Publications

09 Mar 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Causes and Consequences of Firm Disclosures of Anticorruption Efforts

Keywords: by Paul Healy & George Serafeim

June 2021 (Revised February 2023)
Case

MicroStrategy: Accounting for Cryptocurrency

By: Jonas Heese and Annelena Lobb

On February 15, 2021, Alina Moss, an analyst who covered the technology company MicroStrategy, pondered a rise in MicroStrategy’s share price. Moss had dialed into the company earnings call. When it ended, Moss had more questions than answers. MicroStrategy had... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Share Price; Electronic Commerce; Intangible Assets; Assets; Accounting; Financial Statements; Financial Management; Financial Reporting; Analytics and Data Science; E-commerce

Program

Rising Generation in the Family Enterprise

responsibility to society? This program focuses specifically on the choices facing the rising generation in the context of a successful family enterprise. Some members of the new generation will decide to pursue leadership roles in managing the family business or... View Details

September 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Qalaa Holdings and the Egyptian Refining Company

By: Victoria Ivashina and Marc Homsy

This case follows Qalaa Holdings, a successful Egypt-based private equity firm, and gives insight into the types of investments it pursued, its growth over time, and the limited partner base it had at hand. It also allows students to consider and debate whether the... View Details

Keywords: Africa; Structuring And Financing Large Projects; Private Equity; Infrastructure; Project Finance; Emerging Markets; Financial Services Industry; Egypt; Africa

November 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: July 2000

By: Josh Lerner

David Swensen, chief investment officer at Yale University, reviews the $10 billion endowment strategy, that places an unusually heavy emphasis on private equity and other illiquid securities. Changing market conditions in July 2000 cause him to rethink historically... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Strategy; Education Industry

15 Aug 2024
Blog Post

Learning from Mistakes and Leveraging Personal Experiences: Tiffany Kent (MBA 2001)

and inspired me to read other inspirational and educational non-fiction books in the field. This motivated me to start a free-writing style of journaling to have a dedicated place to explore my thoughts, feelings, and any memories that... View Details

September 2017 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Asset Allocation at the Cook County Pension Fund

By: Emil Siriwardane, Juliane Begenau and Yuval Gonczarowski

Nickol Hackett, chief investment officer of the Cook County Pension Fund, is responsible for investing the fund’s $9 billion worth of assets on behalf of the employees of Cook County, Illinois. Like many other defined-benefit pensions at the time, the Cook County... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions

28 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 28, 2007

uses an IT-driven strategy to introduce an "all-in-one" card, which integrates a suite of financial products to drive its personal banking business enabling CMB to be ranked 6th among China's commercial banks and 2nd among the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2005
Case

Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), The

By: George C. Chacko, Anders Sjoman, Daniela Beyersdorfer and George Robert Nelson

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBEO) must decide how to respond to new competition in the market for financial options. Options have typically been a very liquid asset class, despite the fact that many single-name options are listed on the CBOE, the second largest... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Financial Liquidity; Financial Markets; Financial Services Industry; Chicago

09 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Clayton Christensen’s “How Will You Measure Your Life?”

responded in a 2002 press release. "We have not seen a business model that is financially viable in the long term in this arena. Online rental services are 'serving a niche market.' " Netflix, on... View Details

November 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Rebuilding Puerto Rico

By: Laura Alfaro, Laura Phillips Sawyer and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria swept over Puerto Rico, devastating the island’s infrastructure and agriculture. The natural disaster was layered atop years of mounting financial distress. Before the hurricane, Puerto Rico had accumulated $74 billion in debt and... View Details

Keywords: Natural Disasters; Financial Crisis; Infrastructure; Borrowing and Debt; Economy; Strategic Planning; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Puerto Rico

June 1997 (Revised February 2012)
Case

The Union Carbide Deal (Abridged)

By: Thomas J. DeLong

On November 3, 1986, after a three-hour board of directors meeting, Union Carbide decided to accept First Boston's proposal to embark on a $2.5 billion recapitalization program. Jameson and his associates' efforts had paid off. Jameson had reason to be excited: He had... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Capital Structure; Investment Banking; Financial Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Competition; Financial Services Industry

29 Mar 2019
Blog Post

My Concerns About Learning Accounting at HBS

gave me confidence in leadership, strategy, marketing, product development, and other categories – I was definitely worried about coming to HBS with no (and I mean zero!) finance or accounting experience. Here are some of the worries I... View Details

12 Aug 2014
First Look

First Look: August 12

nuclear submarine fleet, provided engineering support for military vehicles, and managed numerous facilities at military bases. On the civil side, the company decommissioned aging nuclear plants, maintained the Metropolitan Police auto fleet and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Lessons for Retailers from the Rebirth of Indie Bookstores

inventory without the need to step foot in a bookstore; and then Amazon launched the Kindle e-book service in 2007, challenging the very idea of a physical book. “Not only had the traditional buying channels fundamentally shifted, but the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Entertainment & Recreation

June 2010
Case

Playa Dorada Tennis Club: Expansion Strategy

By: W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Brent Kazan

Playa Dorada Beach & Resort in Boca Raton, Florida, faces a growing seasonal demand for tennis services. The number of guests is expected to double in the next few years, and while the tennis facilities are a popular and well-promoted amenity at the resort, court space... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Planning; Price; Expansion; Tourism Industry; Accommodations Industry; Travel Industry; Florida

June 2020
Supplement

RBC: Transforming Transformation (B)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Aldo Sesia

In 2017, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), a Canadian financial icon, mandated a swat team of “enablers of collaboration” (their job description) to support the personal and commercial bank in the enterprise-wide RBC Cultural Transformation initiative. Historically,... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Transformation; Change Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Decision Making; Human Resources; Management Systems; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Canada