Publications

March 1992 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Lada do Brasil

By: James E. Austin and Helen Shapiro

In an effort to capitalize on the entrepreneurial opportunity presented by the Brazilian government's trade liberalization, a Panamanian automobile trading company launched a business of importing the Russian made Lada cars into Brazil. The company confronts a complex... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Transformation; Economics; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Capital; Policy; Competition; Auto Industry; Brazil

2022
Working Paper

The Evolution of ESG Reports and the Role of Voluntary Standards

By: Ethan Rouen, Kunal Sachdeva and Aaron Yoon

We examine the evolution of ESG reports of S&P 500 firms from 2010 to 2021. The percentage of firms releasing these voluntary disclosures increased from 35% to 86% during this period, although the length of these documents experienced more modest growth. Using a... View Details

Keywords: Voluntary Disclosure; Textual Analysis; Modeling And Analysis; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; AI and Machine Learning; Accounting

SSRN

Read Now

01 Jun 2025
News

Alumni Achievement Awards 2025

Edited by Julia Hanna; photographs by Susan Young Award Recipients Video MORE ON THE RECIPIENTS Read more about the 2025 recipients, and learn about past recipients. ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS SITE MORE ON THE RECIPIENTS Read more about the 2025 recipients, and learn... View Details

Keywords: leadership; Alumni Achievement Awards

19 Jan 2016
News

Electric Avenues

Costa Rica showing interest, and diverse, with corporations considering Agora to help manage shareholder and employee communications. “People want to be heard, but they have no channel,” says Sze. “We’re trying to fix democracy, one town... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

Web

ARD - Georges F. Doriot : Educating Leaders, Building Companies, Baker Library, Harvard Business School

Education Alumni Baker Library Historical Collections MORE EXHIBITS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS RESEARCH LINKS SITE CREDITS GEORGES F. DORIOT Introduction EDUCATION Early Years at HBS Educating Leaders INNOVATION & VC Wartime Innovation ARD DEC View Details

08 Dec 2015
First Look

December 8, 2015

market power. This reflected a business system in which a close relationship between finance and industry was discouraged, but where there were few restrictions on the transfer of corporate ownership. Yet... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2017
Supplement

Snap Inc. Goes Public (B)

By: Lynn Sharp Paine and Will Hurwitz

Supplements the (A) case.

Snap Inc.’s chairman must decide how to address investor concerns about the company’s unprecedented plans to issue only non-voting shares in its upcoming IPO. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Business and Shareholder Relations; Leadership; Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; California

2024
Working Paper

Scaling Core Earnings Measurement with Large Language Models

By: Matthew Shaffer and Charles CY Wang

We study the application of large language models (LLMs) to the estimation of core earnings, i.e., a firm's persistent profitability from its core business activities. This construct is central to investors' assessments of economic performance and valuations. However,... View Details

Keywords: Large Language Models; AI and Machine Learning; Accounting; Profit; Corporate Disclosure; Analytics and Data Science; Measurement and Metrics

SSRN

September 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Supplement

Acumen Fund: Measurement in Impact Investing (B)

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

As Acumen Fund, a global venture philanthropy firm, moves forward with an investment portfolio exceeding $22 million, it runs into two critical measurement problems. First, how should it track the performance of each investment when its interest is not just the bottom... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Evaluation; Social Enterprise; Competition; Financial Services Industry; Kenya

July 2021
Teaching Note

Eaton Corporation: Portfolio Transformation and the Cost of Capital

By: Benjamin C. Esty, E. Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 221-006 and 221-070. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Divisions; Cost of Capital; Corporate Finance; Value; Valuation; Industrial Products Industry; United States; Denmark; Republic of Ireland

July 2012
Case

Owen's Precision Machining

By: Ramana Nanda and James McQuade

For the second time in fourteen months, Christopher Owen, the second-generation owner of Owen's Precision Machining (OPM), found himself running out of cash. Owen wondered what he was doing wrong. How much additional money would he need to raise to get OPM through the... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Cash Flow; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Problems and Challenges; Business Strategy; Corporate Finance; Manufacturing Industry; Massachusetts

March 2009
Article

The Impact of Shareholder Activism on Financial Reporting and Compensation: The Case of Employee Stock Options Expensing

By: F. Ferri and Tatiana Sandino

We examine the economic consequences of more than 150 shareholder proposals to expense employee stock options (ESO) submitted during the proxy seasons of 2003 and 2004, the first case in which the SEC allowed a shareholder vote on an accounting matter. Our results... View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Shareholder Votes; Stock Option Expensing; Executive Compensation; Financial Reporting; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Investment Activism

SSRN

Find at Harvard

24 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 24

alternative financing models of corporate lenders, including banks and finance companies.) The second major component of the case concerns distressed debt investment strategies... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

19 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 19

Becker, Zoran Ivkovic, and Scott Weisbenner Publication:Journal of Finance 66, no. 2 (April 2011) Abstract : We exploit demographic variation to identify the effect of dividend demand on corporate payout... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 1995 (Revised December 1995)
Case

Dividend Policy at FPL Group, Inc. (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Craig F Schreiber

A Wall Street analyst has just learned that FPL (the holding company for Florida's largest electric utility) may cut its dividend in several days despite a 47-year streak of consecutive dividend increases. In response to the deregulation of the electric utility... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Corporate Strategy; Policy; Competitive Strategy; Financial Strategy; Fluctuation; Energy Sources; Emerging Markets; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; Florida

November 2006
Case

Tickle

By: William A. Sahlman and Dan Heath

Describes a set of decisions confronting the management team of a rapidly growing online psychological testing and social networking company. They can either sell the company to a large public company, raise another round of capital from a preeminent venture capital... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Internet and the Web; Growth Management; Internet and the Web; Business Strategy; Corporate Finance

November 1996 (Revised February 1997)
Case

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, The

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Stephanie L. Woerner

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) runs one of the nation's most important research libraries and a museum focusing on colonial history. Financial analysis shows that the society has absorbed increased costs of operation over the past decade through slow but... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Cost; Human Resources; Leadership Style; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Managerial Roles; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Strategy; Pennsylvania