Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(5,169)
- Faculty Publications (1,062)
- 2012
- Book
The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity Revisited
By: Josh Lerner and Scott Stern
While the importance of innovation to economic development is widely understood, the conditions conducive to it remain the focus of much attention. This volume offers new theoretical and empirical contributions to fundamental questions relating to the economics of... View Details
- February 2012 (Revised September 2013)
- Case
Edward Lundberg and the Rockville Building: Energy Efficiency Finance in Commercial Real Estate
By: John D. Macomber and Frederik Nellemann
A commercial landlord analyzes options for funding and accomplishing energy efficiency retrofit. The situation is complicated by lease terms and uncertain effectiveness of the intervention. Students must grapple with obstacles including changing energy prices,... View Details
- January 2012 (Revised March 2012)
- Case
Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA)'s Entry into the Retirement Market
By: Lauren Cohen and Christopher Malloy
This case examines Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA)'s decision to enter the retirement market with their new "Dimensional Managed DC" product, a complete retirement solution that aimed to provide investors with what they really wanted: the same standard of living in... View Details
- November 2011
- Case
Pacific Grove Spice Company
By: William E. Fruhan and Craig Stephenson
Pacific Grove Spice Company is a profitable, rapidly growing manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of quality spices and seasonings. The company's business model requires significant investment in accounts receivable, inventory, and fixed assets to support sales.... View Details
- November 2011
- Case
Brink's Company: Activists Push for a Spin-off
By: Suraj Srinivasan, Aldo Sesia and Amy Kaser
The case studies the decision of the security services corporation Brink's Company to spin-off its home security division from the rest of the company. The decision followed intense pressure on the company by three activist hedge funds that felt that Brink's was... View Details
- November 2011 (Revised December 2013)
- Case
The Long and Short of Apollo Group and the University of Phoenix (A)
By: Luis M. Viceira, Joel Heilprin, Andrew S. Holmes and Damian M. Zajac
A hedge fund is deciding whether to liquidate its position in Apollo Group, a for-profit education firm, in light of significant political and macro-economic uncertainty facing the industry. As part of the investment analysis a complete discounted cash flow analysis... View Details
- 2012
- Other Unpublished Work
What Are We Meeting For? The Consequences of Private Meetings with Investors
By: Eugene F. Soltes and David H. Solomon
Executives of publicly-traded firms spend considerable time meeting privately with investors, despite regulation restricting their ability to convey material nonpublic information. Using a set of records of all one-on-one meetings between senior management and... View Details
- October 2011 (Revised March 2012)
- Case
AQR's DELTA Strategy
By: Daniel Bergstresser, Lauren Cohen, Randolph B. Cohen and Christopher Malloy
In the summer of 2008, AQR Capital Management was considering the launch of a new hedge fund strategy. The proposed DELTA portfolio would offer investors exposure to a basket of nine major hedge fund strategies. The DELTA strategy would be innovative in two ways.... View Details
- October 2011 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Yale University Investments Office: February 2011
By: Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon
David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, real estate—given the impact of the recent market turmoil. The case explores the risks... View Details
- October 2011 (Revised November 2011)
- Case
Verengo Solar Plus!
By: William A. Sahlman, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Liz Kind
In the three years since Bishop and Button purchased Verengo in a leveraged buyout (LBO), the company had gone through dramatic changes. Initially a residential windows and insulation firm, after the economic recession of 2008 the company switched gears and began... View Details
- September 2011 (Revised September 2011)
- Case
Penn Warranty Corporation
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
Penn Warranty Corporation sold warranty contracts to the used car market. During the recession in 2008/2009 Penn's sales declined by 26% Instead of growing by 11% as forecasted. Also, disruptions in financial and insurance markets created a cash shortfall. In the... View Details
- September 2011 (Revised March 2014)
- Case
Brightcove, Inc. in 2007
By: Andrei Hagiu and David B. Yoffie
Brightcove, a technology and services provider to content owners in the Internet television field, aimed to become a media distribution company in its own right. On October 30, 2006, it relaunched its Website—and, in effect, its business. With its new, consumer-facing... View Details
- September 2011 (Revised August 2013)
- Case
The Pepsi Refresh Project: A Thirst for Change
By: Michael I. Norton and Jill Avery
In 2010, for the first time in 23 years, PepsiCo did not invest in Superbowl advertising for its iconic brand. Instead, the company diverted this $20 million to the social media-fueled Pepsi Refresh Project: PepsiCo's innovative cause-marketing program in which... View Details
- September 2011 (Revised May 2012)
- Case
GoodGuide
By: George Serafeim, Robert G. Eccles and Tiffany A. Clay
GoodGuide, a high-technology start-up company, founded by University of California Professor at Berkley Dara O'Rourke is at a critical junction. The venture capital funded company has yet to find the business model to monetize a very promising product that provides... View Details
- September 2011 (Revised September 2015)
- Case
Hassina Sherjan
By: Robert G. Eccles, George Serafeim and Pippa Eccles
Hassina Sherjan was born in Afghanistan but grew up and was educated in the United States. A trip to Afghanistan when she was an adult inspired her to move back to her home country with two missions. The first was to educate young women through a non-profit... View Details
Keywords: Environmental Accounting; Non-Governmental Organizations; Nonprofit Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Innovation Leadership; Development Economics; Growth and Development; Problems and Challenges; Retail Industry; Afghanistan; United States
- September 2011
- Module Note
Orientation to Leadership Intelligence Days, 2011
By: Joshua D. Margolis and Anthony J. Mayo
Julie Bornstein, senior vice president of Sephora Direct, is seeking to double her budget for social media and other digital marketing initiatives for 2011. A number of digital efforts implemented in the past two years seem to be bearing fruit and there is a desire to... View Details
- 2011
- Book
Getting to Giving: Fundraising the Entrepreneurial Way
By: Howard H. Stevenson and Shirley M. Spence
Getting to Giving is based on Stevenson's many years as a donor, fundraiser and entrepreneur. The book offers practical techniques and real life stories, and brings passion and humor to the art and science of asking for money. Topics included in the book... View Details
- 2011
- Working Paper
The Cost of Capital for Alternative Investments
By: Jakub W. Jurek and Erik Stafford
This paper studies the cost of capital for alternative investments. We document that the risk profile of the aggregate hedge fund universe can be accurately matched by a simple index put option writing strategy that offers monthly liquidity and complete transparency... View Details
- August 2011 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Lind Equipment
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
Lind Equipment failed to meet its loan covenants with its senior bank lender in the summer of 2008, just six months after it was acquired. While the senior bank debt comprised only 6% of the capital used in the acquisition and was fully secured, it exercised its right... View Details
- July 2011
- Case
Edna McConnell Clark Foundation-Enabling a Performance Driven Philanthropic Capital Market
By: Allen Grossman and Aldo Sesia
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, focused on building the organizational capabilities of nonprofits that served the disadvantaged youth in the United States, has recently been named an intermediary in the federal government's new social innovation fund (SIF), which... View Details