Publications

May 2015 (Revised December 2016)
Supplement

Generating Higher Value at IBM (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Keywords: Dividends; Share Repurchases; Earnings Guidance; Financial Statement Analysis; Financial Ratios; Payout Policy; Earnings Per Share (EPS); Value Creation; Financial Statements; Corporate Finance; Computer Industry

2012
Chapter

Pursuing Public Value: Frameworks for Strategic Analysis and Action

By: Herman B. Leonard and Mark H. Moore

Features Harvard Kennedy School scholars who focus diverse conceptual lenses on a single high-stakes management task—enhancing port security across the United States. This title considers the challenge of driving change in a complex system involving hundreds of private... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; National Security; Complexity; Performance Improvement; United States

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2020
Working Paper

Determinants of Early-Stage Startup Performance: Survey Results

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

To explore determinants of new venture performance, the CEOs of 470 early-stage startups were surveyed regarding a broad range of factors related to their venture’s customer value proposition, product management, marketing, technology and operations, financial... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Survey Research; Performance Analysis; Entrepreneurship; Performance; Analysis; Business Startups; Failure; Surveys

SSRN

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March 2011
Module Note

Quantitative Analysis of Competitive Position: Customer Demand and Willingness to Pay

By: David J. Collis

This note is designed to provide strategists with tools to perform two critical customer-related analyses: determining willingness to pay — the estimation of how much a given customer would be willing to pay for a particular product or service; and demand estimation —... View Details

Keywords: Price; Demand and Consumers; Competitive Advantage; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Market Participation; Segmentation

December 1997 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Valuing Capital Investment Projects

By: W. Carl Kester

A collection of problems that introduces students to the application of discounted cash flow analysis in the evaluation of capital budgeting problems. View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Capital; Cash Flow; Investment; Valuation

May 2013
Article

The Performance Frontier: Innovating for a Sustainable Strategy

By: Robert G. Eccles and George Serafeim

By now most companies have sustainability programs. They're cutting carbon emissions, reducing waste, and otherwise enhancing operational efficiency. But a mishmash of sustainability tactics does not add up to a sustainable strategy. To endure, a strategy must address... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Innovation; Environment; Corporate Reporting; Corporate Social Responsibility; Governance; Strategy; Value; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance; Environmental Sustainability; Innovation and Invention

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13 Feb 2019
News

Nurture a workforce that values ideas and contributions

March 2021
Article

The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

This paper investigates the impact of customer compatibility – the degree of fit between the needs of customers and the capabilities of the operations serving them – on customer experiences and firm performance. We use a variance decomposition analysis to quantify the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Compatibility; Satisfaction; Profitability; Service Operations; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Performance

Research Summary

Creating Corporate Value Added

By: Joseph L. Bower

In response to dramatic changes in the business environment--hypercompetition in many traditional industries, short product life cycles, and new competitors based in emerging nations--successful companies have responded by repositioning themselves in the global markets... View Details

February 2005 (Revised November 2006)
Background Note

Using Data Desk for Statistical Analysis

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Describes how to use the Data Desk software package to perform statistical analysis. View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods

19 Jan 2024
News

The Values and Virtues of a Quick Fix

the nurses were able to articulate was it was just a daily and intraday reinforcement that their time and expertise was not being valued by this institution. We tell this story... View Details

September 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 4: Organizing for Performance

By: Robert Simons

This module reading explores the implications of different business models on organization design. After discussing the distinction between units focused on work processes and those devoted to markets, the analysis provides insight as to when to organize businesses by... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Customer Focused Organization; Specialization; Span Of Control; Span Of Accountability; Span Of Attention; Strategy; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure

April–May 2012
Article

Resources or Power? Implications of Social Networks on Compensation and Firm Performance

By: Joanne Horton, Yuval Millo and George Serafeim

Using a sample of 4,278 listed UK firms, we construct a social network of directorship-interlocks that comprises 31,495 directors. We use social capital theory and techniques developed in social network analysis to measure a director's connectedness and investigate... View Details

Keywords: Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Compensation and Benefits; Performance; Relationships; Resource Allocation; United Kingdom

13 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Modularity on Intellectual Property and Value Appropriation

Keywords: by Carliss Y. Baldwin & Joachim Henkel

April 2010
Case

Groupe Ariel S.A.: Parity Conditions and Cross-Border Valuation

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and James Quinn

Groupe Ariel evaluates a proposal from its Mexican subsidiary to purchase and install cost-saving equipment at a manufacturing facility in Monterrey. The improvements will allow the plant to automate recycling and remanufacturing of toner and printer cartridges, an... View Details

Keywords: Exchange Rates; Securities Analysis; Project Evaluation; International Finance; Debt Securities; Currency Exchange Rate; Cash Flow; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Capital Budgeting; Europe; Mexico

10 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

Become a Value Creator

asked how he could pay back the favor. Cash put his arm around his colleague's shoulder and said, "You don't owe me anything, Brian. This is the way we do things here. Just pay it forward." “Shareholder View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 May 2013
News

The Performance Frontier: Innovating for a Sustainable Strategy

18 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Getting It Done: Improving Nonprofit Performance

number of for-profits that are focusing on problems in areas such as education and welfare-to-work? According to Bloomberg Senior Lecturer in Philanthropy Allen Grossman, the answers to these kinds of questions must take into... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner

1 Mar 2013 - 2 Mar 2013
Conference Presentation

The Value of Flexibility in Baseball Roster Construction

By: Timothy Chan and Douglas S. Fearing

Drawing inspiration from the theory of production flexibility in manufacturing networks, we provide the first optimization-based analysis of the value of positional flexibility (the ability of a player to play multiple positions) for a major league baseball team in the... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Design; Production; Resource Allocation; Groups and Teams; Adaptation; Sports