Financial Disclosure - Publications - Faculty & Research

22 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Online Banks Fill Funding Needs for Small Business

always been alternative forms of loan capital available, including credit unions, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), merchant cash advances, equipment leasing and factoring products. “Alternative players have the... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Financial Services; Financial Services

28 Sep 2009
Research & Ideas

Improving Accountability at the World Bank

supporters note a number of reforms over the past two decades, including a current review of the Bank's information disclosure policy, and a series of "safeguards" on sensitive issues such as environmental impacts and effects on... View Details

Keywords: by Alnoor Ebrahim

21 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 21

Firms Greenwash? Corporate Visibility, Civil Society Scrutiny, and Environmental Disclosure Authors:Christopher Marquis and Michael W. Toffel Abstract Under increased pressure to report environmental impacts, some firms selectively... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 1993 (Revised June 1997)
Case

Champion International

By: David F. Hawkins

Management must decide which first quarter's earnings numbers to report. The company is classified by its securities market as a "growth" company. The corporate controller prefers a quarterly earnings figure that represents a decline in earnings. View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Financial Reporting; Judgments; Leadership; Management Teams; Corporate Disclosure

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18 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 18

wage comparisons affect firm policies on executive pay? This paper explores that question using a 1992 SEC proxy disclosure rule that mandated increased disclosure of executive pay. We argue that this rule... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

03 Dec 2008
What Do You Think?

Can Housing and Credit be “Nudged” Back to Health?

"greed and corruption helped create the crisis, ... simple human frailty played a vital role." They suggest providing incentives to make financial products easier, not more difficult, to understand. This would involve, among... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

19 May 2003
Research & Ideas

Expensing Options Won’t Hurt High Tech

(One cure for stock option abuse, say proponents, is to change accounting rules so that option grants are reflected in a company's principal financial statements. High-tech start-ups blister at that idea, saying it would harm their... View Details

Keywords: by Zvi Bodie, Robert S. Kaplan & Robert C. Merton

April 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Conflicts of Interest at Uptown Bank

By: Jonas Heese

In 2013, two employees debated whether to blow the whistle on their employer, Bell Bank, after completing an internal review that revealed undisclosed conflicts of interest. Bell Bank’s Asset Management business disproportionately invested clients’ money in Bell Bank’s... View Details

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September 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Supplement

Wemade: (Re)Establishing Trust in Blockchain Games (B)

By: Jung Koo Kang, Charles C.Y. Wang, David Allen and Kwangmoon So

This supplement reviews Wemade's efforts to rebuild confidence in its business after its WEMIX coin was delisted from the major South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges on December 8, 2022. It outlines Wemade's strategy of transparency, which included partnerships with... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Crypto Economy; Accounting; Financial Reporting; Revenue Recognition; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Corporate Disclosure; Information Technology; Financial Markets; Governance; Accounting Industry; Video Game Industry; South Korea

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2024
Working Paper

Hidden Risk

By: Daniel Barth, Phillip Monin, Emil Siriwardane and Adi Sunderam

Since 2013, large U.S. hedge fund advisers have been required to report risk exposures in their regulatory filings. Using these data, we first establish that managers’ perceptions of risk contain useful information that is not embedded in fund returns. Investor flows... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Investment Funds; Risk and Uncertainty; Investment Return; Communication Strategy; Financial Services Industry

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18 Jun 2007
Op-Ed

Leveling the Executive Options Playing Field

Harvard Business School professor Mihir A. Desai argues that investors and regulators are served poorly by the U.S. corporate financial reporting system, which allows companies to declare different profit figures to the IRS than they... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai

15 Mar 2016
First Look

March 15, 2016

behavior and ways to counter it with information on why to give. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50771 Voluntary, Self-Regulatory, and Mandatory Disclosure of Oil and Gas Company Payments to Foreign... View Details

06 Feb 2006
What Do You Think?

Should CEOs of Public Companies Offer Earnings Guidance?

is advocating disclosure of CEO pay packages, including the value of large stock option grants which many might conclude produce similar pressures for short-term performance? What do you think? View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

23 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 23

financial crisis of 2008 laid bare the hidden network of relationships in corporate governance: who owes what to whom, who will stand by whom in times of crisis, what governs the provision of credit when no one seems to have credit. This... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 16, 2007

Working PapersShamed and Able: How Firms Respond to Information Disclosure Authors:Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel. Abstract We apply institutional theory to explain how firms respond to information disclosure. Considering the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Winter 2013
Article

Fear of Rejection? Tiered Certification and Transparency

By: Emmanuel Farhi, Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

The sub-prime crisis has shone a harsh spotlight on the practices of securities underwriters, which provided too many complex securities that proved to ultimately have little value. This uproar calls attention to the fact that the literature on intermediaries has... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance

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January 2011
Teaching Note

Neoprene (TN)

By: Tom Nicholas

Teaching Note for 810-084. View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Sales; Production; Corporate Disclosure; Commercialization; Rubber Industry; United States; Germany; Russia

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21 Jul 2006
Op-Ed

Enron Jury Sent the Right Message

The most noteworthy message of the Enron trial is that corporate executives can be convicted in a court of law for a pattern of deception that may or may not be illegal. Left unaddressed in the trial were many financial transactions and... View Details

Keywords: by Malcolm S. Salter

December 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Supplement

Goldman Sachs: A Bank for All Seasons (C)

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Tiffany Lynne Obenchain

After posting its first-ever quarterly loss in 2008, Goldman Sachs surpassed market expectations for the first quarter of 2009 but came under intensive fire for, among other things, announcing its intention to repay TARP thereby avoiding its compensation limitations. View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Investment Banking; Corporate Disclosure; Policy; Executive Compensation; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry

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