Publications

11 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Calling All Managers: How to Build a Better Call Center

call centers, with their attendant voice response units (VRUs—also known as automated voice response systems), need not be so inefficient. When a company manages its call center well, effectively linking a triad of service, information... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service; Financial Services

January 2012 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Ctrip: Scientifically Managing Travel Services

By: David A. Garvin and Nancy Hua Dai

Ctrip is a $437 million Chinese on-line travel services company with a scientific, data driven approach to management. The case explores Ctrip's founding and early growth, its expansion into multiple market segments including hotel reservations, air ticketing, leisure... View Details

Keywords: Scientific Management; Data-driven Management; Management; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Market Entry and Exit; Mathematical Methods; Business Processes; Information Management; Travel Industry; China

2022
Working Paper

Human-Computer Interactions in Demand Forecasting and Labor Scheduling Decisions

By: Caleb Kwon, Ananth Raman and Jorge Tamayo

We empirically analyze how managerial overrides to a commercial algorithm that forecasts demand and schedules labor affect store performance. We analyze administrative data from a large grocery retailer that utilizes a commercial algorithm to forecast demand and... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Human Capital; Performance; Applications and Software; Management Skills; Management Practices and Processes; Retail Industry

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15 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Four Questions for David Garvin and Michael Roberto

Harvard Business School professors David A. Garvin and Michael A. Roberto fielded questions about their article in an email interview with HBS Working Knowledge senior editor Martha Lagace. Garvin and Roberto discuss the "inquiry" View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

June 2005
Case

Furqan Nazeeri and the IMTrader Spin-Out

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Brian DeLacey

Furqan Nazeeri is looking to spin out a promising set of products and technologies from an established financial services firm. Designed as an exercise in negotiation. Includes material from the original business plan, and it is possible to simulate a negotiation... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business or Company Management; Negotiation Process; Product Development; Technology Adoption

21 Dec 2015
Op-Ed

Without Immigrants, We Wouldn't Have Google

1995, and continuing over the next few years, they launched a research project to simplify Internet search, a process that was then far from easy. Outsiders do well in the US when venture capitalists and angel investors don’t... View Details

Keywords: by Shane Greenstein; Information Technology

August 2000
Case

Beansprout Networks

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Rasheea Williams

Beansprout Networks is a 3-year-old Internet company designed to foster effective communication between parents and the pediatricians and child-care providers who care for their children. With a significant headstart in the marketplace, it has attracted considerable... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

04 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

Don’t Lose Money With Customers

relationships with the short- and long-run benefits that each generates will help companies make informed decisions about how to serve their customers more profitably in the future. Probing The Process... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

More Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Impact of Modularity on the Computer Industry

1960, electronic data processing as well as information storage and retrieval had made a lasting impression in both the private and the public sectors, and discoveries and improvements in areas such as... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Computer; Consumer Products; Technology

15 Nov 2004
Research & Ideas

Solving the Health Care Conundrum

care delivery system. By focusing on greater value, the issues of who should be covered (access) and what should be covered will be easier to resolve. While policy changes to require informational disclosure and to align incentives can... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter; Health

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

IT Links for Boundaryless Companies

David Upton's Alumni Conference report on the state of information technology for business-to-business began with a lesson in technology history because, said the HBS professor, "understanding doesn't come easy without an... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

04 Oct 2004
What Do You Think?

Does Speed Trump Intellectual Property?

Summing Up This month's column, in the eyes of several respondents, represents the struggle of competitive strategies based on process versus product. When seen in this light, the triumph of speed over ideas, which many see as a reality,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Article

Crowdsourcing City Government: Using Tournaments to Improve Inspection Accuracy

By: Edward Glaeser, Andrew Hillis, Scott Duke Kominers and Michael Luca

The proliferation of big data makes it possible to better target city services like hygiene inspections, but city governments rarely have the in-house talent needed for developing prediction algorithms. Cities could hire consultants, but a cheaper alternative is to... View Details

Keywords: User-generated Content; Operations; Tournaments; Policy-making; Machine Learning; Online Platforms; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; City; Infrastructure; Business Processes; Government and Politics

Find at Harvard

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30 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Why Evolutionary Software Development Works

newer models. The most widely quoted references report lessons from only a few successful projects. Now a two-year empirical study, which the author and colleagues Marco Iansiti and Roberto Verganti completed last year, reveals thought-provoking View Details

Keywords: by Alan MacCormack; Technology

06 May 2002
Research & Ideas

A Toolkit for Customer Innovation

"solution" information (how to satisfy those needs) lies with the manufacturer. Traditionally, the onus has been on manufacturers to collect the need information through various means, including... View Details

Keywords: by Stefan Thomke & Eric Von Hippel

September 1997 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Automated Intelligence Corporation

By: James K. Sebenius and David T. Kotchen

Precision Controls is a Minnesota-based manufacturer of electronic control devices. To enhance its product line, Precision would like to establish an artificial intelligence research group, either through internal development or, preferably, by merging with or... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Valuation; Research and Development; Stock Shares; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Mergers and Acquisitions; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry; Minnesota