Publications

January 2009 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Disaster in April: The Obligations of Kelly Construction

By: John D. Macomber, Christopher M. Gordon and Ben Creo

A construction company experiences a crane accident with multiple fatalities. The CEO, a client, and an employee must make choices to meet the company's obligations. Set in 2006, the case looks at the choices faced by board members of a museum that is an important... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Family Business; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governing and Advisory Boards; Compensation and Benefits; Contracts; Crisis Management; Construction Industry

February 1995 (Revised September 1995)
Case

The Bourland Companies

By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.

Michael Bourland, the president of the Bourland Companies, needs to refinance two properties, an office building in southern New Hampshire and a retail property in Massachusetts. He is considering three alternatives: a renewal of a bank mini-perm, a 15-year mortgage... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Property; Mortgages; Family Business; Financial Management; Family Ownership; Real Estate Industry; Massachusetts; North and Central America

March 2022
Case

Copper Nationalization in Chile

By: Jeremy Friedman, John Masko and Jingyu Liu

In 1970 Chile became the first country to elect a Marxist president through open, multi-party elections in Salvador Allende. In his first year as president, Allende nationalized the copper industry, Chile’s largest export industry that was developed and owned by US... View Details

Keywords: Nationalism; History; Political Elections; Natural Resources; Globalized Markets and Industries; National Security; Government Administration; Government and Politics; Chile

February 2021
Supplement

HNA Group: Global Excellence with Chinese Characteristics (C)

By: William C. Kirby, Billy Chan and John P. McHugh

July 2017 was supposed to be a triumphant month for HNA Group. The latest Fortune Global 500 list showed the company had again skyrocketed in its ranking to no. 170, an improvement of over 200 positions from the year prior. Yet earlier that same July, the mysterious... View Details

Keywords: Conglomerate; Airline Industry; Coronavirus; Financial Risk; Debt; Bankruptcy; Global Strategy; Restructuring; Health Pandemics; Financial Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Condition; Globalized Firms and Management; Business and Government Relations; Air Transportation Industry; Financial Services Industry; China

Article

Present Bias Causes and Then Dissipates Auto-enrollment Savings Effects

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Peter Maxted

Present bias causes procrastination, which leads households to stick with auto-enrollment defaults. However, present bias also engenders overconsumption. Separation from each employer generates a rollover of 401(k) balances to an individual retirement account (IRA)... View Details

Keywords: Present Bias; Procrastination; Personal Finance; Decision Making; Social Psychology; Retirement

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16 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 16

profitable investment decisions. During the last ten years, Wall Street research has been battered by a series of shocks. As concerns over conflicts of interest mounted, the integrity of research output was questioned, leading to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Sep 2019
Blog Post

The Business of Medicine: MD/MBA Students Having an Impact

the health, educational, and racial disparities exacerbated by poverty. “All the things you don’t associate with a Harvard Med student, I have seen and lived through,” he says, telling of close family members who have struggled with... View Details

07 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 7

driven at least partly by career concerns. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-014.pdf Policy Bundling to Overcome Loss Aversion: A Method for Improving Legislative Outcomes Authors:Katherine L. Milkman, Mary Carol... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

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

18 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 18

While many texts teach the theories and frameworks of management education, Managerial Accounting goes further by covering the capabilities and techniques necessary for effective management practice, as well as fostering attitudes that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2020
Article

Healthy Business? Managerial Education and Management in Healthcare

By: Nicholas Bloom, Renata Lemos, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

We investigate the link between hospital performance and managerial education by collecting a large database of management practices and skills in hospitals across nine countries. We find that hospitals that are closer to universities offering both medical education... View Details

Keywords: Management; Hospitals; Mortality; Education; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Improvement; Business Education; Management Practices and Processes

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August 2019
Case

ClearScore, 2018

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In October 2017, Experian, one of the “Big Three” consumer credit reporting agencies in the United Kingdom made an offer to acquire ClearScore for a total consideration of £293 million. Founded by Justin Basini, Dan Cobley, and Nigel Morris in 2014, ClearScore was the... View Details

01 Oct 1997
News

High Fives

have encouraged our clients to take substantial portions of their U.S. equity portfolios and buy international stocks.” Views on investing in emerging markets: “Those markets are enticing but can be unbelievably volatile. We think the lowest-risk way to participate in... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Collusion in Brokered Markets

By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers and Richard Lowery

The U.S. residential real estate agency market presents a puzzle for economic theory: commissions on real estate transactions have remained high for decades even though entry is frequent and costs are low. We model the real estate agency market, and other brokered... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; ＂Repeated Games＂; Collusion; Antitrust; Brokered Markets; Game Theory; Real Estate Industry

SSRN

July 2001 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Centra Software

By: John A. Deighton and Laetitia Pouliquen

Centra is a pioneer in software eLearning. It is debating how to modify its go-to-market strategy, adding telesales to improve sales force productivity. At the same time, its market is evolving, and management thinks it may be about to "cross the chasm" in Geoffrey... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Learning; Emerging Markets; Growth Management; Salesforce Management; Conflict Management; Information Technology Industry; Education Industry

October 2003 (Revised January 2005)
Case

Microsoft: Launching the Smart Watch

By: John T. Gourville and Christina L. Darwall

Microsoft is on the verge of launching its Smart Watch technology, which will allow specially designed watches to receive up-to-date information on sports, business, traffic, news, etc. After several years of effort and millions of dollars spent, the questions now... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Information Management; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Product Design; Product Development; Performance Effectiveness; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology Industry

March 2020
Article

Which Early Withdrawal Penalty Attracts the Most Deposits to a Commitment Savings Account?

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Harris, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and Jung Sakong

Previous research has shown that some people voluntarily use commitment contracts that restrict their own choice sets. We study how people divide money between two accounts: a liquid account that permits unrestricted withdrawals and a commitment account that is... View Details

Keywords: Quasi-hyperbolic Discounting; Present Bias; Sophistication; Naiveté; Commitment; Flexibility; Savings; Contract Design; Defined Contribution Retirement Plan; 401 (K); IRA; Saving; Behavior; Contracts; Design; Interest Rates

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