Publications

2023
Working Paper

Deglobalization and Entrepreneurial Investment: The Natural Experiment of Brexit

By: Elisa Alvarez-Garrido and Juan Alcácer

We seek to gain insight into the consequences of deglobalization on entrepreneurial investment by analyzing an instance of economic disintegration: the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Brexit is not only a unique empirical opportunity, a natural... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; International Relations; Trade; Disruption; Globalized Economies and Regions; United Kingdom

June 2008
Article

Bringing the Context Back In: Settings and the Search for Syndicate Partners in Venture Capital Investment Networks

Most existing network-based theories of relationship formation, whether based on homophily or structural constraint, imply that actors form highly cohesive, homogenous clusters. Yet real networks also include many "bridging" ties—isolated links between parties that... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Networks; Theory; Partners and Partnerships; Investment; Risk and Uncertainty; Business Growth and Maturation; Size; Geographic Location

2009
Working Paper

Specific Knowledge and Divisional Performance Measurement

By: Michael C. Jensen and William H. Meckling

This paper discusses five common divisional performance measurement methods—cost centers, revenue centers, profit centers, investment centers, and expense centers—providing a theory that explains when each of these methods is likely to be the most efficient. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Business Headquarters; Decisions; Cost; Investment; Investment Return; Profit; Revenue; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Managerial Roles; Performance Efficiency; Strategy

SSRN

2017
Working Paper

The 4 Minds of the Customer: A Framework for Understanding and Applying the Science of Decision Making

By: Ryan Hamilton and Uma R. Karmarkar

Scientists have spent decades creating powerful and detailed descriptions of how people make decisions. Unfortunately, many of these theories make contradictory predictions and are difficult to understand and implement. We introduce the 4 Minds framework as a practical... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Choice; Market Research; Decision Making Process; Decision; Marketing Research; Consumer Behavior; Decision Choices and Conditions; Marketing; Decision Making; Segmentation; Research

Register to Read

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

14 Apr 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Contractual Restrictions and Debt Traps

Keywords: by Ernest Liu and Benjamin N. Roth; Financial Services

2010
Article

On the Classification of Type II Codes of Length 24

By: Noam D. Elkies and Scott Duke Kominers

We give a new, purely coding-theoretic proof of Koch's criterion on the tetrad systems of Type II codes of length 24 using the theory of harmonic weight enumerators. This approach is inspired by Venkov's approach to the classification of the root systems of Type II... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods

Nien-hê Hsieh is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration in the General Management Unit at Harvard Business School. His research and teaching aims at helping business leaders and organizations determine and deliver on their responsibilities. He... 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

10 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

Long-Tail Economics? Give Me Blockbusters!

Editor's Note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge. The importance of blockbusters has been challenged recently by Chris... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Entertainment & Recreation; Pharmaceutical

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

01 Jan 2006
News

20 Jun 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Conversational Peers and Idea Generation: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Keywords: by Sharique Hasan and Rembrand Koning

October 2020
Article

Comparative Statics for Size-Dependent Discounts in Matching Markets

By: David Delacretaz, Scott Duke Kominers and Alexandru Nichifor

We prove a natural comparative static for many-to-many matching markets in which agents’ choice functions exhibit size-dependent discounts: reducing the extent to which some agent discounts additional partners leads to improved outcomes for the agents on the other side... View Details

Keywords: Size-dependent Discounts; Path-independence; Respect For Improvements; Market Design; Mathematical Methods

Article

Beyond the Reach of the Invisible Hand: Impediments to Economic Activity, Market Failures, and Profitability

By: Dennis Yao

In this paper it is argued that failures of the competitive market are necessary conditions for supranormal profitability. Three fundamental causes of these market failures-production economies and sunk costs, transactions costs, and imperfect information-are developed... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Markets; Failure; Profit; Cost; Information; Market Transactions; Competition; Strategy; Production