Publications

April 1984 (Revised November 1988)
Background Note

Statistical Quality Control for Process Improvement

Describes systematic methods for process debugging and improvement, based on statistical quality control. Examples are from manufacturing settings, but techniques are also useful for services and sales, and to quantity improvement as well as quality improvement. View Details

Keywords: Quality; Performance Improvement; Business Processes

November 2007
Article

A Model of Consumer Learning for Service Quality and Usage

By: Raghuram Iyengar, Asim Ansari and Sunil Gupta

In many services, e.g., the wireless service industry, consumers choose a service plan based on their expected consumption. In such situations, consumers experience two forms of uncertainty. First, consumers may be uncertain about the quality of their service provider... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Customer Value and Value Chain; Learning; Price; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Service Delivery; Quality; Risk and Uncertainty; Service Industry

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December 2021
Teaching Note

Intenseye: Powering Workplace Health and Safety with AI

By: Michael W. Toffel and Youssef Abdel Aal

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 622-037. View Details

1998
Working Paper

Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams

By: Amy C. Edmondson

January 2, 2020
Article

Changes in Quality of Care After Hospital Mergers and Acquisitions

By: Nancy Dean Beaulieu, Leemore S. Dafny, B. E. Landon, Jesse Dalton, Ifedayo Kuye and J. Michael McWilliams

Background: The hospital industry has consolidated substantially during the past two decades and at an accelerated pace since 2010. Multiple studies have shown that hospital mergers have led to higher prices for commercially insured patients, but research about effects... View Details

Keywords: Hospitals; Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Care and Treatment; Quality

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Article

Motivated Inferences of Price and Quality in Healthcare Decisions

By: Emily Prinsloo, Kate Barasz and Peter A. Ubel

Policy makers have increasingly advocated for healthcare price transparency, whereby prices are made salient before services are rendered. While such policies may empower consumers, they also bring price to the forefront of healthcare choices as never before, with yet... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Price Transparency; Health Care and Treatment; Price; Quality; Perception; Consumer Behavior; Decisions; Insurance

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October 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Drilling Safety at BP: The Deepwater Horizon Accident

By: Stephen P. Kaufman and Laura Winig

Following the 2010 Gulf of Mexico explosion and oil spill on the Deepwater Horizon, public attention focused on BP's safety record, practices, and management culture as the primary cause of the disaster. Drawing on public sources this case traces the circumstances... View Details

Keywords: Non-Renewable Energy; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Practice; Safety; Energy Industry; Mexico, Gulf of

August 2021 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Intenseye: Powering Workplace Health and Safety with AI (A)

By: Michael W. Toffel and Youssef Abdel Aal

Intenseye was a Turkey-based technology startup that deployed machine learning algorithms to workplace camera feeds in order to identify unsafe worker actions and unsafe working conditions, in order to help improve worker safety. The case describes how Intenseye’s... View Details

Keywords: Privacy; Product Development; Operations; Technological Innovation; Value Creation; Production; Distribution; Safety; Risk and Uncertainty; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Distribution Industry; Turkey; Middle East; United States

15 May 2018
News

Spreading the Safety Net

Photo via LinkedIn Photo via LinkedIn In a May 6, 2018, op-ed in the New York Times, Rent the Runway co-founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman (MBA 2009) discussed the reasoning behind her recent decision to equalize benefits for all employees—a... View Details

26 May 2012
News

USA: Inspections are good for safety and jobs

27 Sep 2013
Working Paper Summaries

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

Keywords: by Claire Senot, Aravind Chandrasekaran, Peter T. Ward & Anita L. Tucker; Health

November 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Supplement

Store24 (B): Service Quality and Employee Skills

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Service Delivery; Retail Industry

The hospital industry has consolidated substantially during the past two decades and at an accelerated pace since 2010. Multiple studies have shown that hospital mergers have led to higher prices for commercially insured patients, but research about effects on... View Details

1982
Book

Quality of Work Life and the Supervisor

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

01 Jan 2020
News

Changes in Quality of Care after Hospital Mergers and Acquisitions

October 1989 (Revised May 1996)
Case

Xerox Corp.: Leadership Through Quality (A)

By: Todd D. Jick and Leonard A. Schlesinger

Describes the "Leadership Through Quality" effort undertaken by Xerox in the 1980s. Includes the history of Xerox in the 1970s and its need to make major changes in quality by the 1980s. Most of the remainder of the case details the step-by-step process by which Xerox... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Quality; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Service Industry; Electronics Industry

November 2023
Article

Brokerage House Initial Public Offerings and Analyst Forecast Quality

By: Mark Bradshaw, Michael Drake, Joseph Pacelli and Brady Twedt

We examine how brokerage firm initial public offerings (IPOs) influence the research quality of sell-side analysts employed by the brokerage. Our main results focus on earnings forecast bias and absolute forecast errors as proxies for research quality. Using a... View Details

Keywords: IPOs; Research Analysts; ＂Brokerage Industry; Initial Public Offering; Employees; Behavior; Outcome or Result