Publications

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Is Government Just Stupid? How Bad Decisions Are Made

evaluating business leaders, most people judge them primarily by results: profitability, return to shareholders, innovation and so on. This is the more rational measure of effectiveness. An organization's overall health will generally... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, Jonathan Baron & Katherine Shonk

Web

Business History - Faculty & Research

Chemical Industry, 1950s–1980s By: Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski This article examines the evolution of corporate environmentalism in the West German chemical industry between the 1950s and the 1980s. It focuses on two companies,... View Details

Stefan H. Thomke

Stefan Thomke (sthomke@hbs.edu), an authority on the management of innovation, is the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He has worked with firms on product, process, and... View Details

July 2024
Case

Living up to Purpose and Performance at Parker Hannifin

By: Hubert Joly, Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter

In 2019, Parker Hannifin, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of motion and control technologies, did something unusual for an industrial company: it created a purpose statement. Even though it already had a clear business strategy and longstanding culture of... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Health Pandemics; Leadership; Business or Company Management; Organizational Culture; Business Strategy; Communication Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Cleveland; Ohio; United States

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

18 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Will Global Demand for Oil Peak This Decade?

Is the globe’s thirst for oil finally topping out? A major international energy watcher says yes, predicting last month that demand for global oil for transport will peak around 2026, plateau for all uses by 2028, and possibly hit a zenith by the end of the decade.... View Details

Keywords: by Alvin Powell, Harvard Gazette; Energy; Industrial Products; Auto; Green Technology

Web

Skydeck - Alumni

Airlines CEO Frank Lorenzo (MBA 1963) recounts the radical ideas and relentless negotiations that transformed the airline industry The Musts of 2024 Alumni recommendations from the year in media Solving the Underemployment Crisis More... View Details

October 1982 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Johnson & Johnson: The Tylenol Tragedy

By: Stephen A. Greyser

In October 1982, Johnson & Johnson was confronted with a major crisis when seven deaths were attributed to poisoned Tylenol. The case reviews the facts as known a week after the incident occurred, and raises a wide range of questions regarding consumer behavior,... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competitive Strategy; Crisis Management; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry

2013
Working Paper

Increased Speed Equals Increased Wait: The Impact of a Reduction in Emergency Department Ultrasound Order Processing Time

By: Jillian Berry Jaeker, Anita L. Tucker and Michael H. Lee

We exploit an exogenous process change at two emergency departments (EDs) within a health system to test the theory that increasing capacity in a discretionary work setting increases wait times due to additional services being provided to customers as a consequence of... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Demand and Consumers; Service Delivery; Health Care and Treatment; Business Processes; Health Industry

Read Now

06 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 6, 2007

Industries - 2006 (TN) Harvard Business School Note 207-097 No abstract available. The Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project (D) Harvard Business School Supplement 207-087 Supplements the (A) case. Purchase this... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 Oct 2014
HBS Seminar

Koleman Strumpf, University of Kansas School of Business

Web

Financial Accounting Online Course | HBS Online

key concepts and metrics in valuation, including time value of money, terminal value, and net present value. Highlights Forecasting: Metropolis Health Care IRR and Payback Period Industry Insights: Assessing... View Details

November 2012 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Cisco in 2012: Reorganizing for Efficiency and Flexibility

By: Ranjay Gulati, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld and Luciana Silvestri

In 2012, Cisco was under intense pressure to show results: growth in its core business was decelerating and a number of exploratory ventures and acquisitions had not proven as profitable as expected. CEO John Chambers vowed to restore the company's health in a way that... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Restructuring; Adaptation; Performance Efficiency; Emerging Markets; Information Technology Industry

December 2016
Article

Selective Regulator Decoupling and Organizations' Strategic Responses

By: Jonas Heese, Ranjani Krishnan and Frank Moers

Organizations often respond to institutional pressures by symbolically adopting policies and procedures but decoupling them from actual practice. Literature has examined why organizations decouple from regulatory pressures. In this study, we argue that decoupling... View Details

Keywords: Regulator Leniency; Beneficence; Mispricing; Upcoding; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Care and Treatment; Revenue; Health Industry

SSRN

Find at Harvard

11 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

Is Amazon a Retailer, a Tech Firm, or a Media Company? How AI Can Help Investors Decide

industry lines as companies increasingly bring seemingly unrelated business lines together in unconventional ways. New research by Awada, Harvard Business School Professor Suraj Srinivasan, and doctoral student Paul J. Hamilton harnesses... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Consumer Products; Real Estate; Financial Services; Retail

September 2017 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Adaptive Platform Trials: The Clinical Trial of the Future?

By: Ariel D. Stern and Sarah Mehta

In July 2017, Dr. Brian M. Alexander, president and CEO of the AGILE Research Foundation, was preparing to launch a new type of clinical trial—an adaptive platform trial—to study potential therapies for glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive form of brain cancer.... View Details

Keywords: Clinical Trials; Cancer; Adaptive Platform Trials; Platform Trials; Adaptive Trials; Glioblastoma; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Business Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Health Industry; United States

21 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

When a Competitor Abandons the Market, Should You Advance or Retreat?

these additional terminations are wise choices, but it helps to illustrate how the disclosure channel has a meaningful impact on competition and many millions of dollars of R&D investment decisions.” “People in the industry say, ‘Yes,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health; Health

Spring 2021
Article

Corporate Resilience and Response During COVID-19

By: Alex Cheema-Fox, Bridget LaPerla, George Serafeim and Hui (Stacie) Wang

The coronavirus pandemic caused a sharp market decline while raising heterogeneous responses across companies related to their employees, supply chain, and repurposing of operations to provide needed products and services. We study whether during the 2020 COVID-19... View Details