Publications

August 2007 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Gome: Bidding for China Paradise

Gome, China's largest electronics retailer, has the opportunity to acquire China Paradise, the number three player in the Chinese electronic retailer industry. This happened in the general context of a great market development and potential consolidation of the... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Trade; Market Entry and Exit; Performance; Opportunities; Competition; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Electronics Industry; Retail Industry; China

2017
Working Paper

The Benefits of Selective Disclosure: Evidence from Private Firms

By: Joan Farre-Mensa

Private firms’ ability to communicate confidentially with selected investors implies that valuation disagreements between firms and investors are larger at public firms than at private ones. Consistent with the notion that misvaluation concerns lead public firms to... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Equity; Private Companies; Corporate Cash; Precautionary Motives; Share Issuance; IPOs; Selective Disclosure; Private Ownership; Cash; Market Timing; Corporate Finance; Public Ownership; Corporate Disclosure; United States

SSRN

24 Feb 2020
News

Three HBS Faculty Members Win Awards in Global Case Centre Competition

13 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Global Investments Are Still a Good Bet

capacity in global markets to provide capital in an economy, and that increases their ability to absorb risk.” Thus, diversification becomes self-reinforcing, making global financial markets more stable, at... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

March 2022
Case

Abu Issa Holding: Navigating the Qatar Blockade

By: Mark Egan and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case follows Ashraf Abu Issa, CEO and chairman of Abu Issa Holding (AIH), as he contemplated the fate of his company’s regional expansion. AIH was a Qatari diversified holding company, whose primary business was luxury retailing and distribution. Abu Issa had set... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Retail; Expansion; Equity; Business Divisions; Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Products Industry; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates

June 2005
Case

CarMax

By: Rajiv Lal and David Kiron

Carmax is the largest multi-market used car dealer in the U.S., and has no format-to-format competitor in the $375 billion used car market. CarMax is trying to do what some analysts believed to be impossible: sell used cars profitably on a national scale, and at the... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Brands and Branding; Digital Platforms; Segmentation; Auto Industry

05 Jul 2023
HBS Case

What Kind of Leader Are You? How Three Action Orientations Can Help You Meet the Moment

specific task at hand (e.g., an appreciation for broader market changes, competitor behaviors, or emergent industry trends). Relational. Relational leaders design a plan of action based on how others will perceive and be affected by the... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

10 Sep 2015
Blog Post

Why We Recruit: EF Education First

opened in the 1980s. In 2009, we launched a formal recruitment program at HBS. We typically hire for senior roles that present opportunities for candidates to make an immediate impact and manage staff across a variety of functions (from operations to sales, integrated... View Details

04 Oct 2004
What Do You Think?

Does Speed Trump Intellectual Property?

a compelling argument ... . The bottom line: Speed is good for intellectual property." According to B. V. Krishnamurthy, "Of all the resources available to humankind, there is one which is given in equal measure to everyone ... . That resource is View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2021 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Resident

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Thomas O. Jones

Launched in 2016, Resident was a leading player in the direct-to-consumer bed-in-a-box mattress market, where it was one of at least 175 venture-backed companies competing in the space. By late 2020, it had realized over $500 million in revenue, profitability in the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Operations; Entrepreneurship; Competitive Strategy; Initial Public Offering; Decisions; Marketing Strategy; Cash Flow; Demand and Consumers

October 2022
Exercise

Shanty Real Estate: Confidential Information for iBuyer 1

By: Michael Luca, Jesse M. Shapiro and Nathan Sun

Shanty is a simulation in which students inhabit the role of either a traditional home buyer or an iBuyer, both bidding on the same condo. The traditional home buyer has access to a “comp sheet” of similar properties that have recently sold, and has done a walkthrough.... View Details

Keywords: Algorithm; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decision Making; Measurement and Metrics; Market Timing

October 2022
Exercise

Shanty Real Estate: Confidential Information for Homebuyer 3

By: Michael Luca, Jesse M. Shapiro and Nathan Sun

Shanty is a simulation in which students inhabit the role of either a traditional home buyer or an iBuyer, both bidding on the same condo. The traditional home buyer has access to a “comp sheet” of similar properties that have recently sold, and has done a walkthrough.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Decision Making; Measurement and Metrics; Market Timing

June 2005 (Revised March 2007)
Case

ACHAP (African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships): the Merck/Gates Initiative in Botswana

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

By June 2004, ACHAP, a three-way partnership of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck, and the Botswana government, had committed nearly $60 million of the $100 million toward various AIDS education, prevention, and treatment programs. It was time to evaluate... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Evaluation; Business and Government Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

20 Mar 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Catering to Characteristics

Keywords: by Robin Greenwood & Samuel Hanson; Technology

2019
Chapter

From Coast to Hinterland: Fiscal State Formation in British and French West Africa, c. 1880–1960

By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg

This chapter contrasts and compares the ways different colonial states in West Africa developed local fiscal capacity. We show that per capita revenues were higher in the more commercialised coastal export economies than in remote parts of the interior. We argue that... View Details

Keywords: Fiscal Capacity; Public Debt; French West Africa; British West Africa; Geography; History; Africa

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

2019
Working Paper

Racial Heterogeneity and Local Government Finances: Evidence from the Great Migration

By: Marco Tabellini

Between 1915 and 1930, during the First Great Migration, more than 1.5 million African Americans migrated from the South to the North of the United States, altering the racial profile of several northern cities for the first time in American history. I exploit this... View Details

Keywords: Migration; Race; City; Financial Condition; Government and Politics; History; United States