Publications

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October 1999 (Revised July 2002)
Case

WingspanBank.com (A)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Daniel Galvin

The case describes the new product development process for WingspanBank.com, an Internet-only financial services "infomediary" created by a team from Bank One's First USA division. The creation of the bank is described from concept development to prelaunch decision... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Making; Information Management; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles; Product Development; Performance Consistency; Competitive Advantage; Internet; Financial Services Industry; Web Services Industry; United States

January 1998
Article

Tradeoffs within Costing Systems between Incentives and Measurement Objectives

By: M. Alles, S. Datar and M. Gupta

Keywords: System; Motivation and Incentives; Measurement and Metrics; Goals and Objectives

November 1997 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Guidant: Cardiac Rhythm Management Business (A)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Mikelle Eastley

Examines the choices Guidant must make in research and development spending and new product development. More specifically, CEO Jay Graf considers the payoffs and tradeoffs of using product development skills that he learned in CPI's core business when applied to a... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Development; Business or Company Management; Management Skills; Research and Development; Business Strategy; Communication; Product Design; Market Design; Organizational Design; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

April 1995 (Revised October 1995)
Case

Unemployment in France: "Priority Number One"

By: David A. Moss

Explores the problem of French unemployment on the eve of the presidential elections of 1995. Traces the development of social and economic policies under President Mitterrand and surveys leading explanations for the nation's mounting unemployment crisis. One major... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employment; Economics; Government and Politics; Political Elections; Social Issues; Wages; France

February 1995 (Revised August 1995)
Case

Microsoft in the People's Republic of China, 1993

By: Tarun Khanna

Explores some of the economic and political tradeoffs that need to be negotiated by a firm seeking to influence industry structure. The setting is the nascent personal computer software industry in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1993. Microsoft has to localize... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Product Marketing; Market Entry and Exit; Market Transactions; Industry Structures; Partners and Partnerships; Vertical Integration; Software; Information Technology Industry; China

1988
Chapter

Defined Benefit versus Defined Contribution Pension Plans: What are the Real Tradeoffs

By: Zvi Bodie, Alan J. Marcus and Robert C. Merton

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Cost vs Benefits

March 1974
Article

Generalized Mean-Variance Tradeoffs for Best Perturbation Corrections to Approximate Portfolio Decisions

By: Paul A. Samuelson and Robert C. Merton

Keywords: Investment; Finance

September 1971 (Revised September 1983)
Case

Gentle Electric Co.

By: W. Earl Sasser

Designed to illustrate various levels of complexity in determining optimum order sizes for a single item inventory policy. Students are asked to evaluate the impact of recent operational changes on the firm's ordering policy. Intended to follow the students' initial... View Details

Keywords: Change; Policy; Supply Chain; Complexity; Electronics Industry

Research Summary

Competitive Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter

Porter is engaged in a major new body of work on the theoretical foundations of competitive positioning and the underpinnings of sustainable competitive advantage. This research highlights the distinction between positioning and operational effectiveness; the... View Details

Research Summary

Management Control Systems in Multiunit Companies

By: Tatiana Sandino

Professor Sandino conducts research on early-stage multiunit companies that introduce management control systems to help maintain operations, as well as company culture, as they grow, but also to enable adaptation to the different markets that they serve. Building... View Details

Research Summary

Managing the Advantages and Tradeoffs of Collaborative Structures

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

To solve complex problems, organizations must both collect facts and use them to solve problems. In one study, my coauthors and I show that increased connectivity—measured as network... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Human Behavior; Performance; Virtual Work; Hybrid Work; Office Space; Workplace Design; Communication; Social and Collaborative Networks; Behavior; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Leadership; Management

Research Summary

Managing the Operating Role of Customers

By: Frances X. Frei

Customers in operating roles introduce considerable variability into the production environment including differences in the demands they impose on the environment and the unpredictability of those demands. When customers are the source of production variability, the... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

By: Feng Zhu

Professor Zhu’s research focuses on the design of platform business models and its impact on platform performance. Platforms have become central to our economy. A platform is a product or service that enables two or more customer groups to interact. For example,... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl

My academic research centers on uncovering and closing gaps between the theory and reality of tax policy. My main contribution has been to identify and address a mismatch between the goals for taxation typically assumed in theory and the goals the public and... View Details

Forthcoming
Article

Regulatory Incentives for Innovation: The FDA's Breakthrough Therapy Designation

By: Amitabh Chandra, Jennifer Kao, Kathleen L. Miller and Ariel Dora Stern

Regulators of new products confront a tradeoff between speeding a product to market and collecting additional product quality information. The FDA's Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) provides an opportunity to understand if regulators can use new policy to... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Administration; Research and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry