Publications

November 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Rio Tinto and Mining in Mongolia: The Oyu Tolgoi Deposit

By: Eric Werker, Battushig Batbold, Kelsey Kennedy, Zanna McComish, Shaloo Savla and Nicole Shomair

In 2013, Rio Tinto was expected to begin commercial shipments from Oyu Tolgoi, a copper and gold mine in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Oyu Tolgoi was one of the last great unmined deposits in the world, and, once operations were in full swing, was expected to constitute... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Investment; Business and Government Relations; Mining; Mining Industry; Mongolia

08 Jul 2021
Blog Post

Managing Sustainable Advantage with Key ESG Co-Founders, Anne-Marie Schoonbeek and Heleen van Poecke

together. Building on the friendship they formed at HBS, their MBAs, and learnings from their careers to date, Schoonbeek and van Poecke founded Key ESG, a software solution that helps View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology

December 2019 (Revised August 2022)
Exercise

Janet Ames (B)

By: Brian Trelstad and Brian Trelstad

The series of Janet Ames cases follow a fictional alumna of Harvard Business School into her consulting career in Boston. Over the series of cases, Ames is first offered the opportunity to join the board of a Boston-based non-profit organization, which offers students... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Board; Non-profit Management; Career Changes And Transitions; Evaluation; Personal Development and Career; Opportunities; Decision Choices and Conditions; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Governing and Advisory Boards; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Management; United States

Web

The Canton Trade and The Hong Merchants System - A Chronicle of the China Trade

Related Collections Site Credits The system devised by the Chinese for carrying on the foreign trade was a masterpiece of wisdom. In no part of the world could operations of such magnitude be carried on with so much ease. The only... View Details

2015
Working Paper

Materiality in Corporate Governance: The Statement of Significant Audiences and Materiality

By: Robert G. Eccles and Tim Youmans

Under the prevailing ideology of "shareholder primacy" most boards of directors believe that they are prevented from considering stakeholders other than shareholders in determining material issues and materiality for strategy and reporting. New research is showing that... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations

SSRN

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30 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Vanguard, Trian And The Problem With 'Passive' Index Funds

M. Viceira, the George E. Bates Professor and senior associate dean for International Development at Harvard Business School. “That raises the question, who is exercising control in these corporations?” In... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

2003
Book

When You Say Yes But Mean No: How Silencing Conflict Wrecks Relationships and Companies

By: Leslie Perlow

“Saying yes when you really mean no” is a problem that haunts organizations from start-ups to multi-nationals. It exists across industries, levels, and functions. And it’s exacerbated by a down economy, when the fear of losing one’s job is on everybody’s mind and the... View Details

Keywords: Conflict and Resolution; Relationships; Business Ventures

Find at Harvard

28 May 2017
Blog Post

HBS on the Road: Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d'Ivoire

events in Africa? Africa is hugely important to the global community and is poised to become even more important economically. We need the perspectives of African students in our classrooms and community. They have a very different... View Details

28 Nov 2023
Book

Economic Growth Draws Companies to Asia. Can They Handle Its Authoritarian Regimes?

economic stagnation, while mutual endangerment can contribute to financial instability and erosion of regime political discipline. I explain the development of one pattern of relations over another by... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2024
Working Paper

When Insurers Exit: Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets

By: Ishita Sen, Pari Sastry and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva

This paper studies how homeowners insurance markets respond to growing climate losses and how this impacts mortgage market dynamics. Using Florida as a case study, we show that traditional insurers are exiting high risk areas, and new lower quality insurers are... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Natural Disasters; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Insurance Industry; Florida

SSRN

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February 2009 (Revised October 2012)
Case

Tata Motors in Singur: Public Purpose and Private Property (B)

By: Laura Alfaro, Lakshmi Iyer and Namrata Arora

In October 2008, Tata Motors canceled their car manufacturing plant in West Bengal state, in the face of widespread farmer protests over land acquisition issues. This meant abandoning a project in which the company had invested $300 million and delaying the launch of... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Rights; Emerging Markets; Property; Business and Government Relations; Conflict and Resolution; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; West Bengal

2009
Working Paper

Endowments, Fiscal Federalism, and the Cost of Capital for States: Evidence from Brazil, 1891-1930

By: Andre C. Martinez Fritscher and Aldo Musacchio

There is a large amount of literature that aims to explain what determines country risk (defined as the difference between the yield of a sovereign's bonds and the risk free rate). In this paper, we contribute to the discussion by arguing that an important explanatory... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Cost of Capital; Revenue; Sovereign Finance; Goods and Commodities; Taxation; Business History; Risk and Uncertainty; Brazil

Read Now

October 2001
Case

Blethen Family and the Seattle Times Company (B), The

By: John A. Davis and Cathy Quinn

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Entrepreneurship; Family Business; Journalism and News Industry; Journalism and News Industry

14 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

When the Rubber Meets the Road, Most Commuters Text and Email While Driving

A majority of commuters admit to multitasking on the road, including texting and reading emails, according to new research that reveals the widespread extent of distracted driving. About 87 percent of commuters are engaged in at least one... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

December 2019 (Revised August 2022)
Exercise

Janet Ames (C)

By: Brian Trelstad and Brian Trelstad

The series of Janet Ames cases follow a fictional alumna of Harvard Business School into her consulting career in Boston. Over the series of cases, Ames is first offered the opportunity to join the board of a Boston-based non-profit organization, which offers students... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Board; Non-profit Management; Career Changes And Transitions; Evaluation; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Governing and Advisory Boards; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Management; Personal Development and Career; United States

09 Mar 2018
News

The Supply Chain Economy and the Future of Good Jobs in America

November 2022
Case

The Battle Among Channels for Marketing Pharmaceuticals: UpScript, Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and Direct-to-Consumer Sales

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Tiffany Farrell

Can an online, direct-to-consumer pharmacy both improve the quality and speed of care for patients who need branded drugs and stabilize profits for pharmaceutical manufacturers? UpScript, after years spent achieving legal and regulatory compliance and simultaneous... View Details

Keywords: DTC; Internet and the Web; Marketing Channels; Customer Value and Value Chain; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competitive Strategy; Service Delivery; Growth and Development Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Retail Industry

Article

The Influence of Ownership on Accounting Information Expenditures

This paper analyzes the association between ownership, top management incentives, and expenditures on accounting information. We argue that organizations with privately appointed boards of directors such as for-profit and non-governmental nonprofit organizations use... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Motivation and Incentives; Accounting; Health Care and Treatment; Ownership; Health Industry