Publications

2011
Working Paper

Non-Audit Services and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from 1978-1980

By: Kevin Koh, Shiva Rajgopal and Suraj Srinivasan

We provide evidence for the long-standing concern on auditor conflicts of interest from providing non-audit services (NAS) to audit clients by using rarely explored NAS fee data from 1978 to 1980. Using this earlier setting, we find cross-sectional evidence of improved... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Financial Reporting; Stocks; Price; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Service Delivery; Quality; Research

SSRN

2013
Article

Non-Audit Services and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from 1978–1980

By: Kevin Koh, Shiva Rajgopal and Suraj Srinivasan

We provide evidence for the long-standing concern on auditor conflicts of interest from providing non-audit services (NAS) to audit clients by using rarely explored NAS fee data from 1978 to 1980. Using this earlier setting, we find cross-sectional evidence of improved... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Financial Reporting; Accounting Audits; Knowledge Dissemination; Quality; Corporate Disclosure; Motivation and Incentives

SSRN

December 2014 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Discovery Limited

By: Michael E. Porter, Mark R. Kramer and Aldo Sesia

Discovery Ltd. is a South Africa-based insurance company. Started in the early 1990s, Discovery used behavioral economics and data collection to innovate in the health care insurance industry. Its founder Adrian Gore believed that the company's products needed to not... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Health Care; Financial Services; Strategy; Value Creation; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; South Africa

July 2025
Article

Digital Lending and Financial Well-Being: Through the Lens of Mobile Phone Data

By: AJ Chen, Omri Even-Tov, Jung Koo Kang and Regina Wittenberg-Moerman

To mitigate information asymmetry about borrowers in developing economies, digital lenders use machine-learning algorithms and nontraditional data from borrowers’ mobile devices. Consequently, digital lenders have managed to expand access to credit for millions of... View Details

Keywords: Informal Economy; Digital Banking; Mobile Phones; Developing Countries and Economies; Mobile and Wireless Technology; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Credit; Borrowing and Debt; Well-being; Banking Industry; Kenya

April 2013
Teaching Plan

Barclays and the LIBOR Scandal

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

In the summer of 2012, Barclays plc, one of the largest banks in the world, agreed to settle with authorities and acknowledged that the firm had manipulated LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate)—a benchmark reference rate that was fundamental to the operation of... View Details

Keywords: Financial Systems; Financial Services; Corruption; Regulation; General Management; Management; Leadership; Economic Systems; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Culture; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

09 Nov 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Intermediation in the Supply of Agricultural Products in Developing Economies

Keywords: by Kris Johnson Ferreira, Joel Goh, and Ehsan Valavi

February 2019 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Banorte and the Capital Call Facility: Infrastructure Finance in Mexico

By: John D. Macomber, Carla Larangeira and Fernanda Miguel

As a result of Mexico´s pension industry deregulation, pension funds were able to invest in energy and infrastructure projects through a variety of financial instruments, particularly through Capital Development Certificates (CKDs), an asset class that served as a... View Details

Keywords: Financial Products; Fund Management; Capital Call Facility; Pension Funds; Infrastructure; Energy; Finance; Decision Making; Investment Funds; Financial Instruments; North America; Mexico

29 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Inventing Products is Less Valuable Than Inventing Ideas

social network that would allow everyone to share their lives with one another across geographies. "Compared to the value of the global network idea, the value of the actual product of a platform for college kids was much less,"... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

January 1997
Background Note

Assigning Support Department Expenses to Production Cost Centers (B): Flexible Budgets

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Describes the use of flexible budgets to assign support/service department costs to production cost centers. View Details

Keywords: Cost; Financial Strategy; Budgets and Budgeting

March 2010
Article

Female Empowerment: Further Evidence From a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

By: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin

Female "empowerment" has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a... View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Product; Microfinance; Decision Making; Policy; Welfare or Wellbeing; Gender; Power and Influence; Philippines

2017
Working Paper

Intermediation in the Supply of Agricultural Products in Developing Economies

By: Kris J. Ferreira, Joel Goh and Ehsan Valavi

Problem Definition: Farmers face several challenges in agricultural supply chains in emerging economies that contribute to extreme levels of poverty. One common challenge is that farmers only have access to one channel, often an auction, for which to sell their crops.... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries; Agricultural Supply Chain; Intermediation; Multiple Cahnels; Walrasian Auction; Developing Countries and Economies; Supply Chain; Distribution Channels; Profit; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

October 2010
Journal Article

The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition: The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Corporate Hierarchies

By: Maria Guadalupe and Julie Wulf

This paper establishes a causal effect of product market competition on various characteristics of organizational design. Using a unique panel-dataset on firm hierarchies of large U.S. firms (1986-1999) and a quasi-natural experiment (trade liberalization), we find... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Product; Markets; Competition; Organizational Design; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Rank and Position; Organizational Structure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Change; Trade; United States

Web

Reconceiving Products & Markets - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

safety, health, education, nutrition, living with disability, housing, financial security, etc.) Opening new markets by serving unmet needs in underserved communities, which often requires redesigned View Details

21 Mar 2023
Blog Post

Grundfos: Innovation & Inspiration for Sustainable Product Design

In January 2023, Professors Willy Shih and Mike Toffel led more than 40 HBS MBA students on site visits to witness the energy transition and innovative sustainable production activities throughout Denmark and the Netherlands, in their new... View Details

2004
Other Unpublished Work

SEED: A Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

By: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin

Keywords: Saving; Financial Instruments; Philippines

June 2025
Case

Parque del Sendero: Repositioning in the Death Care Industry in Chile

By: Jill Avery, Andres Cuneo and Marco Bertini

Facing changing consumer behavior and shifting industry conditions, Parque del Sendero, one of largest networks of cemeteries in Chile, considers repositioning its products to appeal to a broader swath of Chilean customers to fuel growth and a more profitable business... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Positioning; Branding; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Service Industry; Real Estate Industry; Chile

01 Sep 2017
News

HBS Fund Supports Core Priorities Including Financial Aid

after graduating,” she explains. “I want to help put others in a position to choose careers based on impact and enrichment, not just a paycheck.” (photo by Susan Young) To direct your HBS Fund gift to fellowships, look for the “Student... View Details

11 Dec 2017
Blog Post

3 Ways Financial Aid is Unique at HBS

the financial position of recent HBS graduates. For the Class of 2017, the average debt was $87,300. The median starting salary at graduation was $135,000 and the median signing bonus (for students who... View Details

August 2013 (Revised November 2013)
Supplement

Ford vs. GM: The Evolution of Mass Production (B)

By: Willy Shih

This case explores the very different paths taken by the Ford Motor Company and the General Motors Corporation in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Henry Ford's Model T was a car for the masses. After considerable experimentation, Ford Motor... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Exploration; Dominant Design; Business Growth and Maturation; Business History; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Product Design; Product Development; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Vertical Integration; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Michigan