Publications

03 Jul 2013
What Do You Think?

What Are the Limits of Transparency?

information is delivered." One possible line would include information about a company's strategy. Brad Keller commented that "It takes more than just sharing financials or performance review data It is really a matter of being... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

July 2023
Technical Note

Agricultural Innovation and Sustainability in the Netherlands

By: Willy C. Shih, Michael W. Toffel, Kelsey Carter, Jennifer Godfrey, Rafaella Mazza and Katrina Yeh

This note describes some of the most significant agricultural innovations in the Netherlands, their drivers, environmental performance implications, some challenges facing the sector, and the potential replicability of these innovations to other contexts. View Details

Keywords: Agricultural; Decarbonization; Farming; Agribusiness; Science; Research and Development; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Innovation and Invention; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Netherlands

November 1999 (Revised July 2001)
Case

New Profit Inc.: Governing the Nonprofit Enterprise

By: Robert S. Kaplan

New Profit, Inc. (NPI) is an innovative venture philanthropy fund. Founded by social entrepreneur Venessa Kirsch, NPI intends to raise large donations from individuals who wish to invest in nonprofit enterprises that could have a significant social impact and the... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Nonprofit Organizations; Venture Capital; Social Entrepreneurship; Corporate Governance; Performance Evaluation; Financial Statements; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Service Industry

July 2015 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Proxy Contest at DuPont

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Emily McTague

On January 9, 2015, Nelson Peltz of Trian Fund Management launched a proxy fight for four out of the twelve seats on the DuPont board. The fund had previously published a public letter addressed to shareholders outlining its proposal to break the company into three... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Hedge Fund; Activist Investing; Activist Investors; Proxy Fight; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Investment Activism; Chemical Industry; United States

October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Pilgrim Bank (A): Customer Profitability

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Provides a context in which students can explore managerial decision making that is critically informed by data analysis. The setting is a retail bank and the decision making relates to the bank's policy toward online banking. The management team is evaluating whether... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Customers; Profit; Banking Industry

September 1988 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Donner Co.

By: Roy D. Shapiro

The management of a small manufacturer of circuit boards faces a number of production and operations management problems. The first day on this case is used to analyze the production capacity of various stages in the process and to examine bottlenecks and key... View Details

Keywords: Information Management; Management; Management Practices and Processes; Production; Performance Capacity; Problems and Challenges; Semiconductor Industry

Program

Behavioral Economics—Virtual

program prepares you to influence the behavior of customers and employees—and become a bigger contributor to your organization's success. This program is eligible for the Certificate of Management Excellence. Learn More Key Benefits... View Details

January 2018
Technical Note

Business at the Base of the Pyramid: Understanding Impact and Impact Evaluations

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg

Unlike financial success, there is no clear consensus regarding how best to define and measure social impact. This HBS Technical Note written for students of the HBS MBA course Business at the Base of the Pyramid (BBOP), offers readers pragmatic perspectives on how the... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Social Issues; Value Creation; Human Needs; Performance Evaluation

February 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Boston Medical Group

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Bruce L. Hall

Describes the structure of a variable compensation plan for physicians implemented by a Massachusetts medical group practice. Examines issues such as balancing group and individual risk and selection of performance metrics (productivity and patient satisfaction). View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Health Care and Treatment; Executive Compensation; Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Standards; Risk and Uncertainty; Health Industry

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11 Oct 2007
Working Paper Summaries

How Firms Respond to Being Rated

Keywords: by Aaron K. Chatterji & Michael W. Toffel

30 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Are You Supporting Your B Players?

By day, managers run themselves ragged worrying about their A players: their stars, their rainmakers, their top 15 percent. By night, the same managers fret over their C players—their bottom 15 percent of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Program

High Potentials Leadership Program

eligible for the Certificate of Management Excellence. Learn More Key Benefits Focused on developing high potential leaders, this program prepares you to embrace the risks and opportunities that accompany new leadership roles. You will... View Details

August 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Jake Becraft and Strand Therapeutics: The Making of an Entrepreneur

By: Satish Tadikonda, William Marks and Ananya Zutshi

Jake Becraft, a PhD student at MIT disillusioned in pursuit of his dreams of becoming an academic, serendipitously finds himself discussing the potential commercial applications of his work with Tasuku Kitada, his former postdoctoral research mentor. The two decide to... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business or Company Management

2019
Working Paper

The Wisdom of Crowds in Operations: Forecasting Using Prediction Markets

By: Achal Bassamboo, Ruomeng Cui and Antonio Moreno

Prediction is an important activity in various business processes, but it becomes difficult when historical information is not available, such as forecasting demand of a new product. One approach that can be applied in such situations is to crowdsource opinions from... View Details

Keywords: Wisdom Of Crowds; Demand Forecasting; Price Forecasting; Forecasting and Prediction; Social and Collaborative Networks; Size; Performance

SSRN

Person Page

Course Development

General Management: Processes and Action (GMPA) focuses on implementation and the way that general managers get things done. Typically, they work through processes—sequences of tasks and activities that unfold over time, like strategic planning,... View Details

Web

Admissions & Financial Support - Doctoral

Admissions & Financial Support Your Journey Starts Now Application Requirements HBS admits a talented class of intellectually curious applicants from diverse backgrounds every year. We search for individuals... View Details

Article

Towards a Single European Sky

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Bert De Reyck

We describe an integrated decision-making framework and model that we developed to aid EUROCONTROL, the European air traffic management organization, in its vital role of constructing a single unified European sky. Combining multicriteria decision analysis with... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Analysis; Air Transportation Industry; Europe

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February 1999 (Revised July 2004)
Case

Life as a Minor League CEO Frank Burke and The Chattanooga Lookouts

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Kirk A. Goldman

A "slice of life" depiction of the range of issues and activities experienced by Frank Burke (HBS MBA 1987), the president of a minor league baseball team (the Chattanooga Lookouts). Raises questions of the applicability of MBA skills in this role and the "quotient of... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Managerial Roles; Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Marketing; Cost Management; Cost vs Benefits; Operations; Sports; Business Education; Sports Industry; Tennessee