Publications

11 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

Strategy Execution and the Balanced Scorecard

budget be driven from the revenue targets in the strategic plan. In The Execution Premium, we describe how a time-driven activity-based cost model provides the previously missing link between the revenue growth View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2009
Article

The Impact of Shareholder Activism on Financial Reporting and Compensation: The Case of Employee Stock Options Expensing

By: F. Ferri and Tatiana Sandino

We examine the economic consequences of more than 150 shareholder proposals to expense employee stock options (ESO) submitted during the proxy seasons of 2003 and 2004, the first case in which the SEC allowed a shareholder vote on an accounting matter. Our results... View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Shareholder Votes; Stock Option Expensing; Executive Compensation; Financial Reporting; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Investment Activism

SSRN

August 2006 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Tanishq: Positioning to Capture the Indian Woman's Heart

By: Das Narayandas and Kerry Herman

The firm has to choose between an established brand, Tanishq, and a new skunkworks brand, GoldPlus, to go after the Indian plain gold jewelry market: Tanishq, initially targeted at a western customer, has undergone strategic retooling and has currently been... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Segmentation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; India

August 2021 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Intenseye: Powering Workplace Health and Safety with AI (A)

By: Michael W. Toffel and Youssef Abdel Aal

Intenseye was a Turkey-based technology startup that deployed machine learning algorithms to workplace camera feeds in order to identify unsafe worker actions and unsafe working conditions, in order to help improve worker safety. The case describes how Intenseye’s... View Details

Keywords: Privacy; Product Development; Operations; Technological Innovation; Value Creation; Production; Distribution; Safety; Risk and Uncertainty; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Distribution Industry; Turkey; Middle East; United States

04 Jun 2024
Cold Call Podcast

How One Insurtech Firm Formulated a Strategy for Climate Change

Keywords: Re: Lauren H. Cohen; Insurance

March 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Hippo: Weathering the Storm of the Home Insurance Crisis

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Sophia Pan

Rick McCathron, CEO of Hippo, considered how the firm’s underwriting model could account for the effects of climate change. Along with providing smart home packages, targeting risk-friendly customers, and using data-driven pricing, the Insurtech used technologically... View Details

15 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

Helping Low-Income Families Save More

Podcast with: Peter TufanoInterviewer: James AisnerRunning Time: 18 min., 55 sec. View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Banking; Financial Services

October 2020
Article

The Elasticity of Science

By: Kyle Myers

This paper identifies the degree to which scientists are willing to change the direction of their work in exchange for resources. Data from the National Institutes of Health are used to estimate how scientists respond to targeted funding opportunities. Inducing a... View Details

Keywords: Scientists; Funding; Research; Change

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October 2012
Article

The Effect of Reference Point Prices on Mergers and Acquisitions

By: Malcolm Baker, Xin Pan and Jeffrey Wurgler

Prior stock price peaks of targets affect several aspects of merger and acquisition activity. Offer prices are biased toward recent peak prices although they are economically unremarkable. An offer's probability of acceptance jumps discontinuously when it exceeds a... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Stocks; Price; Valuation; Negotiation

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2009
Other Unpublished Work

Bridge Building in Venture Capital-Backed Acquisitions

By: Paul A. Gompers and Yuhai Xuan

We study the role of common venture capital investors in alleviating asymmetric information between public acquirers and private venture capital-backed targets. We find that acquisition announcement returns are more positive for acquisitions in which both the target... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Knowledge Sharing; Market Transactions

Read Now

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

increasingly important. In some ways it seems obvious, but verification requirements can be enormously complicated to implement and it can dramatically increase the cost of adoption. Q: How do self-regulation programs affect managers as opposed to consumers? A: Many... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

September 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Red Lobster

By: David E. Bell and Jason Riis

Red Lobster, a 40-year-old chain of seafood restaurants, has just completed some market research revealing an opportunity to shift its target customer segment. The chain is in the final stages of a 10-year plan of rejuvenation under CEO Kim Lopdrup. When he took over... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Research; Segmentation; Food and Beverage Industry

2010
Article

I May Not Agree With You, but I Trust You: Caring About Social Issues Signals Integrity

By: Julian Zlatev

What characteristics of an individual signal trustworthiness to other people? I propose that individuals who care about contentious social issues signal to observers that they have integrity and thus can be trusted. Critically, this signal conveys trustworthiness... View Details

Keywords: Personal Characteristics; Moral Sensibility; Perception; Trust

August 2009
Case

Global Wine War 2009: New World versus Old

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

The case contrasts the tradition-bound Old World wine industry with the market-oriented New World producers, the battle for the US market, the most desirable export target in 2009 due to its large, fast-growing, high-priced market segments. The case allows analysis of... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Global Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Consumer Behavior; Market Entry and Exit; Competition; Food and Beverage Industry

September 2002 (Revised March 2003)
Technical Note

Technical Note on Equity-Linked Consideration, Part 3: Cash-and-Stock Deals

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The consideration paid by an acquiring company to a target can be a combination of cash and stock. During the 1980s and 1990s, for example, approximately 12% to 13% of all deals between public companies involved both cash and stock. This case series describes the basic... View Details

Keywords: Price; Acquisition; Business and Shareholder Relations

July 2015 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Ron Johnson: A Career in Retail

By: Das Narayandas, Joshua D. Margolis and Ryan Raffaelli

In April 2013, Ron Johnson (HBS '84) stepped down after just 18 months as CEO of J.C. Penney. In his brief tenure, Johnson, an acclaimed retailer respected for his innovation and success in shaping the retail image at Target and Apple, introduced dramatic departures... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Leadership Development; Legal Industry; Procurement; Professional Service Firms; Pricing; Organizational Behavior Modification; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Situation or Environment; Failure; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Competition; Retail Industry; United States

November 1996 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Reynolds Metals Company: Consumer Products Division

Reynolds Consumer Products Division must decide whether to discontinue its program of case allowances in favor of discretionary trade dollars targeted for market development. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Consumer Products Industry

March 2025
Case

GiveDirectly: Can Direct Cash Transfers End Extreme Poverty?

By: Natalia Rigol, Benjamin N. Roth, Sarah Mehta and John Schultz

Founded in 2008, GiveDirectly was a nonprofit organization that used direct cash transfers—giving people cash via mobile money—to combat poverty worldwide. By August 2024, the organization had transferred over $800 million to poor people in targeted communities and... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Ethics; Growth and Development; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Research; Social Enterprise; Society; Africa; Asia; Latin America; North and Central America; United States

2023
Working Paper

Targeting, Personalization, and Engagement in an Agricultural Advisory Service

By: Susan Athey, Shawn Cole, Shanjukta Nath and Jessica Zhu

ICT is increasingly used to deliver customized information in developing countries. We examine whether individually targeting the timing of automated voice calls meaningfully increases engagement in an agricultural advisory service. We define, estimate, and... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Knowledge Dissemination; Customization and Personalization; Performance Effectiveness