Publications

August 2003 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Fighting the Battle of the Bulge—Evaluating Do Good/Do Well Innovations in Morbid Obesity Treatment

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and John McDonough

Many health care innovations appear successful; but fail. This is the first case in the Innovating Health Care course that investigates how to create successful health care innovations. It is part of the first module in the course. This module focuses on how to... View Details

Keywords: Three Pillars; Industry Analysis; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Medical Specialties; Health Industry

2016
Working Paper

Operations in the On-Demand Economy: Staffing Services with Self-Scheduling Capacity

By: Itai Gurvich, Martin Lariviere and Antonio Moreno

Motivated by recent innovations in service delivery such as ride-sharing services and work-from-home call centers, we study capacity management when workers self-schedule. Our service provider chooses capacity to maximize its profit (revenue from served customers minus... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Servers; On-demand Economy; Independent Capacity; Distributed Systems; Uber; Service Operations; Performance Capacity

SSRN

01 Dec 2006
What Do You Think?

How Important Is Quality of Labor? And How Is It Achieved?

U.S., are full of help-wanted signs? Is it simply the fear of change and uncertainty in a time of both job and labor migration? Can increased retraining of displaced workers really provide an answer to it, especially if one of the causes... View Details

Keywords: by by Jim Heskett

03 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Why a Failed Startup Might Be Good for Your Career After All

iterations of the paper are in the works that use some 150 million resumes from LinkedIn to broaden the study. “Our paper clearly shows that taking risks by starting a new company pays off in the long run... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Web

Leadership Fellows | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

organization to utilize a Fellow's leadership and management skills. Fellows are chosen by the hiring organizations through a standard interview process. Organizations pay Fellows a $65,000 salary and HBS... View Details

14 Dec 2007
Op-Ed

When Your Product Becomes a Commodity

exceeding the new specifications. Bundle. Selling a commoditized product with differentiated ancillary services (such as after-sales service) can appeal to buyers willing to View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

November 2019 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Grupo Éxito: Facing Colombia's Competitive Grocery Retail Industry

By: José B. Alvarez, Carla Larangeira, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Miguel Diaz Moreno

Grupo Éxito, a leading South American retailer, faced declining market shares in Colombia in 2019 with the arrival of low-cost competitors and emerging digital trends. Originally founded in Medellín, Éxito had over the course of its seventy-year history evolved from a... View Details

Keywords: Grocery; Market Share; Information Technology; Trends; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry; Colombia; Latin America

November 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Microsoft Xbox: Changing the Game?

By: Andrei Hagiu

In September 1999, the Microsoft Xbox team was wondering which strategic choices would give it the best chance against the upcoming Sony PlayStation 2. Initially called "Project Midway" within Microsoft, the console project was intended to counter the perceived threat... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Recruitment; Leadership; Management Teams; Multi-Sided Platforms; Two-Sided Platforms; Production; Strategy; Competition; Expansion; Video Game Industry; Texas

01 Jun 2022
Blog Post

Five Lessons From My First Year at HBS

happened, I probably would not have been where I am today. At HBS, I’ve become more aware and convinced that given our privilege, we ought to give back to those who have helped us along the way, and View Details

Bank Capital and the Growth of Private Credit

We show that business development companies (BDCs) — closed-end funds that provide a significant share of nonbank loans to middle market firms — are very well capitalized according to bank capital frameworks. They have median risk-based capital ratios of about 36% and,... View Details

16 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Understanding the ‘Want’ vs. ’Should’ Decision

pollution; support for a personal savings plan; and willingness to donate money. We found that people are much more likely to make binding selections of should options when the... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Retail; Entertainment & Recreation

12 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

they know better? Or will they rise to the challenges that come with growth, respect the structure, and become the guru of the team? Please pay attention to your early hires as... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

09 Apr 2024
Research & Ideas

When Climate Goals, Housing Policy, and Corporate R&D Collide, Social Good Can Emerge

For almost four years, Omar Asensio and his colleagues have been studying the impact of federal energy programs on low-income neighborhoods. The intersection of technology—artificial intelligence, in particular—and public policy has long been an area of focus for... View Details

Keywords: by Glen Justice

20 Nov 2007
Working Paper Summaries

The “Fees → Savings” Link, or Purchasing Fifty Pounds of Pasta

Keywords: by Michael I. Norton & Leonard Lee; Retail

31 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

Beyond the 'Business Case' in DEI: 6 Steps Toward Meaningful Change

practices to reinforce inequalities, not only in society, but right here in our company? This is often a challenging step for leaders. If you’re not using scorecards, dashboards or some other measurement system View Details

Keywords: by Katherine Hutt Scott and Barbara DeLollis

Web

Campus & Community | About

respect, and free expression and inquiry. Acknowledgement of Land & People Harvard Business School is located on the traditional and ancestral land of the Massachusett, the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston and Cambridge. We View Details

Research Summary

Multilateral Bankruptcy Rules

By: Jerry R. Green

A classic problem in economics is the selection of a bankruptcy rule with good normative properties. The problem as usually specified is given by the “estate” E which is to be divided among the “claims” c= (c₁,... View Details

2019
Article

The Social Desirability of Offshoring: A Swiss Consensus (1945–1975)

By: Sabine Pitteloud

This article focuses on the evolution of the rhetoric and practice of corporate offshoring in Switzerland from the post-war economic boom to the industrial crisis in the mid-seventies. The virtue of a historical perspective on the issue of offshoring is to show how... View Details

Keywords: Multinationals; Offshoring And Outsourcing; Relocation; Labor Relations; Multinational Firms and Management; Labor and Management Relations; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Switzerland