Publications

1998
Chapter

Risk-Taking Incentives and the Cost of Insurance Company Failures

By: Brian J. Hall

Keywords: Insurance; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Motivation and Incentives; Insurance Industry

12 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Power to the People: The Unexpected Influence of Small Coalitions

Harvard Business School Professor J. Gunnar Trumbull balks at the ubiquitous idea that the concentrated power of a few billionaires controls public policy and government regulation. Exaggeration of the... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

March 2010 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Malden Mills (A) (Abridged)

By: Nitin Nohria and Thomas R. Piper

CEO Aaron Feuerstein of Malden Mills decided to pay idled workers after a massive fire at his mill in 1995. Focuses on the decisions made post-fire and the rebuilding process and eventual bankruptcy of the company. Also outlines creditors' struggle to decide whether to... View Details

Keywords: Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financing and Loans; Employees; Leadership; Crisis Management; Social Issues; Manufacturing Industry; Massachusetts

April 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Background Note

Restructuring Distressed Companies -- Cross-National Comparisons

By: William E. Fruhan

This note describes briefly bankruptcy regimes and out of court restructuring in 5 countries, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France and Japan. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Laws and Statutes

18 Aug 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Courageous Leader Triggers a Moral Revolt of CEOs Against Trump

shadows of white nationalists. President Trump’s comments striking moral equivalence between these extreme groups and people who opposed them only deepened Frazier’s angst. By Sunday Frazier had decided to... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

20 Mar 2019
Working Paper Summaries

In the Shadows? Informal Enterprise in Non-Democracies

Keywords: by Kristin Fabbe, Allison Spencer Hartnett, and Steve L. Monroe

20 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Big Deal: Reflections on the Megamerger of American and US Airways

announced merger between American Airlines and US Airways reminds us of the critical role that bankruptcy law, represented by Chapter 11 of the US View Details

Keywords: Re: Rosabeth M. Kanter & Stuart C. Gilson; Air Transportation

October 1990
Article

Bankruptcy, Boards, Banks, and Blockholders: Evidence on Changes in Corporate Ownership and Control When Firms Default

By: S. C. Gilson

In 111 publicly traded firms that either file for bankruptcy or privately restructure their debt between 1979 and 1985, bank lenders frequently become major stockholders or appoint new directors. On average, only 46% of incumbent directors remain when bankruptcy or... View Details

Keywords: Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governance; Banks and Banking; Change; Business Ventures; Ownership

Find at Harvard

Read Now

February 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Alphatec Electronics Pcl

By: Stuart C. Gilson, C. Fritz Foley and Perry Fagan

The newly appointed CEO of an important high-technology company in Thailand must lead the company through a complicated debt restructuring. Due to the collapse of the Thai currency, the company's debt burden, like that of most Thai companies, has skyrocketed because it... View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Valuation; Management Teams; Restructuring; Laws and Statutes; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Technology Industry; Electronics Industry; Thailand; United States

25 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

How Chapter 11 Saved the US Economy

and 2009, $1.8 trillion worth of public company assets entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection— almost 20 times more than during the prior two years." A significant portion View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Financial Services

Research Summary

Corporate Restructuring and Business Insolvency: Economic Impact and Best Practices

By: Stuart C. Gilson

Stuart C. Gilson is studying how severe financial distress impacts corporate policies and economic resource allocation. He is also studying how managers can best respond to financial distress in order to preserve and grow value. He is undertaking this research... View Details

March 1989 (Revised April 1990)
Case

Merton Truck Co.

Introduces some of the key concepts in linear programming--problem formulation, relevant costs, shadow prices, and reduced costs. The setting, while artificial, is quite typical: a company manufactures two models of trucks in four manufacturing departments; it must... View Details

Keywords: Production; Decision Making; Business Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

07 Jan 2002
What Do You Think?

Did Consumer Behavior Tracking Come of Age on September 11?

a greater awareness of what the concept of privacy entails, like Plato's prisoners discovering that they had been observing and talking about shadows as opposed to the objects... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Case

Restoring Trust at WorldCom

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Ashley Robertson

Examines the changes in corporate governance at WorldCom/MCI as proposed by the company's court-appointed corporate monitor, Richard Breeden. Following the largest bankruptcy ever and the downfall of the company, Breeden wrote "Restoring Trust," a report comprised of... View Details

Keywords: Change; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Trust

January 2005 (Revised July 2010)
Case

Anne Mulcahy: Leading Xerox through the Perfect Storm (A)

By: William W. George and Andrew N. McLean

In 2000, Xerox faces bankruptcy amid a liquidity crisis, collapsed profitability, and an expanding SEC investigation. Traces the career and leadership development of Anne Mulcahy, a former sales executive unexpectedly named COO of the beleaguered company as a last... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Financial Liquidity; Organizational Culture; Crisis Management; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Gender; Corporate Governance

March 2011
Supplement

H Partners and Six Flags (B)

By: Robin Greenwood and Michael Gorzynski

Rehan Jaffer, the founder of hedge fund H Partners, is considering what to do with his investment in Six Flags. H Partners had invested a significant amount of the firm's capital in the senior bonds of U.S.-based Six Flags, following that company's bankruptcy filing. View Details

Keywords: Equity; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Price; Acquisition; Decisions; Borrowing and Debt; Investment Funds; Opportunities; Bonds; Investment Activism; Financial Services Industry; United States

May 2011 (Revised December 2011)
Case

Stuyvesant Town - Peter Cooper Village: America's Largest Foreclosure

By: Arthur I Segel, Gregory S. Feldman, James T. Liu and Elizabeth C. Williamson

In July 2010, William Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square, is considering a potential new opportunity: the acquisition of the distressed Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village ("ST /PCV") complex. The property had recently been abandoned by its owners and had come... View Details

Keywords: Property; Risk Management; Opportunities; Valuation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Investment; Outcome or Result; Acquisition; North and Central America

September 2001 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Buenos Aires Embotelladora S.A. (BAESA): A South American Restructuring

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Gustavo A. Herrero

In 1998, BAESA, PepsiCo's largest bottler and distributor outside North America, experienced severe financial difficulty and had to restructure its debt and business operations to avoid bankruptcy or liquidation. Based in Argentina, with operations throughout South... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Bonds; Stocks; Multinational Firms and Management; Laws and Statutes; United States; Argentina; Brazil

fall 2010
Article

Lawsuits and Empire: On the Enforcement of Sovereign Debt in Latin America

By: Faisal Z. Ahmed, Laura Alfaro and Noel Maurer

The re-occurring phenomenon of sovereign default has prompted an enormous theoretical and empirical literature. Most of this research has focused on why countries ever chose to pay their debts (or why private creditors ever expected repayment). The problem originates... View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Sovereign Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Debt Securities; Motivation and Incentives; Markets; Equity; Banking Industry; Latin America