Publications

March 2020 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Political Legitimacy and Global Capital Markets: Malaysia's 1MDB (A)

By: Meg Rithmire and Courtney Han

In May 2018, Malaysia’s 14th General Election saw a change of power that many thought they would never witness in their lifetimes. The political party that had ruled Malaysia for 60 year was kicked out of office by a 92 year-old challenger, Mahathir Mohamed, who had... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Crime and Corruption; Financial Markets; Malaysia

03 Apr 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Bridge Building in Venture Capital-Backed Acquisitions

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers & Yuhai Xuan

2019
Working Paper

Second Chance: Life with Less Student Debt

By: Marco Di Maggio, Ankit Kalda and Vincent Yao

Rising student debt is considered one of the creeping threats of our time. This paper examines the effect of student debt relief on individual credit and labor market outcomes. We exploit the plausibly random debt discharge due to the inability of National Collegiate,... View Details

Keywords: Student Debt; Private Student Loans; Legal Settlement; Mobility; Debt Collection; Debt Relief; Borrowing and Debt; Personal Finance; Outcome or Result; United States

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August 2020 (Revised November 2024)
Case

NextView Ventures

By: Jo Tango and Nori Gerardo Lietz

David Beisel, Rob Go, and Lee Hower are non-partners at different-and-established venture capital (VC) firms. They decide to leave their positions to start a new seed-stage VC firm. The case covers the genesis of the firm, the formulation of its strategy and... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Strategy

07 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 7

equity (share issues). If there are no perfect substitutes for equity finance, payout taxes may therefore have an effect on the investment of firms. High taxes will favor investment by firms that can finance internally. Using an... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 May 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Just Say No to Wall Street: Putting A Stop to the Earnings Game

Keywords: by Joseph Fuller & Michael C. Jensen; Financial Services

29 Aug 2013
Working Paper Summaries

X-CAPM: An Extrapolative Capital Asset Pricing Model

Keywords: by Nicholas Barberis, Robin Greenwood, Lawrence Jin & Andrei Shleifer

06 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful

able to subordinate a personal agenda to ensure the success of the business. Management of Operations. Measures skills and behaviors associated with the ability to successfully manage the ongoing operations of a business. View Details

Keywords: by HBS Working Knowledge

2020
Working Paper

Revenue Collapses and the Consumption of Small Business Owners in the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: Olivia S. Kim, Jonathan A. Parker and Antoinette Schoar

Using detailed transaction-level data from financial accounts, this paper shows that the revenues of small businesses and the consumption spending of their owners both decline by roughly 40% following the declaration of the national emergency in March 2020. However,... View Details

Keywords: Revenue; Small Business; Health Pandemics; Spending

Find at Harvard

13 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

When Good Incentives Lead to Bad Decisions

economics," says Shawn A. Cole, an associate professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. "A frequent criticism of bankers in the recent crisis is that they took a lot of incentive pay in the years leading up to the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking

April 2014
Case

Don Valentine and Sequoia Capital

By: Felda Hardymon, Tom Nicholas and Liz Kind

Don Valentine participated in the beginnings of two significant milestones: the birth of the silicon chip and the development of the venture capital industry. From humble beginnings, Valentine became a legendary salesman at Fairchild Semiconductor and National... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Personal Development and Career; Semiconductor Industry

November 2020
Case

Truebird—An AlleyCorp Venture

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In December 2018, Kevin Ryan and Wendy Tsu faced an important decision – to finalize the CEO candidate for Truebird, an innovative, automated coffee café concept. Like many of AlleyCorp and Ryan’s companies, Truebird started with the observation of an unmet need – an... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Hiring; Staffing; Recruiting; Business Startups; Finance; Leadership; Management Skills; Management Teams; Jobs and Positions; Job Interviews; Human Resources; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Technology Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

25 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Fintech Borrowing

you're using the fintech personal loan for the right reason,” Di Maggio says. “This type of loan needs to be used as a consolidation tool or as a bridge loan to meet a specific, temporary need.” The loans should not be used to View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services; Banking

September 2017
Case

Blackstone's Julia Kahr at the Summit

By: Paul A. Gompers, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal

In 2009, Blackstone, the New York-based alternative asset and financial services firm, committed to invest up to $750 million into Summit Materials, a new company in the aggregates sector (i.e., construction materials, such as crushed stone, sand, gravel, cement,... View Details

13 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

Want to Be Happier? Spend Some Money on Avoiding Household Chores

finite lives. “The less control you feel you have over your daily experience, the less happy you feel. Money is a tool that allows you to purchase that control.” “People save for vacations, personal experiences, going out for nice meals,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

layoffs. By the time Breton left the company in 2005 to serve as French Finance Minister, things were looking up: The company was turning a profit. 22,000 workers must go Didier Lombard stepped in as CEO later that year, promising... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

16 Feb 2023
HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services

2010
Chapter

Lessons from Catastrophe Reinsurance

By: Kenneth A. Froot

Of the 20 most costly catastrophes since 1970, more than half have occurred since 2001. Is this an omen of what the 21st century will be? How might we behave in this new, uncertain, and more dangerous environment? Will our actions be rational or irrational? A select... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Insurance; Risk and Uncertainty; Natural Disasters; Behavior