Publications

October 1991 (Revised November 1993)
Case

Dynashears, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Piper

A senior loan officer is reviewing the recent performance of a company that has failed to repay its loan as scheduled. The failure results from a cyclical downturn in sales, coupled with a lag in cutting back production. Inventory risk is minimal. Teaching objective:... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Business Cycles; Financial Condition; Risk and Uncertainty; Failure

July 2007
Article

Geographical Segmentation of U.S. Capital Markets

Demographic variation in savings behavior can be exploited to provide evidence on segmentation in US bank loan markets. Cities with a large fraction of seniors have higher volumes of bank deposits. Since many banks rely heavily on deposit financing, this affects local... View Details

Keywords: Age; Economy; Capital Markets; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Local Range; United States

Find at Harvard

Kyle Schirmann is a doctoral student in the Strategy unit at Harvard Business School. His primary interests are science-based innovation in the Global South and the creative and cultural industries. Before joining HBS, Kyle worked as a software engineer at Bloomberg... View Details

Keywords: arts; biotechnology; electronics; entertainment; high technology; music; internet

February 2015
Case

Credem: Banking on Cheese

By: Nikolaos Trichakis, Gerry Tsoukalas and Emer Moloney

Credem, an Italian regional bank, grants loans to Parmigiano Reggiano producers and holds the cheese as collateral in its own warehouse during the maturation process, essentially replacing part of the operations for the cheese producers and gaining deep operations... View Details

Keywords: Banks And Banking; Assets; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Operations; Financing and Loans; Commercial Banking; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Italy

13 Aug 2014
News

NFIB: Small Business Sector Unable to 'Pull its Weight'

January 2020 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Salary Finance US

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In October 2019, Dan Macklin, the newly-appointed chief executive of Salary Finance Inc., was weighing his options for the future of the business. The company’s value proposition was quite simple: partner with employers to offer employees affordable loans that were... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Credit; Financing and Loans; Wages; Innovation and Invention; Expansion; Growth Management; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry; United States

July 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Revenue Recognition at Stride Funding: Making Sense of Revenues for a Fintech Startup

By: Paul M. Healy and Jung Koo Kang

The case explores the challenges of revenue recognition and financial reporting for Stride Funding (Stride), a fintech startup that has disrupted the student loan market. Stride leveraged proprietary machine learning and financial models to underwrite alternative... View Details

Keywords: Revenue Recognition; Financial Reporting; Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Governance Compliance; Accrual Accounting; Financial Services Industry; United States

01 Dec 2019
News

Ink: Big News for Small Business

August 2022 (Revised October 2023)
Case

Bajaj Finance: Building an Omnipresent Financial Services Firm

By: Das Narayandas and Rachna Tahilyani

Bajaj Finance, India’s largest consumer finance firm with $20.9 billion of assets across 50.5 million customers, is on a journey to transform itself from a traditional firm that sells loans and other financial products through brick-and-mortar outlets to an omnipresent... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Transformation; Financial Instruments; Customer Satisfaction; Internet and the Web; Customer Focus and Relationships; India

June 2017
Article

The Political Economy of Financial Innovation: Evidence from Local Governments

By: Christophe Pérignon and Boris Vallée

We examine the toxic loans sold by investment banks to local governments. Using proprietary data, we show that politicians strategically use these products to increase chances of being re-elected. Consistent with greater incentives to hide the cost of debt, toxic loans... View Details

Keywords: Financial Innovation; Political Elections; Financing and Loans; Innovation and Invention

Find at Harvard

31 Mar 2023
Video

Pando: Sacerdote Runner-Up Prize Winner, Social Enterprise Track, 2023 New Venture Competition

20 Oct 2015
News

This could be the next 'subprime mortgage crisis'

12 PM – 1 PM EDT, 17 May 2017
Webinars: Trending@HBS

Fintech and Washington: Defining the Future of Small Business Lending

Small businesses have often faced gaps in access to credit. An explosion of new online lenders are providing small dollar loans to businesses within days, with easy online applications and innovative credit algorithms. Is this a good development for Americas small... View Details

08 Aug 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

Parmigiano-Reggiano, Jane Austen, and Other Things You Didn't Know About Finance

with a twist. They are swapping out investment advisers for financial robots, and passing along the savings. Research Papers A Bank That Takes Parmesan as Collateral: The Cheese Stands a Loan Italian regional bank Credito Emiliano accepts... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

May 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Teaching Note

Lind Equipment

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

Teaching Note for HBS No. 212-012. Lind Equipment, a Canadian manufacturer and distributor of industrial electrical safety equipment, was purchased in December 2007 by Brian Astl (HBS 2006) and Sean Van Doorselaer. Lind’s performance was negatively impacted by the... View Details

Keywords: Recession; Seller Debt; Equity; Financial Condition; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; Revenue; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy; Financial Management; Acquisition; Financial Crisis; Currency Exchange Rate; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Manufacturing Industry; Industrial Products Industry