Cost Efficiency - Publications - Faculty & Research

18 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Big Deals: Financing Large-Scale Investments

venture capital for people with real guts," quips Esty. "Most of the projects are start-ups, yet they cost something on the order of $5 billion, not $5 million." And all too often, he adds, they turn out to be losing... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

21 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 21

cost of capital and in turn the rates available to borrowers. Standard theory predicts that, in perfect and efficient capital markets, reducing banks' leverage reduces the risk and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 1992 (Revised December 1994)
Case

BEA Associates: Enhanced Equity Index Funds

By: Andre F. Perold

BEA's enhanced index fund product uses derivatives and cash market securities to find the most efficient way to "track an index." The considerations involve transaction costs, custodial fees, withholding taxes on dividends, and fees from securities lending. In this... View Details

Keywords: Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Investment Portfolio; Management; Investment Banking; Competitive Advantage; Cost Management

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29 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Is the Digital Age Making Us Petty?

With the rise of mobile payment apps like Venmo, many people can easily record the exact charges incurred by a lunch partner and pay back debts to the cent. They see themselves as efficient and fair. Others often have a different word for... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Research Summary

Overview

The overarching goal of my research is to produce works that are influential and informative to both academics and practitioners in the field of operations management. To accomplish this, I collaborate with industry partners who provide knowledge about their field,... View Details

Research Summary

The Role of Institutions in Overcoming Imperfect Monitoring in Relational Contracting (with Carmit Segal)

In a world in which firms can be hit by transitory adverse shocks it may be too costly for any single worker to verify the true state of the world. In this case, it may not be possible for firms to lower wages in response to adverse shocks and still have the workers... View Details

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Publications - Faculty & Research

effective policy instruments. The differing perspectives are due in part to a lack of empirical studies that look at the intensive margin of controls, which in turn has prevented a quantitative... View Details Keywords: Capital Controls ; Macroprudential Policies ;... View Details

11 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 11

demonstrates that when employees can see their customers, the beneficiaries of their efforts, the quality and efficiency of the service they deliver can actually improve. Studies in food service show how revealing customers to employees... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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Faculty & Research

efficient firm—thereby diversifying its production technologies while increasing concentration—can lower prices by prompting the leader to expand output and competitors to aggressively defend market shares. However, large transfers prove... View Details

24 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 24, 2017

an established cost accounting method, time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC), to assess the costs of performing an abdomen and pelvis computed tomography (AP CT) in an... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 1997 (Revised August 1997)
Case

numeric investors l.p.

By: Andre F. Perold and Brian J. Tierney

Numeric Investors manages equity portfolios with the use of a momentum model and a value model. The momentum model is based on earnings surprise and analysts' revisions of their earnings estimates. The firm offers long-short as well as long-only strategies, and its... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Cost; Equity; Financial Strategy; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Management; Product Development; Performance Efficiency; Business Strategy

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12 Mar 2019
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New Research and Ideas, March 12, 2019

By: Buell, Ryan W. Abstract—Conventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned away from the operation, they are less likely to fully... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

November 1993 (Revised March 1997)
Case

Romeo Engine Plant

By: Amy P. Hutton and Robert S. Kaplan

A newly reopened automobile engine plant has been organized along total quality and teamwork principles. Employees now is to solve problems and ensure quality, rather than watch parts being produced. New operating and financial systems have been installed to promote... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Groups and Teams; Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry

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28 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

Earth Day Reflections

it is critical to find effective ways to support far-reaching change in both products and processes across our entire economy. My current research focuses on large organizations that are attempting to take advantage of sustainability in order to build new businesses or... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

Article

Family Control of Firms and Industries

We test what explains family control of firms and industries and find that the explanation is largely contingent on the identity of families and individual blockholders. Founders and their families are more likely to retain control when doing so gives the firm a... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Cost vs Benefits; Governance Controls; Family Ownership; Business and Shareholder Relations; Competitive Advantage

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17 Dec 2007
Research & Ideas

The Rise of Medical Tourism

might be more efficient to move the patients to where the doctors are as long as we are not compromising the health care of the patients." Khanna recently sat down with HBS Working Knowledge to discuss the globalization of health... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

02 Aug 2016
First Look

August 2, 2016

households. The quality of the liquidity services provided by bank liabilities depends on their safety in case of default. Commercial bank debt is fully insured and thus provides full liquidity. However, commercial banks do not internalize the social View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Hôpital de Pontoise

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Simon Harrow

In 2010, Andre Razafindranaly, managing director of a large French public hospital, considers which organizational structure will help them adjust to the changing health sector environment. The move from global budget to activity-based funding has led his and many... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Governance Controls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Care and Treatment; Leading Change; Service Delivery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Health Industry; France

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26 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

The Strategic Way to Go to Market

Briefly, what are the opportunities and challenges presented by the Internet as a channel? A: The average cost of a direct sales call is about $150. The Internet is at about $5 or less per interaction! Of course, that should not be... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

February 2013 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Elasto Therm: The Next Step

By: Jim Sharpe and James Weber

Julia and Nate Burstein were living their dream running their own business and balancing the demands between their work and family obligations while creating a company that was responsive to their employees' and their customers' needs. The Bursteins had joined a large... View Details