Publications

May 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Investment Technology Group

By: Clayton S. Rose and David Lane

Investment Technology Group (ITG) CEO Robert Gasser wondered if the financial crisis had permanently affected the firm's business model. A leader in trade analytics and execution for institutional equity investors, ITG had grown since its establishment in 1987 in step... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Financial Crisis; Investment; Resignation and Termination; Crisis Management; Product Positioning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; New York (city, NY)

April 2008 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A)

By: Fabrizio Ferri, V.G. Narayanan and James Weber

Two activist investors, one a founder and one a hedge-fund manager, seek to improve board oversight at a chain restaurant company. Prestley Blake founded Friendly Ice Cream in 1935 with his brother, and the two created a chain of full-service restaurants. In 1979 they... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism; Governing and Advisory Boards; Lawsuits and Litigation; Business or Company Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Conflict of Interests; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

16 Jun 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Does Diversification Create Value in the Presence of External Financing Constraints? Evidence from the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis

Keywords: by Venkat Kuppuswamy & Belén Villalonga

15 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 15

http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/13-039%20Nov%202012_612ce7e2-7f81-4eea-9126-3c0964f2be2f.pdf August 2013 Journal of Financial Economics Search-Based Peer Firms: Aggregating Investor Perceptions Through Internet Co-Searches... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

04 Apr 2023
Book

Two Centuries of Business Leaders Who Took a Stand on Social Issues

While shareholders still reign supreme at many companies, a widespread shift toward more responsible business practices is driving more leaders to take a stand on social and environmental issues today, says Harvard Business School Professor Geoffrey Jones. Jones... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Consumer Products; Fashion; Retail; Green Technology

25 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

When Your Passion Works Against You

University of Toronto. Sometimes passion isn’t appropriate At the same time, the team found that passion doesn’t always work. In a second study, participants watched videos of Dragons’ Den and rated how passionate entrepreneurs sounded. View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

21 Jul 2021
Research & Ideas

What Does an ESG Score Really Say About a Company?

Receiving more information can clarify the complex, but not when it comes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores. A recent study shows that the more information a company discloses about its ESG practices, the more rating agencies disagree on how well... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Web

Founder - Entrepreneurship

Rock Center Loan Reduction for founders who have qualified HBS loans. Meet with Entrepreneurs in Residence During the academic year, our EiRs provide startup counsel and advice to our students. These impressive entrepreneurs and investors... View Details

Web

HBS Entrepreneurship Summit - Alumni

investors gathered together for an unprecedented two-day convening which provided a rich opportunity to forge connections through Harvard Business School with leaders of high-growth, deep tech, and biotech ventures. The goal was to... View Details

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

the rise (and fall?) of progressive taxation to the revisionary engineering of the New Deal. They consider how deeply finance has penetrated into daily life, including the ideological and political forces that made citizens into investors... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

17 Apr 2022
Book

How to Avoid the 'Ethical Slide' That Leads Companies Astray

employees and lower-level managers to report problems. With customers and investors more attentive than ever to corporate social responsibility, firms that act ethically will have a competitive advantage, Nelson says. “You have more... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

01 Jun 2023
News

Pet Project

beginning was that the only way DTC physical goods make sense, as a venture-fundable, multiple-X return on your investment business, is if you can achieve the strong lifetime value (LTV) to customer-acquisition-cost (CAC) ratio that consumer View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade; Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, and Book Stores; Retail Trade

13 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

When Good Incentives Lead to Bad Decisions

readily be reclaimed by investors in the firm who lost money." In a new research paper, coauthored with World Bank economists Martin Kanz and Leora Klapper, Cole explores how various performance incentives affect lending decisions... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking

07 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

When Supply-Chain Disruptions Matter

Keywords: by William Schmidt & Ananth Raman

March 2022
Case

Abu Issa Holding: Navigating the Qatar Blockade

By: Mark Egan and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case follows Ashraf Abu Issa, CEO and chairman of Abu Issa Holding (AIH), as he contemplated the fate of his company’s regional expansion. AIH was a Qatari diversified holding company, whose primary business was luxury retailing and distribution. Abu Issa had set... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Retail; Expansion; Equity; Business Divisions; Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Products Industry; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates

2021
Book

Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the Innovator's Dilemma

By: Charles A. O'Reilly III and Michael Tushman

Why do successful firms find it so difficult to adapt in the face of change—to innovate? In the past ten years, the importance of this question has increased as more industries and firms confront disruptive change. The pandemic has accelerated this crisis, collapsing... View Details

Keywords: Organization Change And Adaptation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Leading Change

September 2020
Case

Disrupting Justice at RightNow: Persevere, Pivot or Perish

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Amir Reza Rezvani

The case examines the focus of an early stage company, and how an unexpected external incidence can threaten or void the business model. It encompasses issues such as defining and pivoting a business model, organizational requirements for a pivot, investor relations,... View Details

Keywords: Legal Aspects Of Business; Startup; Teams; Pivot; Financing; Entrepreneurship; Law; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Financing and Loans; Business Model; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Legal Services Industry; Germany

May 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Justice-as-a-Service at RightNow

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Amir Reza Rezvani

The case examines the focus of an early stage company, and how an unexpected external incidence can threaten or void the business model. It encompasses issues such as minimal viable product, defining and pivoting a business model, organizational requirements for a... View Details

Keywords: Legacy Business; Teams; Startup; Business Models; Pivot; Entrepreneurship; Law; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Business Model; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Legal Services Industry; Germany

2011
Teaching Note

Juner New Materials: On the Road to IPO (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Donglin Xia, Ning Jia and Ziqian Zhao

Juner New Materials (Juner) is a private China-based company that develops, produces, and distributes modified plastic compounds. Founded in 1995 by female serial entrepreneur Xiaomin Chen, Juner has exhibited strong performance and growth potential in the past fifteen... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Financial Statements; IPO; Valuation; Women Executives; China; Plastics; China