Publications

Fall 2013
Article

The Role of Performance Measures in the Intertemporal Decisions of Business Unit Managers

Accounting performance measures are often argued to lead to short-sighted behavior by managers facing intertemporal decisions. We assess the association between different types of performance measures and the time horizon of business unit managers who have profit... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Performance Evaluation

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

The State of the Markets

Predicting that 24-hour trading will become a reality in the next two to three years, Cochrane suggested three ways to deal with it: Home-market adaptation. "If a company is based in, say, Germany,... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner

2010
Working Paper

Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan

David Norton and I introduced the Balanced Scorecard in a 1992 Harvard Business Review article (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). The article was based on a multi-company research project to study performance measurement in companies whose intangible assets played a central role... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Performance Improvement; Strategy

2009
Book

The Adventures of an IT Leader

By: Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan and Shannon O'Donnell

Becoming an effective IT manager presents a host of challenges-from anticipating emerging technology to managing relationships with vendors, employees, and other managers. Ultimately, a good IT manager must be a strong business leader, not just a technical... View Details

Keywords: Books; Leadership; Crisis Management; Personal Development and Career; Relationships; Safety; Information Technology

2024
Working Paper

The Value of Open Source Software

By: Manuel Hoffmann, Frank Nagle and Yanuo Zhou

The value of a non-pecuniary (free) product is inherently difficult to assess. A pervasive example is open source software (OSS), a global public good that plays a vital role in the economy and is foundational for most technology we use today. However, it is... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Open Source Distribution; Applications and Software

December 2000 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Rise and Fall of Iridium, The

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Examines the history of Iridium Communications, a provider of mobile satellite services. Discusses the genesis of Iridium's technical design, then follows the venture through various stages of development. Describes Iridium's attempts to build a subscriber base after... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Business Model; Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Structure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry

Program

Competing in the Age of AI—Virtual

Summary Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way today's businesses compete and operate. By putting AI and data at the center of their capabilities, companies... View Details

18 Oct 2016
News

Leading the Way for Women Entrepreneurs

Growing up, Hayley Barna (MBA 2010) thought she was unstoppable. Then she entered the business world. “I grew up thinking I lived in a post-feminist world, “ she said. “I saw no impediment in my way based on... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers; Birchbox; Rent the Runway; Hello Alfred; Retail Trade; Finance

November – December 1998
Article

Clusters and the New Economics of Competition

By: Michael E. Porter

This article explains how clusters foster high levels of productivity and innovation and lays out the implications for competitive strategy and economic policy. Economic geography in an era of global competition poses a paradox. In theory, location should no longer be... View Details

Keywords: Economics; United States

29 Jun 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Measuring the Perceived Liquidity of the Corporate Bond Market

Keywords: by Sergey Chernenko and Adi Sunderam; Financial Services

09 Jun 2024
Blog Post

The EC Formula: MBA Class of 2024 Looks Back

industries and functions. We asked members of the MBA Class of 2024 what EC course will help them succeed in their various sectors, why they pursued an MBA, what advice they... View Details

04 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

The Business of Life

evaluating new opportunities, we should base our decisions on marginal costs and revenues. The book cites the fall of movie rental giant... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

January 2009
Journal Article

The Fiscal Impact of High-skilled Emigration: Flows of Indians to the U.S.

By: Mihir Desai, D. Kapur, J. McHale and K Rogers

Easing immigration restrictions for the highly skilled in developed countries portends a future of increased human capital outflows from developing countries. The myriad consequences of these developments for developing countries include the direct loss of the fiscal... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Diasporas; Developing Countries and Economies; Taxation; Compensation and Benefits; Human Capital; Mathematical Methods; India; United States

May 2016
Case

The Inexorable Rise of Walmart? 1988—2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In October 2015, Walmart surprised investors by announcing that it expected flat sales growth for 2015 and growth of only 3% to 4% over the coming three years. Profits would also fall due to significant investments in people and technology. The company’s stock price... View Details

Keywords: Asda; Costco; David Glass; Convenience Stores; Discount Retailing; Dollar Stores; Doug McMillon; E-commerce; Online Retail; General Merchandise; Grocery; Lee Scott; Mike Duke; Multichannel Retailing; Omnichannel; Neighborhood Market; Sam Walton; Sam's Club; Store Formats; Supercenter; Supermarket; Warehouse Clubs; Merchandising; Walmart; Wal-Mart; Globalized Firms and Management; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Units; Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Banks and Banking; Price; Profit; Revenue; Food; Global Range; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Business History; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Human Capital; Labor Unions; Wages; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Management Succession; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Distribution; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Web; Web Sites; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Distribution Industry; Banking Industry; United States; Arkansas; Bentonville

Other Article

The Market That Wasn't: The Non-emergence of the Online Grocery Category

By: Chad Navis, Greg Fisher, Ryan Raffaelli and Mary Ann Glynn

We examine the non-emergence of a potential new market category. In the late 1990s the entrepreneurial firms that attempted to sell groceries online attracted significant resources, made meaningful technological advancements and generated immense publicity, yet online... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Food; Emerging Markets; Service Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

July 2019
Article

The Impact of Price Regulation on the Availability of New Drugs in Germany

By: Ariel Dora Stern, Felicitas Pietrulla, Annika Herr, Aaron S. Kesselheim and Ameet Sarpatwari

The 2011 German Pharmaceutical Market Restructuring Act (“AMNOG”) subjected branded, non-rare disease drugs to price regulation based on an assessment of their clinical benefit. Assessment outcomes range from “major added benefit” to “less benefit than the appropriate... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Pharmaceuticals; Healthcare; Health Care and Treatment; Price; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Pharmaceutical Industry; Germany

January 2004
Case

Macroeconomic Policy and the State of the U.S. Economy, 2003

By: David A. Moss

Based on excerpts from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on July 16, 2003, as well as economic data that were available to Chairman Greenspan at the time. Taken together, the text... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Banks and Banking; Policy; Housing; Analytics and Data Science; Problems and Challenges; Urban Development; United States

June 1992 (Revised August 1992)
Case

Parker-Spencer: The Legal Form of Joint Ventures

Parker Co., a U.S. based agricultural chemical company with $4 billion in sales, has agreed to a joint venture with Spencer, Inc., a smaller U.S. based company, to develop and market a new herbicide for corn. The two companies must consider marketing, tax, and... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Joint Ventures; Taxation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chemical Industry; United States

2019
Book

Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation

By: Gary P. Pisano

Creative Construction tackles the myth that larger enterprises are inherently incapable of transformative innovation and are doomed to be disrupted by nimble start-ups. If larger enterprises seem incapable of transformative innovation, it is due to how we design... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Business Growth and Maturation; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Culture; Management Systems; Creativity; Leading Change