Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,154)
- Faculty Publications (202)
- February 2006 (Revised September 2006)
- Case
Sippican Corporation (A)
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Presents a time-driven version of the Wilkerson Co. activity-based costing case (101092). Faced with declining profits, Sippican Corp. is struggling to understand why it is encountering severe price competition on one product line. The controller collects data that... View Details
- October 2005 (Revised October 2006)
- Case
Infosys (A): Strategic Human Resource Management
By: Thomas J. DeLong, Jaya Tandon and Ganesh Rengaswamy
Hema Ravichandar, head of human resources, was given a new and aggressive milestone to reach: ensure Infosys is on the Top 10 lists of both Best Performing Companies and Best Employers by 2007. No large organization had ever been able to achieve this distinction... View Details
- October 2004 (Revised January 2006)
- Tutorial
Introduction to Responsibility Accounting Systems
By: David F. Hawkins, V.G. Narayanan, Jacob Cohen and Michele Jurgens
Responsibility accounting systems generate financial and related nonfinancial information about the actual and planned activities of a company's responsibility centers--organizational units headed by managers responsible for a unit's performance. The principal... View Details
- September 2004 (Revised February 2007)
- Case
Hedging Currency Risks at AIFS
By: Mihir A. Desai, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman
The American Institute for Foreign Studies (AIFS) organizes study abroad programs and cultural exchanges for American students. The firm's revenues are mainly in U.S. dollars, but most of its costs are in eurodollars and British pounds. The company's controllers review... View Details
- May 2004 (Revised April 2006)
- Case
Ultra: The Quest for Leadership (A)
By: Dwight B. Crane and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho
Ultra is one of a small group of competing Brazilian petrochemical companies, each of which buys raw material and is a minority owner of Copene, a "cracking" company that provides ethylene and other materials. Because of an industry restructuring, an auction of shares... View Details
- October 2003
- Case
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company: Building a Platform for Distributed Innovation
By: Marco Iansiti and Marcin Strojwas
Surging costs of building a state-of-the-art fabrication facility were pushing firms to outsource manufacturing while advanced technologies were requiring a tighter coupling between design and manufacturing. Explores the development of strategy in this environment.... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised September 2004)
- Case
Hearthside Homes
By: Jason R. Barro, Brian J. Hall and Aaron Zimmerman
Investigates the "controllability problem" inherent in bonus systems. Ideally, an incentive system accurately measures performance in areas that the individual can control. But most measures are either too broad, including factors outside the influence of the employee,... View Details
- Article
The Growing Strategic Importance of End-of-Life Product Management
Requiring manufacturers to manage the their products when they become waste is an innovative form of regulation, one that has been adopted by countries in Asia, Europe, and North America on a variety of products that range from vehicles to appliances to batteries.... View Details
- April 2002 (Revised September 2002)
- Background Note
Capital Controls
By: Rawi E. Abdelal and Laura Alfaro
Only in the waning years of the 20th century did international financial markets begin to enjoy the freedom from government regulation that they had experienced before the first world war. By 2002, international capital markets had grown to be enormous--$1.2 trillion... View Details
- January 2002
- Case
Noranda Inc.: Mining, Smelting, and Sustainability?
Noranda is a $7 billion international mining and smelting company headquartered in Canada. It has been cited for its fine environmental record. This case explores the issue of sustainability--in this case, for a mining company. Over time, and under nongovernmental... View Details
- December 2001 (Revised February 2008)
- Case
Borealis
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Bjorn N. Jorgensen
When Borealis, a European producer of plastics, used a traditional, time-consuming budgeting process, the budget was quickly out of date in a competitive environment characterized by continually changing input and output prices and dynamic market conditions. This case... View Details
- Dec 2001
- Other Presentation
Innovation Lecture
In his lecture, Professor Porter gave a sharp analysis of the Dutch economy. His message was that the Netherlands must watch its step because it is losing momentum as a knowledge-based economy. Not because it is performing badly, but because other countries are doing... View Details
- October 2001
- Supplement
R&R
By: Howard H. Stevenson and Amy Blitz
Outlines alternative mechanisms for getting into business. Shows the means by which an experienced entrepreneur can gain control over the necessary resources to lower the fixed costs of business entry. Provides a mechanism for discussing the role of experience,... View Details
- August 2001
- Case
Scios, Inc.
Scios, filled with distinguished scientists and experienced managers, nevertheless fails to clear the FDA Phase III process for an important biotechnology drug. This case asks the students to analyze the social costs and benefits of the regulatory process. View Details
- March 2001 (Revised August 2003)
- Case
Wilkerson Company
By: Robert S. Kaplan
The president of Wilkerson, faced with declining profits, is struggling to understand why the company is encountering severe price competition on one product line while able to raise prices without competitive response on another product line. The controller proposes... View Details
- August 2000 (Revised January 2001)
- Background Note
Asset Reporting
By: Paul M. Healy and Preeti Choudhary
Using historical cost and conservatism to identify and value assets, this case explains the criteria for asset reporting in straightforward situations and then examines scenarios where implementing the criteria for recognition and valuation of assets is conceptually... View Details
- 1999
- Other Unpublished Work
Executive Ownership and Control in Newly Public Firms: The Role of Venture Capitalists
By: Malcolm Baker and Paul Gompers
We study the implications of CEO equity ownership for incentives and control in a sample of 1,011 newly public firms. Before an initial public offering, equity investments by venture capitalists reduce CEO ownership by about half, from an average of 35 percent to 19... View Details
- April 1998 (Revised September 1998)
- Case
Classic Pen Company, The: Developing an ABC Model
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Classic Pen has diversified from its core blue and black pen business by introducing new specialized colors. But costs have risen and margins on blue and black pens are decreasing. The controller turns to activity-based costing (ABC) for an explanation. View Details
- 1998
- Working Paper
Some Evidence on the Optimal Welfare State Based on Subjective Data
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
It is often difficult to evaluate all the costs and benefits of the welfare state. This paper suggests an alternative approach based on surveys of citizen satisfaction with welfare programs. In the first part of the paper we estimate the level of unemployment benefits... View Details
- April 1997
- Case
Peoria Engine Plant (A): (Abridged)
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Amy P. Hutton
Describes the cost control system used at an automobile engine plant for labor and overhead costs. The finance staff prepares daily, weekly, and monthly variance reports against budgets. Department supervisors, finance staff, and the plant manager discuss the use and... View Details