Publications

2009
Working Paper

Input Constraints and the Efficiency of Entry: Lessons from Cardiac Surgery

By: David M. Cutler, Robert S. Huckman and Jonathan T. Kolstad

Prior studies suggest that, with elastically supplied inputs, free entry may lead to an inefficiently high number of firms in equilibrium. Under input scarcity, however, the welfare loss from free entry is reduced. Further, free entry may increase use of high-quality... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Market Entry and Exit; Welfare; Health Industry; Pennsylvania

Read Now

04 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 4

predicted by the theory. Publisher's link: http://www.people.hbs.edu/mrhodeskropf/VCRiskReturn59.pdf 2006 Harvard Business Review Health Care's Service Fanatics: How the Cleveland Clinic Leaped to the Top of the Patient-satisfaction... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Winter 2021
Article

Can Staggered Boards Improve Value? Causal Evidence from Massachusetts

By: Robert Daines, Shelley Xin Li and Charles C.Y. Wang

We study the effect of staggered boards (SBs) using a quasi-experiment: a 1990 law that imposed an SB on all Massachusetts-incorporated firms. The law led to an increase in Tobin's Q, investment in CAPEX and R&D, patents, higher-quality patented innovations, and... View Details

Keywords: Staggered Board; Entrenchment; Life-cycle; Tobin's Q; Innovation; Profitability; Investor Composition; Governing and Advisory Boards; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Institutional Investing; Value

SSRN

Find at Harvard

March 2015
Case

West Coast Chill

By: William A. Sahlman, Robert F. White and Stephanie Puzio

The fall of 2010 marked the 20th year that Mitchell Joseph, a fourth generation beverage executive, serial entrepreneur, and the founder of the Joseph Company (the "Company"), had been working on developing the technology for a self-chilling can. Mitchell was at an... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

September 1996 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Mobil USM&R (C): Lubricants Business Unit

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The general manager of a Lubricants Business Unit in Mobil's U.S. Marketing and Refining division launched a project to develop a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) for his unit. The purpose was to provide focus for all employees of the unit, enabling it to operate on an... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Employees; Customization and Personalization; Performance Evaluation; Measurement and Metrics; Management Teams; Projects; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United States

06 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: February 6, 2018

workers; and the production of knowledge, including the idea of the economy, among other topics. Together, the essays suggest emerging themes in the field: a fascination with capitalism as it is made by political authority, how it is... View Details

06 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 6, 2007

Relationships Authors:Robin Ely and Laura Morgan Roberts Publication:In Diversity at Work, edited by Arthur P. Brief. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming Abstract No abstract available. Exploring Black... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2019 (Revised March 2021)
Case

India: State Capacity and Unity in Diversity

By: Alberto Cavallo, Matthew Weinzierl and Robert Scherf

As 2018 drew to a close, India prepared to once again carry out the largest democratic exercise in human history, as in less than six months more than 850 million eligible voters would have the chance to choose their representatives to the Lok Sabha—the country’s lower... View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; Government and Politics; Leadership; Public Opinion; India

14 Nov 2006
First Look

First Look: November 14, 2006

source software ("OSS"). What drives companies with large, proprietary software portfolios to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in OSS? We approach this question by grouping a sample of OSS projects into clusters and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Elkay Plumbing Products Division

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The vice president of sales learns that the most profitable 1% of the division's customers generate 100% of profits, and that two of the division's largest customers lose 50% of profits. The division has just finished a project to install a time-driven activity-based... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Profit; Management Systems; Consumer Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry

July 2024
Article

Mass General Brigham’s Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement System: A Decade of Learnings

By: Jason B. Liu, Robert S. Kaplan, David W. Bates, Mario O. Edelen, Rachel C. Sisodia and Andrea L. Pusic

This article describes the strategies that leaders at the Mass General Brigham (MGB) health system have used in launching a standardized patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) collection program in 2012, a major step in the value-based transformation of health care.... View Details

Keywords: Patient-reported Outcomes; Value Based Health Care; Health Care and Treatment; Transformation; Outcome or Result; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

February 1997 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (A)

By: Robert C. Merton and Alberto Moel

In early 1997, Smith Breeden Associates, a money management and consulting firm, was pondering the future of the Equity Plus Fund. The Equity Plus Fund was an S&P enhanced-index fund that tried to outperform the S&P Index by replicating the index using low-cost... View Details

Keywords: Assets; Cash; Financial Markets; Financial Strategy; Mortgages; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Marketing; Performance; Consulting Industry

01 Mar 2010
News

Faculty Books

Robert G. Eccles and Michael P. Krzus (Wiley) An emerging business trend is for companies to go beyond separate reports for financial and nonfinancial (e.g., corporate social responsibility or... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Management

March 2024
Case

Katharine Graham: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the life of Katharine Graham from housewife to publisher of the Washington Post. Born into a family of wealth, Graham described herself as a “doormat wife” after she married Phil Graham and stayed at home to raise their children. His unexpected death... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Power and Influence; Personal Characteristics; Leadership Style; Success; Work-Life Balance; News; Newspapers; Media; Gender; Publishing Industry

September–October 2020
Article

When It's Time to Pivot, What's Your Story?: How to Sell Stakeholders on a New Strategy

By: Rory McDonald and Robert Bremner

To succeed, a new company must rally investors, staff, customers, and the media around a good story. But often that narrative turns out to be wrong, and entrepreneurs realize they need to change direction. How that shift is communicated can have a huge impact on a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Strategy; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Communication Strategy; Business and Stakeholder Relations

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

01 Sep 2012
News

What’s the Big Idea?

psychologist,” she says. “None of this is exotic, but it does require consistent attention. Provide resources, help, and clear goals. Offer opportunities to build camaraderie, give basic respect and recognition—simply support people and the work they are doing.” —JH A... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons;Julia Hanna;Roger Thompson; Corporate Services; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Management

22 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 22

PublicationsCompeting through Business Models Authors:Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Joan E. Ricart Publication:In Handbook of Research on Competitive Strategy, edited by Giovanni Battista Dagnino. Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming An... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 12, 2018

emergence of political economy and the project of creating market societies. By reconstructing ideas in their historical contexts, I address motivations and contingencies at the very foundations of modernity. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

November 2016 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Improving Access at VA

By: Ryan W. Buell, Robert S. Huckman and Sam Travers

In 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ran the largest healthcare system in the United States, with over 1,700 sites of care that served nearly 9 million veterans. One year earlier, a scandal had erupted over a cover-up of the excessive wait times veterans... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Service Delivery; Social Issues; Health Care and Treatment; Government Administration; Performance Improvement; Public Administration Industry; Health Industry; United States