Publications

November 2002 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Keane's Acquisition of Metro Information Services (A)

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

On August 21, 2001, Keane, Inc. announced the acquisition of Metro Information Services, Inc. This case analyzes the challenges facing firms and examines transactions whose major source of value creation hinges on intangible assets (e.g., people or knowledge). View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Value Creation; Goodwill Accounting; Problems and Challenges; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

Educators

10 Mar 2015
News

UCLA Researchers for the first Time Measure the Cost of Care for a Common Prostate Condition

Research Summary

"Modeling B2B Exchanges" (with Gabor Fath)

B2B exchanges are revolutionizing the way businesses will buy and sell a variety of intermediary products and services. It is estimated that most of the roughly $7 trillion worth of business transactions are likely to go through these new institutions within the next... View Details

Article

Efficiencies and Regulatory Shortcuts: How Should We Regulate Companies like Airbnb and Uber?

By: Benjamin Edelman and Damien Geradin

New software platforms use modern information technology, including full-featured web sites and mobile apps, to allow service providers and consumers to transact with relative ease and increased trust. These platforms provide notable benefits including reducing... View Details

Keywords: Platforms; Regulation; Sharing Economy; Uber; Airbnb; Universal Service; Insurance; Market Platforms; Service Delivery; Software; Service Industry

Read Now

September 2012
Teaching Note

Stryker Corporation: Capital Budgeting (TN)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

This case examines some parts of Stryker Corporation's systems and procedures for approving and authorizing capital spending of many different types, including buildings, machinery, and working capital for existing businesses, as well as transactions with third parties... View Details

Keywords: Capital Expenditures-equipment; Capital Expenditures-machinery; Internal Rate Of Return; Discounted Cash Flows; Net Present Value; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Cash Flow; System; Organizational Culture; Policy; Business Processes; Capital Budgeting

Research Summary

Asset Specificity and Vertical Integration: Williamson's Hypothesis Reconsidered

A point repeatedly stressed by transaction cost economics is that the more specific the asset, the more likely is vertical integration to be optimal. In spite of the profusion of empirical papers supporting this prediction, recent surveys and casual observation... View Details

November 2012
Case

New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. (Abridged)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Robert S. Huckman, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Matthew Preble

Considers whether New Balance, one of the world's five largest manufacturers of athletic footwear, should respond to Adidas' planned acquisition of Reebok—a transaction that would join the second- and third-largest companies in the industry. Highlights the unique... View Details

Keywords: Production; Competitive Strategy; Supply Chain; Brands and Branding; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; Retail Industry; Asia; United States

Educators

2011
Working Paper

Top Executive Background and Financial Reporting Choice

By: Francois Brochet and Kyle Travis Welch

We study the role of executive functional background in explaining management discretion in financial reporting. Taking goodwill impairment as our reporting setting, we focus on top executives (CEOs and CFOs) whose employment history includes experience in investment... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Goodwill Accounting; Experience and Expertise; Decision Choices and Conditions; Managerial Roles; Agency Theory

Read Now

12 Mar 2020
News

As Coronavirus Spreads, Should You Have More Cash—or Less?

12 May 2016
Blog Post

Reflecting on the JD/MBA Experience

through commercial litigation or transactional M&A work. Harvard was my first choice because I had an outstanding undergraduate experience there and because Harvard's JD/MBA program combines both Harvard Law School and Harvard... View Details

2021
Case

NiPay's Pricing Conundrum

By: Marco Bertini and Oded Koenigsberg

NiPay is a software provider competing in the Nigerian business-to-business payments market. Founded by Idaku Ibrahim nearly 20 years ago, NiPay sells two products to retailers and other merchants, which enable individual shoppers to transact either online or via a... View Details

Keywords: Payment Systems; B2B; Pricing; Software; Marketing Strategy; Nigeria

April 2011
Article

Private Equity and Long-Run Investment: The Case of Innovation

By: Josh Lerner, Morten Sorensen and Per Stromberg

A long-standing controversy is whether LBOs relieve managers from short-term pressures of dispersed shareholders, or whether LBO funds themselves are driven by short-term profit motives and sacrifice long-term growth to boost short-term performance. We investigate 495... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Private Equity; Leveraged Buyouts; Investment; Innovation and Invention

Teaching Interest

Finance II (MBA Required Curriculum)

By: Benjamin C. Esty

This course builds on the foundation developed in Finance I, focusing on three sets of managerial decisions:

How to evaluate complex investments.
How to set and execute financial policies within a firm.
How to integrate... View Details

Keywords: Finance

October 1994 (Revised November 1995)
Case

N.V. Philips Electronics - Currency Hedging Policies

By: Richard F. Meyer

Describes Philips Electronics' policies and problems relating to foreign exchange risk and hedging. Explains centralization versus decentralization of currency hedging, economic role versus transaction role, the difficulties of capturing the necessary information... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Currency Exchange Rate; International Finance; Globalization; Policy; Information Management; Management; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty

21 Jan 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The Globalization of Angel Investments: Evidence across Countries

Keywords: by Josh Lerner, Antoinette Schoar, Stanislav Sokolinksi & Karen Wilson; Financial Services

September 2011
Article

The Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value

By: Ryan W. Buell and Michael I. Norton

A ubiquitous feature of even the fastest self-service technology transactions is the wait. Conventional wisdom and operations theory suggests that the longer people wait, the less satisfied they become; we demonstrate that due to what we term the labor illusion, when... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Perception; Valuation; Service Delivery; Consumer Behavior; Performance Effectiveness; Customer Satisfaction; Service Industry