Publications

22 Dec 2015
First Look

December 22, 2015

analysis suggests a need for caution: while information facilitates transactions, it also facilitates discrimination. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50258 Financial Patent Quality: Finance Patents... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Program

Making Corporate Boards More Effective

Summary Faced with increasingly complex oversight challenges and demands for greater transparency, how can today's boards do more for their companies? In this board of directors education program, you will gain a deeper understanding of... View Details

May 1992 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Asea Brown Boveri: The ABACUS System

By: Robert L. Simons

Describes the computer-based information system (ABACUS) used to monitor and control business operations in a complex, global company. Describes the technical attributes of the database system, financial reporting requirements, target setting and profit calculations on... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Profit; Business Growth and Maturation; Analytics and Data Science; Design; Accounting Audits; Growth and Development; Globalized Firms and Management; Complexity; Technology Industry

January 2001 (Revised June 2001)
Case

COFIDIS

An offspring of French catalog marketer 3 Suisses, and a popular sponsor of Tour de France, Cofidis sells consumer credit over the phone, defying conventional banking with a product policy and a communication strategy that perfectly fits the company's comparative... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Marketing Communications; Competitive Advantage; Product; Credit; Financial Services Industry; France

10 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

How to Put Meaning Back into Leading

organizations is circumscribed by their impact on financial results. The social impact of organizations essentially took a back seat. This tendency concerns us for two reasons. First, as many critics of leadership have argued, the ability... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Web

Business & Environment

Farmers Grow More and Lose Less By: Shawn Cole 02 Jul 2025 | VoxDev Carbon Reporting Urgently Needs Fixing—Here’s How to Do It Re: Robert Kaplan 15 Jun 2025 | Financial Times Is Boston Losing Its Biotech Crown? Bio Conference Takes Place... View Details

06 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 6, 2007

larger class of financial and managerial consultants who sought to refine business decision-making through the introduction of statistical data and scientific analysis. The failure of most forecasting agencies to predict the stock market... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Web

Great American Business Leaders of the 20th Century - Leadership

of cold war Iran-Contra Affair Influence: High 90 1990 USSR dismantled; ethnic conflicts exposed Gulf War: real-time TV coverage Asian financial crisis NAFTA enacted European Union forms Initiatives focus on societal challenges that are... View Details

Program

PLD Module 5

organization's success. Key Benefits Viewing your leadership approach through a wider lens, you will be better prepared to navigate complex business challenges and future career transitions. PLD Module 5 not only expands your leadership... View Details

Program

Audit Committees in a New Era of Governance

Summary As the focus on corporate governance and oversight has grown, so has the complexity of regulatory challenges facing audit committees. This corporate governance strategy program explores the best practices that your audit committee... View Details

September 2011 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Liberia

By: Eric Werker and Jasmina Beganovic

From 1989 to 2003 civil war raged in Liberia, causing GDP per capita to drop an unprecedented 90% from peak to trough. The roots of Liberia's conflict and economic decline are complex and intertwined, resting on over a century of discriminatory elite rule and twisted... View Details

Keywords: War; Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Crisis; Government and Politics; Macroeconomics; Liberia

December 2013
Article

Legislating Stock Prices

By: Lauren Cohen, Karl Diether and Christopher Malloy

We demonstrate that legislation has a simple, yet previously undetected impact on stock prices. Exploiting the voting record of legislators whose constituents are the affected industries, we show that the votes of these "interested" legislators capture important... View Details

Keywords: Legislator Incentives; Voting; Return Predictability; Lobbying; Motivation and Incentives; Government Legislation; Stocks

Find at Harvard

Read Now

2021
Book

Harvard Business Review Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Navigate the complex decisions and critical relationships necessary to create and sustain a healthy family business--and business family. Though "family business" may sound like it refers only to mom-and-pop shops, businesses owned by families are among the most... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Family and Family Relationships; Outcome or Result; Business Model; Conflict and Resolution; Organizational Culture

Web

Business, Government & the International Economy - Faculty & Research

Charlotte Robertson June 2025 | Article | Journal of Modern History Financial markets in nineteenth-century France were far more complex than an analysis of the official Bourse or its state-authorized... View Details

25 Jul 2006
First Look

First Look: July 25, 2006

competing bid for the shares of Nippon Broadcasting Systems (NBS). Livedoor, the other bidder, is a highly valued Internet company that has been accused of financial wizardry to keep its stock price high. Purchase this case: View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 1999
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A4): Sun Peak: Helen Yang and Mark Walden on "Running Sun on Sun"

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Jane Roessner

SunPeak was the largest project Sun Microsystems, Inc. had ever undertaken: shifting Sun's entire business transaction system from a mainframe-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to a Sun-based system. Making the shift would be complicated and financially... View Details

Keywords: Projects; Transformation; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Complexity; Risk and Uncertainty; Success; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Technology Industry; Computer Industry

January 2005
Tutorial

Buying Time

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Managers must frequently make decisions involving trade-offs between cash flows to be paid or received at different points in time. Accountants, in turn, must describe transactions that involve the payment and/or receipt of cash far in the future. This interactive... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Value; Interest Rates; Financial Statements