Publications

December 1992 (Revised September 1995)
Exercise

Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: General Background Information

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Designed to teach students about the trade-offs faced by firms exploring alternative approaches to complying with pollution control regulations. The setting is the U.S. electric utility industry in 1993. In accordance with the provisions of the 1990 Clean Air Act,... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Pollutants; Laws and Statutes; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governance Compliance; Utilities Industry; United States

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December 2019 (Revised December 2022)
Case

TXU (A): Powering the Largest Leveraged Buyout in History

By: Trevor Fetter, Erik Snowberg and Rebecca M. Henderson

This case is designed to support a lively discussion about the relative merits of shareholder vs. stakeholder perspectives in the context of a company that provides a vital public service that has important environmental implications. The 2007 purchase of TXU, the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Transformation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Environmental Sustainability; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Energy Generation; Non-Renewable Energy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; Texas

11 Oct 2018
News

Baseball’s Billy Beane Shows Companies the Power of Data

07 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

The Case for Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking

"Right now we're letting the ends of the ideological spectrum and the entrenched power of legacy interests stalemate a path to the future," Lassiter says. "That's a thing worth fighting." “Right now we're letting the ends of the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

November 2016 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Elon Musk's Big Bets

By: David B. Yoffie, Eric Baldwin and Brandon Kaufmann

Between late 2014 and late 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk undertook several major, and risky, initiatives that would dramatically expand the scale and scope of Tesla’s business. In late 2014, Tesla began construction on a $5 billion “gigafactory” that would manufacture... View Details

February 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Case

China Shenhua Energy Company

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, G. A. Donovan and Keith Chi-ho Wong

A leading Chinese energy firm, active in coal mining and electric power generation, analyzes coal-to-liquids technology in light of energy security and environmental concerns. View Details

Keywords: Environment; China; CO2; Coal Mining; Electricity; Sustainability; Energy; Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Energy Generation; Energy Sources; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; China; Asia

April 2021
Teaching Note

GreenFire Energy, 2020: Geothermal Innovation

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In June 2020, after ten years of effort, GreenFire Energy Inc. (GreenFire) demonstrated its new geothermal electricity generation technology, ECO2G™. While conventional geothermal electricity only supplied 0.5% of US demand, the new technology promised to increase this... View Details

Keywords: Green Energy; Geothermal; Entrepreneur; Renewables; Geothermal Electricity; Green Technology; Renewable Energy; Energy Generation; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Commercialization

01 Dec 2014
News

Research Brief: The Power of Could

question unwittingly locks you into a tradeoff, upholding your moral principles in one way but breaking them in another. Instead, strategically asking yourself what you could do often generates an array of new solutions that might satisfy... View Details

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Bright Ideas: The Creative Power of Groups

The camel has long been the punch line of the riddle, "Name the animal designed by a committee." But taking a closer look at the features that allow this oddly shaped creature to survive in harsh desert conditions, one can draw a much kinder conclusion about... View Details

Keywords: by Laurie Joan Aron

22 Feb 2019
News

Empowering a New Generation of Business Leaders

before guests were treated to a private tour of the massive media production facilities. Jaqueline Burgos (MBA 2014) opened the chat by introducing Professor McGee, a media industry expert and entrepreneur who was named one of the 50 most View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Arts, Entertainment

September 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Tesla's Uncertain Fate as EV Race Accelerates

By: David Collis and Haisley Wert

By September 2021, Tesla had a staggering market cap of $755 billion. As the leader of the automobile industry, Tesla’s worth surpassed that of the six largest runner-ups combined, including Toyota, Volkswagen, BYD, Daimler, Great Wall Motors, and General Motors. As... View Details

Keywords: Electric Vehicles; Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Valuation; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Auto Industry

16 Oct 2013
Op-Ed

Response to Readers: Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking

will make significant commitments to nuclear power internally and aggressively export nuclear power plant components, the bulk of its power View Details

Keywords: by Joe Lassiter; Energy; Utilities

2018
Working Paper

Detecting Anomalies: The Relevance and Power of Standard Asset Pricing Tests

By: Malcolm Baker, Patrick Luo and Ryan Taliaferro

The two standard approaches for identifying capital market anomalies are cross-sectional coefficient tests, in the spirit of Fama and MacBeth (1973), and time-series intercept tests, in the spirit of Jensen (1968). A new signal can pass the first test, which we label a... View Details

Keywords: Investment Management; Anomalies; Portfolio Construction; Transaction Costs; Investment; Management; Asset Pricing; Market Transactions; Cost

Keywords: Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution

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07 Oct 2013
News

Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking

2019
Working Paper

The Impact of the General Data Protection Regulation on Internet Interconnection

By: Ran Zhuo, Bradley Huffaker, KC Claffy and Shane Greenstein

The Internet comprises thousands of independently operated networks, where bilaterally negotiated interconnection agreements determine the flow of data between networks. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes strict restrictions on... View Details

Keywords: Personal Data; Privacy Regulation; GDPR; Interconnection Agreements; Internet and the Web; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; European Union

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Research Summary

Microwedges: Challenging power one small opening at a time [Dissertation, job market paper]

Based on a 31-month qualitative inductive study of multidisciplinary change teams, I introduce the concept of the “microwedge”—a small action or series of actions by team members that allows the team to examine their own assumptions so that they can begin to engage... View Details

February 1997
Case

Enron Development Corp.: The Dabhol Power Project in Maharashtra, India (C) (Abridged)

By: Louis T. Wells Jr.

Discusses the resolution of the canceled power project in Maharashtra. The contract between the American gas giant and Indian state government is renegotiated. View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Policy; Contracts; Negotiation Process; Conflict and Resolution

February 1997
Case

Enron Development Corporation: The Dabhol Power Project in Maharashtra, India (A) (Abridged)

By: Louis T. Wells Jr.

A large, lucrative power plant is negotiated for construction/operation by an American power company in India's evolving privatized power sector. The process of incorporating the project is captured in this case. The American company will own and operate the plant in... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Transition; Energy Generation; Construction; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Emerging Markets; Negotiation Process; Production; Privatization; Energy Industry