Publications

November 2017
Case

Loss Prevention at Mac's Convenience Stores (A)

By: Francesca Gino, Katherine DeCelles and Olivia Hull

Faced with a persistent robbery problem at his convenience store company, Sean Sportun, security and loss prevention manager at Mac’s of Central Canada, looked to standardize safety measures and devise a new way of preventing employee injury. But as a 32-year old with... View Details

Keywords: Public Relations; Community Relations; Change Management; Working Conditions; Leading Change; Training; Knowledge Dissemination; Crime and Corruption; Law Enforcement; Legal Liability; Business and Community Relations; Retail Industry; Canada

01 Sep 2003
What Do You Think?

To Whom Should Boards be Accountable?

that "... corporate law grants directors a wide range of protection from liability for decisions that sacrifice shareholders' immediate financial interests while serving the interests of other corporate 'stakeholders.'" Margaret... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

12 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Accounting Information as Political Currency

Relations with oil companies can also be a liability for politicians in some districts. Perhaps, contributions from financial institutions perceived to have benefited from the mortgage crisis will also be sensitive. Q: In layman’s terms,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 19

Abstract Revenue recognition and measurement principles can conflict with liability recognition and measurement principles. We explore here under different market conditions when the two measurement approaches coincide and when they... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Jan 2013
First Look

First Look: January 15

designers must think about how to distribute property rights, people, and activities across numerous self-governing enterprises in ways that are advantageous for the group (ecosystem) as well as for the designer's own firm or community. Paper:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Aug 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Built for Global Competition from the Start

business life cycle how these fledgling ventures can operate across multiple countries. The course would also identify advantages and liabilities of starting an international company, how to manage it locally and globally, and building... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Education

15 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Post-CrowdStrike, Six Questions to Test Your Company's Operational Resilience

Establish clear accountability and governance structures, including appropriate legal counsel. Consider where it is needed and proper to have insurance, such as Directors and Officers (D&O) liability coverage, for people in critical... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson and Anita Lynch

20 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: December 20

majority of investors in U.S.-listed foreign firms from the protection of the U.S. civil liability regime and cast at least partial limitations on the SEC's regulatory authority. This event nonetheless was met with positive abnormal... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

02 Aug 2016
First Look

August 2, 2016

the capital regulation of commercial banks? This paper builds a quantitative general equilibrium model with commercial banks and shadow banks to study the unintended consequences of capital requirements. A key feature of our model is defaultable bank View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 27, 2018

Abstract—Current academic and policy debates focus on the impact of tort reforms on physicians’ behavior and medical costs. This paper examines whether these reforms also affect incentives to develop new technologies. We develop a theoretical model that predicts that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2022 (Revised September 2023)
Supplement

SolarWinds Confronts SUNBURST (B)

By: Frank Nagle, George A. Riedel, William R. Kerr and David Lane

Supplements the (A) case, describing actions taken by SolarWinds as well as by regulatory agencies in the aftermath of the immediate crisis. The case also includes reflections by SolarWinds managers on the choices they made with respect to disclosure, media relations,... View Details

Keywords: Cyberattacks; Cybersecurity; Corporate Disclosure; Crisis Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Legal Liability; Governance Compliance; Business and Government Relations; Information Technology Industry; United States

22 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 22

liabilities to external "shocks." At the national level, the sectors of an economy are viewed as interconnected portfolios of assets, liabilities, and guarantees—some explicit and others implicit. Traditional approaches have... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

09 Sep 2024
HBS Case

McDonald’s and the Post #MeToo Rules of Sex in the Workplace

It was a brief dalliance, just a few weeks in length, over text and video only. The end of the affair was nonetheless just the beginning for Stephen Easterbrook, the McDonald’s CEO who went from being hailed as the company’s “savior” by doubling its share price in less... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Food & Beverage

July 2002 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Unilever Superannuation Fund vs. Merrill Lynch, The

By: Andre F. Perold and Joshua Musher

In 2001, the Unilever Superannuation Fund sued Merrill Lynch for damages of 130 million British pounds. Over the period 1977 to 1998, the Unilever Fund had significantly underperformed the benchmark, and its trustees contended that the poor returns resulted from... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Lawsuits and Litigation; Performance Evaluation; Agreements and Arrangements; Customer Relationship Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Asset Management; Risk Management; Legal Liability; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

07 Aug 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t Americans Get Health Care Right?

liability encourage the practice of "overly-safe" and expensive medicine, (9) providers have fragmented and often incomplete information, and (10) consumers either have too little information with which to make rational... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

May 2004 (Revised March 2005)
Case

Music Downloads

By: David B. Yoffie and Deborah Freier

Examines the competition between competing music formats. In the '90s, the MP3 format challenged the traditional means of music distribution by allowing for storage of near CD-quality recordings at 1/10th of their previous size. The threat to traditional distribution... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Music Entertainment; Legal Liability; Distribution; Competition; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Information Infrastructure; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Music Industry

Find at Harvard

2011
Article

Bias in Search Results?: Diagnosis and Response

By: Benjamin Edelman

I explore allegations of search engine bias, including understanding a search engine's incentives to bias results, identifying possible forms of bias, and evaluating methods of verifying whether bias in fact occurs. I then consider possible legal and policy responses,... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Motivation and Incentives; Outcome or Result; Markets; Legal Liability; Policy; Search Technology; Performance Evaluation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

Read Now

28 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 28

and risk. Download the paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1999484 Liability Structure in Small-Scale Finance: Evidence from a Natural Experiment Authors: Fenella Carpena, Shawn Cole, Jeremy Shapiro, and Bilal Zia... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 1987 (Revised October 1998)
Case

CVD, Inc. vs. A.S. Markham Corp. (A)

Describes the legal odyssey of two engineers who left their old employer to start a company that was directly competitive. The issues include employment contracts, technology licenses, antitrust, trade secrets, and confidential information. Provides a good opportunity... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Human Resources; Contracts; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Intellectual Property; Ethics; Legal Liability; Business Startups; Monopoly