Publications

SSRN

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Wintel: Cooperation or Conflict

Keywords: by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell & David B. Yoffie; Computer

Article

Agency Costs, Mispricing, and Ownership Structure

By: Sergey Chernenko, C. Fritz Foley and Robin Greenwood

Standard theories of corporate ownership assume that because markets are efficient, insiders ultimately bear all agency costs that they create and therefore have a strong incentive to minimize conflicts of interest with outside investors. We argue that if equity is... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Ownership; Conflict of Interests; Investment; Valuation

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March 2004
Article

Inflation, Inflation Variability, and Corruption

By: Miguel Braun and Rafael Di Tella

We present a model where agents can inflate the cost of goods needed to start an investment project and inflation variability increases monitoring costs. We show that inflation variability can lead to higher corruption and lower investment. We document a positive... View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Crime and Corruption

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February 2000 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Owens & Minor, Inc. (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

A forward-thinking manager at Owens & Minor (O&M), a large national medical and surgical distribution company, enlisted the help of both logistics and cost managers to develop an innovative pricing schedule based on the customer's activities instead of the price of the... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Logistics; Distribution; Price; Supply Chain Management; Customer Relationship Management; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Distribution Industry

June 1982 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Ellis Manufacturing Co.

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Ellis finds itself in a weakening competitive position largely due to the lack of rationalization in its plants. Driven by a strong traditionally decentralized sales organization, Ellis finds that all plants want control over all product lines. As a result, overall... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Cost; Analytics and Data Science; Brands and Branding; Performance Capacity; Competitive Strategy; Construction Industry

17 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

seat at board meetings. “This stuff doesn’t cost a lot but requires people to get into a room and talk about how to meaningfully recognize performance and commitment, so even the process of creating non-monetary rewards is good for the... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

May 2019
Case

Whiskey and Cheddar: Ingredient Branding at the Caesan Cheese Cooperative (Brief Case)

By: John A. Quelch and Katherine B. Hartman

The Caesan Cheese Cooperative is considering introducing a new high-quality, high-margin artisan whiskey cheddar cheese. Deidra Kelly, vice president of marketing and product development at Caesan, must recommend to the Board of Directors whether to launch the product... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Product Development; Management; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Food and Beverage Industry

18 Sep 2018
Working Paper Summaries

After the Carnival: Key Factors to Enhance Olympic Legacy and Prevent Olympic Sites from Becoming White Elephants

Keywords: by Isao Okada and Stephen A. Greyser; Sports

March 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Menem and the Populist Tradition in Argentina

By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Eliseo Neuman

Argentina has flourished under a fixed exchange rate system, yet there are large income and employment fluctuations. The social cost of unemployment is threatening the viability of the economic model. Building a welfare state is one alternative, but this may be a... View Details

Keywords: History; Governance; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employment; Currency Exchange Rate; Welfare; Government Administration; Government and Politics; Argentina

March 1982 (Revised January 1990)
Background Note

Note on Pricing Strategies for Industrial Products

Used as a background reading for a course or course module on pricing, this note describes the several basic parameters relevant for price determination. Provides a conceptual approach to formulating pricing strategy, dealing with such topics as skimming versus... View Details

Keywords: Price; Product Marketing; Industrial Products Industry

03 Sep 2015
News

An Online Bank With a Personal Touch

Addressing Consolidation in Health Care Markets

This JAMA Viewpoint proposes three steps the Biden administration can take to slow consolidation within health care, which has been shown to raise costs without improving service or quality: better fund federal antitrust enforcement agencies; appoint agency heads... View Details

December 1984
Case

Expense Tracking System at Tiger Creek

By: Shoshana Zuboff

Mill manager Carl Adelman learns that a group of senior managers is soon to visit the Tiger Creek mill to learn more about the success of the newly implemented Expense Tracking System. The System had been installed on two paper machines to give workers real time cost... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Success; Cost Management; Technology; Pulp and Paper Industry

Article

Optimizing Organic Waste to Energy Operations

By: Baris Ata, Deishin Lee and Mustafa H. Tongarlak

A waste-to-energy firm that recycles organic waste with energy recovery performs two environmentally beneficial functions: it diverts waste from landfill and it produces renewable energy. At the same time, the waste-to-energy firm serves and collects revenue from two... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Revenue; Customers; Strategy; Corporate Governance; Wastes and Waste Processing; Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Cost Management; Urban Scope

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August 2018 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Facebook—Can Ethics Scale in the Digital Age?

By: George A. Riedel and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Since its founding in 2004, Facebook has built a phenomenally successful business at global scale to become the fifth most valuable public company in the world. The revelation of Cambridge Analytica events in March 2018, where 78 million users' information was leaked... View Details

Keywords: Facebook; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Trust; Business Model; Corporate Accountability; Social Media