Publications

August 2017 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Flex Hungary: Launching Production (A)

By: Willy Shih

This case examines design choices in the construction of flow lines. Flow lines are a popular way of arranging production because they are simple and inherently efficient. Equipment or workstations are arranged according to the sequence of steps in which a product is... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; Line-balancing; Flow Line; Conveyor-paced Line; Consumer Goods; Consumer Products; Production Management; Production Planning; Production Scheduling; Operations; Production; Management; Supply Chain; Design; Analysis; Goods and Commodities; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; European Union

Article

(Too) Optimistic about Optimism: The Belief that Optimism Improves Performance.

By: Elizabeth R. Tenney, Jennifer M. Logg and Don A Moore

A series of experiments investigated why people value optimism and whether they are right to do so. In Experiments 1A and 1B, participants prescribed more optimism for someone implementing decisions than for someone deliberating, indicating that people prescribe... View Details

Keywords: Optimism; Bias; Accuracy; Decision Phase; Performance; Attitudes; Performance Improvement; Perception; Outcome or Result

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October 2016
Case

Moshe Kahlon: Telecommunications Reform and Competition in Israel's Cellular Market (A)

By: Joshua Margolis, Amram Migdal and Kerry Herman

The case addresses reforms to regulations in Israel’s telecommunications industry initiated and implemented under the leadership of Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon in 2009-2010. The case highlights the challenges faced by a politician attempting to institute... View Details

September 2014
Article

Improving the Quality of Cancer Care in America Through Health Information Technology

By: Thomas W. Feeley, George W. Sledge, Laura Levit and Patricia A. Ganz

A recent report from the Institute of Medicine titled Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis, identifies improvement in information technology (IT) as essential to improving the quality of cancer care in America. The... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Information Technology Industry; Cancer Care In The U.S.; Health; Technology; Health Industry; North and Central America

July 2011
Article

Unexploited Efficiencies in Higher Education

By: Henry C. Eyring

In "Unexploited Efficiencies in Higher Education," Henry C. Eyring argues that one way that the U.S. can compete globally in college attainment is to decrease cost-per-graduate. He explains how many stakeholders in higher education stand to benefit from unexploited... View Details

Keywords: Performance Measurement; Innovation; Control Systems; Education; Performance Evaluation; Innovation and Invention; Education Industry; United States

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March 2009 (Revised July 2014)
Case

PNC Financial: Grow Up Great (A)

By: Christopher Marquis, V. Kasturi Rangan and Alison Comings

In 2003, PNC Financial focused its corporate citizenship and philanthropic resources on a ten-year, $100 million investment in early childhood education called PNC Grow Up Great. The case tracks the origination of Grow Up Great, how it was developed and implemented... View Details

Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Leadership; Brands and Branding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Structure; Business and Community Relations

winter 1985
Article

The Nonpecuniary Costs of Automobile Emissions Standards

By: Timothy F. Bresnahan and Dennis Yao

An important component of the costs of automotive air-pollution control has been nonpecuniary: a decline in vehicle performance characteristics. This regulatory impact on what the auto industry calls "drivability" has never been quantified, although there is... View Details

Keywords: Transportation; Pollutants; Cost; Standards; Performance; Quality; Auto Industry

February 2008
Supplement

Avaya (B)

Avaya's top management wants to improve demand generation. This requires an improvement in the relationship between Sales and Marketing. This case series (Avaya (A)-(D)) walks the student through each phase of this process. The (A) case begins with background on the... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Relationships; Sales

November 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Social Salary Setting at Spiber

By: Ashley Whillans and John Beshears

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 920-050. The case tells the story of Spiber, a Japanese technology start-up company. To reflect the company’s values, the leadership team implemented a new and unique salary-setting process: each employee had the authority to choose their... View Details

Keywords: Compensation; General Management; Employee Benefits; Incentives; Motivation; Compensation and Benefits; Fairness; Motivation and Incentives; Management; Happiness; Negotiation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Japan

September 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Supplement

Eaton Corporation: Portfolio Transformation and The Cost of Capital

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher

In 2000, Eaton Corporation was a broadly diversified industrial conglomerate. But its strategy was evolving and its focus was narrowing around “power management” and more recently on “intelligent power,” the use of digitally enabled products and services designed to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Divisions; Cost of Capital; Corporate Finance; Value; Valuation; Industrial Products Industry; United States; Denmark; Republic of Ireland

July 2018 (Revised March 2019)
Teaching Note

Hilti (A): Fleet Management?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jan Rivkin

This Teaching Note accompanies the case HBS No. 718-419, “Hilti (A): Fleet Management.” It provides guidelines for class discussion, as well as a board plan and transcripts of the associated videos, Hilti Fleet Management Video Supplements.
The associated case... View Details

Article

Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit

By: Charles A. O'Reilly III and Michael L. Tushman

Dynamic capabilities have been proposed as a useful way to understand how organizations are able to adapt to changes in technology and markets. Organizational ambidexterity, the ability of senior managers to seize opportunities through the orchestration and integration... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Practices and Processes; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Opportunities

2010
Working Paper

Employee Selection as a Control System

By: Dennis Campbell

Theories from the economics, management control, and organizational behavior literatures predict that when it is difficult to align incentives by contracting on output, aligning preferences via employee selection may provide a useful alternative. This study... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Decision Making; Governance Controls; Employees; Selection and Staffing; Management Systems; Financial Services Industry

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

October 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Transforming Korea Inc: Financial Crisis and Institutional Reform

By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim

South Korea, as one of the Asian "tiger" economies, transformed itself into the world's 11th largest economy and major exporter by 1996, emerging from being one of the lowest income countries in the region back in the 1960s. Yet one year later in 1997, Korea was swept... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Financial Crisis; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; South Korea

December 2008
Article

The Teaching of Strategy: From General Manager to Analyst and Back Again?

By: Joseph L. Bower

Courses in strategy are an outgrowth of the business policy course first taught at Harvard Business School in 1912. This article examines how the teaching of a course concerned with the development and implementation of the goals and policies of a firm changed during... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Teaching; Policy; Business History; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy