Publications

Professor Montgomery's research centers on strategy and corporate governance. Of particular interest are the unique roles leaders play in developing and implementing strategy; the means organizations use to create value across multiple lines of business; and issues... View Details

24 May 2017
News

J.Crew Boss Mickey Drexler Confesses: I Didn’t Get the Web

December 2018 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Creating the French Behavioral Insights Team

By: Michael Luca, Ariella Kristal and Emilie Billaud

This case explores how neuroscientist Mariam Chammat helped set up the first behavioral insights team at the center of the French government, and encouraged French administrations to innovate and create policy initiatives based on psychological theories of influence... View Details

Keywords: Choice Architecture; Behavioral Economics; Experiments; Negotiation; Decision Making; Economics; Taxation; Entrepreneurship; Consumer Behavior; Public Administration Industry; Europe; France; Paris

December 1998 (Revised July 2016)
Background Note

Tools of Cooperation, The

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Howard H. Stevenson and Jeremy Dann

Presents a theory about the tools a manager can use to get people to agree on a coordinated course of action and effect change in his or her organization. The extent to which people in the organization agree on the way the world works, and agree on what they want,... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Framework; Managerial Roles; Organizations; Performance Effectiveness; Cooperation

April 2001 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Risk Management at Apache

After initiating a hedging strategy, Apache Corp. is interested in revisiting its decision to determine if hedging is value-adding. This case investigates how the company initially decided to hedge against commodity price risk and how it implemented its hedging... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Investment; Corporate Finance

2012
Article

The Cost and Timing of Financial Distress

By: Christopher Parsons

Assessments of the trade-off theory have typically compared the present value of tax benefits to the present value of bankruptcy costs. We verify that this comparison overwhelmingly favors tax benefits, suggesting that firms are under-leveraged. However, when we... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy

2022
Working Paper

ESG: Hyperboles and Reality

By: George Serafeim

ESG has rapidly become a household name leading to both confusion about what it means and creating unrealistic expectations about its effects. In this paper, I draw on more than a decade of research to dispel several myths about ESG and provide answers to important... View Details

Keywords: ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Disclosure; ESG Reporting; ESG Ratings; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Performance; Corporate Disclosure; Reports

SSRN

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07 Oct 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Specific Knowledge and Divisional Performance Measurement

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen & William H. Meckling

December 2003 (Revised February 2008)
Background Note

Law and Legal Reasoning: An Introduction

By: Henry B. Reiling

Gives prominence to Mr. Justice Holmes' Prediction Theory of the law as a practical--and by analogy to forecasting in finance and other functional areas of business--comfortable, and familiar way for businesspeople to think about the law. Law is defined as a forecast... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Law; Theory

August 2008
Article

The Implications of Unverifiable Fair-value Accounting: Evidence from the Political Economy of Goodwill Accounting

By: Karthik Ramanna

I study the evolution of SFAS 142, which uses unverifiable fair-value estimates to account for acquired goodwill. I find evidence consistent with the FASB issuing SFAS 142 in response to political pressure over its proposal to abolish pooling accounting. The result is... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Fair Values; Politics; Standard Setting; Fair Value Accounting; Goodwill Accounting; Government Legislation; Agency Theory

SSRN

Research Summary

Overview

By: Hise O. Gibson

Professor Gibson's primary research interests encompass inclusive leadership, operational effectiveness, human capital development, leadership, leader development, leading change, and risk management especially during crisis. As part of his broader work to... View Details

December 2012
Article

Grand Innovation Prizes: A Theoretical, Normative, and Empirical Evaluation

By: Alan MacCormack, Fiona Murray, Scott Stern and Georgina Campbell

This paper provides a systematic examination of the use of a Grand Innovation Prize (GIP) in action—the Progressive Automotive Insurance X PRIZE—a $10 million prize for a highly efficient vehicle. Following a mechanism design approach we define three key dimensions for... View Details

Keywords: Design; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Performance; Auto Industry

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September 2021
Article

Shaking Things Up: Disruptive Events and Inequality

By: Letian Zhang

This paper develops a theory of how disruptive events could reduce racial and gender inequality in organizations. Despite pressure from regulators and advocates, racial and gender inequality in the workplace remains high. I theorize that because such inequality is... View Details

Keywords: Inequality; Equality and Inequality; Diversity; Race; Gender; Restructuring; Mergers and Acquisitions; Disruption

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June 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Background Note

Economic Gains from Trade: Comparative Advantage

By: Robert E. Kennedy and Nancy F. Koehn

How nations trade and whether they benefit from it are two of the oldest and most important questions in political economy. In the 170 years since David Ricardo formally developed the theory of comparative advantage, it has become one of the principles most widely... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Microeconomics; Trade; Cost Management; Business and Government Relations

Christopher Stanton is Marvin Bower Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. Professor Stanton's research streams focus on personnel economics, organizational economics, labor markets, and entrepreneurship. His MBA... View Details

14 Apr 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Facts and Figuring: An Experimental Investigation of Network Structure and Performance in Information and Solution Spaces

Keywords: by Jesse Shore, Ethan Bernstein & David Lazer

January 1995
Case

Understanding User Needs

By: Marco Iansiti and Ellen Stein

Presents an introduction to methods for understanding user needs in product development. Describes a number of techniques including the use of focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, the Kano method, Lead User analysis, the Product Value matrix, OFD, etc. Provides a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Product Development; Mathematical Methods