Publications

2021
Working Paper

rTSR: Properties, Determinants, and Consequences of Benchmark Choice

By: Paul Ma, Jee-Eun Shin and Charles C.Y. Wang

We develop a measurement-error framework for assessing the quality of relative-performance metrics designed to filter out the systematic component of performance and analyze relative total shareholder return (rTSR)—the predominant metric market participants use to... View Details

Keywords: Relative TSR; Relative Performance Evaluation; Systematic Risk; Board Of Directors; Compensation Consultants; Style Effects; Executive Compensation; Performance Evaluation; Corporate Governance

SSRN

We study how platform firms use repositioning and cost-cutting in response to competition, elucidate external and internal factors that constrain or enable these responses, and examine how the firms’ responses affect their performance. Our empirical context is... View Details

26 Nov 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Demand Estimation in Models of Imperfect Competition

Keywords: by Alexander MacKay and Nathan H. Miller

14 Oct 2019
News

Private-equity deals depress worker wages, study finds

December 2004 (Revised October 2017)
Background Note

Subscriber Models

By: Mihir Desai, Robin Greenwood, Scott Mayfield and Lucy White

Introduces the subscriber model as an alternative valuation framework for firms whose revenues can be traced to repeated transactions with customers. View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Corporate Finance

Educators

Bob White is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School where he teaches courses in the MBA program (Required and Elective curricula) and the Executive Education program. Courses taught include Entrepreneurial... View Details

2010
Chapter

The Financing of R&D and Innovation

By: Bronwyn H. Hall and Josh Lerner

Evidence on the “funding gap” for investment innovation is surveyed. The focus is on financial market reasons for underinvestment that exist even when externality-induced underinvestment is absent. We conclude that while small and new innovative firms experience high... View Details

Keywords: Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Venture Capital; Corporate Finance

2007
Working Paper

Evidence from Goodwill Non-impairments on the Effects of Unverifiable Fair-Value Accounting

By: Karthik Ramanna and Ross L. Watts

SFAS 142 requires firms to use unverifiable fair-value estimates to determine goodwill impairments. Standard setters suggest managers will use the discretion given by such estimates to convey private information on future cash flows, while agency theory predicts... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Goodwill Accounting; Standards; Agency Theory

SSRN

04 Mar 2015
News

Patent trolls: Why no one likes them

August 2020
Background Note

US Private Equity Firms: ESG and Impact (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Holly Fetter

This Note has two parts. The first part (A) explores how U.S. private equity firms are incorporating ESG (Environmental, Social, & Governance) factors and impact objectives into their investment strategies and firm practices. It is based on publicly available... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Financial Services Industry; United States

Educators

February 2019
Article

The Market for Financial Adviser Misconduct

By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru

We construct a novel database containing the universe of financial advisers in the United States from 2005 to 2015, representing approximately 10% of employment of the finance and insurance sector. We provide the first large-scale study that documents the economy-wide... View Details

Keywords: Financial Advisors; Brokers; Consumer Finance; Financial Misconduct And Fraud; FINRA; Financial Institutions; Crime and Corruption; Organizational Culture; Personal Finance; Financial Services Industry

2017
Working Paper

The Need for Speed: Effects of Uncertainty Reduction in Patenting

By: Mike Horia Teodorescu

Patents are essential in commerce to establish property rights for ideas and to give equal protection to firms that develop new technologies. Young firms especially depend on the protection of intellectual property to bring a product from concept to market. However,... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Natural Language Processing; Machine Learning; Patents; Business Startups; Risk and Uncertainty; Outcome or Result; Green Technology Industry

June 2017
Article

Is Operating Flexibility Harmful under Debt?

By: Nikolaos Trichakis, Dan A. Iancu and Gerry Tsoukalas

We study the inefficiencies stemming from a firm's operating flexibility under debt. We find that flexibility in replenishing or liquidating inventory, by providing risk-shifting incentives, could lead to borrowing costs that erase more than a third of the firm's... View Details

Keywords: Covenants; Risk-shifting; Inventory; Agency Costs; Debt Financing; Risk Management; Borrowing and Debt

January 2015
Article

Competing with Privacy

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Andres Hervas-Drane

We analyze the implications of consumer privacy for competition in the marketplace. We consider a market where firms set prices and disclosure levels for consumer information, and consumers observe both before deciding which firm to patronize and how much information... View Details

Keywords: Information Acquisition; Information Disclosure; Online Privacy; Privacy Regulation; Information; Rights; Internet and the Web; Competition; Internet and the Web; Corporate Disclosure; Ethics; Knowledge Acquisition

2015
Working Paper

Discretion in Hiring

By: Mitchell Hoffman, Lisa B. Kahn and Danielle Li

Who should make hiring decisions? We propose an empirical test for assessing whether firms should rely on hard metrics such as job test scores or grant managers discretion in making hiring decisions. We implement our test in the context of the introduction of a... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Management Practices and Processes

May 2010
Article

Elections and Discretionary Accruals: Evidence from 2004

By: Karthik Ramanna and Sugata Roychowdhury

We examine the accrual choices of outsourcing firms with links to U.S. congressional candidates during the 2004 elections, when corporate outsourcing was a major campaign issue. We find that politically connected firms with more extensive outsourcing activities have... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; Accounting Information; Accruals Management; Campaign Contributions; Discretionary Accruals; Election Outcomes; Political Currency; Political Process; Social Issues; Political Elections; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Motivation and Incentives; Earnings Management; Welfare; United States

SSRN

30 Oct 2013
HBS Seminar

Ryan McDevitt, Fuqua School of Business at Duke University

April 2022
Supplement

MicroStrategy: Accounting for Cryptocurrency (B)

By: Jonas Heese and Annelena Lobb

In early 2022, the technology firm MicroStrategy unveiled a series of letters with the SEC that questioned its accounting practices around its holdings of Bitcoin. Since 2020, the firm had shifted its strategy to include not just selling software but buying and holding... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Bitcoin; Holding Structures; SEC; Accounting; Finance; Financial Strategy; Technology Industry

March 2006
Case

EMC Corporation: Proposed Acquisition of VMware

By: Constance E. Bagley, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Chris Lombardi

Involves the decision by the CEO of EMC Corp. whether to acquire VMware, a small software firm in California that makes virtualization software. Among the factors to be considered are a pending patent case involving WMare and Microsoft and integration challenges... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Decision Choices and Conditions; Lawsuits and Litigation; Applications and Software; Acquisition; Information Technology Industry; California

Educators