Publications

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March 1995 (Revised June 1997)
Teaching Note

Citibank: Launching the Credit Card in Asia Pacific (A) TN

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

Teaching Note for (9-595-026). View Details

Keywords: Credit Cards; Banking Industry; Asia; Oceania

15 May 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Mobile Money Services-Design and Development for Financial Inclusion

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Ishan Sachdev; Banking

November 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Background Note

Why Consumers Don't Buy: The Psychology of New Product Adoption

By: John T. Gourville

Looks at the consumer psychology of new product adoption. Identifies a key reason why consumers do not adopt innovations as quickly as developers think they should--an irrational resistance to behavioral change. Identifies strategies for firms to manage and overcome... View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Consumer Behavior; Social Psychology

May 2012 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Credit Unions: The Future of the Cooperative Financial Institution

By: Robert C. Pozen and Grace Hou

Credit unions are a specialized type of depository institution with a cooperative, non-profit structure and a federal tax exemption. They originated as small, cooperative institutions with an emphasis on uncollateralized consumer lending to the unbanked... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Credit Unions; Banks and Banking

24 Nov 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Accounting for Product Impact in the Consumer Finance Industry

Keywords: by George Serafeim and Katie Trinh; Financial Services

13 Mar 2025
Blog Post

Launching Leaders: HBS's New Initiative Fuels First-Generation and Low-Income Student Success

initiative he helped establish. “Having enough financial aid to be here is not sufficient to ensure that you have the cultural capital to navigate an environment and institution like HBS,” Bedford explained. “Low-income and first-gen... View Details

July 1997 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Allentown Materials Corporation: The Electronic Products Division (A)

By: Michael Beer

A division of Allentown Materials Corp. has financial and organizational problems. Conflict and lack of coordination exist between functional groups. Employees do not have a sense of direction, and morale is low. The cause of these problems is found in a change in... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Employees; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Electronics Industry

May 2007
Case

Demand and Supply Forecasting at Air Products - Electronics Specialty Materials

Explores the process and inputs behind financial and operational forecasting in the Electronic Specialty Materials unit at Air Products and Chemicals, a global chemical company. The protagonist, John Goldberg, grapples with how to better integrate the two forecasting... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Operations; Forecasting and Prediction; Supply and Industry; Finance; Chemical Industry

04 Nov 2015
What Do You Think?

Why Does Gender Diversity Improve Financial Performance?

only on paper.” There were several criticisms of the fact that the research identified correlations, not causes. Norman Toy made the point by stressing the especially mischievous nature of the use of correlation in this case. In his words, “One interpretation is that... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

17 Oct 2017
News

HBX Offers Separate Certificate Programs in Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, Financial Accounting

18 May 2021
Book

Launching a Career in the COVID Economy? Here Are 5 Tips.

building and have someone to advocate for you when you aren’t in the room. Also, pick a few important meetings, such as staff retreats, to attend in person. When you are present, be extra visible by greeting as many people as you can. 4. Take ownership Although every... View Details

Keywords: by Carolyn DiPaolo

2013
Working Paper

How Does Risk Management Influence Production Decisions? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Shawn Cole, Xavier Gine and James Vickery

Weather is a key source of income risk, particularly in emerging market economies. This paper uses a randomized controlled trial involving a sample of Indian farmers to study how an innovative rainfall insurance product affects production decisions. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Production; Weather; Insurance; Emerging Markets; Agribusiness; Insurance Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

Read Now

01 Dec 2008
News

No Easy Fix for the Financial Crisis

in the United States for every physical product you touch. And we say if it doesn’t meet certain basic safety standards, you can’t sell it to consumers. But we have nothing like that for financial products.... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson;Martha Lagace; deregulation; moral hazard; the middle class; Finance

January 1997 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Improving the Product Development Process at Kirkham Instruments Corp.

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Describes the efforts of a manufacturer of scientific instruments to implement new methods of managing new product development, which its executives had learned in a Harvard Business School seminar. The executives left the seminar excited to implement a new way of... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Product Launch; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; United States

November 2008
Journal Article

Financial Constraints and Growth: Multinational and Local Firm Responses to Currency Crises

By: Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley and Kristin Forbes

This paper examines how financial constraints and product market exposures determine the response of multinational and local firms to sharp depreciations. U.S. multinational affiliates increase sales, assets, and investment significantly more than local firms during,... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Currency; Private Equity; Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; United States