By: Laura Alfaro, Alejandro Cuñat, Harald Fadinger and Yanping Liu

Real exchange rate devaluations are typically seen as a viable development strategy, but the effectiveness of the approach may vary over time and across countries. This column explores this issue by focusing on the microeconomics of firm-level responses to exchange... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing Performance; Real Exchange Rate; Global Value Chains; Economics; Production; Performance