Publications

24 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 24

PublicationsClusters and Competitiveness: Porter's Contribution Authors:Christian H.M. Ketels Publication:Chap. 10 in Competition and Competitive Advantage: The Ideas of Michael Porter, edited by Robert... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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

May 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Lincoln Financial Meets the Financial Crisis

By: Robert C. Pozen and Peter Goodspeed Spring

In March of 2009, Lincoln Financial Group's CEO Dennis Glass was facing a difficult decision as to how he would replenish his company's capital, which could quickly fall to dangerously low levels as a result of the financial crisis. Though the cost of raising capital... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Financial Crisis; Capital; Private Equity; Crisis Management; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Insurance Industry

2024
Working Paper

The Evolution of Financial Services in the United States

By: Robin Greenwood, David S. Scharfstein and Robert Ialenti

This article surveys the literature on the historical growth and transformation of the U.S. financial sector. The sector expanded rapidly between 1980 until 2006, when its contribution to GDP rose from 4.8% to 7.6%. After the Global Financial Crisis, the size of the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Financial Institutions; Financial Markets; Growth and Development; Economic Sectors; Financial Services Industry

Read Now

25 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 25

governments have started to list state-owned enterprises, have selected professional managers to run them, and have given them more financial autonomy. We argue that the transformation from owner and manager to majority shareholder has reduced many agency problems... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

17 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 17

Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier immediately after this recollection; most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else in the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

30 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 30

Michael W. Toffel Publication:Organization Science (forthcoming) Abstract Governments and other organizations often outsource activities to achieve cost savings from market competition. Yet such benefits are often accompanied by poor... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2015
Article

Task Shifting in Surgery: Lessons from an Indian Heart Hospital

By: Budhaditya Gupta, Robert S. Huckman and Tarun Khanna

We present a case study that illustrates task shifting, the transfer of activities from senior to junior colleagues, in the context of cardiac surgery at the Narayana Health City Cardiac Hospital (NH) in India. The case discusses the factors driving the adoption of... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Rank and Position; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; India

Find at Harvard

06 Dec 2016
First Look

December 6, 2016

overworked lifestyle, rather than a leisurely lifestyle, has become an aspirational status symbol. A series of studies shows that the positive inferences of status in response to busyness and lack of leisure are driven by the perceptions... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 28, 2010

Review (forthcoming) Abstract Companies in Victorian Britain operated in a laissez-faire legal environment from the perspective of outside investors, implying that such investors were not protected by the legal system. This article seeks... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2018
Supplement

Improving Access at VA

By: Ryan W. Buell and Robert S. Huckman

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

January 1990 (Revised March 1991)
Case

American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region

By: Robert L. Simons

Recounts the financial difficulties and management changes experienced by American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region (NER) during the 1980s. After summarizing industry-wide changes in the collection, testing, and distribution of blood and blood products, the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Management; Restructuring; Health; SWOT Analysis; Social Enterprise; Marketplace Matching; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; North and Central America

September–October 2012
Article

Relational Contracts and Organizational Capabilities

By: Robert Gibbons and Rebecca Henderson

A large literature identifies unique organizational capabilities as a potent source of competitive advantage, yet our knowledge of why capabilities fail to diffuse more rapidly—particularly in situations in which competitors apparently have strong incentives to adopt... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Organizations

May 2021
Article

Making Doctors Effective Managers and Leaders: A Matter of Health and Well-Being

By: Lisa Rotenstein, Robert S. Huckman and Christine K. Cassel

The COVID-19 crisis has forced physicians to make daily decisions that require knowledge and skills they did not acquire as part of their biomedical training. Physicians are being called upon to be both managers—able to set processes and structures—and leaders—capable... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Management; Leadership; Health Pandemics; Health Industry

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16 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research, May 16

May–June 2017 Harvard Business Review Neurodiversity as a Competitive Advantage By: Austin, Robert D., and Gary P. Pisano Abstract—Many people with neurological conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and dyslexia have extraordinary... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

24 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 24, 2007

by calling attention to Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli's compensation package and the company's poor performance. The AFL-CIO Office of Investments advocates for improved corporate governance at public... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

10 Jun 2008
First Look

First Look: June 10, 2008

managers will use the discretion given by such estimates to convey private information on future cash flows, while agency theory predicts managers will use the discretion opportunistically. We test these alternative hypotheses using a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 1993 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Cummins Engine Company, The: Starting Up "B" Crankshaft Manufacturing at the San Luis Potosi Plant

By: Robert H. Hayes

Cummins Engine Co. is starting up production of diesel engine crankshafts in its plant in central Mexico. This operation requires much tighter tolerances than any product previously produced at the plant, and the young (recent MBA) manager who is in charge of the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Production; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Emerging Markets; Problems and Challenges; Industrial Products Industry; Mexico; Alabama

March 2018 (Revised February 2020)
Teaching Note

Improving Access at VA

By: Ryan W. Buell and Robert S. Huckman

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