Publications

February 2020
Course Overview Note

Managing Service Operations

January 2020 (Revised May 2021)
Teaching Note

Customer Compatibility Exercise

March 2017
Case

Breakfast at the Paramount

The Paramount is a 44-seat diner on Charles Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston. A frequent "Best of Boston" award winner, the restaurant is a perennial favorite among locals and tourists, particularly for brunch on the weekends, when lines often stretch... View Details

Keywords: Food; Management Practices and Processes; Service Delivery; Service Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Boston

Educators

March 2016
Supplement

Compass Group: The Ascension Health Decision

In 2012, Compass Group (Compass) was on the verge of closing a $2 billion deal with Ascension Health (Ascension), one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. Under the deal, Compass would provide foodservice management and cleaning services for 86 of... View Details

Keywords: Operations Strategy; Sectorization; Operational Focus; Customer Compatibility; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Industry; Health Industry; United States

Fall 2016
Article

How Do Customers Respond to Increased Service Quality Competition?

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

When does increased service quality competition lead to customer defection, and which customers are most likely to defect? Our empirical analysis of 82,235 customers exploits the varying competitive dynamics in 644 geographically isolated markets in which a nationwide... View Details

Keywords: Service Quality Competition; Retail Banks; Empirical Operations; Retention; Service Operations; Quality; Competition; Banking Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

02 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 2, 2019

gun restrictions. Lifting the Veil: The Benefits of Cost Transparency By: Mohan, Bhavya, Ryan W. Buell, and Leslie K. John Abstract—Firms do not typically disclose information on their costs to produce a... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Web

Managing Service Operations - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Managing Service Operations Course Number 2120 Professor Ryan Buell Senior Lecturer Michael Montelongo Senior Lecturer of Business Administration Robert Markey Fall; Q1Q2; 3.0 credits 28... View Details

Article

Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?

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

This paper investigates the impact of self-service technology (SST) usage on customer satisfaction and retention. Specifically, we disentangle the distinct effects of satisfaction and switching costs as drivers of retention among self-service customers. Our empirical... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Customer Satisfaction; Competition; Cost; Banks and Banking; Behavior; Market Transactions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

Find at Harvard

12 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 12, 2019

forthcoming World Happiness Report Happiness and Prosocial Behavior: An Evaluation of the Evidence By: Aknin, Lara B., A.V. Whillans, Michael I. Norton, and Elizabeth W. Dunn Abstract— Humans are an extremely prosocial species. Compared... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

12 Apr 2016
First Look

April 12, 2016

April 2016 Harvard Business Review Can You Cut 'Turn Times' Without Adding Staff? By: Bernstein, Ethan, and Ryan W. Buell Abstract—The president of RSA Ground, the subsidiary... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Nov 2015
First Look

November 3, 2015

difference-in-differences, matching estimations, and regression discontinuity designs. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50014 Experimental Evidence of Pooling Outcomes Under Information Asymmetry By: Schmidt, William, and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: Sept. 7

http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/The-current-crisis-and-the-essence-of-capitalism.php Reversing the Null: Regulation, Deregulation, and the Power of Ideas Authors:David Moss Publication:Chap. 4 in Challenges to Business in the Twenty-First Century, edited View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Forthcoming
Article

Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency

By: Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi

Through a large-scale field experiment with 393,036 customers considering opening a credit card account with a nationwide retail bank, we investigate how providing transparency into an offering’s tradeoffs affects subsequent rates of customer acquisition and long-run... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Customer Selection; Customer Compatibility; Retention; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Australia

Find at Harvard

12 Dec 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 12, 2017

Joy M., Liana Victorino, Ryan W. Buell, Michael J. Dixon, Susan M. Goldstein, Larry J. Menor, Madeleine E. Pullman, Aleda Roth, Enrico Secchi, and Jie Zhang Abstract—The purpose of this article is to present... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2020
Case

Getaway

By: Ryan W. Buell and Amy Klopfenstein

Since its founding, Getaway’s service offering – tiny, modern cabins in the woods, located within a two-hour drive of major metropolitan areas – had been met with tremendous demand. Overworked and overconnected city dwellers reveled in the opportunity to take a break... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Service Operations; Management; Demand and Consumers; Marketing; Strategy; Accommodations Industry

Educators

Article

Can You Cut 'Turn Times' Without Adding Staff?

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan W. Buell

The president of RSA Ground, the subsidiary of Rising Sun Airlines responsible for servicing its planes at airports across Japan, goes undercover as a service crew member to discover how and whether his employees can speed up cleaning, checking, restocking, and... View Details

Keywords: Employee Empowerment; Employee Motivation; Turnaround; Service Operations; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Air Transportation Industry; Japan

Read Now

05 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 5

PublicationsThe Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value Authors:Ryan W. Buell and Michael I. Norton Publication:Management Science (forthcoming) Abstract A ubiquitous feature... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2016 (Revised March 2020)
Supplement

Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve

By: Ananth Raman and Ryan W. Buell

February 2016 (Revised February 2020)
Teaching Note

Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve

By: Ryan W. Buell and Ananth Raman

Celebrated as one of the world's premiere luxury hotel brands, Oberoi Hotels attracts and serves some of the most quality sensitive guests in the world. The case considers the challenge of how an organization with a standardized service model can repeatedly delight... View Details

Keywords: Service Quality; Service Management; Service Quality Competition; Customer Management; Customer Service Excellence; Employee Empowerment; Employee Engagement; Employee Training; Hospitality; Hotel Industry; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Training; Quality; Accommodations Industry; India