Publications

March 1987 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Au Bon Pain: The French Bakery Cafe, The Partner/Manager Program

By: W. Earl Sasser

In recent years, Au Bon Pain (ABP), a chain of upscale French bakeries/sandwich cafes based in Boston, confronted a set of human resource problems endemic to the fast food industry (i.e., a labor shortage which made it difficult to attract and maintain quality crew... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Managerial Roles; Retention; Employees; Performance Improvement; Recruitment; Problems and Challenges; Compensation and Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Boston

January 2021
Case

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; United States; California

27 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

Religion in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know

instead. Angry and hurt, the couple brought suit against Phillips with the Colorado Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accusing him of violating the state’s anti-discrimination law, which prevents businesses that sell goods to the public from denying View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage; Food & Beverage

03 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 3

Mandates, and the Use of In Vitro Fertilization Services in the United States By: Kiatpongsan, Sorapop, Robert S. Huckman, and Mark D. Hornstein Abstract—Objective: To investigate the relationship between economic activities, insurance... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2011
Case

WrapItUp: Developing a New Compensation Plan

By: W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Rachel Shelton

A restaurant chain based in California offers made-to-order sandwich wraps using fresh, healthy ingredients. The founders of the company take a very active role in day-to-day business and tightly control every aspect of the restaurant operation from hiring store... View Details

Keywords: Empowerment; Middle Management; Human Resource Management; Compensation; Incentives; Motivation; Motivation and Incentives; Change Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Service Delivery; Entrepreneurship; Employees; Compensation and Benefits; Service Industry; Service Industry; Service Industry; California

25 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Rapport: The Hidden Advantage That Women Managers Bring to Teams

(worldwide), but service industries like food and retail in this part of the world are great examples, and they occupy very large proportions of the labor force. The findings here apply to a lot of workers,”... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Food & Beverage

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

Updated to clarify a failure rate figure included in an earlier version. When planning new products, companies often start by segmenting their markets and positioning their merchandise accordingly. This segmentation involves either dividing the market into product... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Service; Service; Service; Service

19 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

How Mercadona Fixes Retail’s ’Last 10 Yards’ Problem

highlights the chain's "specialists"—an unusual example of how operations, customer service, employee relations, and profitability are all maximized together. "It's a lot like the kind of service Home Depot used to be... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage; Food & Beverage

21 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 21

categories in the technology world? Purchase this case: http://hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=709466 iPremier (A): Denial of Service Attack (Graphic Novel Version) Harvard Business School Case 609-092 Describes an IT... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

19 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 19

that allowed patients to conduct online medical consultations with physicians, is considering pursuing a direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy. Founded in 2006, American Well had, to date, primarily sold its solution to health plans, which then provided online care View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2021
Supplement

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; California

03 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Corporate Social Responsibility in a Downturn

reputation and brand. In general these activities create a win-win for the company and its larger group of stakeholders. Q: Many nonprofits from museums to food banks are worried about the dwindling number of donors and their future in... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

07 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Supervisor of Sandwiches? More Companies Inflate Titles to Avoid Extra Pay

If it seems like everyone is a manager these days, you may be onto something. Not only is there a profusion of assistant managers, there are also now carpet shampoo and food cart managers, directors of first impressions, assistant bingo... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

Article

How Much Is a Reduction of Your Customers' Wait Worth? An Empirical Study of the Fast-Food Drive-Thru Industry Based on Structural Estimation Methods

In many service industries, companies compete with each other on the basis of the waiting time their customers experience, along with other strategic instruments such as the price they charge for their service. The objective of this paper is to conduct an empirical... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Price; Service Delivery; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

Find at Harvard

18 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 18

role of the American Economic Association (AEA) in the market and focuses in particular on two mechanisms adopted in recent years at the suggestion of our committee. First, job market applicants now have a signaling service to send an... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2018
Article

Maintaining Beliefs in the Face of Negative News: The Moderating Role of Experience

By: Bradley R. Staats, Diwas S. KC and F. Gino

Many models in operations management involve dynamic decision making that assumes optimal updating in response to information revelation. However, behavioral theory suggests that rather than updating their beliefs, individuals may persevere in their prior beliefs. In... View Details

Keywords: Information; Announcements; Service Operations; Decision Making; Medical Specialties; Experience and Expertise; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry