Publications

February 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Board Director Dilemmas—Back the SPAC?

By: Suraj Srinivasan, David G. Fubini and Amram Migdal

This case focuses on a board director of a diversified holding company. The firm’s longtime CEO had always exhibited a cautious, methodical approach to growth. Now, the CEO is raising the idea of joining with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to spin off... View Details

Keywords: Board Director; Strategy; Change Management; Decision Making

12 Jan 2004
What Do You Think?

How Should We Think About the Exportation of Jobs?

improvement that I am familiar with seems to always create jobs and grow companies and countries." What do you think? Original Article It has taken economists, journalists, and the rest of us years to get used to the idea that over... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2012
Book

Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance

By: Gary P. Pisano and Willy Shih

For years—even decades—in response to intensifying global competition, American companies decided to outsource their manufacturing operations in order to reduce costs. But we are now seeing the alarming long-term effect of those choices: in many cases, once... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Production; Competitive Advantage; Transformation; Innovation and Invention; Manufacturing Industry; United States

26 Jul 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Accountability of Independent Directors-Evidence from Firms Subject to Securities Litigation

Keywords: by Francois Brochet & Suraj Srinivasan

13 Feb 2020
Book

Open Your Organization to Honest Conversations

assets, knowledge, and systems. Without such stewardship, the company cannot develop sustained commitment and performance. Instead, cycles of high and low performance destroy value for all stakeholders. And just as boards need to View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

10 May 2021
Research & Ideas

Who Has Potential? For Many White Men, It’s Often Other White Men

Many well-meaning companies want to diversify their workforces but face an all-too-common problem: They take great pains to hire more women and people of color, only to find that these employees don’t stick around long. At one midsize... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

Corruption

By: Paul M. Healy

World Bank estimates indicate that as much as $1 trillion is paid in bribes throughout the world in a given year. Corruption has been shown to slow economic development. My research focuses on how corruption affects multinational companies. It discusses differences... View Details

Keywords: Corruption; Internal Governance

2010
Mimeo

An Analysis of the Impact of 'Substantially Heightened' Capital Requirements on Large Financial Institutions

By: Anil Kashyap, Jeremy C. Stein and Samuel G. Hanson

We examine the impact of "substantially heightened" capital requirements on large financial institutions, and on their customers. Our analysis yields three main conclusions. First, the frictions associated with raising new external equity finance are likely to be... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Capital; Equity; Financing and Loans; Credit

Read Now

24 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 24

School Case 113-073 Ken Traub at American Bank Note Holographics Ken Traub is hired as CFO for American Bank Note Holographics, the market-leading security holograph company, in January 1999, but discovers... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Apr 2024
In Practice

Navigating the Mood of Customers Weary of Price Hikes

ticking up again as recently as February. How should companies navigate the mood of shoppers, who remain cautious after being squeezed over the past two years, particularly in areas like food and housing? Harvard Business School faculty... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Consumer Products

15 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 15

we find significant price differences between institutional investors' tranches and banks' tranches on the same loans, even though they share the same underlying fundamentals. Increasing demand pressure causes the interest rate on institutional tranches to fall below... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Behavioral Finance—Benefiting from Irrational Investors

How "sleepy" or "awake" are you when it comes to your stock portfolio? If you're like most people, you probably don't spend a great deal of time monitoring your investments. So when another company uses stock to... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

02 Mar 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Short-Termism, Investor Clientele, and Firm Risk

Keywords: by Francois Brochet, Maria Loumioti & George Serafeim

January 2008 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Restructuring at Nova Chemical Corporation

Management of a diversified chemicals company faces two financial decisions: whether to finance a major investment in new production facilities for its rapidly expanding Environmental Products Division, and whether to sell a more slowly growing non-specialty chemicals... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Decision Choices and Conditions; Chemicals; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Finance; Chemical Industry

June 2022
Teaching Plan

Lifebank Nigeria

By: Brian Trelstad, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Wale Lawal

The aspiration of addressing maternal deaths in Nigeria, which were mostly caused by blood shortages, led Temie Giwa-Tubosun to found LifeBank in 2015. LifeBank developed an online platform that enabled hospitals to connect and purchase blood from local blood banks and... View Details

Keywords: Systems Design; Social Business; Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Health Care; Blood; Social Enterprise; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Finance; Health Industry; Transportation Industry; Africa; Nigeria

13 Jul 2016
HBS Case

How Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy Attracted Their First 1,000 Customers

high. Then, they made sure this first group of users had a great experience and brought in the next wave of customers via word-of-mouth,” says Teixeira. The company banked on the fact that once users... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service; Transportation

February 1993 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Brent Walker Group PLC,The

The Brent Walker Group completed the largest out-of-court restructuring in the United Kingdom. After overexpansion in the 1980s, the company pursued a large acquisition financed with debt and then encountered falling asset prices. With the assistance of the Bank of... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; United Kingdom

April 2018
Article

Elite Strategies and Incremental Policy Change: The Expansion of Primary Education in India

By: Akshay Mangla

This article analyzes India’s recent enactment of universal primary education. This programmatic policy change is puzzling given the clientelistic features of Indian democracy. Drawing on interviews and official documents, I demonstrate the catalytic role of committed... View Details

Keywords: Education; Policy Change; Policy Elites; Institutions; India; Early Childhood Education; Policy; Education Industry; India

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