Publications

March 2011
Case

Insight Communications

By: Rajiv Lal and Natalie Kindred

After undertaking a multi-year, metrics-driven operational and cultural overhaul, in April 2010 Insight Communications was planning the next phase of its development. Insight was a New York-based provider of cable, landline phone, and high-speed Internet service to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Improvement; Growth Management; Management Systems; Business Processes; Measurement and Metrics; Employees; Telecommunications Industry; New York (state, US)

2012
Working Paper

Do Market Leaders Lead in Business Process Innovation? The Case(s) of E-Business Adoption

By: Kristina S. McElheran

This paper explores the relationship between market position and business process innovation. Prior research has focused on the alignment between new technologies and the internal capabilities of firms to pursue them. I extend the investigation to include external... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Technological Innovation; Leadership; Business Processes; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Technology Adoption; Manufacturing Industry; United States

SSRN

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June 1998 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Case for Brand Loyalty, A

Brand loyalty is one of the core concepts of the marketing discipline that has enjoyed practical and academic attention for over 75 years. The era of relationship marketing, with its focus on retaining customers for life, has instilled yet greater interest in the... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Brands and Branding

January 1996 (Revised February 1997)
Case

Tennessee Valley Authority: Option Purchase Agreements

By: Peter Tufano

James Cross, VP of customer planning at the Tennessee Valley Authority, a major supplier of electric power in the Southeast United States, is considering meeting its incremental capacity needs by creating new financial contracts, Option Purchase Agreements (OPAs) to... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Energy Generation; Corporate Finance; Energy Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

April 2004 (Revised July 2007)
Case

OfficeTiger

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Johanna Regine Naunton Blaxall

OfficeTiger was founded in late 1999 with an innovative approach to global outsourcing. The company's employees, located primarily in India, provided services for corporations, investment banks, and professional services firms throughout the United States, Europe, and... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Globalized Markets and Industries; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; India

September 2002 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Transformation at the IRS

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim

Describes the service transformation occurring at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Plagued by a history of poor service, enormous complexity, and an insular employee base, the 100,000-person organization grapples with a turnaround process that attempts to change... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Service Operations; Organizational Structure; Taxation; Organizational Culture; Transformation; Public Administration Industry; United States

04 May 2011
News

Google Takes to TV to Promote Browser

28 Apr 2019
News

How One Independent Bookstore Succeeds in the Amazon Age

18 Jan 2012
News

Politics, Tax Code Said to Stymie U.S.

28 Jan 2025
Video

Sustainability is innovation

20 Feb 2019
News

Operational Transparency

Research Summary

Managing Marketspace Service Interfaces

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Jeffrey F. Rayport is focusing on the strategic challenges that face businesses selling information-intensive products and services. A key strategic issue in such businesses is the dematerialization of information-intensive products and services as a consequence of... View Details

January 2004 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Electronic Arts in Online Gaming

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Justin Wong

Electronic Arts (EA), the world's largest independent video-game publisher, must decide whether to support Microsoft's initiatives in online gaming. Historically, EA has been platform-agnostic, releasing versions of its titles for all major console platforms. However,... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Digital Platforms; Network Effects; Policy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Revenue; Segmentation; Sales; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Electronics Industry

January 2021
Case

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; United States; California

August 2007 (Revised June 2010)
Case

JetBlue Airways: Valentine's Day 2007 (A)

By: Robert S. Huckman, Gary P. Pisano and Virginia Fuller

Describes an operational crisis for JetBlue Airways during an ice storm in the eastern United States in February 2007 and chronicles the airline's immediate response. Provides detail concerning the history of the airline from its founding in 1999 through the February... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Crisis Management; Growth Management; Management Teams; Service Delivery; Air Transportation Industry; Eastern United States

Leonard A. Schlesinger is Baker Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School where he serves as Chair of the School’s Practice based faculty and faculty Chair of the MBA Field Global Immersion program. He has served as a member of the HBS faculty from 1978 to... View Details

February 2021
Tutorial

What are Agile Teams?

By: Tsedal Neeley

This video explores the elements that constitute agile teams. From its history in the "Agile Manifesto," this philosophy for organizational behavior prioritizes working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and... View Details

Keywords: Agile Practices; Organization Behavior; Priorities; Groups and Teams; Decision Choices and Conditions; Values and Beliefs

September 2002 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Cardinal Health (A): The Medicine Shoppe Acquisition

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Miguel Abecasis and Brenda Cheng

Robert Walter, the founder and CEO of Cardinal Health, a pharmaceutical distributor, is contemplating the purchase of Medicine Shoppe, a chain of apothecaries. The purchase might be construed as competition against his own drugstore customers. But one of its many... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Distribution Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Retail Industry

January 1998 (Revised February 1998)
Case

Sideco Americana S.A. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Harold F. Hogan Jr

This case focuses on a decision the Sideco management team faces when customers of its newly acquired and privatized water and sewer company neglect to pay its bills. Describes the effort to transform an old-style Argentine construction and engineering company into a... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Transformation; Business or Company Management; Values and Beliefs; Argentina