Publications

May 2010 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Water Shortage and Property Investing in Mexico City

By: John D. Macomber, Regina Garcia-Cuellar and Griffin James

A commercial property company evaluates water risks including the government's ability to remedy, the company's operating exposure and mitigation, and whether to relocate because of water risk. A real estate fund manager assesses investment prospects in Mexico City in... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment; Risk Management; Infrastructure; Privatization; Business and Government Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Utilities Industry; Mexico City

01 Dec 2011
News

Uncle Sam’s Business Man

Barry Johnson (MBA ’89) has over 20 years of business experience as an entrepreneur and corporate executive with media giants such as the Walt Disney Company, Bertelsmann, and Sony Music Corporation. With expertise in public-private partnerships, he’s now putting his... View Details

15 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 15

firms less pessimistically, and eventually they assess them optimistically. Furthermore, we find that more experienced analysts and analysts at higher-status brokerage houses are the first to shift the relation between CSR ratings and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

Two Decades Later, is the 'New Economy' Finally Here?

economy running at near peak efficiency because of the factors you mention? ... A new economy would have new governing rules, but I don’t see new rules taking hold today. Now, having a factory full of AI machines that learn and robot... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Dec 2008
News

Business at the Summit

governance models, and their integrity.” Immelt, CEO of GE, described his outlook as generally optimistic. Once the crisis is resolved (and, he remarked, “the government always wins” in these situations),... View Details

Keywords: leadership; alumni events; Centennial; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services; Finance; Management

January 2014 (Revised June 2014)
Supplement

23andMe: Genetic Testing for Consumers (B)

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

Following the FDA's letter in November 2013, which ordered 23andMe to cease sales of its DNA test kits, observers wondered how co-founder and CEO, Anne Wojcicki, would guide the company in the presence of uncertainty. View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Genetics; Crisis Management; Health Care and Treatment; Product Development; Business and Government Relations; Biotechnology Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

March 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Dubai in Crisis

By: Noel Maurer

On November 25, 2009, the small city-state of Dubai shook financial markets across the world when the Dubai World holding companies announced that it would ask its creditors to standstill its debts. After three decades of phenomenal growth, something had gone off the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Development Economics; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Business History; Business and Government Relations; Dubai

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26 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 26

also be detrimental to some. Specifically, we examine in detail the relation between religious involvement and subjective well-being. We first replicate prior findings showing a positive relation between... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2008 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A1)

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

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

01 Feb 2001
News

Drilling Down

in foreign countries. "Some of the governments are quite small, and they like dealing directly with the person who makes decisions in the company," he explains. "There's more flexibility involved than there would be with a larger... View Details

Keywords: Hanna, Julia; Matthew R. Simmons; Oil and Gas Extraction; Mining; Natural Gas Distribution; Utilities

12 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Untold Story of ‘Green’ Entrepreneurs

In the 1920s, on pitch black nights in rural eastern Montana, the farmhouse owned by the parents of brothers Marcellus and Joe Jacobs stood out for one reason: it had light, although located far from power lines and gasoline supplies. It was a beacon in the dark that... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

February 2009 (Revised October 2012)
Case

Tata Motors in Singur: Public Purpose and Private Property (B)

By: Laura Alfaro, Lakshmi Iyer and Namrata Arora

In October 2008, Tata Motors canceled their car manufacturing plant in West Bengal state, in the face of widespread farmer protests over land acquisition issues. This meant abandoning a project in which the company had invested $300 million and delaying the launch of... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Rights; Emerging Markets; Property; Business and Government Relations; Conflict and Resolution; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; West Bengal

06 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Expensing Options Doesn’t Solve the Problem

at Enron had nothing to do with the failure to expense options. Rather, it related to a failure to disclose something else entirely on both the income statement and the balance sheet. Enron had taken advantage of some very liberal (and... View Details

Keywords: by William Sahlman

Web

1.17 Field Based Learning / Independent Projects | MBA

created, and shared during field activities, Clarify ownership rights and non-disclosure agreements for students, faculty, and company sponsors in company-sponsored field-based learning projects. The policies governing Field Based... View Details

10 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 10

insisting that no one's contribution be marginalized, and framing new information within familiar contexts, teams can escape the performance pressure paradox and keep doing their best work when it matters most. Book:... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

April 2011
Article

What Can We Learn from 'Great Negotiations'?

By: James K. Sebenius

What can one legitimately learn-analytically and/or prescriptively-from detailed historical case studies of "great negotiations," chosen more for their salience than their analytic characteristics or comparability? Taking a number of such cases compiled by Stanton... View Details

Keywords: Learning; International Relations; History; Agreements and Arrangements; Negotiation Process; Conflict and Resolution

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Article

The Global Rise of Democracy: A Network Account

By: Magnus Thor Torfason and Paul Ingram

We examine the influence of an interstate network created by intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) on the global diffusion of democracy. We propose that IGOs facilitate this diffusion by transmitting information between their member states and by interpreting that... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Networks; Society; Transformation; Power and Influence; Country; Globalization