Publications

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17 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Rating Fund Managers by the Company They Keep

right funds to follow. Since distinguishing ability from luck in investing is always a challenge, that last requirement may not be so easy to fulfill. Q: Do you think the Web-based data input accounting standards such as XBRL would affect... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

29 Oct 2007
HBS Case

Marketing Maria: Managing the Athlete Endorsement

sports industry accounted for around $50 billion in revenues in the United States in 2007, up from just under $35 billion in 2001. On a global scale, total revenues are expected to be nearly $100 billion this year, compared with $70... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Sports

July 2025
Teaching Note

Silicon Valley Bank: Gone in 36 Hours

By: Jung Koo Kang, Krishna G. Palepu and Charles C.Y. Wang

Keywords: Accounting Standards; Bank Runs; Financial Accounting; Financial Reporting; Social Media; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Investment Portfolio; Interest Rates; Debt Securities; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Statements; Risk Management; Financial Services Industry; United States

20 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: Survival’s Secret Sauce

The secret sauce of long-term business success can't be captured in numbers. As the operations manager of a leading and fast-growing Brazilian business recently explained to a reporter, "There's a secret sauce in this business [but] it's... View Details

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

for natural gas, and to create derivative supply contracts that could help customers manage the risks of demand volatility and price swings more effectively than before. In this way, Skilling and his colleagues solved a major contracting... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

11 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

The New International Style of Management

consider other options in China. "I have no regrets," he adds, "because I learned so much from that experience." Now working in strategic planning for Philip Morris International's China operations, Klump is part of a small View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

March 2009
Article

Earnings Management and Corporate Tax Shelters, and Book-Tax Alignment

By: Mihir Desai and Dhammika Dharmapala

This paper reviews recent evidence analyzing the link between earnings management and corporate tax avoidance and considers the implications for how policymakers should evaluate the financial reporting environment facing firms. A real-world tax shelter is dissected to... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Taxation; Financial Reporting; Business and Shareholder Relations

SSRN

August 1988
Background Note

Close Encounters of the Four Kinds: Managing Customers in a Rapidly Changing Environment

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Describes four kinds of selling: 1) transaction, 2) systems, 3) major account management, and 4) strategic account relationships. Explains the advantages, disadvantages, and risks of each. The second half is devoted to a discussion of strategic account relationships... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Social Psychology

March 2025
Case

Silicon Valley Bank: Gone in 36 Hours

By: Jung Koo Kang, Krishna G. Palepu, Charles C.Y. Wang and David Lane

This case examines factors contributing to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March 2023, an event as unpredicted as it was quick. SVB funded nearly half of all U.S. venture-backed startups and at the end of 2022 held $173 billion in deposits, largely... View Details

12 Mar 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Firing the CEO

Editor's note: This is part of a series of occasional columns on managing the family business written by Senior Lecturer John A. Davis. In this article, Davis discusses when to make changes at the top. No one needs convincing that the... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

The Information Age has introduced well recieved opportunities to track performance. Fitbits and Fuelbands show individuals their own performance; service companies including Uber and leading hospitals help pick from drivers or doctors based on how others rate them;... View Details

Keywords: Management Accounting; Performance Measurement; Incentives; Control; Healthcare Industry; Education; Education Industry; Health Industry; Transportation Industry; Energy Industry; Auto Industry; United States; Japan; India

2013
Working Paper

How Do Risk Managers Become Influential? A Field Study in Two Financial Institutions

By: Matthew Hall, Anette Mikes and Yuval Millo

This paper, based on a five-year longitudinal study at two UK-based banks, documents and analyzes the practices used by risk managers as they aim to gather and establish influence in their organizations. Specifically, we examine how influence-seeking risk managers (1)... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Decision Making; Risk Management; Strategic Planning; Power and Influence; Business Strategy; Banking Industry

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February 2009
Article

Optimal Reserve Management and Sovereign Debt

By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

Most models currently used to determine optimal foreign reserve holdings take the level of international debt as given. However, given the sovereign's willingness-to-pay incentive problems, reserve accumulation may reduce sustainable debt levels. In addition, assuming... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Motivation and Incentives; Decisions; Emerging Markets; Balance and Stability; Earnings Management; Policy; Interest Rates; International Finance; Cost

Read Now

November 2000 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Activity-Based Management at W.S. Industries (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Sanjay Pothen

W.S. Industries undertakes the design and implementation of an activity based costing (ABC) system, and the ABC information empowers workers to make process improvement decisions. Workers' incentive pay is tied to cost savings from process improvements. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Evaluation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Knowledge Management; Energy Industry; India

May 2015
Article

Admitting Mistakes: Home Country Effect on the Reliability of Restatement Reporting

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Aida Sijamic Wahid and Gwen Yu

We study the frequency of restatements by foreign firms listed on U.S. exchanges. We find that the restatement rate of U.S. listed foreign firms is significantly lower than that of comparable U.S. firms and that the difference depends on the firm's home country... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Restatements; Home Country Enforcement; Earnings Management; Globalized Firms and Management; Law; Financial Reporting; Financial Markets; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues

SSRN

January 2004 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Farmington Industries, Inc.: Managing Currency Exposure Risk

By: David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen

The December 20, 1994 Mexican devaluation creates U.S. dollar losses for an unprepared U.S. corporation with multiple operations in Mexico. View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Globalized Firms and Management; International Accounting; Currency; United States; Mexico

1991
Article

How Management Bonus Plans Affect Reported Earnings

By: Paul M. Healy

Keywords: Management; Compensation and Benefits; Business Earnings

July 2012 (Revised February 2013)
Case

Société Internationale de Plantations et de Finance (SIPEF)

By: David Hawkins

Management of a company with extensive palm oil tree plantations questions the usefulness to management and investors of IAS41's requirement to value palm oil trees at their fair value. View Details

Keywords: Financial Accounting; International Financial Reporting Standards; International Accounting Standards; Biological Asset Accounting; IAS41; Historical Cost; Equity Valuation; Financial Ratios; Plant-Based Agribusiness; International Accounting; Valuation; Financial Reporting; Fair Value Accounting; Equity; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry