Publications

September 2017
Case

Blackstone's Julia Kahr at the Summit

By: Paul A. Gompers, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal

In 2009, Blackstone, the New York-based alternative asset and financial services firm, committed to invest up to $750 million into Summit Materials, a new company in the aggregates sector (i.e., construction materials, such as crushed stone, sand, gravel, cement,... View Details

16 Jun 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Does Diversification Create Value in the Presence of External Financing Constraints? Evidence from the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis

Keywords: by Venkat Kuppuswamy & Belén Villalonga

01 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

Company Town: Fixing Corrupt Governments

successful firms or nonprofits would get free advertising through the popular press, eliminating their need for private marketing while increasing their ability to win elections in other locales around the world. Citizens in mismanaged... View Details

Keywords: by Eric Werker

20 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Misgovernance at the World Bank

Getting a seat at the table often makes all the difference in the world. New research from Harvard Business School suggests that this idea holds true literally at the World Bank, where the 24 countries serving on the Board of Executive Directors benefit their own... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

23 Apr 2018
News

Governor Baker Swears In New Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning

October 2023
Case

Kevin O'Leary: Building a Brand in Shark-infested Waters

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

For more than fifteen years, successful Canadian entrepreneur and investor Kevin O’Leary had developed his brand into a global powerhouse. Since his first appearance on the Canadian television program Dragons’ Den in 2006 and his meteoric rise to stardom through the... View Details

Keywords: Personal Brand; Crisis; Brands and Branding; Entrepreneurship; Crisis Management; Social Media; Public Opinion; Power and Influence; Financial Services Industry

17 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

‘Not a Bunch of Weirdos’: Why Mainstream Investors Buy Crypto

checking accounts. Moreover, these investors are drawn by the lure of potentially higher returns in a “lottery-style payoff” than investors expect with traditional investments. Plus, the COVID-19 stimulus money led new investors to... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

Web

Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

prices. The authors use arbitrage activity in equity, fixed income, and foreign exchange markets to characterize the frictions and constraints facing intermediaries. They show that at least two types of segmentation drive arbitrage... View Details

February 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Taffi: Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

By: Paul A. Gompers and Fares Khrais

Taffi was a tech-enabled fashion styling startup founded by Shahad Geoffrey in Saudi Arabia in 2020. Within three years of operating, Geoffrey had pivoted the business multiple times. In 2023, Geoffrey was attempting the business’s most ambitious pivot yet, shifting... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Fashion Industry; Technology Industry; Saudi Arabia; Arabian Peninsula

September 2024
Article

Activist Directors: Determinants and Consequences

By: Ian D. Gow, Sa-Pyung Sean Shin and Suraj Srinivasan

This paper examines determinants and consequences of hedge fund activism, focusing on activist directors, i.e., directors appointed in response to activist demands. Using a sample of 3,259 activism events from 2004 to 2016, we identify 1,623 activist directors.... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Investment Activism; Business and Shareholder Relations

20 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, March 20, 2018

automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting LGBTQ friendly companies, while still closely tracking the overall stock market performance. In 2017, bolstered by $3.25 million in seed View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Salary Finance

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In April 2019, Asesh Sarkar, co-founder and chief executive of Salary Finance Limited, a London-based FinTech, faced tough choices. Sarkar had founded Salary Finance with Dan Cobley and Daniel Shakhani in 2015. The company’s value proposition was quite simple: partner... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Financing and Loans; Wages; Innovation and Invention; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry

July 2015
Article

A Behavioral Model of the Popularity and Regulation of Demandable Liabilities

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

Overoptimism regarding one's ability to arrive early in a queue is shown to rationalize deposit contracts in which people can withdraw their funds on demand even if consumption takes place later. Capitalized institutions serving overoptimistic depositors emerge in... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Banks and Banking

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Web

Hiring Organizations

Capital Bain Capital Ventures Balmoral Funds Balyasny Asset Management L.P. Bank of America Barefoot Money Barry-Wehmiller BayLink Capital BC Partners BCG Digital Ventures Bechtel Corporation Bedari... View Details

25 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 25

they realized they would have to go back to the drawing board to better gauge which investors would have an appetite for this type of investment and how best to market the fund to those parties going... 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

September 2006 (Revised July 2012)
Case

PSI India—Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A)

By: Elie Ofek and Peter Wickersham

In 2002, Population Services International (PSI) was committed to curbing the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in India. Sanjay Chaganti, program director of HIV/AIDS at PSI India, has to decide on the best communication strategy to achieve this goal. Up to this date most... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Communication Strategy; Health Disorders; Marketing Communications; Social Marketing; Social Enterprise; India

08 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

A Bold Proposal for Investment Reform

critical look at companies' financial statements. Stock exchanges could fund the cost of audits through a modest transactions charge. Q: In your article you argue that the availability of high quality information is crucial to an... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

Article

Avoiding Overhead Aversion in Charity

By: Uri Gneezy, Elizabeth A. Keenan and Ayelet Gneezy

Donors tend to avoid charities that dedicate a high percentage of expenses to administrative and fundraising costs, limiting the ability of nonprofits to be effective. We propose a solution to this problem: Use donations from major philanthropists to cover overhead... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

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