Private Debt: An Introduction
F-2107 | Published May 27, 2025 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Since the global financial crisis (GFC), institutional investors have increasingly included private debt in their broader portfolios. Private debt refers to loans made to companies by nonbank lenders,... Read More
An Introduction to Project Finance: The Partitioning of Cash Flow
F-2106 | Published May 27, 2025 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A standard approach to business valuation is to value the total cash flows that the business is expected to provide to all investors, but when the implications of financing decisions take center stage... Read More
How to Prototype a Prototype
OM-1837 | Published April 15, 2025 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The goal of prototyping is to iterate as much as possible through build-and-learn or problem-solution-experiment cycles. This brief note provides some definitions and a strategy to employ when working... Read More
An Introduction to Cost Behavior
C-2510 | Published April 14, 2025 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides an introduction to cost behavior, or how a cost changes in response to changes in activity. It covers variable costs, fixed costs, mixed costs, and step-fixed costs and discusses s... Read More
Management of Financial Policy Decisions: Capital Structure Policy (SPANISH)
F-2111 | Published April 10, 2025 | 18 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a Spanish translation of the April 4, 2016 version of UVA-F-1743. This technical note provides an overview of capital structure policy. Through a series of hypothetical situations and real-wor... Read More
Relevant Costs and Benefits in Decision-Making: Application to Selected Management Decisions
C-2511 | Published April 08, 2025 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Drawing upon the concepts of relevant costs and benefits presented in "Relevant Costs and Benefits in Decision-Making: An Introduction" (UVA-C-2512), this note discusses how those concepts apply to ce... Read More
Relevant Costs and Benefits in Decision-Making: An Introduction
C-2512 | Published April 08, 2025 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note presents an introduction to relevant costs and benefits—those costs and benefits that differ between two alternatives in decision-making. The note provides important terminology around this ... Read More
Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
C-2509 | Published March 28, 2025 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis, an analytic took that uses the relationships among compensation of the profit equation—price, volume, cost structure, and profit—to assess the fi... Read More
A Step-by-Step Guide to Process Analysis
OM-1797 | Published March 26, 2025 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a step-by-step approach to process analysis through an iterative framework. The framework begins with defining a high-level objective that is aligned with competitive stra... Read More
An Introduction to Cost Allocation
C-2506 | Published March 24, 2025 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses the concept of cost allocation, focusing specifically on allocating overhead, or indirect, costs to products and services. It presents a four-step process to designing cost-allocat... Read More
A Brief Introduction to Managerial Accounting
C-2508 | Published March 20, 2025 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note process a brief overview of managerial accounting, placing it in the context of three sets of books: managerial books, financial books, and tax books. It includes these books’ different audi... Read More
A Brief Overview of Costs
C-2507 | Published March 20, 2025 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note highlights the importance of costs in management decision-making, focusing specifically on the notion that costs that should be considered when making decisions depends on the decision at ha... Read More
Understanding Organizational Culture: An Iceberg and a Toolkit
OB-1485 | Published March 12, 2025 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores the concept of culture within an organizational context—what it is, how it functions, how it shows up, how it differs, and more importantly, how one effectively influences... Read More
Introduction to Carbon Markets
F-2103 | Published March 03, 2025 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Carbon markets represent a vibrant development contributing to the economic transition necessary to achieve global climate goals. This technical note delves into the fundamentals of carbon markets, in... Read More
Understanding Consumer Responses to Brand Activism
M-1064 | Published February 25, 2025 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note examines how consumers respond to brand activism, the growing phenomenon where brands take public stances on controversial sociopolitical issues. Drawing from recent research in ma... Read More
Gender Lens Investing: Impact Investing for the Benefit of Women
E-0517 | Published February 21, 2025 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Impact investing is an investment strategy that aims to generate attractive financial returns while achieving positive social and/or environmental impact. In 2007—with the aim to “rally private invest... Read More
Using AI to Expand Your Leadership Communication Toolkit
BC-0315 | Published January 09, 2025 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is a simple guide for using generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI or AI) to enhance your leadership voice. The note introduces use of AI to improve communication skills, enabl... Read More
Doing Without the Middleman: A Primer on Funding for Entrepreneurs
ENT-0235 | Published January 07, 2025 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
It’s widely believed that entrepreneurs need formal funding to start a venture, but that’s not always the case. In fact, the majority of companies that go public don’t raise any venture capital at all... Read More
The Big 5 Institutions of the European Union
GEM-0233 | Published December 20, 2024 | 29 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Entering 2025, the European Union (EU) finds itself at a pivotal moment, caught between internal demands for social cohesion and external forces of global competition, climate change, and geopolitical... Read More
Coding Data Models with AI
OM-1825 | Published December 04, 2024 | 46 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note focuses on building models that allow for the effective organization and retrieval of data. It discusses the major steps of designing, creating, and maintaining a model that optimizes user e... Read More
Disruption, Response, and Transformation: An Introductory Note
S-0460 | Published November 22, 2024 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Organizations often struggle when faced with disruptions, or unexpected turbulence from external sources. Major disruptive events—from natural disasters to social upheaval—can impede a company’s norma... Read More
Woolworths: Australia Day Blues
S-0461 | Published November 21, 2024 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In January 2024, the Australian retailer Woolworths Group (Woolworths) announced it would no longer stock Australia Day merchandise across its stores for the national summer holiday, following years o... Read More
Coding Algorithms with AI
OM-1824 | Published November 20, 2024 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note focuses on creating controllers—algorithms, in coding speak. These essentially are the logic that tells the software what to do and how to respond to inputs from the user. This note assumes ... Read More
Coding for MBAs in the Age of AI
OM-1822 | Published November 19, 2024 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In this note, students will learn how to think about the process of going from design to code like both a general manager and an engineer. Designed for use by students of business who are familiar wit... Read More
Coding User Interfaces with AI
OM-1823 | Published November 18, 2024 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
It’s a great time to be a creatively confident general manager, whether you're a product manager, a team lead, or in some similar role. AI has made it easier than ever to bring new ideas to life and r... Read More
Europe, 1945 to 1952: First Steps to Unification?
GEM-0225 | Published November 13, 2024 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
After World War II, Europe was in ruins. From these circumstances a vision of a unified Europe was born, and thus the initial steps of the European Union (EU) took place from 1945 to 1952. This techni... Read More
Diagnosing the Economics of Your Code
OM-1819 | Published October 17, 2024 | 18 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Managers regularly have to contribute to technical decisions where the specific subject matter is substantially beyond their understanding. This applies even to managers who have a technical backgroun... Read More
Customer Experience Mapping
OM-1820 | Published October 10, 2024 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is specifically focused on customer experience (CX) mapping for work in digital product management. In digital, there’s a major focus on the idea of "product-market fit" (p-m fit). The basic... Read More
The Jobs of Design
OM-1818 | Published October 08, 2024 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Generalists need to understand enough about the key disciplines in their companies to effectively engage with their collaborators. That doesn’t mean being an expert; it does, however, mean knowing eno... Read More
The "Movie Trailer” for Ambicultural Strategy: A Course for Finding Your “One”
S-0455 | Published October 02, 2024 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The 2023 Academy Award-winning film Oppenheimer captured the story of the race to produce the first atomic weapons and end the Second World War. The “central plot” of the Ambicultural Strategy course ... Read More
The Genius Behind Netflix’s Ascension to the Top: Personalization-Driven Arbitrage
S-0456 | Published September 25, 2024 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note deconstructs the amazing decisions made by the streaming company Netflix that allowed it to become one of the only profitable streaming services in 2024. It has succeeded by acquir... Read More
Buy Now, Pay Later: Disrupting Traditional Consumer Credit
F-2091 | Published September 25, 2024 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note discusses the history, competitors, risks and benefits, and economics of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)—a financial product that allows consumers to make purchases and defer payment ove... Read More
An Introduction to Innovation in Consumer Packaged Goods
OM-1815 | Published September 24, 2024 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an introductory overview of innovation processes in the consumer packaged goods industry. It explores organizational structures for innovation and details key tools and me... Read More
Digital Marketing Metrics: Measuring What Matters
M-1049 | Published September 10, 2024 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of common digital marketing metrics. It includes formulas for calculating the metrics and an explanation of what each metric represents. It also describes the ... Read More
Advanced Tableau Tips and Tricks
QA-0972 | Published August 28, 2024 | 24 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note showcases some of the unique tips and tricks of the Tableau program that can help users further enhance the quality and impact of their presentations to target stakeholders. It ass... Read More
The Basics of Multivariate Regressions in Excel
BC-0311 | Published August 26, 2024 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a comprehensive guide to conducting multivariate linear regressions using Excel. It covers essential concepts such as setting up the regression model, selecting variables,... Read More
Spot and Forward Interest Rates
F-2084 | Published August 08, 2024 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Interest rates come in many varieties. The most common interest rates apply from today to some future date and are referred to as spot rates. But what if you agreed to lend money to someone at a 6% ra... Read More
The United States of America: An Annual Report Compilation, 2023
C-2488 | Published August 02, 2024 | 50 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a compiled 2023 annual report for the United States of America, consolidated for the public and private sectors. It includes financial statements, accompanying notes, disc... Read More
Three Empirical Methods for Calculating Customer Lifetime Value
M-1056 | Published August 01, 2024 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A useful method in the marketer’s toolkit for determining the value of a representative customer from a certain segment is customer lifetime value (CLV). A CLV analysis essentially summarizes the prof... Read More
Fiduciary Duties and Corporate Disclosures
C-2484 | Published July 30, 2024 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Entrustment often puts the trusting party in a position of vulnerability, such as when an individual relies on the advice and counsel of a real estate agent in a property transaction. In the United St... Read More
Decentralized Finance
F-2081 | Published July 29, 2024 | 23 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces students to decentralized finance (DeFi)—blockchain-based protocols that offer financial services without centralized intermediaries. Advocates herald DeFi as the future... Read More
Moral Disengagement in Decision-Making
OB-1464 | Published July 24, 2024 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note describes an important rationalization process called moral disengagement that helps explain why and how people make decisions that stray away from the values they claim to hold. T... Read More
A Conceptual Introduction to Customer Lifetime Value
M-1053 | Published July 24, 2024 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
An important metric that plays a pivotal role in marketing is customer lifetime value (CLV). Given the constraint of limited marketing budgets, a company can enhance the return on its marketing invest... Read More
Primer on Carbon Accounting for Corporate Leaders
C-2463 | Published June 28, 2024 | 19 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides the foundation for a discussion of the measurement and accounting for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It provides an executive-level summary organized around there questio... Read More
Public Companies' Requirements to the US Securities and Exchange Commission
BC-0307 | Published June 26, 2024 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides an overview of the regulatory documents the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires of public companies in the United States. Specifically, an S-1 filing is required by an... Read More
Data Centers: History and Economics
OM-1791 | Published June 21, 2024 | 18 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Many executives are under pressure to develop successful data center strategies that work for their organization, according to industry-specific criteria. While data centers have been in use for decad... Read More
Interest-Rate Swaps
F-2079 | Published May 29, 2024 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note introduces interest-rate swaps, financial contracts wherein two parties agree to exchange interest-rate cash flows, typically in the form of an exchange between fixed-rate payments and float... Read More
Bond Prices and Interest-Rate Risk
F-2075 | Published May 21, 2024 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In this note, we cover how bond prices change as yields change. Students are shown that the price of a bond is a function of its promised payments and the prevailing required rate of return by investo... Read More
An Introduction to Equity Residual Cash Flow
F-2070 | Published May 01, 2024 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces the concept of equity cash flow or equity residual cash flow. The note provides an explicit comparison between free cash flow and equity residual cash flow in the contex... Read More
Managing for Stakeholders and the Purpose of Business (PORTUGUESE)
E-0509 | Published April 24, 2024 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a Portuguese translation of the November 13, 2020 version of UVA-E-0415. The benefits or harms achieved by a business is determined in part by the choices that business leaders make. One impor... Read More
Managing Innovation: A Process Perspective
OM-1805 | Published April 15, 2024 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a framework on innovation as a process (“how”), rather than just an outcome (“what”). It explains that innovation is a set of activities, incentives, and metrics that, whe... Read More
A Technical Note on Generative Art
QA-0971 | Published March 19, 2024 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In October 2018, Christie’s auction house sold an artwork called Portrait of Edmond Belamy produced by an artificial intelligence (AI) model built to generate new works after being trained on upward o... Read More
Accounting for Revenues
C-2478 | Published March 06, 2024 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of accounting for revenues. It discusses the five-step process to revenue recognition outlined in Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 606 and applies those... Read More
Accounting for Property, Plant, and Equipment and Depreciation Expense
C-2477 | Published March 05, 2024 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of accounting for property, plant, and equipment and depreciation expense. It discusses determining what costs related to the asset should be capitalized and w... Read More
The 3P Model
GEM-0209 | Published February 29, 2024 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note presents an open-economy macroeconomic model with three panes: IS/LM, international capital flows, and the exchange rate and net exports. It also includes extensions: full employment and the... Read More
Identifying Fragilities in the Global Economy
GEM-0208 | Published February 28, 2024 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note presents frameworks and indicators for identifying fragile economies. It includes an assessment of Morgan Stanley's Fragile Five call in 2012 as well as current fragilities data for a range ... Read More
Leveraging the Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA) to Make Pricing Decisions
M-1045 | Published February 28, 2024 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A key negotiating concept, the Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA), allows a buyer and seller to reach a mutually acceptable price. This technical note provides an overview of ZOPA for both individual-l... Read More
Accounting for Owners’ Equity
C-2476 | Published February 26, 2024 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of accounting for owners’ equity. It discusses the concepts of common stock and preferred stock, as well as authorized, issued, and outstanding shares. It cove... Read More
Cybersecurity: Managerial Basics
OM-1807 | Published February 22, 2024 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note introduces cybersecurity—what it is, why it is needed, and current practices and solutions. While the broad issue of information security is a concern for governments and individuals, this n... Read More
Accounting for Accounts Receivable and Bad Debt Expense
C-2473 | Published February 21, 2024 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of accounting for accounts receivable. Students will learn how to account for sales on account, record write-offs and recoveries of accounts receivable, and es... Read More
Accounting for Bonds
C-2475 | Published February 21, 2024 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of accounting for bonds. It discusses bonds priced at face value, a discount, and a premium. It discusses the differences between the coupon rate and effective... Read More
Accounting for Inventory and Cost of Goods Sold Expense
C-2474 | Published February 21, 2024 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of accounting for inventory and cost of goods sold expense. It discusses accounting for the purchase and sale of inventory, periodic and perpetual inventory sy... Read More
Queueing Fundamentals
OM-1802 | Published February 19, 2024 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note examines queuing fundamentals and introduces a basic model, variability in systems (arrivals and service processes), and approaches to measure and reduce it. The material also includes pract... Read More
The TRAIL Model of Talent Management
OB-1451 | Published February 09, 2024 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In the evolving landscape of human resources and organizational development, the TRAIL Talent Management Model emerges as a comprehensive framework aimed at maximizing employee engagement and retentio... Read More
Usability Testing for Data Visualizations
BC-0301 | Published February 07, 2024 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores the applications of usability testing to enhance the effectiveness of data visualizations in persuasive communication. It argues that beyond following best practices for v... Read More
Predicting the Next High-Growth Economies
GEM-0207 | Published January 30, 2024 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In 2001, the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRICs) were predicted to grow faster than many others; this prediction turned out to be true. In this technical note, the challenge is to id... Read More
The Financial Reporting Process and Annual Report: A Brief Overview
C-2466 | Published January 26, 2024 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of the financial reporting process. It includes a discussion of key players in the process, financial reporting requirements, the external audit process, and t... Read More
An Abridged User’s Guide to BPM6-Based BOP and IIP Accounts
GEM-0213 | Published January 18, 2024 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note presents an abridged description of balance of payments (BOP) and international investment position (IIP) data. It refers to data for Mexico, but given that there are worldwide standards for... Read More
Accounting for Intercorporate Equity Investments
C-2464 | Published January 18, 2024 | 21 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of accounting for investments in equity securities. It discusses passive investments and fair value accounting, investments resulting in significant influence ... Read More
Accounting for Contingent Liabilities
C-2467 | Published January 18, 2024 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of accounting for contingent liabilities. It outlines the decision process management uses to determine the financial statement implications of such liabilitie... Read More
Defined Benefit Pension Plans
C-2472 | Published January 12, 2024 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides background on defined benefit pension plans in the United States and a basic understanding of accounting for defined benefit plans. Topics discussed include differences be... Read More
Think Before You Speak
BC-0297 | Published January 02, 2024 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The expression "think before you speak" brings up a question that this technical note answers: What should someone think about before communicating as a leader? This note recommends taking an audience... Read More
Equity Considerations in Remote and Hybrid Work Environments
E-0498 | Published December 20, 2023 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, companies around the world built and refined models of working in both fully remote and hybrid environments. While many of these policies and pr... Read More
Working Capital: A Summary of Ratios by Industry, 2023
C-2471 | Published December 20, 2023 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note graphically presents various working capital ratios (days inventory outstanding, days sales outstanding, days payables outstanding, cash conversion cycle, and operating cycle) over... Read More
Self-Focus versus Mission-Focus Mindset
OB-1449 | Published December 20, 2023 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores the "self-focus" and "mission-focus" mindsets based on two of the Arbinger Institute's books, The Outward Mindset and Leadership and Self-Deception. Future business leader... Read More
What Needs to Be True? A Simple Framework for Evaluation
S-0418 | Published December 19, 2023 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
For strategists, a good hypothesis is invaluable, both as a starting point and as a guide to help structure a good analysis. A hypothesis-driven approach is widely regarded as the gold standard in tac... Read More
Convertible Notes in Early-Stage Financing
F-2063 | Published December 11, 2023 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces convertible note financing for early-stage start-up companies. These unpriced securities offer significant advantages related to delayed valuation, greater speed, and lo... Read More
Ethical Product Design Framework
E-0502 | Published December 06, 2023 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Technologists, particularly product managers, do not make design choices in a vacuum. Often, they have quantitative objectives they hope to achieve as part of their quarterly goals. But purely pursuin... Read More
Venture Capital in Biotechnology
OM-1796 | Published December 05, 2023 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Pharmaceutical companies have historically relied on their ability to research, develop, manufacture, and sell drug products. Developing a successful drug is a complex and lengthy process, with no gua... Read More
Project Scoping
QA-0960 | Published November 14, 2023 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A project’s scope specifies the work needed to deliver a product, service, or result, given specified features and functions. At its core, scoping a project requires accurately predicting the allocati... Read More
Before the Hypothesis: Asking the Right Questions
S-0417 | Published November 02, 2023 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is designed to be used early in a graduate-level elective course on strategic analysis, though it can be used at multiple levels, including advanced undergraduate and Executive Edu... Read More
Intersectionality
E-0500 | Published October 12, 2023 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note gives an overview of intersectionality, which is a theory, originally from legal scholarship, that explains how multiple forms of social inequality interact to produce individuals' experienc... Read More
Competitive-Cost Analysis: Experience Curves
OM-1799 | Published September 11, 2023 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This final note in the five-part series on competitive-cost analysis introduces the concept of the experience curve, which can be analyzed with a log-log relationship between unit cost and cumulative ... Read More
The Psychology of Problem-Solving
OB-1442 | Published July 31, 2023 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces the concept of applying subtractive thinking to problem-solving. The essential work of almost any employee in an organization is to solve problems and make something bet... Read More
The Internet of Things
OM-1792 | Published July 14, 2023 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The Internet of Things (IoT) can be generally explained as a network of objects that collect data regarding their surroundings and transfer it across the internet to various systems. While the additio... Read More
Implications of the Macroeconomy for Business and Life
GEM-0218 | Published July 07, 2023 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores how the macroeconomy affects businesses and individuals in everyday life, from pricing to job prospects to investing. Students of macroeconomics will gain insight into the... Read More
The United States of America: An Annual Report Compilation, 2022
C-2461 | Published June 21, 2023 | 50 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a compiled 2022 annual report for the United States of America, consolidated for the public and private sectors. It includes financial statements, accompanying notes, disc... Read More
Logistic Regression: Modeling with StatTools
QA-0945 | Published June 12, 2023 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Logistic regression is a modeling technique often used to predict a binary variable—a variable coded as 1 if an event of interest occurs (e.g., a borrower defaults on a loan) and coded as 0 otherwise.... Read More
Facilitating Digital Development with Agile User Stories
OM-1739 | Published June 02, 2023 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Implicitly or explicitly, product-development teams in digital spaces will go through a process of gathering and employing data to help them create and iterate upon a user experience that invites high... Read More
Digital Product Management with Hypothesis-Driven Development
OM-1740 | Published April 13, 2023 | 23 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces readers to hypothesis-driven design (HDD) in digital product management. HDD operates from the foundation that ideas should be testable and teams should work to minimize... Read More
Assessing and Improving Digital Ability: Procter & Gamble's Approach to Raising Brands' Digital Competency
M-1035 | Published April 05, 2023 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note follows F. D. Wilder, who is being tasked with driving the Procter and Gamble's digital transformation effort. The cornerstone of the transformation would be “assessing and improvi... Read More
Public Speaking: Tips for Getting Off to a Great Start
BC-0298 | Published March 09, 2023 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Speaking with groups of people is a critical leadership skill. During their careers, leaders need to engage with stakeholders including employees, investors, and members of the general public. This ... Read More
Data Quality and Data Engineering
OM-1790 | Published January 31, 2023 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
As companies increasingly rely on data and analytics to make decisions and improve their operations, it becomes clear that data quality can be a major issue. The insights gleaned from data analytics a... Read More
Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology
IIMA-HRM0255TEC | Published January 19, 2023 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Individual psychology, a school of thought founded by Alfred Adler, assumes the uniqueness of the individual and the personality as composite and organised as part of the whole system which includes ... Read More
Cloud Computing
OM-1784 | Published January 17, 2023 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides a general overview of cloud computing and how businesses are using it to achieve their digital goals. Specifically, it outlines the different service models that cloud computing sup... Read More
Mixed, Virtual, and Augmented Reality in the Real World
OM-1783 | Published January 06, 2023 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note details virtual and augmented reality and how these immersive technologies can be used in business. Specifically, this note highlights several business applications of both virtual... Read More
The Solution Shop and Storytelling Process
BC-0294 | Published December 21, 2022 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Who doesn’t feel some anxiety when faced with making a presentation to an audience of practitioners and executives? Presentations are often the most stressful part of a job in business or consulting. ... Read More
Determinants of Economic Growth: Supplemental Note
GEM-0204 | Published December 21, 2022 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note works best when paired with two other Darden technical notes: "The IS/LM Model" (UVA-GEM-0126), and a note that directly supports this one, "Determinants of Economic Growth" (UVA-GEM-0202). ... Read More
Determinants of Economic Growth
GEM-0202 | Published December 14, 2022 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Economic growth is a recent phenomenon in human history. This technical note explores this phenomenon in detail, examining the work of Nobel laureate Robert Solow, whose growth model is the dominant p... Read More
Data Analytics and the Overall Research Process
OB-1416 | Published December 13, 2022 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In many cases, data analysts are given the question to answer or the data set to be analyzed. It’s important, however, to understand that there are numerous steps, before and after the empirical analy... Read More
Artificial Intelligence in Business: Machines and Management
OM-1778 | Published November 01, 2022 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note offers an overview of artificial intelligence (AI) and some ways in which machine learning is leveraged to build this type of intelligence. The note also explores two schools of th... Read More
Demand Unconstraining Methods
QA-0934 | Published October 26, 2022 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note examines two common methods for estimating customer demand using historical data observations that are constrained by availability. First, this note explains how to leverage the av... Read More
How Operations Impacts Financial Performance
OM-1779 | Published October 24, 2022 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note explains the building blocks of common financial performance metrics and show how operations affect those metrics. Return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) are two key measures of t... Read More
Gender and Negotiation: Review of Research and Implications for Practitioners
BC-0289 | Published October 12, 2022 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note addresses when and how gender is relevant in a negotiation setting. It provides an up-to-date summary of existing research as well as advice for practitioners (particularly those i... Read More
Introduction to Dynamic Programming
QA-0955 | Published October 10, 2022 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces dynamic programming (DP), a powerful tool for finding optimal solutions to complex problems that involve a concatenation of multiple decisions. This note assumes some fa... Read More
Internationalization Analysis
S-0398 | Published October 05, 2022 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
How do firms decide where to compete internationally? What challenges arise when competing across borders? What are different ways to enter a new foreign market? How should the firm compete in that ne... Read More
Regulations and Standards: Electronics Supply Chain
OM-1714 | Published August 26, 2022 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Standards and regulations exist to ensure supply chains are not exploitative of the people, environments, and materials with which they interact. This technical note concentrates on two aspects of the... Read More
Electronics Supply Chain Overview
OM-1716 | Published August 26, 2022 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Electronics are sophisticated products with an equally complicated supply chain. Within the consumer electronics industry, revenue is forecast at 1.82% annual growth, with user penetration climbing fr... Read More
All Things IPO Communication
BC-0282 | Published August 25, 2022 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The decision to go public is a very complex process for a growing business. From completing the requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings to answering complicated questio... Read More
The United States of America: An Annual Report Compilation, 2021
C-2455 | Published June 23, 2022 | 51 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a compiled 2021 annual report for the United States of America, consolidated for the public and private sectors. It includes financial statements, accompanying notes, disc... Read More
Don't Be a Cat: Putting on Your Best Virtual Face
BC-0280 | Published June 21, 2022 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many people out of the office and into work-from-home setups. Use of video conferencing platforms, especially Zoom, skyrocketed during 2020 as meetings, presentations, and... Read More
The United States Olympic Committee and Rule 50 in the 21st Century
E-0478 | Published June 16, 2022 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explains the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Rule 50, put into place in the 1970s, which prohibited protest at the Olympic Games. The stated goals of the rule were to (1) p... Read More
Google Cloud Platform: BigQuery ML
QA-0942 | Published May 26, 2022 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Google Cloud Platform offers BigQuery ML, a popular cloud computing resource for developing data models. This note provides information about creating, evaluating, and deploying data models with BigQu... Read More
The Design of Experiments
BP-0564 | Published May 02, 2022 | 22 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In innovation, experimentation is much talked about in the abstract, but poorly understood in practice. It bridges solution generation and implementation, yet often takes the form of smaller-scale pil... Read More
Product–Market Alignment
OM-1706 | Published April 19, 2022 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The ability to achieve product–market alignment (PMA) differentiates businesses that will thrive from those that will fail. Yet many find it difficult to create—and sustain—products that continuously ... Read More
Geopolitics and the Global Semiconductor Industry
S-0373 | Published April 13, 2022 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes the exponential growth of semiconductor technology over the last 40 years, as well as the evolution of the semiconductor value chain. Semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) are es... Read More
Google Cloud Platform: BigQuery Explainable AI
QA-0943 | Published March 31, 2022 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Machine-learning (ML) models have become a common tool used across a multitude of industries to help people make decisions. As these models have increased in predictive power, many have also grown in ... Read More
Google Cloud Platform: Cloud Storage
QA-0941 | Published March 28, 2022 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offers Cloud Storage, a popular cloud computing resource for data storage. This note provides information about uploading data to Cloud Storage, creating BigQuery tables fr... Read More
Google Cloud Platform: BigQuery
QA-0929 | Published March 28, 2022 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offers a popular cloud computing resource for writing Structured Query Language (SQL) queries. The resource is called BigQuery. This note provides step-by-step information ... Read More
Introduction to Tableau
QA-0940 | Published March 28, 2022 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Tableau is a powerful visualization software that supports the data analysis process. The program allows users to create custom visualizations from datasets of all sizes and types using a simple drag-... Read More
A Darden Perspective: Teaching Cases—Plan, Listen, Dance
PHA-0083 | Published February 10, 2022 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Anthony Palomba arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2020 as a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business (Darden). As a media-management and audience-analysis... Read More
The Business of Broadway: When Art Meets Business
M-1024 | Published February 03, 2022 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
While there will always be a place in this world for “art for art’s sake,” the artistic value of creative works need not be diminished by the application of commercial considerations. In fact, the arg... Read More
Sustainable Competitive Advantage
M-1015 | Published January 12, 2022 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses the sources of competitive advantage for firms, including scale economies, network economies, counter positioning, switching costs, branding, cornered resources, and process power.... Read More
The United States of America: An Annual Report Compilation, 2020
C-2452 | Published December 23, 2021 | 53 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a compiled 2020 annual report for the United States of America, consolidated for the public and private sectors. It includes financial statements, accompanying notes, disc... Read More
An Introduction to Supplier Diversity
OM-1760 | Published December 16, 2021 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Beyond providing increased opportunities to underrepresented businesses for participating in the procurement process, supplier-diversity initiatives offer substantive financial benefits to the buyer o... Read More
Yield Curve Basics (SPANISH)
BP-0567 | Published December 15, 2021 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a Spanish translation of the March 15, 2006 version of UVA-BP-0491. This technical note discusses risk and term premiums, prominent theories of the yield curve, and how to construct a yield cu... Read More
Twenty-Six Words that Shape the Internet
S-0364 | Published November 23, 2021 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides background on Title 47 US Code § 230, the section of federal law that protects internet companies from liability for the content shared by users, and for the moderation and even rem... Read More
Competitive-Cost Analysis: Learning Curves
OM-1745 | Published September 03, 2021 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This fourth note in the five-part series on competitive-cost analysis introduces the concept of the learning curve, which can be analyzed with a log-log relationship between unit cost and cumulative v... Read More
Expanding the MBA Experience: The Student Case Writer Perspective
S-0358 | Published August 30, 2021 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
At many leading business schools, cases are written only by professors or professional case writers. At the Darden School of Business, however, MBA students may also write cases. Case writing helps s... Read More
A Brief Guide to A3
OM-1738 | Published August 30, 2021 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This brief note provides a description of the A3 communication tool using classic problem-solving methodology associated with the Toyota Production System. A3 thinking may be used to assist communicat... Read More
Performance Measurement and Manager Selection
F-1991 | Published August 25, 2021 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note explores the selection of investment managers and the performance-measurement tools associated with this important task. In selecting investment options for a firm’s 401(k) plan, identifying... Read More
Integrative Analysis of Competitive Dynamics and Multipoint Competition: The Case of "Cat Fight in the Pet Food Industry"
S-0337 | Published August 25, 2021 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note aims to guide discussion on three strategic moves that are designed for multipoint competition: thrust, feint, and gambit. It will examine how these moves might be applied for mult... Read More
Unconventional Monetary Policy
GEM-0196 | Published August 25, 2021 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Unconventional monetary policy has become the norm since the 2008 financial crisis. Central bank balance sheets have swelled and new tools for interest rate control have now emerged. This technical no... Read More
Brand Purpose
M-1016 | Published August 20, 2021 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note will help provide insight on what a brand purpose is, why it matters, and how companies can vary in their design and application of brand purpose. Since the concept of brand purpos... Read More
A Concise Guide to Parent Brands and Subbrands
M-0973 | Published August 19, 2021 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In the field of branding, terms like parent brands and subbrands are often used in imprecise ways. The general lack of clarity around these terms can lead to poor marketing communication and confusion... Read More
The Economics of Maturity Transformation
GEM-0191 | Published August 17, 2021 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Few concepts are as important as maturity transformation for understanding financial crises. This technical note guides students through the key mechanisms in the theory using a representative investo... Read More
Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve
GEM-0193 | Published August 16, 2021 | 19 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
What is monetary policy and what is the Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) role in determining monetary policy in the United States? How are changes in monetary policy implemented and how do these changes affe... Read More
Harnessing Deliberate Creativity
M-1009 | Published August 02, 2021 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is designed to introduce students and practitioners to the body of work associated with creativity and its applications for professionals and the organizations they lead. Creativit... Read More
Climate Finance in 2020: Background Note
F-1986 | Published July 26, 2021 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a brief overview of the state of climate finance at the start of the 2020s. Catastrophes such as the Texas power grid failure and widespread wildfires in other western sta... Read More
The Economics of Cryptocurrency
GEM-0190 | Published July 23, 2021 | 20 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Cryptocurrencies claim to be the future of money and payments, the lifelines of any business. An informed evaluation requires understanding both the economics and the computer science behind the techn... Read More
Risk, Return, and Modern Portfolio Theory
F-1982 | Published June 11, 2021 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In this technical note, we examine the concept of diversification and the tradeoff between risk and return in portfolio theory. The note includes a general introduction to normal distribution, then ap... Read More
Introduction to Corporate Governance
S-0356 | Published June 03, 2021 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides an introduction to corporate governance from a managerial perspective, covering key aspects of board responsibilities and board composition, the regulatory environment and legal dut... Read More
Presenting in Teams
BC-0279 | Published May 25, 2021 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Most MBA internships conclude with a presentation where you detail the results of your major summer project. A lot is riding on your performance—namely, whether or not you receive a job offer. The suc... Read More
Storytelling in Business
BC-0278 | Published May 20, 2021 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Storytelling is a crucial skill that leaders use in a variety of business situations. Accomplished leaders employ storytelling to improve interpersonal relationships, communicate strategy, and build c... Read More
Fragilities and Growth Prospects in the Global Economy
GEM-0177 | Published May 13, 2021 | 24 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses identifying the potential future fragile and high-growth economies.... Read More
Are You Ready? Devising a Personal Strategy for Life After Business School
S-0342 | Published May 04, 2021 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note offers a set of strategic questions to help you formulate an effective personal plan that can be especially useful for your first years after business school. It draws on theories and princi... Read More
Entire Agreement Clauses: Representations and Misrepresentations
IIMA-STR0462TEC | Published March 31, 2021 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Business contracts have come to have an entire agreement clause that seeks to exclude all communications prior to making the contract. Assigned contracts are fully binding, the clause is highly effec... Read More
No Oral Modification Clauses: The Riddle of Party Autonomy
IIMA-STR0461TEC | Published March 31, 2021 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Contract documents have come to have a no oral modification (NOM) clause which prohibits oral modification of a contract. The validity of the term was in doubt, however, as the contracting parties ar... Read More
Sale of Goods: The Implied Condition of Description
IIMA-STR0459TEC | Published March 17, 2021 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
The law of sale of goods gives the valuable right to the buyer to terminate the contract if the supplied goods are not in conformity with the description. However, every aspect, characteristic or the... Read More
Warranty Clauses: Exclusion of Implied Conditions and Warranties
IIMA-STR0460TEC | Published March 17, 2021 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
The law of sale of goods gives the buyer the valuable rights of implied conditions to terminate the contract if the supplied goods are not in conformity with the description, not of merchantable qual... Read More
Case Studies about Financial Crises and Civic Reactions
F-1975 | Published February 23, 2021 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes a collection of 26 teaching case studies and 5 expository notes on the history of financial crises from 1720 to 2008. The note also summarizes a semester-length course design base... Read More
The Constitutional Roots of Freedom of Speech
E-0460 | Published February 16, 2021 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note, written to accompany "The NBA, China, and Social Media: What Are the Rules of the Game?" (UVA-E-0459) but useful in tandem with other cases, charts the history of freedom of speech in the U... Read More
Doing Business: A Managerial Perspective
GEM-0176 | Published February 12, 2021 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A government’s impact on the economy is not limited to taxes, spending, and monetary policy. As any manager can attest, regulations dramatically impact the way managers think about production. An effe... Read More
(I Think) I Know Why You Did That: The Risky Business of Inferring Intentions
OB-1348 | Published January 27, 2021 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Despite the important role that assumptions about intentions play in our judgments of others’ actions and how we respond to these actions, most of us haven’t thought much about the accuracy of the inf... Read More
Understanding Risk: Systemic versus Idiosyncratic
F-1973 | Published January 21, 2021 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Using the fictional situation of two brothers facing the challenge of managing a commodity business in central Africa, this note explores different metrics for risk and related considerations for inve... Read More
Agile Development
OM-1711 | Published January 20, 2021 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is designed to introduce general management students to the body of work associated with agile and its current state of practice. While anchored in a simple 68-word manifesto, agil... Read More
Resolving Trade-Offs: From Simple Heuristics to Multicriteria Analysis
QA-0914 | Published December 18, 2020 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses a variety of methods to assist intuition in complex situations with multiple objectives and a potentially large set of alternatives. It begins with heuristic rules, which are relat... Read More
1923: Hyperinflation in Germany
F-1965 | Published December 18, 2020 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In the 1920s, Germany experienced one of the most severe episodes of hyperinflation in history. The episode originated in military defeat and revolution, produced instability that figured prominently ... Read More
(Water) Public–Private Partnerships: The Economics
GEM-0183 | Published December 14, 2020 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
With frequent water main breaks, leaking pipes, and lead contamination, the water infrastructure of many countries is in bad shape, and improvements are urgent in light of climate change and increasin... Read More
A Brief Note on Hoshin Kanri: Strategy Deployment
OM-1710 | Published November 30, 2020 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Hoshin kanri (HK), or strategy deployment, has been an integral part of the company management practices of some of the most successful Lean-practicing organizations. The purpose of this note is to gi... Read More
Opportunity Zones
C-2429 | Published November 10, 2020 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
On December 22, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). While many pundits focused on the bigger ticket items of the bill, there was a small provision... Read More
Digital Internal Communications: How Organizations Can Stay Connected Within
BC-0274 | Published November 03, 2020 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
External corporate communications and the rapidly changing ways in which companies engage with their customers received a lot of attention between 2010 and 2020. With social media, online chats, blogs... Read More
Creating Compelling Stories with Data: The Five-Pronged Approach
IIMA-IS0140TEC | Published October 01, 2020 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
The case revolves around a marketing/sales executive who works in the Ad Sales wing of a popular search engine. Over the course of the case, the protagonist realizes that... Read More
Employer Branding: What It Is and Why It Matters
M-1003 | Published September 30, 2020 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note outlines what an employer brand is, how it relates to a consumer brand, and why it matters. It allows students to be able to put their knowledge to the test by evaluating the attri... Read More
Competitive Dynamics: An Introduction
S-0306 | Published September 15, 2020 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note discusses competitive dynamics: the various and evolving actions and reactions of two firms engaged in a rivalrous relationship. By allowing us to analyze interactions at this dyad... Read More
The Art of the Effectual Ask
ENT-0225 | Published September 11, 2020 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Entrepreneurs strive to solve problems and create value through partnerships. Studying how they do that led to the hypothesis that "asking" played a critical role in the success of an entrepreneur. Th... Read More
Ownership, Control, and the Role of Equity in New Ventures
ENT-0226 | Published September 02, 2020 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note discusses how a high-potential start-up entrepreneur should use equity in building and growing a new venture. One of the most crucial things for entrepreneurs to understand is equi... Read More
A3 Thinking for Weight Loss
OM-1696 | Published August 07, 2020 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note describes the problem-solving process known as A3 Thinking through the lens of an individual's weight-loss efforts. The story is easy to understand and shows how the A3 process can... Read More
The Economics of Competitive Markets
GEM-0180 | Published August 05, 2020 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes how the behaviors of competitive buyers and sellers interact to determine market outcomes—the price at which a product is sold, and the quantity of a product that is exchanged. It ... Read More
A Note on Leases
C-2439 | Published May 28, 2020 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explains how to account for leases under Accounting Standards Codification 842. This new addition to US generally accepted accounting principles became effective for fiscal years b... Read More
Optimizing Academic Articles: A Practical Guide for Managers
S-0328 | Published April 27, 2020 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Articles published in academic journals are rich in research that can be invaluable for business management, operations, and strategy. But managers often consider the publications to be too theoretica... Read More
Trade Credit
F-1941 | Published March 26, 2020 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
When businesses deliver a product or service, they often forgo receiving immediate cash payment and allow their customers to pay later. Such payment terms are called trade credit. While trade credit f... Read More
The Profitability Index
F-1945 | Published March 26, 2020 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The well-known net present value (NPV) rule advocates accepting all investment projects that have a positive NPV. The NPV rule makes economic sense since positive-NPV projects are expected to create e... Read More
The US–China Trade War: Deal or No Deal?
GEM-0175 | Published March 17, 2020 | 31 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The US–China trade war in 2019 led to major shifts in global trade and supply chains, highlighting the recent trend in deglobalization. This note discusses the patterns of international trade and capi... Read More
Credit Analysis Basics
F-1898 | Published March 09, 2020 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Capital markets facilitate the appropriate exchange of money. For lenders and borrowers, the interest rate is the primary pricing mechanism that markets use in this exchange. For borrowers deemed to h... Read More
Budgeting Water Properly
GEM-0173 | Published December 16, 2019 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A primary requirement for managing water effectively and sustainably is an accounting framework that registers the water that is available for use (supply) and the water that is being used (demand). A... Read More
The Tragedy of the (Water) Commons
GEM-0174 | Published December 16, 2019 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
When left unattended, natural resources tend to inch toward depletion, overuse, spoilage, or pollution. Common pastures get overgrazed; lakes are overfished; rivers are polluted, and so on. In the cas... Read More
Convertible Notes: A Form of Early-Stage Financing
F-1925 | Published December 13, 2019 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Convertible notes are often used to raise early-stage financing for start-up companies, frequently due to their advantages related to delayed valuation, greater speed, and lower cost of completion com... Read More
The Great Industrial Revolution in Europe: 1760–1860
F-1926 | Published December 11, 2019 | 18 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The first (or "Great") Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe from roughly 1760 to 1860, and marked the end of the centuries-long feudal era and the rise of modern capitalism. To understand the mode... Read More
Text Analytics: Turning Words into Data
M-0986 | Published December 06, 2019 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The searchable internet contains almost 2 billion websites. And new, text-rich sites are being added at a rapid pace: more than 700 million popped up from 2016 to 2017, according to the International ... Read More
Financial Analytics Toolkit: Financial Statement Forecasting
F-1928 | Published December 04, 2019 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Managers need to be comfortable with financial statement forecasting. Forecasts allow managers to plan properly by weighing consequences and preparing for outcomes. A less-recognized but equally impor... Read More
Using Hypothesis-Driven Thinking in Strategy Consulting (FRENCH)
BP-0565 | Published November 16, 2019 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a French translation of the March 20, 2006 version of UVA-BP-0486. This technical note describes the process of hypothesis-driven thinking, using examples from strategy consulting, medicine, a... Read More
Zen for Strategy
S-0318 | Published November 12, 2019 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Iconoclasts with strongly held beliefs and a willingness to buck orthodoxy, Apple's Steve Jobs and the Chicago Bulls' Phil Jackson shared similarities in character, leadership style, and life experien... Read More
Asset Price Bubbles
F-1919 | Published November 07, 2019 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Market lore recounts a host of fabled asset price bubbles: the Dutch tulip bubble of the 1630s, the South Sea and Mississippi bubbles of 1720, the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, and the global real... Read More
The Classic Gold Standard: 1870–1914
F-1921 | Published November 07, 2019 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Debates on issues about the economy, growth, inequality, fiscal responsibility, and financial crises frequently reduce to debates about money. Moreover, debates about money often reduce to the soundne... Read More
Organizational Excellence
IIMA-OB0223TEC | Published October 31, 2019 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
This note discusses the idea of excellence in, and of, organizations. It looks at different types of organizational excellence as discussed in differe... Read More
Note on Competitive Dynamics and the Game of Go
S-0313 | Published October 03, 2019 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Go (or Wei-ch'i, as it is known in China) is a centuries-old board game popular across Asia. Many have drawn parallels between military successes and the game's complex methods, in which a player enci... Read More
Financial Analytics Toolkit: Ratio Analysis
F-1897 | Published September 30, 2019 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes the most common financial ratios and how they provide insight into firm performance. The emphasis is on how ratios summarize operating behaviors and results in ways that facilitate... Read More
Financial Analytics Toolkit: Cash Flow Projections
F-1896 | Published September 24, 2019 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note reviews the basics of projecting cash flows for a typical operating decision. To find the economic consequences of any decision, one needs to project the cash flow effects of that decision a... Read More
A Community for Change: B Lab and Certified B Corps
F-1878 | Published August 27, 2019 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Founded in 2006, the B Lab, a nonprofit organization, created the certified B Corporations (B Corps). B Corps are businesses that satisfy a set of standards and benchmarks defined by social and enviro... Read More
Highly Recommended: Collaborative Filtering Gives Customers What They Want
M-0974 | Published August 23, 2019 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Netflix Top Picks, Amazon recommendations, the iTunes Genius button. They all have one thing in common: they are driven by clever algorithms that use a technique known as collaborative filtering. Ofte... Read More
Assessing Private Equity Performance
F-1895 | Published July 30, 2019 | 18 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Assessing the performance of private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investment vehicles is a challenging task. It starts with the fact that the assets are privately held and illiquid. By contras... Read More
Differences between Financial Accounting and Tax for Valuation in M&A
C-2421 | Published July 19, 2019 | 18 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note outlines the differences between financial accounting standards and tax law that affect the valuation of potential targets depending on the deal structure employed. Valuation mode... Read More
Financial Analytics Toolkit: Weighted Average Cost of Capital
F-1850 | Published July 16, 2019 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Central to a firm’s long-term success, is allocating capital so that it generates economic value. The two most common decision rules based on economic value are to (i) accept proposals that have a pos... Read More
What Exactly Is Lean?
OM-1631 | Published July 02, 2019 | 1 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This brief, one-page note provides multiple definitions of Lean. The purpose is to show that Lean programs can and should be addressed on multiple levels, including detailed operations, the entire val... Read More
Taxable Acquisitive Deal Structures for C Corporations
F-1875 | Published June 25, 2019 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note outlines the consequences to the acquirer, target, and the target’s shareholders from a basic taxable acquisition of C corporations. Specifically, asset acquisitions, stock acquisi... Read More
Tax-Deferred Acquisitive Reorganizations for C Corporations
F-1863 | Published June 20, 2019 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note outlines the general judicial requirements an acquisition must meet to qualify as a tax-deferred reorganization. The variation in the specific requirements that must be met to qual... Read More
Basic Deal Structures
F-1862 | Published June 20, 2019 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical notes discusses three basic deal structures used to acquire another corporation. Asset acquisitions, stock acquisitions, and mergers under state law are the three common legal forms dis... Read More
A Course on Critical Thinking and Written Communication: The WAC Model
IIMA-COMM0023TEC | Published June 17, 2019 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
This technical note presents the pedagogic approach to teaching and sharpening critical thinking and written communication used at the Indian Institut... Read More
Defining Leadership and Effectiveness
OB-1292 | Published June 13, 2019 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note helps explain what leadership really is, explores some of the factors that influence leader effectiveness, and introduces the basics of how people can begin to develop as leaders. ... Read More
A Global Fintech Overview
F-1860 | Published April 26, 2019 | 34 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note discusses the various financial services segments in which technology solutions have been used to solve problems, including lending, payments, wealth/investment management, insuran... Read More
Brand Measurement Methods
M-0920 | Published February 21, 2019 | 25 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
While the importance of developing a superior brand is a common goal across firms, a key challenge marketers face is the measurement of a brand. What does it mean to measure a brand? It is about the w... Read More
A Holistic Framework for Transformational Learning
OB-1281 | Published February 14, 2019 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Knowledge, creativity, adaptability, and the ability to learn are critical necessities in a world in which the pace of change is accelerating. Many of us will choose to or be required to make a career... Read More
A Primer on Risk-Free Bonds
F-1861 | Published February 01, 2019 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note explores the first principles of pricing financial contracts. Debt contracts go by many names, but the term bond is used in this note to denote any market-traded debt contract. The note is ... Read More
Incentives in the Healthcare System
ISB127 | Published January 25, 2019 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian School of Business
This case study illustrates various incentives in the healthcare system using recent research in economics. Healthcare is important but it is difficult to objectively measure it from the perspective o... Read More
A User’s Guide to International Capital Flows
GEM-0171 | Published January 23, 2019 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides a description of international flows and positions data, a way to identify extreme capital flow episodes (such as surges and stops), and a straightforward technique to predict wheth... Read More
Entity Choices for a Socially Responsible Business
C-2407 | Published January 09, 2019 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
One of the fastest-growing areas in business is socially responsible investment (SRI), which incorporates environmental, social, and governance concerns. From 2007 to 2017, SRI increased from $2.71 tr... Read More
Consumers' Mental Accounting
QA-0908 | Published December 17, 2018 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
When a consumer purchases an item, the presumption is that the benefit obtained from it exceeds the price paid—we can think of this difference as the consumer profit. How do consumers calculate this p... Read More
Longer-Term Exchange Rate Anchors
GEM-0170 | Published December 12, 2018 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The goal of this technical note is to give students tools for thinking about how exchange rates will move over a period of five years into the future. While forecasting exchange rates is arguably more... Read More
Identifying the Next High-Growth Economies
GEM-0169 | Published December 06, 2018 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is an introduction to using macroeconomics in evaluating the long-term growth prospects of emerging markets. Methodologically, it is an application of growth theory, the Solow model in parti... Read More
Robust Services: People or Processes?
OM-1607 | Published November 13, 2018 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Service systems are inherently subject to variability, whether through customers, service providers, suppliers, or unexpected events. Yet customers demand excellence and consistency regardless of this... Read More
Note on Warfare in Eastern Philosophy
S-0304 | Published November 07, 2018 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note on warfare summarizes treatises by Chinese (e.g., Sun Tzu, The Art of War, ca. 500 BC) and Japanese (e.g., Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings, 1643 AD) warriors, reviews their philosop... Read More
Automation of Marketing Models
M-0965 | Published November 06, 2018 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note gives students an overview of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in order to help them understand how these fields can contribute to the future of marketing. To... Read More
Culture-Strategy-Execution "Oneness": A How-To Guide
S-0305 | Published October 30, 2018 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The culture-strategy-execution framework, known as the Trio Model, offers organizations a powerful, adaptive approach to navigating today's complicated global issues. By considering culture as an inte... Read More
Leading with an Enterprise Perspective: The 9 Cs Model
OM-1601 | Published September 18, 2018 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
While managers of both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations often focus on their area of specific expertise, true success comes only from taking a complete enterprise perspective. Organizations... Read More
Developing a Superior Positioning Concept for a Product, Service, Idea, or Experience
M-0919 | Published September 05, 2018 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
While there are a number of courses focused on helping students create and perfect innovative new products, there remains a gap regarding how to create and perfect the idea—or the positioning behind t... Read More
Valuing Late-Stage Companies and Leveraged Buyouts
F-1846 | Published August 23, 2018 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note replaces "Valuation of Late-Stage Companies and Buyouts" (UVA-F-1639). This note focuses on the valuation of late-stage companies with a particular emphasis on leveraged buyouts (LBOs). In ... Read More
Equity Compensation and the US Tax Consequences
C-2385 | Published August 17, 2018 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores the many different forms of equity compensation. Equity compensation, defined as compensation that provides for the delivery of equity securities, aligns employees’ incent... Read More
Food Marketing
M-0966 | Published August 07, 2018 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Literature in food marketing provides many examples of implicit associations and tensions of which marketers should be aware. For example, a brand that positions its product as healthy and tasty may s... Read More
Fighting Financial Crises: Making Policy
F-1848 | Published July 26, 2018 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note shapes a framework of competing policy priorities for governments in responding to a financial crisis: rescue, relief, recovery, and reform. The dominant considerations are where, when, how,... Read More
Fighting Financial Crises: Problems and Remedies
F-1847 | Published July 26, 2018 | 19 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note reviews seven recurrent factors in financial crises (runnable debt, rising leverage, financial innovation, complexity, contagion, cognitive bias, incompetence, and ethical violations) and so... Read More
Performance Management Systems: How Companies are Rethinking People Development
OB-1219 | Published June 29, 2018 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Business has become increasingly globalized, interconnected, and disrupted by the unceasing progress of technology. As markets span ever-larger geographical areas, the war for talent among companies c... Read More
Brand Activism
M-0963 | Published June 27, 2018 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note offers students a definition of brand activism (as contrasted to corporate social responsibility) along with an explanation of the different forms that this corporate practice can ... Read More
A Note on Decision-Making
IIMA-OB0232TEC | Published June 26, 2018 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Our lives are defined by the decisions we make. Important decisions are generally made in the face of great uncertainty, with incomplete information a... Read More
Project Management and Transparency for Capital Projects
QA-0899 | Published June 12, 2018 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Program- and project-management best practices are typically implemented when a corporation aims to work efficiently and effectively to deliver its projects to the customers on time and to maximize sh... Read More
Note on Master Limited Partnerships
F-1828 | Published May 17, 2018 | 21 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Master limited partnerships (MLPs) are limited partnerships that trade on public exchanges in the form of units, similar to common stock. MLPs have several advantages relative to traditional C corpora... Read More
Updating Probabilities
QA-0860 | Published April 25, 2018 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Individuals' judgement of probabilities—the likelihood of different events to occur, or the attribution of likely causes to what has occurred—is plagued by numerous biases and errors. This note focuse... Read More
The Specific Factors Model for Trade and Migration
GEM-0157 | Published March 23, 2018 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
When proposing new or modified economic policies, it is important to understand the distributional implications of such policies. Do they potentially affect everyone in the same way? Or can we expect ... Read More
Leadership Voice and Style
BC-0265 | Published March 16, 2018 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is used in management communications or strategic communication courses in MBA or executive education programs where students are learning to develop their ability to persuade othe... Read More
The Canons of Rhetoric
BC-0264 | Published March 16, 2018 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is employed in MBA, executive education, and undergraduate courses that cover the art of persuasion. It is used in the core Management Communication course at Darden. Employing the... Read More
Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Way to Manage Change
IIMA-OB0229TEC | Published March 14, 2018 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
In our lives, problems pose as our greatest opportunities. In this context, appreciative inquiry creates an environment that promotes dialogue and exc... Read More
Inventory Management
IIMA-QM0278TEC | Published March 13, 2018 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
This is a technical note on Inventory Models.... Read More
Behavioral Time Discounting
QA-0896 | Published March 08, 2018 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Many decisions involve trade-offs between present and future costs and benefits. We procrastinate difficult tasks, and we forgo larger rewards for smaller ones if we can get them sooner. Why do we cha... Read More
An MLP Model for Rescheduling Disrupted Railway Traffic
IIMA-PSG0124TEC | Published March 05, 2018 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Research literature generally cover scheduling of transportation services . Disruptions happen while a schedule is en-route and there are very few mat... Read More
A User’s Guide to BPM6-Based BOP and IIP Accounts
GEM-0154 | Published February 19, 2018 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note presents a short description of BPM6-based balance of payments (BOP) and international investment position (IIP) data. It works through examples using data for the United States and Mexico w... Read More
Conflict Management in Teams: For Military and Government
OB-1208 | Published February 09, 2018 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Despite the hierarchical power structures in the military and government, as they reach more senior levels, leaders routinely operate in peer-to-peer teams. These environments require the ability to n... Read More
A Theory of GATT/WTO
GEM-0153 | Published February 07, 2018 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides a few basic facts about the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). We also investigate why we need those institutions f... Read More
Background Note on the Philippines and Financial Inclusion
GEM-0149 | Published January 31, 2018 | 19 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides context regarding financial inclusion in the Philippines. It discusses the nature of poverty in the country; provides details on the financial system, especially the financial organ... Read More
Behavioral Economics and the Service Organization
OM-1548 | Published December 20, 2017 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note summarizes some important learnings from the study of behavioral economics of which service organizations should be aware in order to enhance customers' emotional experiences and help direct... Read More
A Note on Responsibility Centers
C-2400 | Published December 13, 2017 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Organizational design is one of the basic building blocks of control, because it reflects the division of resources and the assignment of responsibility throughout the firm. In particular, each organi... Read More
A Note on Budgeting and Strategic Profitability Analysis
C-2405 | Published December 12, 2017 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A budget is a tool that allows an organization to put its strategy into financial terms. It can be described as the financial plan for the organization. The organization as a whole will prepare a prof... Read More
A Note on Performance Measurement
C-2399 | Published December 08, 2017 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Performance measurement is at the heart of management. How a manager's performance is measured strongly influences that manager's decisions and how that manager spends his or her time. If you tell the... Read More
Production Systems
OM-1587 | Published December 07, 2017 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note covers the fundamental issues that deal with production systems. This includes providing a definition of a production system, explaining how production systems work, and reviewing ... Read More
What Is Operations Management?
OM-1586 | Published December 07, 2017 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note outlines some basic concepts in operations management. This includes defining exactly what operations management is all about, explaining the key components of operations managemen... Read More
The Production System Frontier
OM-1588 | Published December 07, 2017 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note covers the concept of the production system frontier. This includes understanding how best practices influence the production system frontier, and providing some examples of how yo... Read More
A Glossary of Lean Terms (RUSSIAN)
OM-1617 | Published November 08, 2017 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a Russian translation of the March 31, 2016, version of UVA-OM-1334. "Lean" has been defined as the "relentless pursuit of the elimination of waste." This technical note provides a glossary of... Read More
The Cost of Capital: Principles and Practice (RUSSIAN)
F-2001 | Published November 08, 2017 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a Russian translation of the August 13, 2015 version of UVA-F-1710. This technical note provides a student primer of firm cost of capital from a conceptual and application perspective. The not... Read More
TEACHER INCENTIVES
ISB096 | Published November 08, 2017 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian School of Business
Every manager faces the problem of motivating employees to show up to work, focus on the assigned task, and work hard.... Read More
Investment Decision and Cash Flows (RUSSIAN)
F-2000 | Published November 08, 2017 | 19 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a Russian translation of the November 1996 version of UVA F-0915. A positive net present value (NPV) is a direct estimate of value creation for shareholders and is an operational way of carryi... Read More
Stress and Our Inner Game
IIMA-OB0228TEC | Published November 06, 2017 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Over the course of evolution, humankind has become so absorbed in overcoming external challenges that we have neglected our need to focus on our inner... Read More
Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement
OM-1581 | Published September 26, 2017 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The mathematical relationships predicting average waiting time as a function of arrival patterns, service time distributions, number and types of servers, and various queue disciplines are well known.... Read More
Managing for Stakeholders and the Purpose of Business
E-0415 | Published September 13, 2017 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The benefits or harms achieved by a business is determined in part by the choices that business leaders make. One important driver of these choices is a leader’s view of the purpose of business. This ... Read More
How Do I Know If I Am Morally Responsible?
E-0414 | Published September 11, 2017 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In this note, a chef perceives that a website reviewer is responsible for his slowing business because the reviewer allowed fake reviews about his restaurant to be posted; it follows that the chef wou... Read More
Introducing the EDGAR Portal
C-2395 | Published August 21, 2017 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides hands-on instructions for searching, classifying, and obtaining documents from the US Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) official document repository, EDGAR. It help... Read More
Defining Problems and Opportunities in New Product Development (Part 1)
OM-1579 | Published August 11, 2017 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Developing new products and services is an iterative process that involves (1) identifying a problem or opportunity that needs to be addressed, (2) generating concepts or solutions that address the pr... Read More
A General Theory of Coolness
M-0953 | Published August 11, 2017 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Coolness is a quality that is widely desired but not widely understood. While many brands seek to establish themselves as "cool," few have a clear idea of how to get there. In this technical note, we ... Read More
To Understand Consumer Behavior, Think Like a Marketplace Scientist
M-0950 | Published July 28, 2017 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note outlines the process of proper experimentation in the world of business. This reading begins by describing why organizational experimentation is important and then defines a true e... Read More
An Introduction to Zero-Coupon Risk-Free Bonds
F-1799 | Published July 14, 2017 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note introduces students to the basics of bonds and the time value of money through the simplest of financial contracts?the zero-coupon risk-free bond contract. The note covers the concepts of pr... Read More
Note on Nonprofit Board Performance
S-0294 | Published May 09, 2017 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note contains some tips and best practices that drive effective nonprofit boards. The note will also examine the key responsibilities of nonprofit boards, and identify gaps in the effectiveness o... Read More
Competitor Acumen: The Heart of Competitor Analysis
S-0293 | Published April 10, 2017 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical notes answers the questions: What does the competitive landscape look like to a given competitor? Which firms does the competitor regard as its chief rivals? Critically, what actions is... Read More
Behavioral Risk Preferences
QA-0858 | Published March 24, 2017 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
MBA students are taught to use the expected monetary value (EV) to evaluate risky opportunities. The reaction of individuals to risk, however, is far more complex. In fact, individuals are rarely foun... Read More
Lean as a Universal Model of Excellence: It Is Not Just a Manufacturing Tool!
OM-1562 | Published December 14, 2016 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a technical note that describes the history of Lean and explains why it is not just a manufacturing tool. It is used in Darden's "Management of Service Operations" course elective.... Read More
A Late Night at The Virginian Restaurant: Model Documentation and Guide
OM-1553 | Published December 09, 2016 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The purpose of this document is to describe each step in the development of a model for the case "A Late Night at The Virginian Restaurant" (UVA-OM-1551).... Read More
Developing a Marketing Technology Blueprint
M-0906 | Published December 08, 2016 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note introduces the concept of a marketing technology blueprint (MarTech Blueprint), instructs students how to create one, and gives real-world examples of how a MarTech Blueprint might be used.... Read More
Working Capital: A Summary of Ratios by Industry, 2016
C-2388 | Published November 18, 2016 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note presents various working capital ratios from 2012 through 2015 by industry and for some well-known companies.... Read More
Financial Management: An Introduction
F-1742 | Published November 14, 2016 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of Financial Management. It is intended as a note to accompany the opening session of case-based course in corporate finance or financial management, as a way ... Read More
Universal Mind in a Practical World
S-0286 | Published November 01, 2016 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The purpose of this note is threefold. First to provide a short historical background to the development of the notions of universal mind and related concepts in Aikido and Ki Aikido. Second, to provi... Read More
Bank Office Simulation Tutorial and Technical Note
OM-1549 | Published October 26, 2016 | 20 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Tutorial and tech note combined to introduce students to model building and outputs in AnyLogic.... Read More
Congestion in Caf? 67: Model Documentation and Guide
OM-1552 | Published October 21, 2016 | 21 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The purpose of this document is to describe each step in the development of a model for the exercise "Congestion in Caf? 67." The system itself is described in Appendix 1. A short and simple descripti... Read More
Accounts Payable at Rockwell Collins: Process Simulation Model Note
OM-1554 | Published October 18, 2016 | 18 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The note provides documentation of a process simulation model that was prepared to simulate the invoicing work of 16 accounts payable analysts described in the case "Accounts Payable at Rockwell Colli... Read More
Operations Management: An Introduction to Process Analysis
OM-1556 | Published August 31, 2016 | 18 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces students to fundamental concepts in process analysis and is appropriate for both undergraduate and MBA students in an introductory operations management course. It can b... Read More
Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter
M-0913 | Published August 26, 2016 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Although most people are consumers of social media, few understand how to leverage it to build a brand—whether it is their own brand or a firm's brand. Just as Wal-Mart customers are not experts at ma... Read More
Private Provision of Public Goods
GEM-0144 | Published August 17, 2016 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note argues that it is hard for private institutions to provide the public goods that the government provides. In other words, there will tend to be an under provision of public goods if private ... Read More
A GLUM Primer: The Risk-Adjusted Expected Value
QA-0849 | Published August 11, 2016 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The purpose of this note is to improve on the expected value criterion by incorporating a rational decision-maker's willingness and capability to take on risk. First, this note will review the concept... Read More
The Economics of Corporate Social Responsibility
GEM-0143 | Published August 10, 2016 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the voluntary decision of companies to address social and environmental concerns by contributing to a public good, reducing external costs, and increasi... Read More
Social Media Marketing
M-0908 | Published August 01, 2016 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note describes the history and benefits of social media marketing and discusses the ways in which it differs from traditional marketing. Seven major social media platforms—Facebook, Ins... Read More
Operations Business Math—Process Analysis Level One: Problems (SPANISH)
OM-1594 | Published May 23, 2016 | 1 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a Spanish translation of the Dec. 19, 2002 version of UVA-OM-1059. This problem set focuses on process-analysis calculations, including throughput, capacity, cycle time, and utilization. See a... Read More
Operations Business Math—Process Analysis Level Two: Problems (SPANISH)
OM-1595 | Published May 23, 2016 | 1 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a Spanish translation of the Dec. 19, 2002 version of UVA-OM-1060. This problem set focuses on process-analysis calculations, including throughput, capacity, cycle time, and utilization. See a... Read More
Search Costs and Market Efficiency in Emerging Economies
ISB059 | Published March 29, 2016 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian School of Business
This note summarizes recent research on how information technology (such as mobile phones or internet) can be used to reduce costs associated with searching for prices, as well as the associated incre... Read More
Developing a Superior Strategic Marketing Plan
M-0890 | Published February 11, 2016 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
While both management and marketing courses detail the importance of having a strategy, there is a dearth of tools available that can help students understand how to create a strategic plan—as well as... Read More
Developing a Superior Creative Brief
M-0891 | Published February 11, 2016 | 21 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is designed to introduce the Creative Brief, a document that plays a crucial role in the process of converting marketing strategy into implementation. Many creatives believe that b... Read More
Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures
OM-1544 | Published February 04, 2016 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Though the world has recently been described as "flat," we contend that it is also "lumpy." Some managerial practices may be universal (i.e., applicable across all cultures), while others may have to ... Read More
Developing a Superior Brand Essence Statement
M-0892 | Published February 04, 2016 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Brands make promises to consumers, but where do these promises come from? How do brand teams decide what promise to make? This is where the brand essence statement (BES) comes in. It is a document, pi... Read More
A Note on Market Definition, Segmentation, and Targeting: Three (of Four) Steps in Developing Marketing Strategy
M-0895 | Published January 14, 2016 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Marketing strategy, part of the marketing planning process, flows directly from a company's goals and helps define how the marketing organization will help the firm achieve its objectives. Marketing ... Read More
A (Very) Brief Note on Some Quality Tools
OM-1543 | Published January 06, 2016 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note offers a brief overview of two techniques used in continual improvement programs: fishbone (Ishikawa) diagrams and Pareto charts.... Read More
Visualizing Process Behavior
OM-1541 | Published January 06, 2016 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Process behavior charts—also called control charts or Shewhart charts after their creator—provide a means to interpret data as they are generated. While many statistical methods and graphs are useful ... Read More
Bad Arguments and Rationalization in Business
E-0406 | Published January 05, 2016 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The following note attempts to catalog and analyze a set of flawed but common arguments made in business and organizational settings to drive strategic and operational decision-making. The arguments a... Read More
The Book of Bad Arguments
E-0408 | Published January 05, 2016 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note, intended to accompany the short booklet An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, discusses the logical framework behind argumentation and presents the basic logical rules necessary to reach so... Read More
Using a Framework to Create Better Choices
E-0407 | Published January 05, 2016 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Intuition can be a good guide for decision making when the current situation generally matches the situations in which the intuition was formed. But for novel or ambiguous situations, relying only on ... Read More
Fix or Float
F-1746 | Published January 05, 2016 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A fundamental policy decision every government must make is whether, and to what extent, to manage the exchange rate. This note discusses some of the basic costs and benefits of fixed and floating exc... Read More
Moral Theory, Frameworks, and the Language of Ethics and Business
E-0405 | Published January 05, 2016 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Since ethics is an integral part of management, it is vital for managers to become comfortable with the language of ethics, and to understand how it is inextricable from the language of business. Stud... Read More
Religion in the Workplace: A Managerial Outline for Navigating the Law at the Intersection of Business and Religion
E-0410 | Published December 28, 2015 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of religious discrimination law in the United States and provides managers with a meaningful understanding of their rights and obligations when an employee's r... Read More
Moral Voice: Talking About Ethics at Work
E-0411 | Published December 18, 2015 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
There are a number of reasons that individuals find it challenging to engage in discussion about ethics and values in the workplace environment, yet engagement regarding values is critically important... Read More
Ethics Beneath the Surface
E-0409 | Published December 18, 2015 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Whereas there is much focus on improving the cognitive aspects of ethical decision-making, many of the drivers of managerial action are nondeliberative. The explosion of academic work in behavioral sc... Read More
Open-Economy National Income Accounting and the IS/LM Model
GEM-0128 | Published December 17, 2015 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
When we introduce macroeconomic models, we assume that goods and services are exchanged within a single country but not across countries. This assumption is useful for understanding some of the primar... Read More
Management of Financial Policy Decisions: Capital Structure Policy
F-1743 | Published December 04, 2015 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of capital structure policy. Through a series of hypothetical situations and real-world examples, students will gain an understanding of the benefits and costs... Read More
Becoming Ambicultural: A Guide for Managers and Organizations
S-0253 | Published October 15, 2015 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Ambicultural organizations and executives go a step beyond simply embracing different thoughts and behaviors—they transcend divisions to integrate such "opposites" as competition and cooperation, East... Read More
A User's Guide to the BOP and IIP: The Transition from BPM5 to BPM6
GEM-0135 | Published July 15, 2015 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Balance of payments (BOP) accounting conventions, never straightforward, have been complicated recently by the introduction of new standards. This note presents a short description of BOP and internat... Read More
The Basics of Private Equity Funds
F-1731 | Published May 26, 2015 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Private equity (PE) refers to illiquid investments or securities that are not publicly traded on an exchange, such as venture capital, mezzanine or distressed debt, leveraged buyouts, timber, oil and ... Read More
Early-Stage Term Sheets
F-1730 | Published May 08, 2015 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note was written as an updated version of "The Early-Stage Term Sheet" (UVA-F-1444) and may be used in its place. In seeking funding for an early-stage company, the entrepreneur and investor wil... Read More
An Introductory Course in Probability for Management
IIMA-QM0275TEC | Published March 30, 2015 | 57 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
This technical note can be used by an instructor over 15 one-and-half hour sessions to provide a crisp introduction to essential ideas in probability ... Read More
The Marginal Product of Labor
GEM-0132 | Published March 19, 2015 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores one of the most important topics for firms and their managers: labor. In particular, how many people should a firm hire, and how much should they be paid? The note uses th... Read More
Conflict Management in Teams
OB-1072 | Published March 04, 2015 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Successful teams have three things in common: (1) they meet their performance goals, (2) their members feel satisfied that they are learning/benefiting from being a part of the team, and (3) the proce... Read More
Brand Equity: An Overview
M-0879 | Published February 24, 2015 | 27 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note was written as an updated version of "Perspectives on Brand Equity" (UVA-M-0668), and may be used in its place. This note provides a resource to aid in understanding brand equity: its creat... Read More
Discounted Cash Flow Analysis
F-1728 | Published January 16, 2015 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note outlines the principles and application of proper discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis in the context of evaluating business investment projects. The note provides several specific ... Read More
Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings
BC-0255 | Published December 11, 2014 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is a meta-analysis of some of the issues involving the management of virtual teams. Managing people who are geographically dispersed across time, space, and organizational boundari... Read More
Leverage Ratios in Financial Analysis
C-2291 | Published December 01, 2014 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note introduces multiple concepts of leverage from an accounting context, specifically as they relate to balance sheets and income statements. Both operating- and financial-leverage ratios and th... Read More
Confronting Directly and Indirectly: Are You Attuned to Notice?
OB-1055 | Published September 10, 2014 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
How we voice our disagreements may say a lot about our cultural influences. Confrontations are not always angry fights; sometimes they happen when there is a need to deliver bad news, or to say no to ... Read More
Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply
GEM-0127 | Published September 08, 2014 | 22 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note extends the IS/LM model to incorporate changes in the aggregate price level and to permit output to be determined by aggregate supply and demand. The note introduces the concept of the full-... Read More
A Brief Introduction to Macroeconomics
GEM-0125 | Published September 02, 2014 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note sets the groundwork for a module on macroeconomics by introducing concepts and definitions that will be revisited in subsequent technical notes. The note begins by introducing nati... Read More
The IS/LM Model
GEM-0126 | Published September 02, 2014 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces the basic structure of the workhorse IS/LM model for a closed economy (i.e., one that does not engage in international trade). The note derives the core components of th... Read More
Legal Considerations When Writing Case Studies
PHA-0072 | Published May 09, 2014 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
"If the company refuses to sign the case release, can I disguise material and use it in my business case?" "Is it okay to use part of this quote in my case under the 10% rule?" Without attention to... Read More
Implementing Marketing Analytics
M-0869 | Published April 30, 2014 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note supports cases used in Darden's "Marketing Analytics" course elective. Marketing analytics powered by "big data" holds the promise to transform marketing strategy from a discipline based mos... Read More
Coral Reef Ecosystems: Valuable and Critically Threatened
ENT-0201 | Published March 12, 2014 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Coral reef ecosystems are beautiful and vibrant underwater communities inhabited by a spectacularly diverse and abundant array of organisms essential to human needs. Reefs are severely threatened worl... Read More
Public Provision of Water
GEM-0120 | Published February 28, 2014 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is used in the Darden course elective, "The Economics of Water." In many cities, water, sewage, and electricity utilities are city-owned, not-for-profit institutions. Indeed, a 2011 survey o... Read More
Note on the Insurance Industry in India
ISB034 | Published February 26, 2014 | 22 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian School of Business
The note traces the evolution of the Insurance Industry in India and looks at its state in the year 2012. It throws light on the size, products, major players and other details of the industry like pe... Read More
Withdrawing Water from an Aquifer: The Economics
GEM-0119 | Published February 25, 2014 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Water is a renewable natural resource. Driven by solar energy and gravity, the global water cycle indefinitely circulates water through the atmosphere, over continents, and across oceans. On a more lo... Read More
The Water Cycle, Climate Change, and (Some of) Their Interactions
GEM-0118 | Published February 19, 2014 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is assigned in Darden's course elective, "Global Economics of Water." There is more than enough fresh water to satisfy the world's needs. The primary concern, however, is the geographical mi... Read More
The Power of One: The Strategy Diamond Framework
S-0237 | Published February 07, 2014 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The diamond framework can be used to develop strategies in multibusiness enterprises at all organizational levels and across markets or products. This note demonstrates how the framework yields insigh... Read More
The Cost of Capital: Principles and Practice
F-1710 | Published February 07, 2014 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a student primer of firm cost of capital from a conceptual and application perspective. The note provides student intuition on the traditional theory of cost of debt, cost... Read More
A Resource-Allocation Perspective for Marketing Analytics
M-0861 | Published January 21, 2014 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Managers must understand their marketing efforts as precisely as possible in order to determine how much to spend on each marketing channel. This technical note explores marketing analytics—the proces... Read More
Making Ethics Personal: Character and Your Personal Vision
E-0393 | Published January 09, 2014 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Ethics, in addition to being about principles and consequences, is about character: the individual traits and qualities that define what kind of person someone is and who they hope to become. This tec... Read More
Ethics at the Frontier
E-0392 | Published January 09, 2014 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Today's society is characterized by a rapid state of change, and technological innovation plays a significant part in that. So how should one approach ethics at the technological frontier? This techni... Read More
Customer Profitability (RUSSIAN)
M-0955 | Published December 28, 2013 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a Russian translation of the June 24, 2005 version of UVA-M-0718. This technical note defines, describes, and illustrates the most common metrics marketers used to monitor and manage customer... Read More
Legal Aspects of Pricing
M-0856 | Published December 17, 2013 | 27 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores some of the legal implications that companies face when deciding how to price their goods. It focuses on the three main federal antitrust laws: the Sherman Antitrust Act, ... Read More
Paid Search Advertising
M-0860 | Published November 25, 2013 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides a primer on paid search advertising, which is an important component of digital marketing. The mechanics of paid search is explained using the Google search engine platform. The not... Read More
Logistic Regression
M-0859 | Published November 20, 2013 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note presents the reason for using a binomial logic regression in marketing applications. It is used in Darden's "Big Data in Marketing" course elective. The issues surrounding the use ... Read More
Continuous Probability Distributions
IIMA-QM0260TEC | Published November 12, 2013 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
This note contains material to be used to teach the basics of continuous distributions. Topics covered include definitions of various basic concepts, ... Read More
Developing a Strategy
S-0232 | Published November 06, 2013 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This document provides a step-by-step guide to the sequence of tasks involved in the strategy development process including the eight activities necessary for strategic planning.... Read More
Multiple Regression and Marketing-Mix Models
M-0855 | Published October 07, 2013 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In this technical note, the concept of regression using a single independent variable is first introduced and then some of the practical challenges associated with it, including multiple independent v... Read More
A CLASS DIVIDED
ISB032 | Published October 07, 2013 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian School of Business
Does discrimination on the basis of gender, religion or ethnic origin exist in the job market? Why do employers use these factors in hiring decisions?... Read More
THE COURSE ALLOCATION PROBLEM
ISB033 | Published October 07, 2013 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian School of Business
Why is allocating courses to students in universities a challenging task? How difficult is it for institutions to strike a balance between the students' preferences over courses and what they can make... Read More
Business Valuation in Mergers and Acquisitions
F-1699 | Published October 02, 2013 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses valuation in the context of business mergers and acquisitions. It builds on standard methods of business valuation to consider the unique questions arising in a merger or acquisiti... Read More
The High-Yield Debt Market
F-1702 | Published September 27, 2013 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
High-yield debt is an important provider of financing for a broad range of corporate purposes. This note discusses the basic features of high-yield debt, some of its advantages and disadvantages, and ... Read More
The IPO Issue Process
F-1700 | Published September 18, 2013 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note covers the institutional process for companies making an initial public offering (IPO) of equity. It focuses on the basic institutional requirements of an underwritten security offering and ... Read More
The Shelf Registration Process
F-1701 | Published September 18, 2013 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note covers U.S. SEC Rule 415, more widely known as shelf registration. It briefly discusses the rationale and historical origins of the rule in 1982 and then discusses several reforms?the introd... Read More
Twenty Questions for Every M&A: Improving Postmerger Integration Performance
S-0226 | Published September 05, 2013 | 20 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is used in Darden's Postmerger Integration elective. The authors present a guide to help managers prepare for integration challenges and allocate integration resources more efficiently. Alth... Read More
Small Medium at Large: Technology, Time, and Memory in Corporate Communications
BC-0248 | Published August 11, 2013 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note considers the role technological growth continues to play in the evolution of corporate communications.... Read More
Pattern Recognition and Interpretation
BC-0252 | Published August 11, 2013 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note explores the ways in which pattern recognition is central to strategic, managerial, and branding activities.... Read More
Marketing Plan Development
M-0848 | Published August 11, 2013 | 21 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes in detail the components of a marketing plan and the process by which data are collected and the plan is developed. Its objective is to develop a sense of purpose and discipline in... Read More
Corporate Identity and Culture
BC-0251 | Published August 11, 2013 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses the shifts in the conception of brand and identity as it relates to corporations.... Read More
Two Metanarratives of Contemporary Business
BC-0250 | Published August 11, 2013 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses two alternate narratives, or conceptions, of the role corporations can or should play in society, with attention paid to the influence of an emergent expectation of transparency br... Read More
Lean Thinking: Better Living through Setup Reduction
OM-1501 | Published July 29, 2013 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note reviews the effect setup time, batch size, and throughput time have on each other by providing everyday examples.... Read More
Leadership and Choice Theory
OB-1052 | Published July 24, 2013 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores leadership through the framework of choice theory. As human beings, we actively engage in four strongly interconnected domains of choice: our activities, our thinking, our... Read More
The Ins and Outs of Open Innovation
OM-1495 | Published May 16, 2013 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores open innovation--initiatives that are executed with organizations or individuals outside the typical boundaries of the R&D organization. Through a broadening of the interp... Read More
Changing Contexts for Reputation Management
BC-0249 | Published March 05, 2013 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note surveys some of the shifting considerations in play as chief communications officers (CCOs) have come to see reputation as a useful umbrella concept for managing the many activities that for... Read More
Exiting a Successful Business
F-1692 | Published March 01, 2013 | 18 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note reviews the ways an entrepreneur can exit a successful business, noting the pros and cons as well as the pitfalls of the various alternatives. The exit strategy is an issue that faces all sm... Read More
Corporate Crisis and the Long View
BC-0246 | Published March 01, 2013 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The public primarily encounters the corporate communications function during a crisis. General rules are a good starting place for dealing with a crisis and handy to know, but a historical perspective... Read More
Pensions and Financial Reporting
C-2340 | Published February 07, 2013 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note serves a wide audience. At Darden, it is used in two elective courses: Financial Reporting and Analysis and Financial Statement Analysis and Corporate Valuation, as well as in the open execu... Read More
Contemporary Corporate Communications: Stakeholder Engagement and the Business Model
BC-0245 | Published February 01, 2013 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note explores the ongoing evolution of the corporate communications function from the management of public image and public relations to the integrated cultivation of internal values and external... Read More
Derivatives and Hedging
C-2341 | Published January 29, 2013 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is a valuable read in any finance or accounting course that is covering the risks of derivative securities. In October 2011, MF Global Holdings LTD, a New York City brokerage company, filed ... Read More
Network Analysis: What Is It?
BC-0247 | Published January 22, 2013 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is used in Darden's first year "Business Communications" course. This technical note examines the organizational structure of the network and provides a brief introduction to netwo... Read More
Business Valuation: Standard Approaches and Applications
F-1684 | Published January 22, 2013 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides an introduction to the standard approaches used to value businesses from the perspective of the investor (e.g., discounted cash flow, market multiples). Each approach is illustrated... Read More
Managing for Stakeholders
E-0383 | Published January 07, 2013 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Managing for Stakeholders is used in the Darden School's first-year required "Business Ethics" course. This note explains managing for stakeholders, an emerging view that, basically, businesses and th... Read More
Operational Systems Thinking
OM-1430 | Published December 02, 2012 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides an introduction to operational systems thinking using the language of stocks and flows and guided by a scientific method-based mapping process. Operational mental models link explic... Read More
Corporate Brand as Social Contract
BC-0244 | Published November 19, 2012 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is used at Darden in the Business Communications course and would also work well in Organizational Behavior courses. The role of branding at the corporate level, distinct from prod... Read More
Understanding Basic Financial Statements
C-2335 | Published October 02, 2012 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes balance sheets, income statements, and statements of owners' equity and serves as an introduction to basic financial statements.... Read More
Real Options (Abridged)
QA-0799 | Published September 20, 2012 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is an abridged version of QA-0639, "Real Options." ... Read More
Water Markets from an Economic Point of View
GEM-0110 | Published September 12, 2012 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Recent droughts and the increase in food prices they trigger underscore that freshwater scarcity is bound to be a major challenge of the 21st century. Increased water demand due to population growth a... Read More
Designing Marketing Experiments
M-0839 | Published August 29, 2012 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is used in Darden's first-year core marketing course as well as in the marketing analytics elective. It could also be used effectively in modules covering the topics of market rese... Read More
Giving Voice to Values Workshop: Introduction for Instructors
OB-1258 | Published August 15, 2012 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. This no... Read More
Ethical Decision-Making: A Global Perspective
E-0380 | Published August 14, 2012 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note on ethics builds on and further develops the conversation about ethics. It provides background, language, and concepts to identify and analyze managerial problems from an ethics pe... Read More
Performance Measurement with Factor Models
F-1673 | Published August 14, 2012 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Identifying an appropriate benchmark is an essential step in assessing a manager's performance. In the prospectus or fund advertising materials, a benchmark for the fund is typically identified, and t... Read More
A Framework for Improving Organizational Interventions
G-0631 | Published July 20, 2012 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note analyzes and explores frameworks for improving interventions in organizations. Organizations are complex ecosystems of assumptions, artifacts, and interactions. By understanding ho... Read More
How to Better Frame Problems
G-0630 | Published July 13, 2012 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Before managers can solve problems or take advantage of opportunities that may arise in their businesses, they must frame those problems or opportunities. Typically, leaders identify and frame problem... Read More
Communicating in Organizations in the Digital Age
BC-0243 | Published July 09, 2012 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Internal communication in organizations has been significantly changing under the influence of the latest advancements in the digital space. Recently published research suggests that the majority of c... Read More
Organizational Use of Decision Analysis
QA-0655 | Published May 13, 2012 | 40 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
We consider three activities that are key to creating value for the organization: making excellent choices, actually bringing about change, and operating effectively with new choices. We recommend a ... Read More
The Use of Takt Time and Operator Loading Charts
OM-1471 | Published April 24, 2012 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This brief note introduces the fundamental Lean concepts of takt time and operator loading charts. Examples are given within the note and practice problems are provided.... Read More
What Kind of Business Case Studies Are We Writing?
PHA-0064 | Published April 13, 2012 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
What is the difference between a research paper and a business case study? Are all good business cases decision-focused? This note provides a brief description of field-based, research-based, and armc... Read More
Business Case Critique
PHA-0068 | Published April 12, 2012 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Case writing is extremely strategic, and each case should be developed with the target audience level?graduate, undergraduate, executive education?and learning objectives in mind. This note was writte... Read More
Overview of the Business Case Writing Process
PHA-0065 | Published April 12, 2012 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Why would busy executives participate in business case studies? The relationship that develops between executives and faculty through the case writing process is a powerful example of sharing and trus... Read More
Opening Section Critique
PHA-0067 | Published April 12, 2012 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note was written to evaluate an opening section of a business case study. It was developed for case writing workshops and may be useful for new case writers seeking to appraise their own material... Read More
The Opening Section: Warner-Lambert and Comvia Networks
PHA-0066 | Published April 12, 2012 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The opening section of a business case study is more than an introduction. We want readers to put themselves in the role of the case protagonist, so key pieces of information need to be in it. This no... Read More
Using Binary Variables to Represent Logical Conditions in Optimization Models
QA-0786 | Published April 11, 2012 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Logical conditions that link different elements of a business decision are very common in managerial practice. For example, a firm can ship only to and from warehouses that are open; patients needing ... Read More
The Power of One
S-0204 | Published March 23, 2012 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Each of us possesses an inner force that enables us to be optimally effective in all aspects of life. The power of one is much more than an abstraction that animates our actions. It has practical appl... Read More
Leadership Presence and the Courage to Speak
BC-0242 | Published February 27, 2012 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note applies the concept of "leadership presence" as established by Belle Linda Halpern and Kathy Lubar to the concerns of business leaders.... Read More
Self-Assessment: Company Story Talk
BC-0241 | Published February 27, 2012 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses practical considerations when evaluating presentations of an "elevator speech" or "company story" in an MC class environment.... Read More
Project Ideas for Developing Leadership Presence
BC-0228 | Published January 20, 2012 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is aimed to help individuals develop projects for growing leadership presence through a self-designed project. The note offers four general types of projects, each offering a set of strategi... Read More
The Customer-Focused Growth Project
M-0798 | Published January 20, 2012 | 19 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note guides students or Executive Education participants through an exercise to help identify growth opportunities for their business units. The Customer-Focused Growth Project consists of 10 ste... Read More
Brand Positioning Statements
M-0827 | Published January 20, 2012 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The process of branding a product involves building awareness of and preference for the specific name of the product that is being branded. Central to the branding process is the brand positioning sta... Read More
The Dodd-Frank Act and Its Impact
F-1655 | Published November 28, 2011 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The Dodd-Frank Act, in response to the preceding financial crisis of 2008-09, fundamentally changed the finance industry and greatly affected its biggest players. This technical note gives an overview... Read More
Modeling Discrete Choice: Categorical Dependent Variables, Logistic Regression, and Maximum Likelihood Estimation
QA-0779 | Published November 07, 2011 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces business students to the concepts of modeling discrete choice (e.g., a consumer purchasing brand A versus brand B) using logistic regression and maximum-likelihood estim... Read More
Managing Inventories: The Newsvendor Model
OM-1456 | Published November 04, 2011 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note uses the traditional newsvendor model to present strategies for inventory management when demand is uncertain. Methods for determining the critical ratio of overage and underage costs and th... Read More
Creating a Growth Portfolio
S-0199 | Published October 10, 2011 | 23 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is the fourth in a series focusing on business growth. It addresses how to create a diversified Growth Portfolio based on the Learning Launch experiments. The note covers how growt... Read More
Learning Launches: Growth Results from Experimental Learning
S-0198 | Published October 10, 2011 | 19 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In this note, the author discusses how research shows that consistent growth companies engage in growth experiments or tests to gather better data to be used in determining which growth ideas are wort... Read More
Growth Is Much More Than Just A Strategy: It's A System
S-0197 | Published October 06, 2011 | 24 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note states that growth research demonstrates that growth is much more than a strategy and it happens when the right kind of leadership, internal environment and processes come together to create... Read More
Growth Is the Dynamic Confluence of Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Values
S-0196 | Published September 16, 2011 | 21 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The author has examined common growth beliefs and the U.S. Growth Model and finds no support for them in any area of business research. He offers instead the Organic Growth Index, the result of ten ye... Read More
Business Process Mapping
OM-1423 | Published September 02, 2011 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Appropriate for courses in operations management and process improvement. This technical note explains how to utilize process maps as tools to show workflow steps, clarify process expectations and res... Read More
Six Sigma at Dominion Resources, Inc.: Investing In Excellence
OM-1453 | Published September 02, 2011 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides information on Six Sigma and business improvement at Dominion Resources, Inc., including many examples of the CEO Tom Farrell's personal commitment and support. It can be used in ex... Read More
True Leadership: Leading with Meaning
E-0364 | Published August 24, 2011 | 26 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Leadership is an enduring subject for research, writing, and discussion. There are almost endless theoretical and fundamental explanations as to what leadership is and what makes a good leader. The re... Read More
Google AdWords
M-0817 | Published August 16, 2011 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note introduces search engine marketing as presented by Google's popular AdWords advertising program and as monitored by Google Analytics. ... Read More
The World is Flat...The World is Lumpy?
S-0191 | Published August 12, 2011 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Suitable for MBA, EMBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs, this note sets the stage to unfold an analysis of popular notions about how the world works. On one hand, some believe that global comp... Read More
Product Line Pricing
M-0813 | Published August 02, 2011 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses the technical and managerial aspects of pricing a product line. Product lines are multiple variants of essentially the same product, where individual products in the line may vary ... Read More
The Evolution of Selling
M-0811 | Published July 26, 2011 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Appropriate for marketing classes. This note follows the evolution of selling starting with the skills set forth by Dale Carnigie in the 1950s through the 1970s followed by consultive selling in the 1... Read More
Business Process Mapping: Prospective Student Visits to the Darden School
OM-1445 | Published July 15, 2011 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Appropriate for courses in operations management and process improvement. Hundreds of prospective students visit the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration throughout the academic year to i... Read More
Business Process Mapping: The Darden School Mailroom
OM-1444 | Published July 12, 2011 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The Darden School mailroom and the activities of its manager are analyzed using process mapping and waste identification tools. The note illustrates how one can observe and analyze a process for which... Read More
Design of Price and Advertising Elasticity Models
M-0805 | Published July 12, 2011 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The marketing mix that a manager may deploy can affect the sales of a product and can be categorized under the traditional four Ps of marketing (product, price, promotion, and placement). But the pere... Read More
Scoring Expert Forecasts
QA-0772 | Published July 12, 2011 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note, based on the more comprehensive note, "Eliciting and Evaluating Expert Forecasts" (UVA-QA-0734), provides a streamlined presentation of Brier and log scores as tools for assessing... Read More
Imperfect Competition and Monopolies
GEM-0105 | Published June 15, 2011 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In this note, we look at what happens when there are only few producers. For simplicity, we start with a market with only one supplier, a monopolist. We analyze the price the monopolist charges and th... Read More
A Bayesian Examines the Lady Tasting Tea (Abridged)
QA-0768 | Published June 13, 2011 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note accompanies the case/class on "The Lady Tasting Tea" (LTT). It describes how a Bayesian would update his or her prior probability for the probability the LTT can correctly distingu... Read More
A Bayesian Examines the Lady Tasting Tea
QA-0769 | Published June 13, 2011 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note accompanies the case/class on "The Lady Tasting Tea" (LTT). It describes how a Bayesian would update his or her prior probability for the probability the LTT can correctly distingu... Read More
Supply Chain Coordination and Contracts
OM-1442 | Published May 31, 2011 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note addresses the dynamics of supply chains as they affect profits--how profits may be both maximized overall and equitably distributed across the supply chain. Influences of pricing and stockin... Read More
A Framework to Think About Pollution: Externalities, Pollution Taxes, and Cap and Trade
GEM-0104 | Published April 26, 2011 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
It is an understatement to say that environmental challenges are attracting attention. Sustainability tops the list of challenges for the 21st century. There is no consensus about how to address these... Read More
Customer Lifetime Value
M-0800 | Published April 20, 2011 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces important metrics firms use to monitor customer relationships. An important summary of customer activity is the profit the firm receives from each customer. Customer pro... Read More
Customer Profit
M-0799 | Published April 20, 2011 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces important metrics firms use to monitor customer relationships. The note begins by discussing how to count the firms' customers and keep track of their activity using the... Read More
Taxation in a Global Economy
C-2328 | Published April 11, 2011 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Students can examine how international taxation is a system of global tax rules that apply to transactions between two or more countries. They will see how, given differing tax consequences across cou... Read More
Customer Segmentation in Business-to-Business Markets
M-0792 | Published March 18, 2011 | 26 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The purpose of this note is to help students better understand the concept of customer segmentation in a business-to-business (B2B) context, focused on such topics as the role segmentation plays in th... Read More
Valuation of Late-Stage Companies and Buyouts
F-1639 | Published March 15, 2011 | 27 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note focuses on the valuation of late-stage companies with a particular emphasis on leveraged buyouts (LBOs). In addition to LBOs, late-stage investments can arise in situations involving growth ... Read More
Ten Tools for Design Thinking
BP-0550 | Published December 17, 2010 | 27 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note is part of a course module that focuses on teaching design-thinking skills and 10 tools to identify and implement innovation and growth opportunities. It can be taught to MBA, unde... Read More
Interview with a Horse Whisperer
OB-1018 | Published December 14, 2010 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note contains a verbatim transcript between an MBA student and a practicing manager and can be used to identify the speaker's values, attitude, beliefs, and expectations (VABEs). Seeing, examinin... Read More
Shrimp Commodity Systems Learning Lab: Guidance Notes
OM-1428 | Published December 06, 2010 | 24 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note supports the "Shrimp Commodity Systems Learning Lab" (SCSLL) simulation (UVA-OM-1537) used in environmental sustainability or systems thinking courses. It offers detailed guidance ... Read More
The Financial Regulatory Environment
GEM-0103 | Published October 27, 2010 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The financial regulatory environment in the United States covers the insurance, banking, and securities industries. This note summarizes the regulation of all three as of July 31, 2010. This compact ... Read More
The Choice of Business Entity: Corporate, Pass-Through, and Disregarded Entities
C-2293 | Published September 16, 2010 | 30 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note focuses on common business entities: sole proprietorships, general partnerships (GPs), limited partnerships (LPs), limited liability partnerships (LLPs), limited liability companie... Read More
Climate Change
ENT-0157 | Published August 31, 2010 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The scientific consensus on climate change's origins in human activities has begun to influence international law and corporate policies. Suitable for MBA and undergraduate students, this technical no... Read More
The Influence of Social Media on Purchase Decisions in High Involvement Categories
M-0786 | Published August 09, 2010 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses how social media marketing can be used to influence the consumer decision process for goods and services. It links social media's influence to the different stages of the purchase ... Read More
Present Value: A Note on Personal Applications
C-2314 | Published August 03, 2010 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note explores discounted cash flows as a core technique for valuing a business, allocating scarce resources, and comparing alternative investments. Suitable for MBA and undergraduate business stu... Read More
Why Everything You Think You Know About Growth Is Probably Wrong
S-0172 | Published June 17, 2010 | 20 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Appropriate for courses in business strategy at the MBA and executive education levels. By searching the disciplines of biology, economics, strategy, finance, and organizational design and behavior, P... Read More
Biomimicry: Using Nature's Models as Sustainability Design Inspiration for Company Strategy and Products
ENT-0154 | Published May 10, 2010 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This brief background note provides an explanation and examples of biomimicry as an approach that provides insights into the innovative design of products and corporate strategy framing. Biomimicry us... Read More
B Corporation: A New Sustainable Business Model
ENT-0155 | Published May 10, 2010 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides background on a new certification process for B Corporations that enables companies to assess, compare, and protect the sustainability practices they integrate into corporate strate... Read More
A Six-Part Module on Lift: Becoming a Positive Force in Any Situation
OB-0987 | Published May 05, 2010 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This document is a summary of a course module that instructors can use to teach the concepts in "Lift: Becoming a Positive Force in Any Situation." It describes the six classes that are part of this c... Read More
Tyson Toles on Leadership
OB-0997 | Published May 04, 2010 | 20 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Unless we learn to manage our own behavior more intentionally, how can we possibly lead others effectively? This is a descriptive case of one MBA student's views on core leadership principles, his per... Read More
Conducting Research in Ethics and Corporate Responsibility
E-0353 | Published April 30, 2010 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note highlights the most useful resources for gathering data on particular companies or industries, including information relevant to ethics, accountability, and responsibility. ... Read More
Framing Your Business Issue for Others
OM-1413 | Published April 29, 2010 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Appropriate for individuals interested in framing a situation in order to facilitate conversations with colleagues and others not familiar with the situation. To engage others in these conversations, ... Read More
Introduction to Optimization Models
QA-0682 | Published March 29, 2010 | 39 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
We refer to a model that uses mathematical programming to find an optimal quantity as an optimization model. Thus, an optimization model differs from an evaluation model in that it goes beyond simply ... Read More
The Mathematics of Optimization
QA-0683 | Published March 29, 2010 | 27 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In "Introduction to Optimization Models" (UVA-QA-0682), we explored the basics of using optimization models, or mathematical programming. In this technical note, we turn our attention to the mathemati... Read More
Introduction to Analytical Probability Distributions
QA-0690 | Published March 29, 2010 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a mostly nontechnical introduction to analytical probability distributions. The distributions covered are: uniform, triangular, normal, Poisson, exponential, lognormal, an... Read More
On Writing Teaching Notes Well
PHA-0062 | Published March 25, 2010 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
What material should be included in a teaching note, the instructional tool that accompanies your business school case study?and makes its use far more likely? All good teaching notes have several cha... Read More
Introduction to Strategy
S-0183 | Published March 22, 2010 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Strategy is complex, requiring clarity about organizational objectives as well as the variety of external forces?competitive, economic, and technological?that come into play. Ultimately, strategy is a... Read More
Looking for Muda
OM-1409 | Published March 03, 2010 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Using the terminology of Lean management practices, this note addresses muda, or waste, by defining its subtypes and providing a framework for their identification in production and service processes.... Read More
A Note on Long-Run Models of Economic Growth
G-0614 | Published February 03, 2010 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note prepares students to use and analyze economic models of long-run growth. The technical note is particularly useful in introduction the Solow Neoclassical growth model for discussin... Read More
Shrimp Commodity Systems Learning Lab
OM-1405 | Published December 23, 2009 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Appropriate for environmental sustainability or systems thinking courses. This Learning Lab offers a progression of interactive learning experiences for the purpose of building user understanding of t... Read More
Housing Investment
G-0627 | Published December 21, 2009 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Housing investment, a highly cyclical subcomponent of GDP, is a significant source of its fluctuations. Recent events in the housing market have been central to the meltdown of financial markets and t... Read More
The Automobile Industry and the Economic Downturn
G-0628 | Published December 21, 2009 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes the impact of trends in the automobile industry on GDP generally and the economic downturn specifically.... Read More
Determinants of Investment
G-0629 | Published December 21, 2009 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses business fixed investment and the positive relationship between investment levels and the growth rate of Real GDP, known as the accelerator relationship.... Read More
Reflecting on Multiple Intelligences: Choice or Chance?
OB-0995 | Published November 27, 2009 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Thanks to the work of Howard Gardner, the notion of multiple intelligences is better understood. Instead of thinking primarily of IQ, the other intelligences have been well articulated and given great... Read More
Using the Equity Residual Approach to Valuation: An Example (Abridged)
F-1609 | Published November 20, 2009 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides an example of the equity residual valuation method to a company. The note can be used to accompany cases on private equity acquisitions or other levered transactions. It provides a ... Read More
Chains
ENT-0136 | Published October 21, 2009 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Unlike conventional supply chains, green supply chains are designed to ensure that value creation, rather than risk and waste, accumulates at each step, from design to disposal and recovery. As a prim... Read More
Portfolio Selection and the Capital Asset Pricing Model
F-1604 | Published September 18, 2009 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In the context of determining an optimal portfolio to recommend to two hypothetical investors, this structured analysis leads students through a series of steps examining return data for three stocks.... Read More
Managing Inventories: Determining Order Quantity
OM-1395 | Published September 15, 2009 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Cycle-stock ordering decisions, including cost-element considerations, are examined. Students will see that as materials flow from suppliers through a firm's operations to customers, the cost-effectiv... Read More
Managing Inventories: Fundamentals
OM-1397 | Published September 15, 2009 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This overview of inventory management covers ways to categorize inventories and measure performance. The financial implications of inventory, inventory management systems, economic order quantities, a... Read More
Managing Inventories: The Reorder Point System
OM-1394 | Published September 15, 2009 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Inventory replenishment concepts and tools are described.... Read More
Designing Learning Launches
BP-0529 | Published September 15, 2009 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note lays out in detail a technique, the learning launch, for generating increased revenues through conducting small experiments in the marketplace. A learning launch is a process for testing and... Read More
Economic Exposure
F-1603 | Published September 09, 2009 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes the economic exposure that arises from changes in currency exchange rates. After illustrating the economic impact of exchange rate changes, including a discussion of real exchange ... Read More
Ought to "Can": Questions for an Entrepreneurial Future
ENT-0132 | Published August 28, 2009 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores the broadening role of entrepreneurship as both an economic and societal force. Students learn that as a distinct problem-solving method, entrepreneurship is teachable and... Read More
Virginia Investment Partners Optimal Portfolio Allocation
F-1598 | Published August 25, 2009 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a simple, yet powerful, optimization exercise to demonstrate the benefits of diversification in a portfolio and the importance of asset allocation. While the note is targe... Read More
Customs Unions and Free Trade Areas
G-0624 | Published August 14, 2009 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note lays out the welfare analysis of free trade areas and customs unions with trade creation and trade diversion. It also discusses some of their advantages and disadvantages.... Read More
The Profit-Maximizing Firm as Exporter
G-0622 | Published August 14, 2009 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a microeconomic framework of monopolistic competition to think about firms, and in particular, exporting firms. At the same time, the note discusses some of the stylized f... Read More
The Profit-Maximizing Firm as Multinational Corporation
G-0623 | Published August 14, 2009 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note lays out a microeconomic framework of monopolistic competition to think about profit-maximizing firms that are vertical or horizontal multinationals. ... Read More
Using Social Media in the B2B Context
M-0778 | Published July 27, 2009 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Business-to-business marketers have begun to appreciate the value social networks -- specifically, the use of social media -- to nurture relationships with current customers and to reach one's potenti... Read More
The Big Three Performance Variables: Macroperformance of the United States and the Eurozone
G-0625 | Published July 10, 2009 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The "big three" performance variables?growth in real GDP, inflation rate, and unemployment rate?are important starting points for delving into the macroeconomics of any country. This note offers some ... Read More
The New Economy
G-0626 | Published July 10, 2009 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The new economy refers to a unique period?mid-1990s through early 2000?that affected economic performance in the United States and led to the tech bubble and subsequent tech bust that contributed grea... Read More
The Seven Questions of Marketing Strategy
M-0779 | Published July 08, 2009 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This simple model of marketing strategy can provide keys to creating a sustainable competitive advantage. Suitable for MBA and executive formats, this technical note demonstrates that individual marke... Read More
Eliciting and Evaluating Expert Forecasts
QA-0734 | Published July 02, 2009 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note emphasizes the idea that managers will often want to ask experts to express their opinions about important business risks using the precise language of probability. Examples are drawn from t... Read More
Business Model Innovation: A Process Model
BP-0538 | Published June 30, 2009 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
What is business model innovation? A business model is much more than a description of a particular product or service. In addition to describing the offering itself, it lays out the value proposition... Read More
Finding Its Niche: Community Development Venture Capital
ENT-0111 | Published May 20, 2009 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Underserved urban and rural areas have found venture capital support via U.S. Community Development Venture Capital institutions, which numbered 68 and managed $870 million as of 2008. Suitable for MB... Read More
Boards for a New Venture: Putting Together Boards and Working with Them
ENT-0071 | Published May 14, 2009 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note teaches students at all levels how to establish a board for a new venture, explaining why it is necessary, how to attract the right members, how to compensate them, how to distinguish adviso... Read More
Clear, Complete, and Concise: Avoiding the Seven Deadly Sins of Analytic Writing
BC-0221 | Published April 24, 2009 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Effective, persuasive analytical writing is a critical management skill. This note trains students to write to the needs and expectations of their readers with objectivity and efficiency, whether they... Read More
Designing Channels of Distribution
M-0769 | Published April 21, 2009 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note addresses the issues that arise and the complexities that must be addressed when designing a channel of distribution. Content includes the definition of a distribution channel, the steps in ... Read More
The Cycling Industry
M-0744 | Published April 20, 2009 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note explores brand evolution in a growing industry. Four high-end U.S. bicycle frame manufacturers (Trek, Seven, Moots, and C?rvolo) compete for brand status in the $2,000-and-up mountain bike m... Read More
Breaking Down Barriers, Rebuilding Walls: The Role of Community Development Loan Funds
ENT-0108 | Published April 08, 2009 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Community Development Loan Funds (CDLFs) make up the largest sector of the community development finance industry, with more than 800 certified CDLFs. Ninety-eight percent of CDLFs are nonprofit, serv... Read More
Bank Valuation Issues
F-1582 | Published April 07, 2009 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note describes some of the key issues that bank analysts, ratings agencies, and the market broadly examine to understand the financial health of a bank and ultimately to estimate its va... Read More
Carbon Credit Markets
F-1583 | Published April 07, 2009 | 20 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses issues related to carbon markets: Emissions Trading Approaches (Cap-and-Trade, Baseline-and-Credit, and Offsets), Regulatory Framework (Kyoto Protocol), and two key mechanisms of c... Read More
Note on Postmerger Integration
BP-0539 | Published February 19, 2009 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Approximately 65% to 85% of mergers fail. That's a startling statistic. While there are myriad reasons why mergers are not successful, in many cases the reason is simple: a failure to develop and exec... Read More
Sustainability and Innovation: Frameworks, Concepts, and Tools for Product and Strategy Redesign
ENT-0138 | Published January 20, 2009 | 27 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces the concepts and terms entrepreneurial innovators use in addressing sustainability. It explores the evolution of such terms as sustainable development, environmental jus... Read More
An Introduction to Ethics: Framing and Key Themes in Business Ethics
E-0340 | Published January 12, 2009 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an introduction to the some of the key concepts of ethics relevant to business.... Read More
Competing for Advantages: From Industry Analysis to Competitive Dynamics
S-0168 | Published January 11, 2009 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Technical note on industry analysis and competitive dynamics.... Read More
Developing and Nurturing Strategic Capabilities
S-0167 | Published January 11, 2009 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Brief discussion of resources and capabilities, their importance, and their role in the creation of competitive advantage.... Read More
Creating Value for Stakeholders
S-0169 | Published January 11, 2009 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Brief discussion of managing for stakeholders and the role this plays in achieving value creation and competitive advantage.... Read More
What Is Strategic Management?
S-0166 | Published January 11, 2009 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A brief introduction to the field of strategic management, including basic concepts and scope.... Read More
Lean Methodology: Selecting and Executing a Personal 5S Application Project
OM-1374 | Published December 22, 2008 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note asks students to define and describe a practical application deploying the 5S process steps of Lean thinking methodology to help future business managers organize, create new habit... Read More
The Dime that Started a Movement: The History and Development of Credit Unions
ENT-0103 | Published December 11, 2008 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides students a rich background on the history, evolution, and current challenges in the credit union industry, with a particular focus on community-development credit unions. The case m... Read More
United States Patent and Trademark Office: Closing the Gap on Pendency in Class 705 Business Methods
OM-1358 | Published November 25, 2008 | 26 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) experiences overwhelming demand for patents in Class 705: Business Methods. The current resources and process design are not sufficient to handle ... Read More
Note on the Impact of Industry and Firm Factors on Firm Profitability: An Analysis of the Fortune 1000 from 1996-2004
S-0152 | Published November 25, 2008 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Building on previous research, this note examines the results of a study of firms on the Fortune 1000 list from 1996 to 2004. The note brings those studies up to date by introducing more recent indust... Read More
Evaluation Questions for Assessing Postmerger Integration Consultants
BP-0527 | Published November 13, 2008 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
How does one assess which consulting firm to hire when planning for the postacquisition activities? This technical note lists the questions to ask presenters from consulting firms who are competing fo... Read More
Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround
BC-0214 | Published October 07, 2008 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Using quality circles and teams is fairly new to education? and is constrained by how schools are organized and a past emphasis on teacher autonomy. Can school leaders borrow from the business practic... Read More
A Technical Note on the IS\LM and AS\AD Models
F-1541 | Published September 24, 2008 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces the basic structure of the IS\LM and AS\AD models for a closed economy (i.e., one that does not engage in international trade). It is a useful complement for the more in... Read More
An Introduction to Technical Analysis
F-1547 | Published September 19, 2008 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Technical stock analysis uses past prices and trading volume or both to predict future prices. A broad range of techniques such as chart analysis, moving averages, and other filters and oscillators ca... Read More
Financial Theory Foundations
F-1548 | Published August 28, 2008 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Financial theory seeks to explain how buyers and sellers in financial markets price contracts to exchange money across time and across risk profiles. Using rules of agent behavior, theory generates fi... Read More
Parity Conditions in International Markets
F-1572 | Published August 19, 2008 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note reviews the four central parity conditions that underlie most theories regarding the relationship between exchange rates, inflation, and interest rates. The concepts are illustrated through ... Read More
A Technical Note on the Open Economy IS/LM Model
BP-0528 | Published August 14, 2008 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces the basic structure of what we call the Three-Paned Model. The model is essentially just an "opening up" of the closed-economy IS/LM Model, with the main pane being the ... Read More
A User’s Guide to BPM5-Based BOP and IIP Accounts
BP-0523 | Published May 20, 2008 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note presents a short description of BPM5-based balance of payments (BOP) and international investment position (IIP) presentations. It refers to data for South Africa, but given that there are w... Read More
Multinationals and Foreign Direct Investment
G-0613 | Published March 11, 2008 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Multinationals are active in different countries. This note explores why this is the case and how multinationals can be competitive in these foreign environments. At the same time, the note discusses ... Read More
Hedged Cost of Funds and Interest Rate Arbitrage
F-1565 | Published March 10, 2008 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of interest rate parity and the hedged cost of international borrowings. The note describes the essential steps to hedge international borrowings with forward ... Read More
Bank Capital Structure: A Primer
F-1555 | Published March 10, 2008 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note accompanies the case titled "SunTrust Acquisition of National Commerce" (UVA-F-1554) and describes the various capital ratios that are commonly used in the banking sector as well a... Read More
Accounting for Marketable Securities
C-2280 | Published February 27, 2008 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides an overview of intercorporate investments, including passive investments (marketable securities), investments that result in significant influence, and investments that result in co... Read More
Key Cost Management Principles Every Executive Must Know
C-2278 | Published January 28, 2008 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In discussing the key cost management principles every executive must know, this technical note organizes the information under six principles. For example, the many meanings of the word "cost" are de... Read More
MBA Writing Diagnostic
BC-0216 | Published January 12, 2008 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note delineates proper writing mechanics (issues of style and organization) in a business-school context. Rather than touch up on the many forms of business writing, it focuses instead on how to ... Read More
Moral Relativism
E-0341 | Published January 12, 2008 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides an introduction to moral relativism, discusses the various ways it poses fundamental challenges to engaging in ethical reflection, and offers alternative ways of thinking about ethi... Read More
The Challenge of Development: A Lifetime Issue
OB-0964 | Published January 09, 2008 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
We are the only animals that can become more complex and hence develop if we choose to do so. This case presents two individuals that midway through their lives chose significant developmental changes... Read More
Six Sigma: A Basic Overview
OM-1339 | Published December 10, 2007 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
In the nearly 30 years since it was introduced, Six Sigma has evolved to mean different things in different circumstances and in different organizations, so that now it is difficult to identify a sing... Read More
Giving and Receiving Feedback Evaluation
OB-0916 | Published November 15, 2007 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This chart can be used to help students reflect on and document their feedback conversations. In the course of giving or receiving feedback, we often become so embroiled in what we are saying or in wh... Read More
Buy-In
OB-0924 | Published November 15, 2007 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note can be used to establish a baseline of common understanding about why people behave the way they do and the nature of Level One, Two, and Three Leadership Techniques. A discussion of degrees... Read More
Hedging with Forwards and Futures
F-1428 | Published October 21, 2007 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note expands on the previous note, "Forwards and Futures" (UVA-F-1427), which introduced the basics of forward and futures contracts. It begins with examples where the hedging was one-f... Read More
Options on Stock Indexes, Currencies, and Futures
F-1433 | Published October 03, 2007 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Options on stock indexes, currencies, and futures all have something in common. In each of those cases, the holder of the option does not get the same things that the holder of the underlying asset ge... Read More
Forwards and Futures
F-1427 | Published October 03, 2007 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces the basics of forward and futures contracts. It covers the very simplest contract on financial assets with no income and expands the discussion to cover contracts on fin... Read More
Risk Management for Derivatives
F-1432 | Published October 03, 2007 | 18 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note addresses the basics of risk measure for options. It introduces the different risk measures for options: Delta, Gamma, Vega, Rho, and Theta. Although the note focuses primarily on ... Read More
The Pricing of Warrants
F-1430 | Published October 03, 2007 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note covers the pricing of warrants. The note derives the basic formula for the pricing of warrants and offers a simple example to demonstrate the underlying concepts.... Read More
Linking Products and Consumers: The Consumer Benefit Ladder Approach
M-0750 | Published September 19, 2007 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides a brief overview of the consumer benefit ladder (CBL) technique, a tool used to uncover why consumers buy particular products or services. CBLs are similar to means-end chains, hier... Read More
The Treatment of Outstanding Employee Stock Options in Mergers and Acquisitions
C-2260 | Published August 29, 2007 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note summarizes the tax treatment of alternative methods available to the acquirer to compensate owners of the target's employee stock options. The summary includes changes in the tax l... Read More
The Treatment of Goodwill and Other Purchased Intangibles for Tax Purposes
C-2258 | Published August 29, 2007 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note outlines the effect of Section 197 of the Internal Revenue Code on goodwill and other intangibles purchased in an acquisition by comparing the treatment of goodwill and other purch... Read More
The Value of Net Operating Losses
C-2256 | Published August 29, 2007 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of the tax law governing the use of a target's net operating losses (NOLs) and other tax attributes by the acquirer. Every transaction requires the acquirer to... Read More
An Overview of Financial Statement Analysis: The Mechanics
C-2255 | Published August 23, 2007 | 26 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
On September 20, 2000, Jonathan Weill, a Wall Street Journal reporter in Dallas, Texas, published a piece questioning the profitability and accounting of Enron Corporation. He based his article on a s... Read More
Note on Brand Extensions
IIMA-MAR0388TEC | Published August 20, 2007 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
This note provides an overview of brand extension management. It discusses how brand extensions can be classified and outlines various managerial advantages and disadvantages of extending existing b... Read More
Why Countries Trade: The Theory of Comparative Advantage
G-0594 | Published August 10, 2007 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The theory of comparative advantage is a surprisingly common-sense idea, but it is often misunderstood. In this technical note, the basic theory of comparative advantage is presented with an example t... Read More
The Effects of Tariffs and Quotas
G-0595 | Published August 10, 2007 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses the welfare implications of tariffs for consumers, producers, and the government. A brief survey of the state of protectionism in recent years is included.... Read More
Circular Flow: A Simple Model of the Economy
G-0596 | Published August 10, 2007 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses circular flow. With a simple model, it is shown how changes in the components of expenditures affect overall income. The analysis is both graphical and algebraic.... Read More
The Big Three: Inflation, GDP, and Unemployment
G-0598 | Published August 10, 2007 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note gives descriptive statistics of inflation, GDP (growth), and unemployment. How the statistics are calculated is discussed and issues specific to the 'Big Three' are mentioned. The note is pa... Read More
Interest Rate Derivatives
F-1431 | Published August 09, 2007 | 27 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note covers the basics of interest rate derivatives. Specifically, it covers options on bonds, delayed payments, caps, floors, and swaptions. The appropriate option pricing model is pre... Read More
Trading Strategies with Options
F-1429 | Published August 09, 2007 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a brief introduction to option trading strategies. It covers pay-off diagrams and specifically introduces bull spreads, butterfly spreads, and calendar spreads. It also in... Read More
Scenario Planning
BP-0501 | Published August 09, 2007 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note reviews the purposes, methods, and uses of scenario planning for strategic decision making under uncertainty.... Read More
Supply, Demand, and Equilibrium: A Class Experiment
G-0593 | Published August 03, 2007 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note explains the intuition and analytics behind the class experiment that is commonly called "Trading in a Pit." Following the experiment, we derive supply and demand and discuss market efficien... Read More
Supply, Demand, and Equilibrium: The Algebra
G-0592 | Published August 03, 2007 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note refreshes the algebraic representation of linear demand and supply, how to account for shifting curves, and how to include taxes. This is part of the refresher course in Economics ... Read More
How to Put More Strategy in Your "Taxes and Business Strategy" Course: A Case-Method Approach
C-2265 | Published August 02, 2007 | 32 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides the design for a case-method course called "Taxation and Management Decisions" taught in Darden's MBA program. The course is a general management course, and is designed s... Read More
Learning Teams in the MBA for Executives Program
OB-0905 | Published June 29, 2007 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Learning teams are an integral part of the Darden experience and are featured in all the school's programs?full-time MBA, MBA for Executives, and Executive Education. Learning teams play an important ... Read More
Corporate Governance in Three Economies: Germany, Japan, and the United States
F-1426 | Published June 04, 2007 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This case examines the structure of corporate governance in three economies: Germany, Japan, and the United States. It presents the structure and background on the composition of corporate boards of d... Read More
End-Stage Renal Disease and Dialysis Care
OM-1319 | Published May 24, 2007 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note introduces students to the treatment options available to patients with end-stage renal disease, the dialysis process, and the role of dialysis care facilities. Its purpose is to s... Read More
Cluster Analysis for Segmentation
M-0748 | Published March 22, 2007 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is designed for use in an MBA marketing research course. It provides an overview of segmentation using K-means clustering. A simple algorithm for K-means clustering and the process of profil... Read More
Positioning: The Essence of Marketing Strategy
M-0754 | Published March 16, 2007 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note follows the development of a positioning statement for a target market. The exercise includes determining the relevant point of reference (market definition, product category, competitive se... Read More
An Overview of Taxation in the United States
C-2273 | Published March 16, 2007 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides a brief overview of tax planning, the U.S. tax system, and basic U.S. tax law attributable to fundamental business decisions in a corporation's life.... Read More
Writing to Reflect: Mindful Leadership in the Face of Change
BC-0217 | Published March 04, 2007 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
"Writing to Reflect" introduces the use of writing as an aid to creative and critical thinking in the context of leading change. The note explains how the process of reflective writing slows thinking... Read More
Inflation Targeting
BP-0495 | Published February 22, 2007 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Since 1990, 21 countries have shifted to a monetary policy of inflation targeting. This technical note defines inflation targeting; discusses how it came about; and analyzes implementation issues and ... Read More
The Open Economy IS/LM Simulation Model: A User Guide
BP-0522 | Published February 15, 2007 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This is a user guide for the computer simulation of the short-run open economy IS/LM model (UVA-BP-0522X). The model is also known as the Mundell-Fleming model. We assume the user is a student who is ... Read More
A Glossary of Lean Terms
OM-1334 | Published February 11, 2007 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
"Lean" has been defined as the "relentless pursuit of the elimination of waste." This technical note provides a glossary of terms concerning Lean implementation, including muda, muri, nura, kanban, an... Read More
The Black-Scholes Option-Pricing Model
F-1522 | Published February 05, 2007 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses the Black-Scholes option-pricing model and then applies the model to call options. The underlying logic of the model is emphasized and illustrated through the use of simple example... Read More
Valuing Assets in Financial Markets
F-1518 | Published February 05, 2007 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of techniques used to value assets, including multiples, arbitrage pricing, and discounted cash flow. The note emphasizes the basic nature of valuation approac... Read More
Option Valuation and Dividend Payments
F-1523 | Published February 05, 2007 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note shows how dividend payments affect option values owing to the effects of dividend payments on share price and resulting investor behavior. In addition to discussing the underlying logic, the... Read More
Spot and Forward Interest Rates
F-1520 | Published February 05, 2007 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note examines how spot and forward interest rates relate to bond prices and to each other. After defining spot and forward rates, the note shows how to estimate spot rates from data on either zer... Read More
Stock Options and Compensation
F-1521 | Published February 05, 2007 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is a brief introduction to the logic and practice of using stock options to compensate executives. The Black-Scholes option-pricing model is used to estimate the value of option grants for a... Read More
Interest Rates, Market Pricing, and Compounding
F-1517 | Published February 05, 2007 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Using examples from financial markets, this note examines links among market prices, stated interest rates, and compounding assumptions. The note emphasizes how interest rates are expressions of marke... Read More
An Overview of Patent Quality: Assessment Valuation and Financial Reporting Implications
F-1539 | Published January 16, 2007 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A significant fraction of corporate market values derive from intellectual property. It is vital for the practicing manager to appreciate the risks and uncertainties surrounding intellectual property.... Read More
Food Versus Fuel
E-0302 | Published January 16, 2007 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Although biofuels had been used for many years (from 1980 to mid-2007, an estimated 2 trillion miles were driven on ethanol-blended fuels in the United States), it was not until the late 20th and earl... Read More
New Venture Performance
ENT-0074 | Published December 17, 2006 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note examines the pros and cons of two ways to build new ventures. The former is called causal or predictive, because it depends on accurate predictions and clear goals. The latter is effectual o... Read More
The Entrepreneurial Method: How Expert Entrepreneurs Create New Markets
ENT-0073 | Published December 17, 2006 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note reflects a new focus on "effectuation," the logic behind entrepreneurial expertise, which consists of tacit as well as learnable and teachable aspects of experience that are related to high ... Read More
Diversification
F-1514 | Published November 16, 2006 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note outlines portfolio returns and variance calculations for a portfolio of two risky assets. Particular attention is given to developing understanding of the diversification benefit and emphasi... Read More
Regression: Forecasting Using Explanatory Factors
QA-0693 | Published November 08, 2006 | 51 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This comprehensive technical note explains linear regression. It is intended for students with no prior knowledge of the topic. It is divided into nine sections, which may be assigned separately: 1. T... Read More
Time Series
QA-0695 | Published October 04, 2006 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes the basics of time-series analysis and forecasting. It discusses the kinds of patterns found in time services (cycle, trend, and seasonality) and the most common time-series models... Read More
Chi-Square Contingency Table Analysis
QA-0694 | Published September 24, 2006 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note describes the chi-square statistic as applied to independence tests using contingency table data. The independence test checks to see if two (or more) categorical variables are ind... Read More
A Note on Sizing the Sales Force
M-0746 | Published August 29, 2006 | 11 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes several approaches one could employ to size a sales force. It addresses the advantages of each approach as well as the weaknesses. The case entitled "Z Associates: Sizing the Sales... Read More
Chi-square Goodness-of-Fit Test
QA-0692 | Published August 17, 2006 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describese the chi-square statistic as applied to goodness-of-fit tests. Goodness-of-fit tests check to see how closely a sample matches a particular probability distribution (e.g., normal, ... Read More
A Technical Note on Angel Investing in Emerging Markets
BP-0503 | Published August 03, 2006 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note discusses the practice of angel investing, particularly its meaning and suitability to emerging markets. Adapted from a chapter in An Executive Briefing on Angel Investing in Latin... Read More
Legal Issues for New Ventures: Choice of Lawyer and Choice of Entity
ENT-0072 | Published August 01, 2006 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses the legal issues entrepreneurs must consider as they form their company as a legal entity. In question-and-answer format, the note concisely defines the types of entity available a... Read More
A Technical Note on Corruption
BP-0502 | Published July 26, 2006 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note defines and discusses the measurement of corruption, describes corruption's principal effects on firms and societies, and discusses its relevance to managers and to the efforts of firms to p... Read More
On Writing Cases Well
PHA-0058 | Published May 19, 2006 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
How does one know what makes a good case? Are there certain attributes that effective business school cases have? This technical note was intended to help writers who may or may not be business school... Read More
The Conceptual Framework Underlying the Preparation of the Statement of Cash Flow
C-2250 | Published April 04, 2006 | 19 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The objective of the statement of cash flow is to facilitate an understanding of the financial consequences of business activities by providing detail pertaining to the sources and uses of a company's... Read More
Exchange Rate Models
BP-0496 | Published March 27, 2006 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note describes parity conditions (PPP, UIP, and CIP) and develops a model of exchange rate determination.... Read More
I Can, You Can, We All Can Kanban
OM-1257 | Published March 25, 2006 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This brief note describes the kanban system of inventory control. It discusses the rules for its use, techniques for calculating the number of cards, and the difference between push and pull systems.... Read More
The Affordable Loss Principle
ENT-0075 | Published March 25, 2006 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Ideal for a study of entrepreneurship as a phenomenon, this note explores the difference between causal models and effectuation. Whereas causal models focus on maximizing returns by selecting optimal ... Read More
Using Hypothesis-Driven Thinking in Strategy Consulting
BP-0486 | Published March 20, 2006 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note describes the process of hypothesis-driven thinking, using examples from strategy consulting, medicine, and architecture. Associated with the scientific method, hypothesis-driven t... Read More
The Determinants of Interest Rates
BP-0489 | Published March 20, 2006 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note covers real and nominal interest rates, risk premia, an IS/LM model as a driver of general movements in (real) interest rates, a supply-and-demand model for bonds, and the yield cu... Read More
Competitive-Cost Analysis: Cost-Driver Framework
OM-1254 | Published March 17, 2006 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The first in a five-part series on competitive-cost analysis, this note introduces cost drivers, presents a conceptual framework for organizing them, and explains various applications of competitive-c... Read More
Yield Curve Basics
BP-0491 | Published March 15, 2006 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note discusses risk and term premiums, prominent theories of the yield curve, and how to construct a yield curve.... Read More
The New Strategic Frontier: Environment, Sustainability, and Entrepreneurial Innovation
ENT-0041 | Published March 11, 2006 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
A new frontier of innovation exists where economic and population growth collides with natural systems (the environment). This note details the changing character of environmental issues and outlines ... Read More
Competitive-Cost Analysis: Cost-Modeling Techniques
OM-1255 | Published March 08, 2006 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The second in a five-part series on competitive-cost analysis, this note provides a general discussion of four specific tools that will further assist in analyzing cost drivers for competitive analysi... Read More
Competitive-Cost Analysis: Scale and Utilization Calculations
OM-1256 | Published March 08, 2006 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This third note in a five-part series on competitive-cost analysis provides detailed guidance on calculating scale curves and utilization effects.... Read More
Frameworks for General Management and Operations Consulting
OM-1242 | Published February 17, 2006 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note addresses a number of different frameworks that general managers and consultants use to address problems. A general framework for addressing Operations Management is presented that can be us... Read More
The Toyota Production System: A Self-Evaluation Instrument
OM-1221 | Published February 13, 2006 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note consists of a self-assessment instrument by which organizations can measure importance and performance on the 14 dimensions of the Toyota Production System as delineated by Jeffrey Liker in ... Read More
Illustrating the Financial Benefits of Green Chemistry
ENT-0076 | Published February 06, 2006 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note forms the basis of a discussion on the economic value added of green chemistry principles. Students can learn how to increase NOPAT by increasing sales; increase NOPAT by decreasin... Read More
Analytical Probability Distributions with Excel
QA-0679 | Published February 03, 2006 | 16 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note introduces four common underlying processes and the analytical probability distribution used to forecast the outcomes of each. The note also illustrates how to use Excel functions to calcula... Read More
The Bird-in-Hand Principle: Who I Am, What I Know, and Whom I Know
ENT-0090 | Published January 18, 2006 | 8 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note explores a framework by which entrepreneurs can evaluate their ideas before going forward based on who they are, what they know, and whom they know. Drawing on frameworks presented... Read More
Ethics in Finance
F-1503 | Published January 17, 2006 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This paper reflects on the role of ethics in field of finance.... Read More
The Simultaneous Ascending Auction: Rules and Procedures
QA-0676 | Published January 16, 2006 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note summarizes the most important rules of the simultaneous ascending auction. This auction type was pioneered in 1994 by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for the sale of multiple airw... Read More
Structuring a Competitive Analysis: Decision Trees, Decision Forests, and Payoff Matrices
QA-0674 | Published January 16, 2006 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Decision trees can be helpful in analyzing the key drivers of profitability and in designing risk-mitigation strategies. When analyzing competitive situations, each player's viewpoint can be represent... Read More
Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction
QA-0675 | Published January 16, 2006 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note introduces some key game-theoretic concepts and techniques, with an emphasis on their underlying motivations. It covers the following topics: -Domination -Iterated elimination of dominat... Read More
Corporate Branding
BC-0203 | Published December 29, 2005 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an introduction to corporate branding, including a brief history, a discussion of differences between corporate and product branding, and some strategic implications for h... Read More
Corporate Identity
BC-0202 | Published December 28, 2005 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an overview of corporate identities for an MBA audience, including a brief history of the field and a way to understand how identity plays a role in corporations.... Read More
Introduction to Contemporary Corporate Communication
BC-0201 | Published December 28, 2005 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an introduction to corporate communication, including a discussion of recent trends.... Read More
Business Performance Evaluation: Approaches for Thoughtful Forecasting
F-1490 | Published December 08, 2005 | 17 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides an introduction to financial ratios and financial forecasting. It examines principles in the art and science of thoughtful financial forecasting. In particular, it reviews the impor... Read More
Competitive Dynamics: Competition as Action-Response
S-0123 | Published November 30, 2005 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides a guide for exploring interfirm rivalry through the dyadic lens and for predicting competitive responses using the awareness-motivation-capability perspective, with the goal of expa... Read More
Guide to the U.S. President's Administration
OM-1211 | Published November 17, 2005 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides a guide to dealing with the President's administration from the perspective of the nuclear energy industry.... Read More
U.S. Congressional Committees of Primary Interest on Nuclear Energy Issues
OM-1213 | Published November 17, 2005 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides a road map to U.S. Congressional committees that are of most interest to nuclear power plant operators. The names of the 2005 committee members are given, along with notes on their ... Read More
U.S. Congressional Authorization and Appropriations Process
OM-1212 | Published November 17, 2005 Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides a guide to the U.S. Congress budget and appropriations process from the perspective of the nuclear energy industry.... Read More
The Security Exchange: Explanation of Trading Rules
QA-0671 | Published September 22, 2005 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The Security Exchange is a online trading platform for educational purposes. This note describes the trading rules used and the types of securities that can be traded.... Read More
What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?
ENT-0065 | Published September 13, 2005 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This case is designed to train students to recognize the characteristics of entrepreneurial thinking. The author studied the problem-solving process of 30 entrepreneurs from a variety of industries wh... Read More
Qwest Communications Bond-Swap Offer: Explanatory Note
QA-0668 | Published September 09, 2005 | 2 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note explains relevant aspects of bankruptcy proceedings and the "rule of absolute priority" in the context of the case (UVA-QA-0647). It is intended to assist students without sufficient knowled... Read More
Analyzing Uncertainty: Probability Distributions and Simulation
QA-0660 | Published August 31, 2005 | 14 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note introduces simulation as a tool to analyze uncertainty in business decisions. It first observes the limitations of single point or simple range estimates of key uncertainties, thereby motiva... Read More
Quick-Start Guide for Crystal Ball
QA-0658 | Published August 31, 2005 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides an introduction to Crystal Ball and is designed for first-year MBA students, so it includes the basic knowledge of Crystal Ball that they will need in a Decision Analysis ... Read More
A Note on Managing Process Flows
OM-1194 | Published August 13, 2005 | 7 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note focuses on the fundamentals of managing process flows. A process viewpoint is useful when the goal is to manage operational metrics such as capacity, cost, inventory, or responsiveness. The ... Read More
Pricing Metrics and Concepts
M-0723 | Published August 09, 2005 | 24 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes the more common methods of calculating Price Premiums (also known as Relative Prices). Students will explore Reservations Prices and % Good Value, the concepts that form the founda... Read More
Sales Force Management and Measurement
M-0721 | Published July 11, 2005 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes the metrics that are used to monitor sales-force efficiency and effectiveness. It addresses sales territories, sales potential, and territory changes, as well as forecasting and me... Read More
Customer Profitability
M-0718 | Published June 24, 2005 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note defines, describes, and illustrates the most common metrics marketers used to monitor and manage customer relationships. Among the metrics covered are customer counts, recency, ret... Read More
Valuing the Early-Stage Company
F-1471 | Published June 08, 2005 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note covers several frequently used methods to value early-stage companies and discusses some of the issues and difficulties encountered more generally in valuing privately held assets. The basic... Read More
A Note on Understanding, Detecting and Reporting Criminal Antitrust Violations
OM-1174 | Published June 07, 2005 | 9 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note focuses on assisting industry professionals in better understanding the types of conduct that constitute criminal violations of the federal antitrust laws. It outlines concepts and... Read More
Six Sigma: F(X) Cascade
OM-1206 | Published March 08, 2005 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note describes a technique, F(X) Cascade, for determining the potential benefits of implementing a six-sigma improvement project. An integral part of the "define" stage in the DMAIC met... Read More
Using StatTools
QA-0649 | Published January 31, 2005 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This short technical note shows students how to use StatTools to complete a simple regression analysis.... Read More
Strategizing
QA-0673 | Published January 16, 2005 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Strategizing is the process of perceiving, analyzing, and shaping competitive situations. This note aims provide some basic orientation and sketches some frameworks that can guide the strategizing pro... Read More
Leveraging Communication Audits during Postmerger Integration
BC-0185 | Published November 11, 2004 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses excellence in postmerger integration (PMI) communication, which results from applying many of the same principles that generate success in other forms of corporate communication.... Read More
Applying the Capital Asset Pricing Model
F-1456 | Published October 07, 2004 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses how some of the most financially sophisticated companies and financial advisors estimate the cost of equity capital. It focuses on areas where finance theory is silent or ambiguous... Read More
A Managerial Primer on the U.S. Bankruptcy Code
QA-0633 | Published September 09, 2004 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note offers an introduction to reorganization procedures within the U.S. bankruptcy law from a business perspective. It can be used to explore the strategic dimensions of bankruptcy procedures an... Read More
Overview of Credit Ratings
F-1413 | Published August 04, 2004 | 12 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note is a brief summary of how credit-rating agencies do their job. It includes historical information on rates and capital spreads. The note serves as useful supplementary reading, for students ... Read More
A Supplement to Accounting for Stock Options (UVA-C-2155)
C-2188 | Published July 30, 2004 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note provides additional information with regards to the tax consequences of employee stock options and can be used in conjunction with UVA-C-2155. Specifically, the note provides infor... Read More
What to Look for in Groups: The Tools of Observing Process
OB-0816 | Published July 21, 2004 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note discusses the importance of observing process in teams. Specific areas to observe and suggestions on how to observe are outlined.... Read More
A Primer on Valuing Simple Risk-Free Bonds
F-1443 | Published June 29, 2004 | 6 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note introduces students to the basics of bonds and the time value of money through a simple bond contract?the risk-free bond contract. The note covers the concepts of present value, yield to mat... Read More
The Early-Stage Term Sheet
F-1444 | Published May 17, 2004 | 13 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
An updated version of this note, "Early-Stage Term Sheets" (UVA-F-1730), is available and may be used as a replacement. The typical term sheet for a venture-capital investment contains a host of cont... Read More
Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities
ENT-0043 | Published March 21, 2004 | 15 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
The growing impact of toxic chemical use is a major issue corporations face in the 21st century. This note offers an overview of the effects of toxins on human health and the natural environment: Canc... Read More
Decision Making for Couples
PACS-0099 | Published March 08, 2004 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Few of us make job selection decisions or career moves without considering and discussing issues with someone important in our lives. How do you and your partner make career decisions? Is it based on ... Read More
The Writing Process in Systems Thinking
OM-1106 | Published March 04, 2004 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note provides detailed guidance for analyzing a complex business problem using the systems thinking tools: reference behavior patterns, systems archetypes, causal-loop diagrams, and stock-flow ma... Read More
Monsanto and the Monarch Butterfly
E-0263 | Published March 03, 2004 | 10 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This technical note, which outlines Monsanto's response to public claims of damage to monarch butterflies from Monsanto's Bt corn, is a good companion piece to cases involving new technology, particul... Read More
A Brief Note on the Theory of Constraints
OM-1105 | Published February 20, 2004 | 4 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This brief note offers an introduction to Eliyahu M. Goldratt's theory of constraints (TOC), and summarizes the principles outlined in a novel about manufacturing he wrote. TOC is applicable to manufa... Read More
Environmental Health: Chemicals in Breast Milk
ENT-0078 | Published February 07, 2004 | 5 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Although breast milk is recognized by doctors, public health officials, and scientists as the best first food for an infant, it is not pure. Many synthetic chemicals released into the environment, int... Read More
Deutsche Lufthansa AG: A Competitive History
QA-0619 | Published January 05, 2004 | 3 pages Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
This note describes the competitive practices of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the largest player in the German airline market, in response to challenges to its quasi monopoly on domestic routes. Starting in... Read More