Publications

SSRN

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15 Mar 2020
News

Lenders scour financing documents amid market volatility

Web

Finance - Faculty & Research

Finance Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students September 2025 Article Using Satellites and Phones to Evaluate and Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Farms in... View Details

2015
Working Paper

Financial Patent Quality: Finance Patents After State Street

By: Josh Lerner, Andrew Speen, Mark Baker and Ann Leamon

In the past two decades, patents of inventions related to financial services ("finance patents"), as well as litigation around these patents, have surged. One of the repeated concerns voiced by academics and practitioners alike has been about the quality of these... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; Finance

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December 1999 (Revised January 2002)
Background Note

Overview of the Project Finance Market, An

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Suzanne I. Harris and Kathleen G. Krueger

This case introduces the field of project finance and supplies a statistical overview of the project finance market as of the mid=to late 1990s. It consists of four sections. The first section defines project finance and contrasts it with other well-known forms of... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Investment; Projects; Project Finance

2017
Working Paper

Investment Timing with Costly Search for Financing

By: Samuel Antill

I develop a dynamic model of investment timing in which firms must first choose when to search for external financing. Search is costly and the arrival of investors is uncertain, leading to delay in financing and investment. Depending on parameters, my model can... View Details

Keywords: Real Options; Search And Bargaining; Time-varying Financial Conditions; Investment; Venture Capital; Mathematical Methods

SSRN

20 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Financing Risk and Bubbles of Innovation

Keywords: by Ramana Nanda & Matthew Rhodes-Kropf; Financial Services

January 2025
Case

PayJoy: Financing for the Next Billion

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

PayJoy, an impact-driven financial technology company founded in 2015, provides smartphone financing and other financial products to customers who lack access to traditional credit products. As of early 2025, PayJoy had issued $2.5 billion in loans to 13 million... View Details

April 2000
Case

Financing of Project Achieve, The (A)

By: Mihir A. Desai

An entrepreneur is forced to analyze the tradeoffs between different equity providers through a detailed analysis of venture financing terms and cash flow forecasts. The founder of a Web-based IMS for schools must negotiate a term sheet, determine funding needs, value... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Forecasting and Prediction; Venture Capital; Cash Flow; Equity; Negotiation Deal; Valuation

18 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Big Deals: Financing Large-Scale Investments

latest e-commerce enterprise. And in a new MBA elective course he has developed, Large-Scale Investment, Esty examines how private firms structure, value, and finance large, first-of-a-kind (or greenfield) projects. "Although the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

17 Jul 2017
News

Finance Can Be a Noble Profession (Yes, Really)

Web

Entrepreneurial Finance - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Entrepreneurial Finance Course Number 1624 Professor Sabrina Howell Fall; Q1Q2; 3.0 credits 28 Sessions Course Overview Entrepreneurial Finance (EF) is designed for students who plan to be... View Details

International Business and Decentralized Finance

Over the last decade, the green shoots of a new economic order have emerged as decentralized technologies challenge traditional financial systems. Decentralized finance (DeFi) holds the potential to transform international business (IB) by offering accessible... View Details

Web

Finance Club | MBA

Finance Club All recognized student clubs are part of a 501(c)(3) non-profit tax exempt organization, called Student Clubs of HBS, Inc. Each student club at Harvard Business School (HBS) is open to all matriculated HBS students and their... View Details

June 1984 (Revised July 1999)
Background Note

Securities Law and Private Financing

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Michael J. Roberts

Describes the issues an entrepreneur faces in the process of raising private funds, and the securities laws which impact the process. Based in part on a note by R.E. Floor of the law firm of Goodwin, Procter & Hoar. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Laws and Statutes; Private Equity; Financing and Loans

01 Jun 2017
News

Why Finance Needs More Humanity

March 2012
Article

How to Make Finance Work

By: Robin Greenwood and David S. Scharfstein

Once a sleepy old boys' club, the U.S. financial sector is now a dynamic and growing business that attracts the best and the brightest. It is tempting to declare the industry a roaring success. But its purpose is to serve the needs of U.S. households and firms, and by... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Value; Competitive Advantage; Investment; Performance Evaluation; Household; Financial Crisis; Finance; Financial Services Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

06 Jul 2010
News

Expert to Teach Housing Finance

Keywords: Professor Nicolas Retsinas; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Real Estate

2025
Working Paper

Bank Financing of Global Supply Chains

By: Laura Alfaro, Mariya Brussevich, Camelia Minoiu and Andrea Presbitero

Finding new international suppliers is costly, so most importers source inputs from a single country. We examine the role of banks in mitigating trade search costs during the 2018–2019 U.S.-China trade tensions. We match data on shipments to U.S. ports with the U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; International Finance; Trade; Credit; United States; Asia