Publications

09 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Does Misery Love Companies? How Social Performance Pays Off

nonetheless offer a host of principles (the Reverend Louis Sullivan's Global Sullivan Principles), management standards (the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability's AccountAbility 1000), best practice guidelines (the OECD... View Details

Keywords: by Joshua D. Margolis & James P. Walsh

15 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 15

on small samples. Merits and limitations of the competition method are discussed. Download the paper: http://ie.technion.ac.il/Home/Users/erev/QuantitativeCompetition_Aug_12_2009.pdf Self-regulatory Institutions for Solving Environmental... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

23 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Financial Reporting Goes Global

Miller and colleague V.G. Narayanan have made this case to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, and wrote "Accounting Standards and the Globalisation of Indian Businesses," which appeared in the July 2005 issue of... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell; Accounting; Financial Services

July 2009 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Risk Management at Wellfleet Bank: All That Glitters Is Not Gold

By: Anette Mikes

This case motivates a debate on the role of staff functions, such as risk management: what does it mean for them to be independent, and at the same time, to partner the business lines? The case describes the risk assessment process in the corporate banking arm of... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Credit; Banks and Banking; Governance Controls; Risk Management; Mathematical Methods

07 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 7, 2008

Working PapersSpanning the Institutional Abyss: The Intergovernmental Network and the Governance of Foreign Direct Investment Authors:Juan Alcacer and Paul Ingram Abstract Global economic transactions such as foreign direct investment... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Goldman Sachs: A Bank for All Seasons (A)

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Tiffany Lynne Obenchain

Facing the worldwide financial crisis, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein considered his options including whether his company could avoid a forced marriage and what steps Goldman Sachs should take to try to restore confidence in financial services companies. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Commercial Banking; Investment Banking; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Crisis Management; Business Strategy; Banking Industry

February 2006 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Investment Banking at Thomas Weisel Partners

By: Malcolm P. Baker and Lauren Barley

Thomas Weisel Partners (TWP), a San Francisco-based bank focusing on emerging growth companies, is considering its strategy in the context of regulatory, competitive, and legal changes. Blake Jorgensen, the chief operating officer and co-director of investment banking,... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business or Company Management; Conflict of Interests; Change Management; Investment Banking; Financing and Loans; Laws and Statutes; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Banking Industry; San Francisco

29 May 2020
Op-Ed

How Leaders Are Fighting Food Insecurity on Three Continents

COVID-19 is creating unprecedented strains on food security worldwide. The United Nations' World Food Programme warns that the pandemic could almost double the number of people facing food crises in low- and middle-income populations to 265 million by the end of 2020.... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson and Shirley Spence; Agriculture & Agribusiness

05 Jul 2016
First Look

July 5, 2016

measure of carbon embedded within their institutional clients’ assets under custody to help clients understand the climate risk in their portfolios. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51261 Finding... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘Talk, Inc.’

people at more than one hundred organizations.) Before long, we discovered that something greater was afoot than what our original research design had allowed for. The field known as "communication," which had long been a discrete View Details

Keywords: Re: Boris Groysberg

03 Dec 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Against the Grain

Corruption doesn't announce itself with a capital C. It is subtler and thornier than that—as one HBS student found out the hard way during a recent summer internship in Tanzania. In a new case detailing his experience, the student struggles to navigate the systemic... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Food & Beverage

19 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Doomsday Coming for Catastrophic Risk Insurers?

Froot, "all this is interesting and useful because it's a microcosm for the larger financial sector, made up of banks and shadow banks. We have a huge institutional setup for bearing these sorts of 'out-of-the-money' risks—very... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Financial Services

31 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Why Competition May Not Improve Credit Rating Agencies

third-party opinions about the credit-worthiness of a firm or a security. Over the past decades, the financial system has come to rely more and more on such ratings. For example, many institutional investors are legally obliged to hold... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

28 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 28

and Entrepreneurship Institutional Innovation: Novel, Useful, and Legitimate By: Raffaelli, Ryan, and Mary Ann Glynn Abstract—This chapter advances the theoretical construct of institutional innovation,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Central Bank: The ChexSystemsSM QualiFile® Decision

By: Dennis Campbell, Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, Peter Tufano and Emily McClintock

The "Central Bank" series analyzes the use of information and product design for managing the counterparty risk of newly acquired customers. Central Bank, a mid-sized regional U.S. bank, was attempting to grow its customer base by increasing the number of new checking... View Details

Keywords: Central Banking; Knowledge Management; Customer Satisfaction; Risk Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Making; Banking Industry; United States

March 2005 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Advising on Currency Risk at ICICI Bank

In March 2003, a client approached the Markets Advisory Group at ICICI Bank, India's second largest bank, about a hedging transaction. The hedge involved multiple interest rates and currencies. Shilpa Kumar, head of the Markets Advisory Group, has to put together a... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Currency Exchange Rate; Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; India

October 2000 (Revised November 2000)
Case

Handspring

By: Myra M. Hart and Mary Rotelli

Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins, founders of Palm Computing, have launched a new venture--Handspring. They are preparing for an IPO in the spring of 2000. When the markets begin to collapse and their investment bankers suggest a significantly lower price, they must... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Investment Banking; Initial Public Offering; Valuation; Business Processes; Computer Industry; Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

September 1994
Case

BayFunds

By: Alvin J. Silk, Lisa Klein Pearo and Jamie Harper

In June, 1994, the Senior Vice President of BayBank's Investment Management Group is preparing a strategic plan for her organization's line of mutual funds. Sixteen months earlier, BayBank, Massachusetts's leading retail bank, had entered the mutual fund business by... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Investment Funds; Product Marketing; Integration; Financial Services Industry