Publications

June 2011
Case

Shelley Capital and the Hedge Fund Secondary Market

By: Luis Viceira, Elena Corsi and Ruth Dittrich

An advisory company has to decide how to sell their client's hedge fund holdings in the secondary market, and thinks about their future. Shelley Capital was a a European advisory company operating in the hedge fund secondary market, a market that boosted in 2008 with... View Details

Keywords: Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Investment Funds; Marketing Strategy; Financial Crisis; Sales; Leadership Development; Financial Markets; Crisis Management; Business Processes; Risk and Uncertainty; Globalized Economies and Regions; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Europe

2025
Working Paper

Bank Capital and the Growth of Private Credit

By: Sergey Chernenko, Robert Ialenti and David Scharfstein

We show that business development companies (BDCs)—closed-end funds that provide a significant share of nonbank loans to middle market firms—are very well capitalized according to bank capital frameworks. They have median risk-based capital ratios of about 36%... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Capital; Credit; Financial Institutions

June 2009
Article

Level Playing Fields in International Financial Regulation

By: Lucy White and Alan Morrison

We analyze the desirability of level playing fields in international financial regulation. In general, level playing fields impose the standards of the weakest regulator upon the best-regulated economies. However, they may be desirable when capital is mobile because... View Details

Keywords: Economy; International Finance; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Standards; Banking Industry

Find at Harvard

Program

Private Equity and Venture Capital

venture capital fields, our foundational investment program, Foundations of Private Equity and Venture Capital, may be more appropriate. The programs are not intended to be taken consecutively and are designed to meet the View Details

Keywords: Finance; Finance

2014
Working Paper

Corporate Financial Policies in Misvalued Credit Markets

By: Jarrad Harford, Marc Martos-Vila and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

We theoretically and empirically investigate the repercussions of credit market misvaluation for a firm's borrowing and investment decisions. Using an ex-post measure of the accuracy of credit ratings to capture debt market misvaluation, we find evidence that firms... View Details

26 May 2011
News

Good companies need more than words

August 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Highland Capital Partners: Investing in Cleantech

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and David Kiron

One day during the summer of 2008, Paul Maeder, co-founder and general partner of Highland Capital Partners (HCP), was walking with his wife around Reykjavik, Iceland, marveling at how clean the city felt and at the widespread use of naturally occurring geothermal... View Details

Keywords: Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Global Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Services Industry; Green Technology Industry

2006
Article

Capital Budgeting: The Role of Cost Allocations

By: Ian D. Gow and Stefan Reichelstein

A common issue for firms is how to allocate capital resources to various investment alternatives. An extensive and long-standing literature in finance has examined various aspects of capital budgeting, including capital constraints, the determination of discount rates,... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Resource Allocation; Performance Evaluation; Cost Management; Research; Investment; Cash Flow; Risk Management; Performance Capacity

06 Dec 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Does Financial Misconduct Affect the Future Compensation of Alumni Managers?

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Eric Lin, and George Serafeim

September 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Spyder Active Sports, Inc. and CHB Capital Partners (A)

By: John A. Davis, Louis B. Barnes and Peter K. Botticelli

After establishing a small but profitable skiwear business, an entrepreneur decides to sell a minority stake in the firm to outside investors. His goal is to acquire the capital needed to grow the business, even though this will entail a substantial transformation of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Private Equity; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry

September 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

York Capital CLOs and WorldStrides International

By: Victoria Ivashina and William Vrattos

The case follows the debt restructuring of WorldStrides International, a travel program provider in the education market, after the onset of COVID-19. The pandemic severely impacted the travel industry, creating challenges for many companies like WorldStrides, which... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Debt Restructuring; CLO; Compliance; Debt Securities; Financing and Loans; Decision Making; Travel Industry; Education Industry

August 2022
Supplement

Sweet Teez Bakery: Projecting the Dough’s Rise Financial Supplement

By: Emily R. McComb, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein

Abstract: In 2021, the HBS Impact Investment Fund student team met with entrepreneur Teresa Maynard, who had applied for a $25,000 impact investment loan. The students thought the former Harvard Data Scientist’s bakery business, Sweet Teez Bakery, showed promise.... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investment; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Investment; Goods and Commodities; Financial Reporting; Small Business; Food and Beverage Industry; Massachusetts; United States

20 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

The Time is Right for Creative Capitalism

employment patterns, market share, business investment, and most prominently, stock market performance. Given Gates's achievements, it is interesting that he is throwing down a gauntlet to have global capitalism direct itself toward... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy Koehn

2018
Working Paper

Coordination Frictions in Venture Capital Syndicates

By: Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

An extensive literature on venture capital has studied asymmetric information and agency problems between investors and entrepreneurs, examining how separating entrepreneurs from the investor can create frictions that might inhibit the funding of good projects. It has... View Details

Keywords: Syndication; Venture Capital; Networks; Entrepreneurship

SSRN

Research Summary

Capitalism as a System of Governance

My research interest is in further exploration of the analytic utility of an original conception of capitalism as an indirect, three level system of governance for the economic relationships within political entities, and mostly within nation states. This three level... View Details

February 2018 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Jaguar Capital S.A.S., Take the Money and Run?

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Sayiddah Fatima McCree

In January 2014, Tomas Uribe and Rodrigo Sanchez-Rios of Jaguar Capital S.A.S. (Jaguar or Jaguar Capital), were considering an offer from White Stone, the world’s largest private equity real estate investor. Jaguar Capital needed capital to fund its investment thesis,... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Investing; Private Equity Financing; Deal Structuring; Emerging Market; Emerging Economies; Emerging Market Finance; International Entrepreneurship; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Agreements and Arrangements; Emerging Markets; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Colombia; Latin America; United States

May 2013
Teaching Plan

High Wire Act: Credit Suisse and Contingent Capital

By: Clayton Rose and David Lane

Late in 2010, Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan and his team considered whether or not to issue contingent capital, which Swiss regulators would require by 2019. They faced a number of substantial issues, including: Would contingent capital actually work as conceptualized... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Capital Markets; Financial Crisis; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; International Finance; Financial Liquidity; Risk and Uncertainty; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Switzerland

Web

HBS - Financials | From the Chief Financial Officer

faculty, staff, and alumni over the next decade, the School launched a campus framework planning process. Designed to align future capital needs with the mission of HBS, the process will inform strategic... View Details

October 1998
Case

Farallon Capital Management: Risk Arbitrage (B)

By: Andre F. Perold and Robert Howard

Farallon Capital Management, an investment firm that specializes in risk arbitrage, has taken significant long and short positions in MCI Communications and British Telecommunications, respectively, in the belief that the proposed merger of these firms will be... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Markets; Investment; Risk Management; Strategy; Financial Services Industry