Publications

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30 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Ethical People Become Unethical Negotiators

fraudulent fund, even though many suspected something was strange, since the low-risk fund had defied reality by dramatically outperforming the stock market several years in a row. “We were all aware of this hedge View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 Oct 2021
News

Fueling the Faculty Pipeline

Prakash Melwani (MBA 1986) Growing up in Hong Kong and England, Prakash Melwani dreamed of attending HBS. Realizing that dream, he says, completely changed his life. “I owe the School so much,” says Melwani, a longtime donor to the HBS View Details

Web

Alternative Investments Course | HBS Online

Wrap-Up Private Equity: Secondaries Featured Exercises Classify attributes of investment opportunities Rank deals by their characteristics 6-7 hrs Module 3 Hedge Funds Learn key elements of hedge funds, including fee structure and sources... View Details

04 Aug 2010
News

A Lonely Crusader

We’ve all read stories about those rare individuals who saw the financial crisis coming and profited handsomely from their contrarian insights. Add to that list of contrarians hedge fund manager Bill Ackman (MBA ’92), whose six-year... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; subprime mortgages; Finance; Real Estate

18 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 18

and Fortune 500 executives. The bet-by providing "no-strings-attached" help to ecosystem partners, the partners might someday reciprocate by steering founders seeking funding to a16z. The case closes by asking whether a16z... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Research & Teaching - Creating Emerging Markets

funding for this public goods project, it would be great if you let us know when you cite interviews in published works by sending a brief email to cem@hbs.edu . Here, we feature a few examples of thematic and comparative research... View Details

Web

Baker Library / Bloomberg Center | About

Henry Bloomberg, the late father of New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (MBA 1966). The architectural and intellectual centerpiece of the HBS campus, Baker Library was dedicated in 1927 and named for George F. Baker (1840-1931), the benefactor who View Details

14 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Announces Its 2023-2024 Blavatnik Fellows

personalized oncology care. They have collectively raised more than $500M in funding and an additional $244M from an IPO in June 2020. The fellowship is guided by Peter Barrett, executive fellow, and a Key Advisory Board of 13 seasoned... View Details

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

action. By following the lines that join purchasers to those who market to them, fund production, and organize economic exchange, scholars have rediscovered financiers, industrialists, and managers, considering them not only as economic... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

Research Summary

The Business of Stem Cells

By: Debora L. Spar

In 2004, the topic of stem cell research made both medical and moral headlines. Buoyed by a series of technological breakthroughs, stem cell scientists grew increasingly convinced that they would eventually be able to use embryonic stem cells -- the pluripotent cells... View Details

February 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Taffi: Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

By: Paul A. Gompers and Fares Khrais

Taffi was a tech-enabled fashion styling startup founded by Shahad Geoffrey in Saudi Arabia in 2020. Within three years of operating, Geoffrey had pivoted the business multiple times. In 2023, Geoffrey was attempting the business’s most ambitious pivot yet, shifting... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Fashion Industry; Technology Industry; Saudi Arabia; Arabian Peninsula

September 2024
Article

Activist Directors: Determinants and Consequences

By: Ian D. Gow, Sa-Pyung Sean Shin and Suraj Srinivasan

This paper examines determinants and consequences of hedge fund activism, focusing on activist directors, i.e., directors appointed in response to activist demands. Using a sample of 3,259 activism events from 2004 to 2016, we identify 1,623 activist directors.... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Investment Activism; Business and Shareholder Relations

May 2021
Teaching Plan

Gera Developments: Leadership at a Crossroads

By: Christina R. Wing and John Masko

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 621-018. For decades, Gera Developments (Gera) was a boutique family-owned real estate development firm in Pune, India. But since 2000, managing director Rohit Gera had turned the company into a dynamic innovator in housing solutions for... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Construction; Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Housing; Leadership Style; Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Family Ownership; Family and Family Relationships; Urban Development; Customization and Personalization; Real Estate Industry; Maharashtra; India; San Francisco

2020
Working Paper

Private Equity and COVID-19

By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov

We survey more than 200 private equity (PE) managers from firms with $1.9 trillion of assets under management (AUM) about their portfolio performance, decisionmaking and activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Given that PE managers have significant incentives to... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Private Equity; Management; Investment Portfolio; Performance; Decision Making; Value Creation

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2019
Working Paper

Intelligent Design of Inclusive Growth Strategies

By: Robert S. Kaplan, George Serafeim and Eduardo Tugendhat

Improving corporate engagement with society, as advocated in the Business Roundtable’s 2019 statement, should not be viewed as a zero-sum proposition where attention to new stakeholders detracts from delivering shareholder value. Corporate programs for sustainable and... View Details

Keywords: Inclusion; Sustainability; Performance Measures; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Strategy; Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations

SSRN

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November 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Rebuilding Puerto Rico

By: Laura Alfaro, Laura Phillips Sawyer and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria swept over Puerto Rico, devastating the island’s infrastructure and agriculture. The natural disaster was layered atop years of mounting financial distress. Before the hurricane, Puerto Rico had accumulated $74 billion in debt and... View Details

Keywords: Natural Disasters; Financial Crisis; Infrastructure; Borrowing and Debt; Economy; Strategic Planning; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Puerto Rico

January–February 2017
Article

Buying Your Way into Entrepreneurship

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

An increasingly popular route to success as a small business owner is “acquisition entrepreneurship”—buying and running an existing operation. If you’re considering such a path, the authors offer practical advice for each stage of the process. Think it through. Do you... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Acquisition; Planning

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February 2017
Case

Aston Martin: A Second Century of Performance and Luxury

By: Vish V. Krishnan, Karim R. Lakhani and Amram Migdal

Following the March 2016 launch of DB11, Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd.’s first new sports car platform in over a decade, this case discusses the future strategy of the famed British luxury auto manufacturer. Since its founding in 1902, Aston Martin has been characterized... View Details

January 2015 (Revised March 2017)
Case

New Urban Mechanics

By: Mitchell Weiss

Funding to scale Citizens Connect, Boston's 311 app, is both a blessing and a burden and tests two public entrepreneurs. In 2012, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts provides Boston's Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics with a grant to scale Citizens Connect across the... View Details