Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(3,412)
- Faculty Publications (497)
- March 2020 (Revised June 2023)
- Case
EyeControl: Inspiring Communication
By: Paul A. Gompers and Danielle Golan
Eye-controlled communication device startup EyeControl was founded in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2016 by cofounders with a shared personal connection to locked-in syndrome—a neurological disorder that left sufferers cognitively sound, yet paralyzed, with the exception of eye... View Details
- 2020
- Article
Mutual Funds: Skill and Performance
By: Jonathan B. Berk, Jules van Binsbergen and Max Miller
The authors summarize the recent literature on mutual fund manager skill and performance. They discuss the latest contributions in the field and reinterpret them through the lens of the rational expectations framework (efficient market hypothesis). They further discuss... View Details
- 2021
- Working Paper
Recovering Investor Expectations from Demand for Index Funds
By: Mark Egan, Alexander J. MacKay and Hanbin Yang
We use a revealed-preference approach to estimate investor expectations of stock market returns. Using data on demand for index funds that follow the S&P 500, we develop and estimate a model of investor choice to flexibly recover the time-varying distribution of... View Details
- December 2019
- Case
Steemit: A New Social Media?
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Alexander White and Karen Elterman
This case discusses the alternative social media site Steemit, including the principles it was founded on in 2016 and the challenges it faced in 2019. Steemit was a blockchain-based platform that aimed to differentiate itself from other social media companies by... View Details
Keywords: Decision Making; Decisions; Voting; Economic Systems; Money; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Goals and Objectives; Digital Platforms; Product Design; Design; Problems and Challenges; Network Effects; Motivation and Incentives; Social and Collaborative Networks; Reputation; Business Strategy; Competition; Internet and the Web; Social Media; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; Virginia; New York (city, NY)
- 2020
- Working Paper
Cutting the Gordian Knot of Employee Health Care Benefits and Costs: A Corporate Model Built on Employee Choice
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman
The U.S. employer-based health insurance tax exclusion created a system of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) with limited insurance choices and transparency that may lock employed households into health plans that are costlier or different from those they prefer to... View Details
- November 2019
- Case
Apple, Einhorn, and iPrefs (Abridged)
By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and W. Carl Kester
In March 2013, Apple Computer has a very large cash balance, and is under pressure to return cash to shareholders. Hedge fund manager David Einhorn thinks Apple can "unlock value" by issuing perpetual preferred stock, dubbed iPrefs. Henry Blodget, CEO of Business... View Details
- November 2019
- Supplement
United Technologies Corp.: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune Magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Valuation; Investment Activism; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States
- November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details
- November 2019
- Case
DeepMap: Charting the Road Ahead for Autonomous Vehicles
By: Shane Greenstein and Nicole Tempest Keller
Founded in 2016, DeepMap developed high definition (HD) mapping software and localization services for Level 4+ autonomous vehicles. Traditional navigational maps were accurate to a few meters, which was sufficient for drivers but not for machine-driven vehicles that... View Details
- October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
NewView Capital and Venture Capital Secondaries
By: Shai Bernstein, Ramana Nanda and Allison Ciechanover
While still a general partner at Silicon Valley–based New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Ravi Viswanathan considered the challenges presented by evolving market dynamics in the venture capital space. Startups were staying private longer, which led to limited partners... View Details
- October 2019 (Revised November 2019)
- Case
C16 Biosciences: Lab-Grown Palm Oil
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull
Synthetic biology start-up C16 Biosciences wants to solve a big problem: replace palm oil, a major contributor to deforestation and climate change, with a lab-grown substitute. CEO Shara Ticku has ambitious plans to supply her lab-grown palm oil to food manufacturers,... View Details
- September 2019 (Revised May 2020)
- Supplement
Keroche (E): Considering Additional Capacity
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pippa Tubman Armerding
This case describes Keroche’s growth after entering the beer business in 2008. Although the company was operating at full capacity and not able to fulfill all of its orders, Tabitha Karanja had set a goal of growing Keroche’s share of the Kenyan beer market from... View Details
Keywords: Keroche; Alcohol; Alcoholic Beverages; Beer; Beer Market; Premium Beer; Manufacturing; Production; Production Capacity; Capacity; Business Ventures; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Small Business; Family Business; Crime and Corruption; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Income; Demographics; Geographic Scope; Geographic Location; Goods and Commodities; Government Legislation; Growth and Development; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Laws and Statutes; Lawfulness; Goals and Objectives; Consumer Behavior; Market Entry and Exit; Problems and Challenges; Safety; Social Issues; Poverty; Strategy; Competition; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Financing and Loans; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry
- September 2019
- Case
Dementia Discovery Fund
By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Kathy Giusti and Sarah Gulick
The case is set in March 2019, and tells the story of the founding of the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF). The idea for the fund began in 2015, when then-Prime Minister David Cameron spoke about the importance of making breakthroughs in dementia research, and pledged... View Details
- 2019
- Article
Pay-for-Monopoly?: An Assessment of Reverse Payment Deals by Pharmaceutical Companies
By: Sana Rafiq and Max Bazerman
Abstract
Over the past eighteen years, pharmaceutical firms have developed a blueprint to impede competition in order
to maintain their monopoly profits. This scheme, termed pay-for-delay, involves direct or indirect payment of
money from a branded-drug manufacturer... View Details
- August 2019 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Paradigm Capital Value Fund
By: Luis M. Viceira and Elena Corsi
Karl Jan Erick Hummel had founded Paradigm Capital Value Fund in 2007 together with Columbia Business School Professor Bruce Greenwald, an expert in value investing and now chairman of the fund. The fund followed the principles of value investing to their target... View Details
- August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)
In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details
- 2021
- Working Paper
The Value of Intermediation in the Stock Market
By: Marco Di Maggio, Mark Egan and Francesco Franzoni
We estimate a structural model of broker choice to quantitatively decompose the value that institutional investors attach to broker services. Studying over 300 million institutional equity trades, we find that investors are sensitive to both explicit and implicit... View Details
- July 2019
- Case
Instabeat—One More Lap?
By: Shikhar Ghosh, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar
This case follows Lebanese entrepreneur, Hind Hobeika, an engineer and competitive swimmer who spends seven years trying to launch a wearable heartrate monitor and motion sensor to help swimmers track their performance while swimming. While the Beirut-based... View Details
- April 2019 (Revised July 2019)
- Case
Aperture Investors
By: Krishna G. Palepu, George Serafeim and David Lane
Aperture Investors is a startup investment firm that seeks to disrupt the asset management industry through competitive differentiation by charging investors primarily when its portfolio managers outperform the marketplace. Headed by Wall Street veteran Peter Kraus and... View Details
- April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
- Case
Western Governors University: 10x Vision
By: William R. Kerr and Susie L. Ma
Western Governors University (WGU) was a nonprofit institution of higher education whose online learning model served more than 100,000 students in 2019 and was scaling rapidly. President Scott Pulsipher wanted to expand WGU’s reach to millions more with a plan called... View Details