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      Cold Call
      A podcast featuring faculty discussing cases they've written and the lessons they impart.
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      • 02 Mar 2021
      • Cold Call Podcast

      Can Historic Social Injustices be Addressed Through Reparations?

      Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants believe historic social injustices should be addressed through reparations. Professor Mihir Desai discusses the arguments for and against reparations in response to the Tulsa Massacre and, more broadly, to the effects of slavery and racist government policies in the US in his case, “The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations.”  Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

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      DecisionsRemove Decisions →

      Page 1 of 4 Results
      • 12 Nov 2018
      • Research & Ideas

      'Always On' Isn't Always Best for Team Decision-Making

      by Roberta Holland

      Is it possible for teams to communicate too frequently? Research by Ethan Bernstein and colleagues suggests that groups that meet less often may be better at problem-solving. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 05 Jul 2017
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Designing an Agile Software Portfolio Architecture: The Impact of Coupling on Performance

      by Alan MacCormack, Robert Lagerström, Martin Mocker, and Carliss Y. Baldwin

      This study deepens our understanding of how firms can better design software portfolio architectures to improve their agility. The authors examined data from over 1,000 different software applications and 3,000 dependencies between them. They found that indirect measures of coupling and dependency have more power in predicting IT agility than direct measures.

      • 27 Feb 2013
      • Research & Ideas

      Sidetracked: Why Can’t We Stick to the Plan?

      In her new book, Sidetracked, behavioral scientist and professor Francesca Gino explores the unexpected forces that often keep people from following through with their plans, both professional and personal. Closed for comment; 12 Comment(s) posted.

      • 07 Oct 2009
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Specific Knowledge and Divisional Performance Measurement

      by Michael C. Jensen & William H. Meckling

      Performance measurement is one of the critical factors that determine how individuals in an organization behave. It includes subjective as well as objective assessments of the performance of both individuals and subunits of an organization such as divisions or departments. Besides the choice of the performance measures themselves, performance evaluation involves the process of attaching value weights to the different measures to represent the importance of achievement on each dimension. This paper examines five common divisional performance measurement methods: cost centers, revenue centers, profit centers, investment centers, and expense centers. The authors furnish the outlines of a theory that attempts to explain when each of these five methods is likely to be the most efficient. Key concepts include: Each of these methods can be seen as providing an alternative way of aligning corporate decision-making authority with valuable "specific knowledge" inside the organization. Jensen and Meckling's theory suggests that cost and revenue centers work best in cases where headquarters has (or can readily obtain) good information about cost and demand functions, product quality, and investment opportunities. Decentralized profit and investment centers tend to supplant revenue and cost centers when managers of business units have a significant informational advantage over headquarters. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

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