Publications

September 2021
Case

Vignettes on Professional Service Firm Governance

By: David G. Fubini, Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

The two vignettes within “Vignettes on Professional Service Firm Governance” (HBS No. 122-024) present various issues relating to governance in professional service firms (“PSFs”). In the first, the Managing Director of a U.S. consulting firm contemplates whether to... View Details

Educators

2016
Working Paper

Does Firm Innovation Affect Corporate Social Responsibility?

By: Rui Shen, Yi Tang and Ying Zhang

This study examines the relationship between firm innovation and CSR. Stakeholders’ concern over transaction-specific investments exacerbates when firms engage heavily in innovation activities. To secure stakeholders’ support, firms adopt CSR effectively as an ex ante... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Firm Innovation; Transaction-specific Investments; Firm Risk; Environmental Munificence; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Innovation and Invention

April 2020
Article

Long-term Firm Growth: An Empirical Analysis of U.S. Manufacturers 1959–2015

By: Giovanni Dosi, Marco Grazzi, Daniele Moschella, Gary P. Pisano and Federico Tamagni

Firm growth is an essential feature of market economies, shaping together macroeconomic performance and the evolution of industry structures. As a potential indicator of organizational “fitness” within a competitive environment, firm growth is also a central concern to... View Details

Keywords: Firm Growth; Organizations; Growth and Development; Theory; Analysis; Production; Data and Data Sets

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May 2018
Other Article

A Cross-Country Comparison of Dynamics in the Large Firm Wage Premium

By: Emanuele Colonnelli, Joacim Tag, Michael Webb and Stefanie Wolter

We provide stylized facts on the existence and dynamics over time of the large firm wage premium for four countries. We examine matched employer-employee micro-data from Brazil, Germany, Sweden, and the UK, and find that the large firm premium exists in all these... View Details

Keywords: Large Firms; Wages; Global Range; Sweden; United Kingdom; Brazil; Germany

January 2022
Article

Who Creates New Firms When Local Opportunities Arise?

By: Shai Benjamin Bernstein, Emanuele Colonnelli, Davide Malacrino and Timothy McQuade

We examine the characteristics of the individuals who become entrepreneurs when local opportunities arise. We identify local demand shocks by linking fluctuations in global commodity prices to municipality level agricultural endowments in Brazil. We find that the firm... View Details

Keywords: Firms; Entrepreneurs; Demand Shocks; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Demographics; Opportunities; Brazil

Article

Large Banks and Small Firm Lending

By: Vitaly Bord, Victoria Ivashina and Ryan D. Taliaferro

We examine the long-lasting effects of the 2007 real estate price collapse on small business credit supply. Banks affected by the decline in real estate prices systematically contracted their credit to small firms. At the same time, regional and local banks, many of... View Details

Keywords: Small Firms; Credit Supply; Banking Competition; Small Business; Credit; Financial Crisis; Banks and Banking; Competition

2013
Working Paper

Skilled Immigration and the Employment Structures of U.S. Firms

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln

We study the impact of skilled immigrants on the employment structures of U.S. firms using matched employer-employee data. Unlike most previous work, we use the firm as the lens of analysis to account for a greater level of heterogeneity and the fact that many skilled... View Details

Keywords: H-1B; Firms; Scientists; Engineers; Inventors; Age; Employment; Competency and Skills; Immigration; United States

01 Apr 2002
News

Charting the Luminary Leadership in Professional Service Firms

Charting the Luminary Leadership in Professional Service Firms In their new book Aligning the Stars: How to Succeed When Professionals Drive Results (Harvard Business School Press), HBS professor Jay W. Lorsch and former Bain & Company... View Details

Keywords: professional service firms; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

Article

What Professional Service Firms Must Do to Thrive

By: Ashish Nanda and Das Narayandas

When the going gets tough, professional service firms (PSFs) often get desperate and chase all kinds of business just to keep the lights on. Consultancies, financial services firms, VC/PE firms, and the like offer services and sign up clients they should never have... View Details

Keywords: Professional Service Firms; Client Mix; Strategic Positioning; Organizations; Performance Effectiveness; Decision Making; Framework

October 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

ghSMART & Co: Building and Scaling a Time Smart Firm

By: Ashley Whillans and Sara Coronel Rodriguez

"For ghSMART, freedom is the first principle from which all good things flow”—Geoff Smart, Chairman and Founder, ghSMART. ghSMART was a leadership advisory firm that was grounded in the principle of freedom. Talented Consultants and Partners could work remotely from... View Details

Keywords: Time; Consulting Firms; Time Management; Talent and Talent Management; Employee Relationship Management; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Sharing; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Reputation

Educators

July 2015
Article

Skilled Immigration and the Employment Structures of U.S. Firms

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln

We study the impact of skilled immigrants on the employment structures of U.S. firms using matched employer-employee data. Unlike most previous work, we use the firm as the lens of analysis to account for a greater level of heterogeneity and the fact that many skilled... View Details

Keywords: Firms; Scientists; Engineers; Inventors; H-1B; Age; Employment; Immigration; United States

2024
Working Paper

You've Got Mail! The Late 19th Century U.S. Postal Service Expansion, Entrepreneurship, and Firm Performance

By: Astrid Marinoni and Maria P. Roche

This paper examines the impact of the expansion of the US Postal Service in the late 19th century on firm creation and performance. Utilizing newly digitized archival data on historic business establishments, post office locations, and road networks in California,... View Details

Keywords: Institutional Innovation; Knowledge Exchange; US Postal Service; Firm Performance; Infrastructure; Expansion; Government Administration; Communication; Business History; Entrepreneurship; Public Administration Industry; California

November 2012
Article

The Organization of Firms Across Countries

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

We argue that social capital as proxied by trust increases aggregate productivity by affecting the organization of firms. To do this we collect new data on the decentralization of investment, hiring, production, and sales decisions from Corporate Headquarters to local... View Details

Keywords: Decentralization; Social Capital; Theory Of The Firm; Firm Objectives, Organization, And Behavior; Business Economics; Management Of Technological Innovation And R＆D; Technological Change: Choices And Consequences; Diffusion Processes; Organizational Structure; Performance Productivity; Trust; Technology Adoption; Multinational Firms and Management

September 2015
Article

(UN)Tangled: Exploring the Coevolution of VC Firm Reputation and Status

By: Timothy G. Pollock, Peggy M. Lee, Kyuho Jin and Kisha Lashley

We explore the relationship between status and reputation, examining how its dynamics change over time as these two intangible assets coevolve and how reputation and status are influenced by participation in highly visible events. Using a sample of more than 400... View Details

Keywords: Underpricing; Intangible Assets; New Firms; Status and Position; Reputation; Venture Capital; Initial Public Offering

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May 2019
Article

Who Consumes Firm Disclosures? Evidence from Earnings Conference Calls

By: Anne Heinrichs, Jihwon Park and Eugene F. Soltes

Using a set of proprietary records, we examine who consumes quarterly earnings conference calls and under which circumstances the calls are consumed. While there is significant interest in calls by institutional investors and sell-side analysts, we find that investors... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; Conference Calls; Firm News; Corporate Disclosure; Business Earnings; Situation or Environment

January 2014 (Revised January 2020)
Case

The Case of the Unidentified Financial Firms

By: David Scharfstein

Keywords: Financial Firms; Bank Holding Companies; Banking Industry

Educators

November 2021
Article

Corporate Strategy and the Theory of the Firm in the Digital Age

By: Markus Menz, Sven Kunisch, Julian Birkinshaw, David J. Collis, Nicolai J. Foss, Robert E. Hoskisson and John Prescott

The purpose of this article is to reinvigorate research in the intersection of corporate strategy and the theory of the firm in light of the rapid advancement of digital technologies. Using the theory of the firm as an interpretive lens, we focus our analysis on the... View Details

Keywords: Digitalization; Multi-business Firm; Scale And Scope; Theory Of The Firm; Corporate Strategy; Technological Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Design; Theory; Research; Digital Transformation

December 2, 2012
Article

Firm Organisation: What We Know and Why We Should Care

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger, Patrick Legros and Andrew Newman

Keywords: Industrial Organization; International Trade; Firm Organization; Firms; Protectionism; Business Organization; Trade