Publications

June 2023 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Albert Einstein: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the rise of Albert Einstein from a small town in Germany to a towering intellectual leader who revolutionized the field of physics. The case describes his early education and his penchant for individual thinking and non-conformity. A committed... View Details

Keywords: Science; Research; Personal Characteristics; Mission and Purpose; Success; Work-Life Balance; Higher Education; Power and Influence

July 2022
Article

The Pass-Through of Uncertainty Shocks to Households

By: Marco Di Maggio, Amir Kermani, Rodney Ramcharan, Vincent Yao and Edison Yu

Using new employer-employee matched data, this paper investigates the impact of uncertainty, as measured by idiosyncratic stock market volatility, on individual outcomes. We find that firms provide at best partial insurance to their workers. An increase in firm-level... View Details

Keywords: Employment Risk; Consumption; Employment; Risk and Uncertainty; System Shocks; Insurance; Household; Spending

2021
Article

An Empirical Examination of Sell-Side Brokerage Analysts' Published Research, Concierge Services, and High-Touch Services

By: David A. Maber, Boris Groysberg and Paul M. Healy

This paper uses a proprietary panel dataset to categorize and quantify the activities that sell-side brokerage analysts use to build and sustain their network of buy-side client relations. We then examine the marginal impact of these activities on key analyst outcome... View Details

Keywords: Sell-side Analysts; Analyst Ratings; Brokerage Commissions; Earnings Forecasts

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September 2018
Article

Assembling the Sales Team

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Data and analytical tasks have lengthened productivity ramp-up times in many sales contexts, making each hire a bigger sunk cost for a longer time. Most companies adopt two common practices: They hire on the basis of “experience” and/or look at their best reps and try... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Selection and Staffing

March 2018
Article

Scraped Data and Sticky Prices

By: Alberto Cavallo

I use daily prices collected from online retailers in five countries to study the impact of measurement bias on three common price stickiness statistics. Relative to previous results, I find that online prices have longer durations, with fewer price changes close to... View Details

Keywords: Online Data; Scraped Data; Sticky Prices; Scanner Data; Consumer Price Index; Price; Data and Data Sets

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2015
Chapter

Reliable Sustainability Ratings: The Influence of Business Models on Information Intermediaries

By: Robert G. Eccles, Jock Herron and George Serafeim

A new generation of corporate reporting—integrated reporting—is emerging that will help investors and other key stakeholders such as employees, customers, suppliers, and NGOs develop a deeper and more comprehensive appreciation of corporate performance than what is... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Business Models; Business Model

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2014
Working Paper

Governing Misvalued Firms

By: Dalida Kadyrzhanova and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

Equity overvaluation is thought to create the potential for managerial misbehavior, while monitoring and corporate governance curb misbehavior. We combine these two insights from the literatures on misvaluation and governance to ask, when does governance matter?... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Performance; Corporate Governance

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June 2012 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Great Western Hospital: High-risk Pregnancy Care

By: Michael E. Porter, Emma Stanton and Samuel Takvorian

Great Western Hospital (GWH) is a community hospital in Wiltshire, South West England and one of England's largest maternity providers; responsible for delivering over 9,000 babies per year. The case discusses the efforts of Dr. Harini Narayan, consultant obstetrician... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Service Delivery; Risk Management

January 2008 (Revised July 2010)
Case

Wal-Mart's Use of Interest Rate Swaps

"Wal-Mart's Use of Interest Rate Swaps" recounts Wal-Mart's use of interest rate swaps to hedge the fair value of its fixed-rate debt against changing interest rates. This case provides students with a foundation for understanding the use of and accounting for more... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Financial Statements; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Financial Strategy; Interest Rates; Corporate Disclosure

December 2004 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Cheetah Conservation Fund Bush Project, The

Laurie Marker, head of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, is trying to form a for-profit institution, the Bush Project, to control the bush encroachment problem in Namibia. Bush encroachment not only destroys the general ecosystem, but it also has a harmful impact on the... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; For-Profit Firms; Emerging Markets; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Strategy; Africa