Publications

spring 2002
Article

Pricing Access Services

By: Skander Essegaier, Sunil Gupta and John Zhang

Keywords: Price

September 1988 (Revised April 1989)
Case

Managing Service Operations: Research resources for new service design

Where can I begin begin my research for the new service design exercise? The following are highly selected resources for MSO New Service Design exercise. Please contact Baker Library View Details

August 2004 (Revised April 2005)
Case

MK Taxi: Private Chauffeur Service

MK Taxi Tokyo has developed a system to allow customers to use their mobile phones to find and contact the cab closest to them, bypassing the dispatch center. The system, called the Private Chauffeur Service (PCS), makes use of NTT's i-mode service, which essentially... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Customer Focus and Relationships; Transportation; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Service Industry; Service Industry; Tokyo

April 2002
Background Note

Consolidation of Highly Fragmented Service Industries, The

Designed to familiarize students with the consolidation of highly fragmented labor-dependent service industries, offering insights into service firm growth and the ways services can, and cannot, increase their efficiency and effectiveness. Two frameworks are presented... View Details

Keywords: Consolidation; Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry

14 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition

Editor's Note: Harvard Business School professors James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, and Leonard A. Schlesinger literally wrote the book on service industry management with The Service Profit Chain. Now the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser & Leonard A. Schlesinger; Retail

Research Summary

Managing Service Operations Course Development

By: Frances X. Frei

Managing Service Operations is an Elective Curriculum course taught at HBS. Over thirty cases and exercises have been created for the course. For a list of the cases developed for this course, please see the Publications link below. For the most recent syllabus,... View Details

08 Jul 2016
Video

Human-Centered Service Design Professor Ryan Buell

25 Jun 2012
News

Complexity Kills: Keeping Customer Service Simple

2014
Case

Changhong: Journey to Shared Services

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Haiyan Zhang and Guo Jia

Founded in 1958 and headquartered in Mianyang - an emerging inland science and technology city in Sichuan Province, Changhong Electric Co., Ltd., started from the military industry. It then entered the color TV industry and subsequently expanded to a wide range of... View Details

Keywords: China; Appliances; Finance ＆ Insurance; China

16 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Reality of Web Services

What's next for Web services? In his case summary "Will Web Services Really Transform Collaboration?" published in the Winter 2005 edition of MIT Sloan Management Review, HBS associate professor Andrew P. McAfee argues that the... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant

October 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

eLance.com: Building a Professional Services Marketplace

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Kristin Kohler

Launched as an eBay for services, eLance promises to leverage the capabilities of the Internet to not only change the way services are bought and sold, but change the fundamental dynamics of the global economy. Building on theories posited in the HBR article by Tim... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Job Search; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Web Sites; Service Industry; Service Industry

December 1998
Case

Retail Financial Services in 1998: First Union

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Provides an overview of First Union's current strategy for retail financial services. Retail Financial Services in 1998 should be given to all students as background material. The class should then be split into groups, with each group receiving one of the following... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Industry Structures; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

November 2011
Teaching Note

Comfort Class Transport: Does Customer Service Need an Overhaul? (Brief Case)

By: Michael J. Roberts and Paul E. Morrison

Teaching Note for Product #4377. View Details

Keywords: Capacity Utilization; Supply ＆ Demand; Operations Management; Customer Service; Management; Demand and Consumers; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Supply and Industry; Capital

February 1996
Case

Indianopolis: Implementing Competition in City Services

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Roger Atherton

Mayor Stephen Goldsmith of Indianapolis introduces competition to provide city services and implementation of new bidding procedures and work practices in the Department of Transportation. Exhibits show how work methods changed and work control procedures control work... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Business Strategy; Welfare; Transportation; Change; Cost Management; Service Industry

June 1998 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest

Wells Fargo, the industry leader in electronic banking, has implemented a Balanced Scorecard in its online financial services group (OFS) to track and measure performance. The OFS group develops and supports services that allow existing and future banking customers to... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Finance; Change; Situation or Environment; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

August 2000 (Revised June 2001)
Case

Fsas: Fujitsu Support and Service Inc.

Fsas was created as a spinoff subsidiary of Fujitsu to service PC networks. As the company succeeded, it became listed on Japan's stock exchange--second tier. Now the Internet is causing Fsas to decide how to structure itself again. Should it spinoff a new company? View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Internet; Business Growth and Maturation; Innovation and Invention; Information Technology Industry; Japan