Publications

18 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

Wrap-up: Software, Telecom, and Recovery

Investors' Interest?" Y2K spending drove growth in the late '90s, followed almost immediately by a boom of broad e-implementations such as customer relationship management and e-commerce, while the threat loomed that smaller, more nimble software companies would... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild & Martha Lagace; Financial Services; Technology; Communications; Telecommunications

01 Dec 2014
News

Five Degrees of Doriot

influence extended well beyond the classroom. Here, a few of the ideas and inventions that Doriot helped bring to the masses. (Baker Library Historical Collections) Venture capitalism Before Doriot founded the world’s first VC firm, American Research and Development... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; George Doriot; Educational Services

May 2022 (Revised May 2024)
Case

The Freedom Fund (A): Ending Modern Slavery

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

The Freedom Fund founded in 2013 to end modern slavery had raised more than half its intended target (by 2025) of $200 million. In 2021, impressed by its decentralized-partnering style of operations, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott awarded the Fund a gift of $35 million... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Spending; Decisions; India; Thailand; Ethiopia

06 May 2019
News

Startup Talk in Chicago

in which the best ideas are able to flourish.” Behind the Scenes at American Airlines Alumni and guests from the HBS Club of Dallas (HBSCD) and the Harvard Business School Publishing Corporate Learning Partners were treated to a business... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Pritzker; Air Transportation; Transportation

30 Nov 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Short-Termism, Shareholder Payouts, and Investment in the EU

Keywords: by Jesse M. Fried and Charles C.Y. Wang

January 2022
Background Note

The Florange Law: Encouraging Long-Termism in Equity Markets?

By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Tonia Labruyere

This note provides background information on a French law (“the Florange law”) passed in 2014 that the French government said would encourage long-term shareholdings. The note describes the law, what led to it, the reactions it evoked, and similar initiatives in other... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Financial Markets; Investment Activism; Institutional Investing; Corporate Governance; Policy; Rights; Laws and Statutes; Business and Government Relations; Accounting Industry; France

November 2000
Case

Reuters Greenhouse Fund

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Daniel Galvin

Reuters Greenhouse Fund had successfully invested in a portfolio of 79 companies working in areas relevant to Reuters Group's strategic interests. It had itself facilitated a powerful network among the companies and become a respected global venture capital firm.... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Financial Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Transition; Partners and Partnerships; Networks; Internet; Financial Services Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

March 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Nike, Inc.--Entering the Millennium

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Traces the evolution of Nike from 1987 through 1998. Through a series of eight assignment questions, it examines how the company has created and sustained a competitive advantage, and how that competitive advantage is reflected in growth, profitability, and share price... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Profit; Corporate Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Sports Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

2008
Working Paper

Extending Producer Responsibility: An Evaluation Framework for Product Take-Back Policies

By: Michael W. Toffel, Antoinette Stein and Katharine Lee

Manufacturers are increasingly being required to adhere to product take-back regulations that require them to manage their products at the end of life. Such regulations seek to internalize products' entire life cycle costs into market prices, with the ultimate... View Details

Keywords: Product; Cost; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability

SSRN

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Career Coach

Phil Wong

Phil (Caltech ‘05, HBS ‘10) is currently the CFO and co-founder of Sevi Health, a healthcare startup on a mission to simplify primary care in the US. His role at Sevi focuses on acquiring clinics, integrating housing and healthcare for seniors living in senior... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance

16 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘The Strategist’

strategy in the way they might learn finance or marketing. As business leaders, they aren't going to be functional specialists. But they do need to be strategists. Are you a strategist? It's a question all business leaders must answer... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia A. Montgomery

January 2018
Case

Environmental Technology Fund Partners and E-Leather

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Aldo Sesia

It is 2014 and Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF) Partners, a UK-based venture capital firm, has an opportunity to invest in a privately held UK company that manufactured engineered composition leather extracted from waste leather using an environmentally friendly... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Venture Capital; Investment Strategy; Investment; Strategy; Ownership; Valuation; Energy Conservation; Equity; Technological Innovation; Environmental Sustainability; Performance Efficiency; Manufacturing Industry; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

13 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Global Investments Are Still a Good Bet

years than it is today,” says Viceira, “and I think that is safer than betting on any one specific economy.” Related Reading: Lessons Unlearned? Corporate Debt in Emerging Markets View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

05 Nov 2013
News

Start-Ups Get a Start in New Orleans

says Carol Markowitz (MBA 2003), a corporate finance expert from Los Angeles whom Wilkins recruited to work at Idea Village. "The alumni network has also been very helpful." After serving as Idea Village's... View Details

Keywords: New Orleans; Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services; Professional Services

01 Jun 2002
News

Books

until plummeting stock valuations in the spring of 2000 burst the Internet stock “bubble,” venture capitalists, investment bankers, mutual funds managers, accountants, and corporate leaders had sponsored a financial mania at the expense... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Women Entrepreneurs Use Springboard for Funding

a small sampling of the twenty-three companies pitched: Michele Honomichl GPSLink. The average corporation uses up to ten systems to manage the human resources process in moving its executives and their families both abroad and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

August 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Australia-Japan Cable: Structuring the Project Company

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Carrie Ferman

In late September 1999, representatives from Telstri, Japan Telecom, and Teleglobe met to discuss the structure of the Australia-Japan Cable (AJC) project, a $520 million submarine cable system that would run from Australia to Japan. The sponsors, excited by the... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Cooperative Ownership; Organizational Structure; Investment; Ownership; Capital; Corporate Governance; Management Teams; Communication Technology; Projects; Compensation and Benefits; Corporate Finance; Telecommunications Industry; Australia; Japan

January 4, 2019
Article

How Companies Can Balance Social Impact and Financial Goals

By: Marya L. Besharov, Wendy K. Smith and Michael Tushman

It’s notoriously difficult for a business to manage two separate-but-equal goals—making money and creating social value at the same time, for example, or managing an existing business at the same time that you invent a new one. Most attempts at managing these... View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Profit; Decision Making

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July 2012
Supplement

Generation Investment Management, Video

By: Sandra J. Sucher

Examines the Investment process of Generation Investment Management, a "sustainable" investing firm established in 2004 by David Blood and U.S. Vice President Al Gore. Places students in the position of David Lowish, director of global industrials, who must decide... View Details

Keywords: Leadership And Managing People; Accountability; Investment Management; Social Issues; Investment; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Development Economics; Natural Environment; Financial Services Industry; Energy Industry