Publications

2025
Working Paper

Methane Abatement Costs in the Oil and Gas Industry: Survey and Synthesis

By: Joseph E. Aldy, Forest Reinhardt and Robert N. Stavins

There is growing recognition of the relative importance of anthropogenic emissions of methane as a contributor to global climate change. An important source of such emissions in some countries, including the United States, is the oil and gas (O&G) sector. This points... View Details

Keywords: Emission Reduction; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Pollutants; Energy Industry

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December 2003 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Globalizing the Cost of Capital and Capital Budgeting at AES

By: Mihir A. Desai and Douglas Kurt Schillinger

With electricity generating businesses around the world, AES Corp. is seeking a methodology for calculating the cost of capital for its various businesses and potential projects. In the past, AES used the same cost of capital for all of its capital budgeting, but the... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Risk Management; Globalized Firms and Management; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Emerging Markets; Foreign Direct Investment; Capital Budgeting; Energy Industry; South America

July 2007
Article

Cooperation between Corporations and Environmental Groups: A Transaction Cost Perspective

Theory suggests that when transaction costs are low, corporations and stakeholders can minimize social costs by transacting to their mutual advantage, but when transaction costs are high, reducing social costs requires the intervention of a centralized institution.... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Cost; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Competitive Advantage; Cooperation

October 2010
Article

Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity

By: Eric Van den Steen

This paper develops an economic theory of the costs and benefits of corporate culture-in the sense of shared beliefs and values in order to study the effects of "culture clash" in mergers and acquisitions. I first use a simple analytical framework to show that shared... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Organizational Culture; Economics; Information Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Values and Beliefs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Framework; Satisfaction; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Communication

June 2013
Supplement

Boston Children's Hospital Assignment Worksheet

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Keywords: Health Care; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Costing; Hospitals; Activity Based Costing and Management

September 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Eaton Corporation: Portfolio Transformation and The Cost of Capital

By: Benjamin C. Esty, E. Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher

In 2000, Eaton Corporation was a broadly diversified industrial conglomerate. But its strategy was evolving and its focus was narrowing around “power management” and more recently on “intelligent power,” the use of digitally enabled products and services designed to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Divisions; Cost of Capital; Corporate Finance; Value; Valuation; Industrial Products Industry; United States; Denmark; Republic of Ireland

April 1989 (Revised January 1990)
Case

Texas Instruments: Cost of Quality (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A division questions whether to retain, modify, or abandon its cost of quality system now that more direct measures of quality have been adopted. Discusses the role of quality cost measurement in a mature quality management system. View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Quality

1995
Chapter

Incentive Problems in Financial Contracting: Impacts on Corporate Financing, Investment, and Risk Management Policies

By: K. Froot

Keywords: Catastrophe Risk; Corporate Finance; Cost Of Capital; Banking And Insurance; Asset Pricing; Hedging; Banking; Decision Choice And Uncertainty; Financial Markets; Insurance; Policy; Risk Management; Natural Disasters; Insurance Industry

In 2000, Eaton Corporation was broadly diversified industrial conglomerate. But its strategy was evolving and its focus was narrowing around “power management” and more recently on “intelligent power,” the use of digitally enabled products and services designed... View Details

2019
Report

The Caring Company: How Employers Can Help Employees Manage their Caregiving Responsibilities—While Reducing Costs and Increasing Productivity

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Manjari Raman

November 2012
Article

Does Management Really Work?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

HBR's 90th anniversary is a sensible time to revisit a basic question: Are organizations more likely to succeed if they adopt good management practices? The answer may seem obvious to most HBR readers, but these three economists cast their net much wider than that. In... View Details

Keywords: Best Practices; Consulting Firms; Corporations; Cost Control; Employee Training; Executive Ability (Management); Executives—training Of; Hospitals—administration; Industrial Management—research; Productivity Incentives; School Management Teams; Work Environment; Management; Research

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September 2013
Supplement

John G. Meara, Boston Children's Hospital, Measuring Costs, TDABC

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Keywords: Health Care; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Costing; Hospitals; Activity Based Costing and Management

June 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Scientific Glass Incorporated: Inventory Management

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and William Schmidt

Scientific Glassware is a fast-growing, privately held company that provides specialized glassware for laboratory and research facilities. Excess inventory is tying up extra capital needed to fund the company's expansion plans. The newly hired Manager of Inventory... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Control; Inventory Management; Materials Management; Order Processing; Warehousing; Salesforce Management; Logistics; Operations; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Finance; Consumer Products Industry; Technology Industry

18 Feb 2019
News

The High Cost of Love

July 2016
Case

Product Portfolio Management at Genentech

By: Kevin Schulman and Jamie Gresh

Genentech, long the darling of the biotechnology industry, was acquired by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche in 2009. The combined company retains the name Genentech in the US, but must now move to achieve the promises made at the time of this merger—to build from... View Details

Keywords: Portfolio Management; Drug Development; Postmerger Integration; Marketing Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

August 23, 2018
Article

Using a New EHR System to Increase Patient Engagement, Improve Efficiency, and Decrease Cost

By: Katy French, Barbra Bryce Speer, Alexis B. Guzman, Tayab Andrabi, Iris Recinos, Keith A. Shook, James R. Incalcaterra, John C. Frenzel and Thomas W. Feeley

Patients and providers are frustrated with seemingly endless data entry. We used our patients’ vested interest in their own health care by actively engaging them in the entry of their own medical information into the EHR. Prior to the implementation of the new EHR we... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Analytics and Data Science; Performance Efficiency; Cost Management

Article

Administrative Costs Associated with Physician Billing and Insurance-Related Activities at an Academic Health Care System

By: Phillip Tseng, Robert S. Kaplan, Barak D. Richman, Mahek A. Shah and Kevin A. Schulman

The federal government mandated adoption of certified electronic health record systems (EHR), at least in part, to reduce administrative costs for physicians. This study used time-driven activity-based costing to determine the administrative costs associated with... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Insurance; Problems and Challenges

June 2009
Case

Midland Energy Resources, Inc.: Cost of Capital

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Joel L. Heilprin

The senior vice president of project finance for a global oil and gas company must determine the weighted average cost of capital for the company as a whole and each of its divisions as part of the annual capital budgeting process. The case uses comparable companies to... View Details

Keywords: Risk Assessment; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Cost of Capital; Cash Flow; Capital Structure; Valuation; Capital Budgeting; Energy Industry