Publications

February 2011 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Countrywide plc

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

One of the world's leading investors in distressed companies, Oaktree Capital Management, is contemplating a "loan to own" investment in the debt of Countrywide plc, a financially troubled residential real estate agent based in the U.K. Only sixteen months earlier,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Restructuring; Financial Crisis; Capital Structure; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Management; Investment; Real Estate Industry; United Kingdom

2009
Report

Nordic Globalization Barometer 2009: Global Pressure—Nordic Solutions?

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

Less than a year after the first Nordic Globalization Barometer has been launched, the state of the world economy has changed dramatically. A deep financial crisis is taking its toll on investors, borrowers, and the financial institutions that serve them. A deep... View Details

Keywords: Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Financial Crisis; Financial Markets; Globalized Economies and Regions; Competitive Strategy; Scandinavia

Read Now

04 Feb 2020
Video

Güler Sabancı

Güler Sabancı, CEO... View Details

02 Oct 2008
What Do You Think?

Workout vs. Bailout: Should Government Take Advantage of the Buffett Effect?

Summing Up The depth of the global financial crisis is becoming clearer day by day. In the United States, it is being used as a reason to set aside ideology regarding government ownership of important View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

April 2013
Case

Europe: An Ever Closer Union?

By: Gunnar Trumbull, Jonathan Schlefer and Diane Choi

In 2010, the European Union faces the challenges of the global financial crisis. With 27 member states, each facing different challenges, can new EU institutions respond effectively? Will its new currency, the euro, survive? View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Money; Trade; Currency; Policy; Government and Politics; European Union

October 2008
Article

The Effect of Macro Information Environment Change on the Quality of Management Earnings Forecasts

The 1990s were characterized by substantial increases in the performance of and investor reliance on financial analysts. Because managers possess superior private information and issue forecasts to align investors' expectations with their own, we predict that... View Details

Keywords: Information; Performance Expectations; Earnings Management; Financial Reporting; Forecasting and Prediction

03 Dec 2009
News

How to take moral hazard out of banking

Robert Simons

Robert Simons is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School. For over 35 years, Simons has taught accounting, management control, and strategy execution courses in both the Harvard MBA and Executive Education Programs. For 2024/25, he is teaching a... View Details

2010
Other Unpublished Work

God, Government and Outsiders: The Influence of Religious Beliefs on Depositor Behavior in an Emerging Market.

By: Ayesha K. Khan and Tarun Khanna

This paper provides evidence that religious beliefs can have a significant impact on individual financial choices. Using proprietary panel data on the distribution of bank deposits across all commercial banks in Pakistan over a 33-month period, I find that Islamic... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Commercial Banking; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Behavior; Emerging Markets; Religion; Banking Industry; Pakistan

November 2000 (Revised May 2002)
Case

FleetBoston Financial: Online Banking

By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

As the ninth largest bank holding company in the United States in 2000, FleetBoston Financial Corp. provided a myriad of financial services, including retail banking, loan origination, and brokerage accounts. This case explores how FleetBoston responded to the Internet... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Borrowing and Debt; Cost Management; Banks and Banking; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Competition; Online Technology; Banking Industry; United States

Mar 2012
Article

The Incentive Bubble

The past three decades have seen American capitalism quietly transformed by a single, powerful idea--that financial markets are a suitable tool for measuring performance and structuring compensation. Stock instruments for managers,... View Details

February 2020
Case

Highfields Capital and McDonald's

By: Mark Egan and Robin Greenwood

McDonald’s reported its fifth consecutive quarter of declining same-store sales growth in early 2015. Despite McDonald’s recent poor performance, Jonathon S. Jacobson, the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Boston-based Highfields Capital Management, had initiated... View Details

Keywords: McDonald's; Stocks; Performance Improvement; Operations; Finance; Restructuring; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry

15 Oct 2019
Cold Call Podcast

Goldman Sachs’ $500 Million Bet on Small Businesses

Keywords: Re: Leonard A. Schlesinger; Financial Services

May 2001
Supplement

Asian Strategies: Ian Buchanan

By: Tarun Khanna

Ian Buchanan, senior VP of Booz-Allen & Hamilton, comments on Sime Darby and the Asian financial crisis. He also discusses the value propositions of different types of business groups in Malaysia. View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Consulting Industry; Service Industry; Asia; Malaysia

April 1995 (Revised August 1995)
Case

Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield (A)

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ramona Hilgenkamp

Mounting financial losses and increasing public scrutiny present many challenges to the board of directors of a large nonprofit health insurer. This case series presents chronologically the increasing problems of the company. View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Financial Condition; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Nonprofit Organizations; Insurance Industry

30 Sep 2019
News

Consumer instant gratification can prove risky

May 2007
Article

Capital Flows and Capital Goods

By: Laura Alfaro and Eliza Hammel

Studying the relation between equity market liberalization and imports of capital goods, we examine one channel through which international financial integration can promote growth. For the period 1980–1997, we find that after controlling for other policies and... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Equity; Financial Markets; Economy; Distribution Channels; Machinery and Machining; Capital