Publications

September 2015 (Revised July 2016)
Case

Unidentified Industries: Australia 2014

By: Benjamin Esty and William E. Fruhan, Jr.

Helps students to understand how the characteristics of a business are reflected in the firm's financial statements. In this exercise, students are given balance sheet data in percentage form (common-size balance sheets) and other selected financial ratios for a set of... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Finance; Financial Management; Australia

November 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Australian Vintage Ltd.

By: David F. Hawkins

Following International Financial Reporting Standards guidance company records a number of significant losses and a related deferred tax asset. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; International Accounting; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Taxation; Business or Company Management; Asset Management; Assets; Financial Management; Standards; Australia

January 2000 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network - The Primary Care Unit

By: V.G. Narayanan, Lisa Brem and Ryan Moore

The Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network needed to gain a better understanding of its unit-of-service costs, which had been rising at a rate of 10% per year. The network's step-down costing system gave only aggregate costing information, and there was some... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Accounting; Cost; Network Effects; Health Industry; Service Industry; Massachusetts

November 2023 (Revised August 2024)
Background Note

Life Cycle Assessment: An Overview

By: Willy C. Shih, Michael W. Toffel and Kelsey Carter

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a holistic approach to quantifying the environmental impacts—including resources consumed and wastes produced—associated with the entire life cycle of a product, from the production or extraction of the raw materials used in its creation,... View Details

Keywords: Life-cycle; Environmental Performance; Design; Environmental Management; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Measurement and Metrics; Standards; Accounting; Environmental Accounting

September 1976
Case

Del Norte Paper Co. (A)

By: William A. Sahlman

Deals with a transfer pricing problem in a complex, international situation. A broad range of issues are present in the case, or are needed for a thorough case analysis. Such issues include: relevant costs; the appropriateness of profit centers; the appropriateness of... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Cost Management; Business Divisions; Profit Sharing; Profit

03 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

How Companies Can Increase Market Rewards for Sustainability Efforts

research examined firms from January 2009 through June 2018—a period in which the number of companies that were included in the sample and covered by both data providers rose to almost 1,900 from about 340. In 2018 alone, $80 trillion in assets under View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

18 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 18

account for horizontal peer comparison when designing executive wage contracts and that this comparison has productivity consequences for firms. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=43633 How Do Risk View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

11 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

The Future of Boards

have too many people on the board of financial institutions who don't know anything about financial institutions, then you have a problem. Q: But you also make the point that it's not possible for a board member to know everything. It's important that they know enough... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

01 Jun 2024
News

Conducting Business

In 2015 I moved from New York City to Madison, Connecticut, where I met, quite by chance, Ginny Vancil and her brother, Richard. I thought, How many Vancils can there be in the world? I asked if they knew Richard “Dick” Vancil, who was my first professor for my first... View Details

Keywords: Michael Farmer (MBA 1971); illustration by Lucinda Rogers; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

18 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

No More General Tso's? A Threat to 'Knowledge Recombination'

Management Unit at Harvard Business School. Perhaps even more surprising was what came next. Seeing the success, American researchers began investigating the use of turmeric as well, combining it with other chemicals to file their own... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Accounting; Accounting; Accounting

December 2015
Case

Stephen Richards: Addressing FAQ

By: Eugene Soltes

Stephen Richards, former global head of sales at Computer Associates, addresses frequently asked questions from "A Letter from Prison." View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Managerial Roles

Article

Capital Allocation Hurdle Rates, Budgets or Both?

By: W. C. Kester and R. Taggart

Keywords: Resource Allocation; Capital; Budgets and Budgeting

Find at Harvard

18 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

Time to Rethink the Corporate Tax System?

characterize profits to tax authorities and capital markets separately). There is also much anecdotal evidence on the profusion of tax shelters and compensation incentives for managing effective tax rates. View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

28 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Shareholders Key to Corporate Reform

people are held accountable for their actions as individuals rather than as a group, they tend to weigh their choices more carefully.—Cynthia A. Montgomery and Rhonda Kaufman Make directors accountable to... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia A. Montgomery & Rhonda Kaufman

01 Sep 2017
News

Futures Made Bright Through Opportunity

tick — putting structure to chaos and solving problems from big to small.” Before discovering what truly excited him, Wu was on a more traditional course. After graduating with an accounting degree from the University of Connecticut in... View Details

Keywords: Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises

April 1997
Case

Romeo Engine Plant (Abridged)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Amy P. Hutton

A newly reopened automobile engine plant has been organized along total quality and teamwork principles. Employees now solve problems and ensure quality, rather than watch parts being produced. New operating and financial systems have been installed to promote... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Cost Management; Groups and Teams; Employees; Performance Improvement; Auto Industry