Publications

August 2024
Case

Novo Nordisk Foundation

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia Comeau

In 2024, Novo Nordisk A/S was one of the most profitable firms in the world, thanks largely to just two GLP-1-based drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy. Unusually, this incredibly profitable firm was controlled not by individual private shareholders, but by a non-profit... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Diabetes; Obesity; Foundation; Non-profit Management; Pharmaceutical Industry; Denmark; Europe

13 Apr 2023
HBS Seminar

Bhaven Sampat, Columbia

22 Aug 2007
Research & Ideas

The Hedge Fund as Activist

Managers of public corporations sometimes need to be reminded that they work for shareholders. Without proper monitoring, managers may receive excess compensation or perks, or misuse free cash flow. Historically, poorly performing... View Details

Keywords: by Robin Greenwood; Financial Services

March 2020 (Revised March 2024)
Case

CIAM: Home-Grown Shareholder Activism in France

By: Charles C.Y. Wang, Tonia Labruyere and Vincent Dessain

The case discusses the strategy of CIAM, a French activist investment firm, involved in a case of a buy-out of minority shareholders in the telecommunications sector. Altice NV, an international telecommunications company based in the Netherlands that owned more than... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Private Equity; Strategy; Valuation; Investment Activism; Financial Services Industry; France

23 Aug 2016
First Look

August 23, 2016

examine if it can be implemented in different contexts and across academic cultures, structures, and traditions. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51496 Spring 2016 Journal of Applied Corporate Finance ESG Integration in View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2021
Technical Note

SPAC Space

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2020, over half of all initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United States were special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), blank-check companies that typically had two years to find a business to take public, usually through a reverse merger. Together, 248... View Details

Keywords: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies; SPACs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Going Public; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Strategy

June 2023
Case

Block: Creating an Ecosystem of Ecosystems

By: Lauren Cohen, Richard Ryffel, Grace Headinger and Ruoshi Qi

At Investor Day 2022, Block announced a new vision for its businesses: creating an ecosystem of ecosystems. Outside the norm for many public growth companies, Block had recently acquired a variety of new business streams in the creator economy and Bitcoin despite a... View Details

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

Legacy of Enron's Collapse (Harvard University Press), the devastation of Enron was total—yet there is much that business today can gain from a postmortem of the once-triumphant company. Salter had access to an extensive library of public... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

December 2007 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Wall Street's First Panic (A)

By: David A. Moss and Cole Bolton

In the early 1790s, a flood of newly issued public and private securities sparked an investment boom in the nascent United States. In New York, the bustling commercial district along Wall Street emerged as the center of the city's securities trade. One of the many... View Details

Keywords: History; Financial Instruments; Auctions; Financial Crisis; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry

03 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

How Companies Can Increase Market Rewards for Sustainability Efforts

the value of corporate sustainability activities ” Although researchers have studied returns around socially responsible investing and around corporate ESG performance, there has been little attention paid to how View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

20 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, June 20

Psychological Science Should Governments Invest More in Nudging? By: Benartzi, Shlomo, John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman, Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler, Maya Shankar, Will Tucker-Ray, William J. Congdon, and Steven Galing... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2012
Working Paper

Finding the God Particle of the Sustainability Business Case: Greener Pastures for Shareholder Value

By: Marc L Bertoneche and Cornis van der Lugt

The start of the 2000s saw a flurry of international publications on "the business case" for sustainability, seeking to map out the returns on investment and to differentiate recommended actions from cases of corporate philanthropy. Reports by business organisations... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance; Environmental Sustainability

SSRN

Using two hundred years of national and Massachusetts data on medical care and health, we examine how central medical care is to life expectancy gains. While common theories about medical care cost growth stress growing demand, our analysis highlights the importance of... View Details

2022
Working Paper

Racial Diversity in Private Capital Fundraising

By: Johan Cassel, Josh Lerner and Emmanuel Yimfor

Black- and Hispanic-owned funds control a very modest share of assets in the private capital industry. We find that the sensitivity of follow-on fundraising to fund performance is greater for minority-owned groups, particularly for underperforming groups. We... View Details

Keywords: Buyouts; Capital Formation; Minorities; Venture Capital; Minority-owned Businesses; Race; Diversity; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry

August 2023
Case

Floward

By: Krishna Palepu and Namrata Arora

In 2022, Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani, CEO and co-founder of Floward, an online flower and gifting company established in Kuwait in 2017, contemplated the firm's growth trajectory. Floward, an e-commerce enterprise that offered fresh-cut flowers sourced directly from... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Information Technology Industry; Middle East; North Africa; Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; United Arab Emirates; Jordan

October 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Dividend Policy at Linear Technology

By: Malcolm P. Baker and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

In 1992, Linear Technology, a designer and manufacturer of analog semiconductors, initiated a dividend. The firm increased its dividend by approximately $0.01 per share each year thereafter. In fiscal year 2002, Linear experienced its first significant drop in sales... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Investment Return; Financial Condition; Taxation; Initial Public Offering; Financial Management; Semiconductor Industry

George A. Riedel is the Henry B. Arthur Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit, where he currently teaches TEM (The Entrepreneurial Manager) and acts as a Section Chair in the Required Curriculum (RC). He has also taught TOM (Technology and... View Details

2021
Working Paper

The Business of K-12 Education in China

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yuhai Wu

This working paper examines the evolution of K-12 education in China, especially between 1985 and the present day, drawing extensive interviews with participants in the educational sector. China has been hugely successful in reaching almost 100 percent literacy,... View Details

Keywords: K-12 Education; China; Real Estate; Early Childhood Education; Performance Evaluation; Teaching; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Personal Development and Career; Social Issues; Nonprofit Organizations; Private Sector; Education Industry; Real Estate Industry; China