Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(8,094)
- Faculty Publications (2,019)
- October 1989 (Revised June 1993)
- Case
Texas Eastman Co.
By: Robert S. Kaplan
The company as part of a commitment to Total Quality Management has installed a computer system that accumulates 30,000 observations on its processes every 2-4 hours. Operating people have found the monthly summaries of financial performance not too useful in this... View Details
- September 1989
- Background Note
Performance Curves: Costs, Prices, and Value
By: Robert J. Dolan and Benson P. Shapiro
Explains the concept of a family of performance curves. The most well known is the price/performance curve relating the prices of items in a product line to their performance. Also discusses the cost/performance curve and its impact on product positioning, product line... View Details
- September 1989 (Revised July 1991)
- Case
Caterpillar, Inc.: George Schaefer Takes Charge
For over half a century, Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) had been a world leader in the manufacture of earthmoving and construction machinery. In 1982, just months after it recorded the highest sales and profits in its history, CAT experienced its greatest crisis. Demand fell... View Details
Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Crisis Management; Labor Unions; Demand and Consumers; Management Teams; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Business Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry
- August 1989 (Revised November 1994)
- Case
Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.: Marketing Strategy for the European Market
By: John A. Quelch
Nissan executives are reviewing their European marketing strategy in light of the 1992 European Community (EC) market integration program and the likely end of bilateral import quotas on Japanese cars by some EC countries. Having recently established a manufacturing... View Details
- July 1989 (Revised April 2001)
- Case
Kanthal (A)
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Multinational company needs an improved cost system to determine the profitability of individual customer orders. Its strategy is to have significant sales and profitability growth without adding additional administrative and support people. The new cost system... View Details
- April 1989 (Revised March 1993)
- Case
ProTech, Inc.
By: Thomas R. Piper
A company is considering the elimination of a product line. As part of that consideration, it must develop possible strategies for closing the division, and identify the economic and non-economic implications of the strategy. The situation is complicated by the... View Details
- March 1989 (Revised March 1999)
- Case
Metabo GmbH & Co. KG
By: Robert S. Kaplan
A privately owned German power tool company was dissatisfied with its existing cost system. The system could not produce timely accurate reports on cost center operations, and newly purchased automated machines were attracting large overhead costs. A new, highly... View Details
- January 1989 (Revised March 1995)
- Case
Du Pont Freon Products Division (A)
In 1988, the Du Pont Co. is abruptly confronted with solid scientific evidence that chlorofluorocarbons are destroying the earth's ozone shield. Du Pont, with its Freon brand product line serving markets for foam insulation, electronics solvents, and especially... View Details
- January 1989 (Revised March 1991)
- Case
General Electric Canada: Designing a New Organization
By: Lynda M. Applegate and James I. Cash Jr.
General Electric Canada used sociotechnical design techniques to restructure its financial, administrative, facilities, and information technology service from a decentralized, hierarchical organization to a centralized organization composed of self-managing,... View Details
- winter 1989
- Article
Split-Awards Procurement and Innovation
By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao
In many procurement settings, it is possible for a buyer to split a production award between suppliers. In this article, we develop a model of split-award procurement auctions in which the split choice is endogenous. We characterize the set of equilibrium bids and... View Details
- December 1988
- Article
Strategic Responses to Automobile Emissions Control: A Game-Theoretic Analysis
By: Dennis Yao
This paper examines the dynamics of standard-setting regulation under technological uncertainty and asymmetric information about technological capability. A two-period model which allows fully strategic action is developed and applied to the regulation of automobile... View Details
- November 1988 (Revised September 1991)
- Case
Simmons Japan Ltd.
By: W. Carl Kester and Richard P. Melnick
Concerns the first leveraged buyout to occur in Japan. Analytic tasks include a valuation of the company and an assessment of its debt capacity. Also provides opportunities to discuss agency costs associated with alternative capital and equity ownership structures,... View Details
Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Cost; Equity; Production; Valuation; Japan; United States
- September 1988 (Revised October 1992)
- Case
Suzuki Samurai
By: John A. Quelch
Suzuki and advertising agency executives are debating the product positioning and accompanying copy strategy alternatives for the Suzuki Samurai prior to its U.S. introduction. View Details
- August 1988 (Revised February 1992)
- Case
Norton Group PLC: To Be or Not to Be in the Motorcycle Business (A)
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Jon Skofic
Norton, a once famous motorcycle manufacturer, soundly beaten by Japanese competition, turns its attention to developing rotary engines. The company is acquired by Norton Group PLC, which is headed by a dashing entrepreneur. The new management must decide what... View Details
- Article
Beyond the Reach of the Invisible Hand: Impediments to Economic Activity, Market Failures, and Profitability
By: Dennis Yao
In this paper it is argued that failures of the competitive market are necessary conditions for supranormal profitability. Three fundamental causes of these market failures-production economies and sunk costs, transactions costs, and imperfect information-are developed... View Details
Keywords: Economics; Markets; Failure; Profit; Cost; Information; Market Transactions; Competition; Strategy; Production
- May 1988 (Revised November 1990)
- Case
Airbus vs. Boeing (B): The Storm Intensifies
Discusses the growing competition faced by U.S. producers of civil aircraft due to the success and expanding product line of Airbus Industries. Designed to foster discussion of international trade policy as it affects producers in the industry and to encourage firm... View Details
Keywords: Trade; Policy; Negotiation; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Aerospace Industry; United States
- May 1988 (Revised March 1990)
- Case
Matsushita Electric Industrial (MEI) in 1987
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal
Describes the development of Matsushita's international operations and the building of its dominant competitive position in the consumer electronics industry. Picks up the major challenges facing the company in 1987 as both its product focus and geographic posture are... View Details
- July 1987
- Case
Altoona Corp.: Computer Products Division
By: Roger E. Bohn and Robert H. Hayes
A relatively small manufacturer of computer memory disks has achieved a major market position through the use of its statistical quality control (SQC) program. It is now expanding the production of a new line of disks and is encountering problems getting the process... View Details
- July 1987 (Revised May 1993)
- Case
Atlas Copco (A): Gaining and Building Distribution Channels
Atlas Copco, a Swedish company, holds the highest market share for air compressors worldwide. However, its attempts to enter U.S. markets have been unsuccessful. The case describes a series of strategic distribution maneuvers implemented by the company which enable it... View Details
- June 1987 (Revised May 1990)
- Case
John Deere Component Works (B)
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Having installed an activity-based system, the division is now exploring the insight provided by that system. In particular, it is studying the economics of lot-size process planning and product mix management. View Details