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23 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

As Climate Fears Mount, More Investors Turn to 'ESG' Funds Despite Few Rules

Investor interest in social responsibility has skyrocketed in the past three years, even as US regulations to hold companies accountable remain in flux and the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) label itself draws backlash. Investors are willing to pay a... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

22 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 22

Compensation and Firm Performance Authors:Joanne Horton, Yuval Millo, and George Serafeim Publication:Journal of Business Finance and Accounting (forthcoming) Abstract Using a sample of 4,278 listed U.K. firms, we construct a social... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 13

opportunity finds it attractive to underinvest, thereby behaving as if the investor faces a lower quality investment opportunity. This is particularly interesting, as prior research in finance literature has shown that firms will... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 1995 (Revised December 1995)
Case

Yale University Investments Office

By: Josh Lerner and Jay O. Light

Yale University's investment office was responsible for managing its endowment, which totaled nearly $4 billion in June 1995. Yale had developed a rather different approach to endowment management, including substantial investments in "less efficient" equity markets... View Details

Keywords: Assets; Private Equity; Investment; Investment Return; Management; Markets; Strategy; Education Industry

October 2020 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Divesting Harvard's Endowment

By: Daniel Green, Luis M. Viceira and Holly Fetter

By early 2020 Harvard University was facing growing pressure from students, faculty, and alumni to divest its $40 billion endowment of financial stakes in fossil fuel producers. Its previous policy of avoiding the issue was quickly becoming outdated—$21 trillion of... View Details

Keywords: Divestment; Harvard University; ESG; Higher Education; Investment Portfolio; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

11 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

The High Risks of Short-Term Management

line of inquiry is to gain an understanding of what the root causes of short-termism are. My hypothesis is that short-termism can be traced to some extent to individual traits of capital market agents. Identifying those traits can help business View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

23 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovative Ways to Encourage Personal Savings

college roommates who worked in South Central Los Angeles as a community organizer. He was bemoaning the lack of financial services to people who lived there. As a result, I became very interested in what we might call "consumer" or "household" finance. This brand of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

07 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Rediscovering Schumpeter: The Power of Capitalism

different countries. He also served briefly as Austria's finance minister and worked for 3 years as an investment banker, where he made a fortune that he promptly lost in a stock market crash. So he wasn't a typical academic, even though... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education

January 2021
Case

Saham Group: It's In the Genes

By: Christina R. Wing and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in August 2020 as Moulay Mhamed Elalamy (Mhamed), CEO of the Saham Group (the Group), a pan-African investment company that operates a variety of businesses out of Morocco, contemplates the Group’s identity, its investment strategy, and how to navigate... View Details

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Family Business; For-Profit Firms; Transformation; Transition; Emerging Markets; Change Management; Private Equity; Investment; Strategy; Education Industry; Education Industry; Education Industry; Education Industry; Morocco; Africa

13 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

Want to Be Happier? Spend Some Money on Avoiding Household Chores

something they could do themselves. Or they may not recognize that, say, spending more on rent to live closer to work could put them in a better state of mind. Swapping money for time might be especially beneficial to women. While women have certainly made strides in... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

24 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

How Much Will Remote Work Continue After the Pandemic?

is considerable variation across industries. Remote work is much more common in industries with better educated and better paid workers. Respondents in better educated and higher paid industries have also... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

06 Jun 2005
What Do You Think?

Is a “Level Playing Field” a Good Thing?

infrastructure. . . ." Yali Wei is more succinct: "The world is becoming flat only to Americans. How it will play out for America is completely up to Americans." In this regard, Nari Kannan offers a suggestion: "College costs need to be subsidized... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

16 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

problems, such as the adequacy of the public health system, disparities in access to health care, availability of emergency child care, universal broadband and Internet access, or educating people in life skills such as resiliency and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Bank of America (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how Bank of America is creating a system for product and service innovation in its retail banking business. Emphasis is placed on the role of experimentation in some two-dozen real-life "laboratories" that serve as fully operating banking branches and as... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Problems and Challenges; Innovation and Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Failure; Banks and Banking; Learning; Banking Industry