Publications

May 1997
Teaching Note

Introduction and Overview: Managing Product Development, Instructor's Note

By: Marco Iansiti

The first module, comprising three cases and a team exercise, provides an impressionistic look at all the issues raised in greater detail in subsequent classes. It thus enables students, who come to the course with a range of experience and skills, to get up to speed... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Product Development; Projects; Groups and Teams

September 2014 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Sustainability at IKEA Group

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Michael W. Toffel, Vincent Dessain and Jerome Lenhardt

By 2014, IKEA Group was the largest home furnishing company, with EUR28.5 billion of sales, and planned to reach EUR50 billion by 2020, mainly from emerging markets. At the same time, IKEA Group had adopted in 2012 a new sustainability strategy that focused the... View Details

Keywords: Furnishing; Sustainability; Supply Chain; Wood; Customer Value and Value Chain; Supply Chain Management; Environmental Sustainability; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

October 2003 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Corrupt Practices in International Business

By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Robert E. Kennedy

Explores various aspects of corruption in international business. This abridged case contains materials from both Corruption in International Business (A) & (B), but does not include the example "caselets." A rewritten version of earlier cases. View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Crime and Corruption

March 2024
Module Note

Module Note on the Structuring of Collaborative Work

By: Ethan Bernstein

This module note for instructors describes the organizational structure module of the Managing Human Capital course that integrates insights from research on workplace connectivity (who gets to communicate with whom) and workplace transparency (who gets to observe... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Management; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Human Capital

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Robert J. Dolan

Professor Dolan's main teaching interest is marketing management. Recent materials developed include notes on marketing research, product policy, and marketing strategy and cases on leading companies such as Catalina Marketing, Kiehl's, Planters Nut and Cox Media's... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing And Society; Price Customization; Pricing Strategy; Product Positioning

November 1983 (Revised June 1985)
Case

Pepsi-Cola United Kingdom (A)

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Edward J. Hoff

On January 2, 1983 Pepsi-Cola United Kingdom had to develop a plan to defend its successful Diet Pepsi brand against the about to be introduced diet Coke. Contains useful material on competitive behavior and on U.S. versus U.K. consumer behavior. View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Consumer Behavior; Planning; Competition; Food and Beverage Industry; United Kingdom; United States

2003
Article

Closing the Loop: Product Take-back Requirements and their Strategic Implications

By: Michael W. Toffel

In Asia, Europe, and North America, regulators are seeking to reduce waste disposal and develop recycling markets by requiring manufacturers to manage the end-of-life disposition of products they produce. Such policies attempt to "close the loop" for products ranging... View Details

Keywords: Wastes and Waste Processing; Energy Conservation; Product Development; Strategy; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Asia; Europe; North and Central America

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August 1997
Background Note

Accounting for Manufacturing Companies

By: Srikant M. Datar

The accounting for a manufacturing company is examined, including the flow of costs from raw materials to work in process to finished goods and the distribution between an inventoriable or product cost and a noninventoriable or period cost. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Product; Cost; Distribution; Accrual Accounting; Accounting; Manufacturing Industry

May 1990 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Technology Transfer at a Defense Contractor (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill

Covers the same material concerning the specific transfer of technology as described in the longer version but summarizes the environmental and organizational context of the transfer. Most appropriate when the instructor wishes to focus on the action questions. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Conflict Management; Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Employees; Competitive Strategy; Projects

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August 2023
Background Note

Pricing and Customer Psychology

By: Elie Ofek

This note provides an overview of how psychological principles may be used as part of a seller’s pricing strategy. The note defines the concept of psychological pricing and explains the motivations for firms to engage in it. Prominent practices and tactics, with... View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior

Research Summary

Overview

Annie is interested in the effects of digitization and increased material abundance on consumption behaviors and the signals consumption decisions send to others. Annie studies topics including minimalism, digital payments in social relationships, scarcity, and... View Details

Research Summary

Globalization of Wind Power

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Professor Vietor has been working to develop teaching materials on energy - especially renewable energy. Towards this end, he has written cases on Cape Wind, Suzlon, Airtricity's Supergrid, and Sun Tech. He is currently expanding this research into... View Details

March 2016
Case

N12 Technologies: Building an Organization and Building a Business

By: David A. Garvin and Aldo Sesia

N12 Technologies was a startup founded in 2010 that employed nanotechnology to manufacture a patented material to improve the performance of carbon fiber composites, which were used in a wide variety of products, ranging from bicycles to automobiles to aircraft parts.... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Organizational Structure; Nanotechnology; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Management Systems; Commercialization; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Bicycle Industry; Transportation Industry; United States

November 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Creativity under the Gun at Litmus Corporation

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Yana Litovsky

Teaches students to diagnose the circumstances under which time pressure can facilitate or hinder creativity. A team's creative "genius", Miles Grady, who previously conceptualized a revolutionary material for an important new product, must now significantly change... View Details

Keywords: Situation or Environment; Creativity; Innovation and Management; Problems and Challenges

June 2007 (Revised July 2007)
Case

USG Corporation (A)

Deals with CEO Bill Foote's decision of how to deal with USG's exposure to asbestos liability. USG was the largest building materials company in the United States, with 14,000 employees and gross revenues of $3.8 billion. Although USG used asbestos in a small subset of... View Details

Keywords: Legal Liability; Construction Industry

March 2000
Case

Merloni Elettrodomestici spa: Building for Profit

By: Joseph L. Bower, Bruce McKern and John L. Naman

In 1995, the Merloni management is faced with profitless prosperity. A rise in raw material prices in the face of ferocious competition in their markets hurts margins. At the same time, the company is trying to expand geographically in order to become Pan-European and... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Profit; Management; Problems and Challenges; Markets; Europe

May 2008
Background Note

The Producing Manager: A Double-Barreled Role

By: John J. Gabarro and Thomas J. DeLong

The purpose of this note is to ground and amplify on the characteristics and challenges of the producing manager role. It is in response to requests from participants for a piece of "take away" material that can be shared with colleagues in professional service firms... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Production; Service Operations; Practice