Publications
Publications
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- Faculty Publications (10)
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- Article
Manage the Suppliers That Could Harm Your Brand: Know When to Avoid, Engage, or Drop Them
By: Jodi L Short and Michael W. Toffel
The pandemic has placed a new spotlight on working conditions in factories that supply global companies. To avert problems, firms often impose codes of conduct on their suppliers and perform audits to assess compliance. Do these measures help identify unethical... View Details
Keywords: Auditing; Agency Cost; Quality And Safety; Quality Management System; Quality Management; Unions; Environmental Management; Globalization; Goods and Commodities; Governance; Labor; Labor Unions; Wages; Working Conditions; Operations; Supply Chain; Safety; Quality; China; Bangladesh; Asia; Pakistan
- 2020
- Working Paper
Improving Regulatory Effectiveness Through Better Targeting: Evidence from OSHA
By: Matthew S. Johnson, David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel
We study how a regulator can best target inspections. Our case study is a US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) program that randomly allocated some inspections. On average, each inspection averted 2.4 serious injuries (9%) over the next five years.... View Details
- November 2014
- Article
Government Green Procurement Spillovers: Evidence from Municipal Building Policies in California
By: Timothy Simcoe and Michael W. Toffel
We study how government green procurement policies influence private-sector demand for similar products. Specifically, we measure the impact of municipal policies requiring governments to construct green buildings on private-sector adoption of the U.S. Green Building... View Details
- 2016
- Working Paper
Signaling without Certification: The Critical Role of Civil Society Scrutiny
By: Susan A. Kayser, John W. Maxwell and Michael W. Toffel
In response to stakeholders' growing concerns, companies are joining voluntary environmental programs to signal their superior environmental management capabilities. In contrast to the literature's focus on certification programs that require a third-party audit, we... View Details
Keywords: United Nations; Labor Standards; Supplier Relationship; Procurement; Sustainability; Sustainability Management; Quality And Safety; Risk; Globalization; Globalized Markets and Industries; Governance; Working Conditions; Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Quality; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Reputation
- June 2010
- Case
FoldRite Furniture Company: Planning to Meet a Surge in Demand
By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Afarin Bellisario
Demand for folding and stackable chairs and tables at FoldRite Furniture Co. is unexpectedly strong. The company spent the previous two years improving manufacturing quality and efficiency, dropping poor-performing product lines, developing new products that are... View Details
- August 26, 2009
- Comment
Where Cash for Clunkers Ran Off the Road
By: John A. Quelch
Today, let us celebrate the end of an unjustifiable drain on the U.S. taxpayer: the Cash for Clunkers (C4C) program.
True, C4C greatly boosted the number of consumers visiting car dealers. Doubtless, some new cars were sold to consumers who thought they... View Details
True, C4C greatly boosted the number of consumers visiting car dealers. Doubtless, some new cars were sold to consumers who thought they... View Details
Keywords: Government Programs; Environmental Impact; Government Waste; Customer Behavior; Economic Growth; Economy; Financial Crisis; Government and Politics; Leadership; Marketing; Programs; Value; Public Administration Industry; Public Administration Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States
- 2008
- Working Paper
Resolving Information Asymmetries in Markets: The Role of Certified Management Programs
Firms and regulators are increasingly relying on voluntary mechanisms to signal and infer quality of difficult-to-observe management practices. Prior evaluations of voluntary management programs have focused on those that lack verification mechanisms and have found... View Details
- December 2004 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
Nestle: Sustainable Agriculture Initiative
Swiss food giant Nestle attempts to improve the performance of its suppliers of agricultural commodities to raise quality, lower costs, and contribute to sustainable development. Its initiatives focus first on coffee, cocoa, and milk. Nestle managers assert that the... View Details
- Research Summary
Corporate transparency and information disclosure strategies
This research focuses on transparency and information disclosure strategies, a topic of growing importance in environmental sustainability, corporate strategy, stakeholder relations, and public policy. My prior research in this area explored why... View Details
- Forthcoming
- Article
Regulatory Incentives for Innovation: The FDA's Breakthrough Therapy Designation
By: Amitabh Chandra, Jennifer Kao, Kathleen L. Miller and Ariel Dora Stern
Regulators of new products confront a tradeoff between speeding a product to market and collecting additional product quality information. The FDA's Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) provides an opportunity to understand if regulators can use new policy to... View Details