Publications

In the fall of 2016, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, an Indian mobile payments and commerce platform, received the coveted "Entrepreneur of the Year" award from the Economic Times, a leading Indian business newspaper. Despite the public honor... View Details

2023
Working Paper

The Market for CEOs: Evidence from Private Equity

By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov

Most research on the CEO labor market studies public company CEOs while largely ignoring CEOs in private equity (PE) funded companies. We fill this gap by studying the market for CEOs among U.S. companies purchased by PE firms in large leveraged buyout transactions.... View Details

Keywords: CEOs; Jobs and Positions; Ownership; Recruitment

22 Mar 2022
Cold Call Podcast

How Etsy Found Its Purpose and Crafted a Turnaround

Keywords: Re: Ranjay Gulati; Technology; Retail

December 1997 (Revised December 2013)
Case

CCBN.COM

By: William A. Sahlman

A new service is being developed to help investor-relations managers at public companies communicate with investors over the Internet. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Service Operations; Internet

July 2022
Case

boAt Lifestyle

By: Rajiv Lal and Kairavi Dey

boAt began as a lifestyle brand in the consumer electronics category in 2016 with the aim of bringing affordable, durable, and fashionable audio products and accessories to millennials and Gen-Z customers in India. Born in 2016 with Amazon India as its only sales... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Initial Public Offering; Digital Marketing; Product Development; Product Marketing; Business or Company Management; Electronics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; India

28 Jul 2015
News

Fitness With A Flick Of The Wrist

December 1997 (Revised December 1998)
Case

ArthroCare

A young company in the medical devices area, ArthroCare, has been public for six months, and its stock--after initially performing very well--is now dropping. At the same time, the company is confronted with several tactical decisions that could impact near-term... View Details

Keywords: Public Ownership; Decisions; Equity; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

31 May 2018
News

Starbucks’ racial bias training has another goal

20 Aug 2012
News

The Acquirers

February 2025 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Align Partners and SM Entertainment: Korean Shareholder Activism Meets K-Pop (A)

By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Billy Chan

For years, institutional investors had experienced very limited success in influencing the management of listed companies through shareholder activist campaigns in Korea. The common practice of circular ownership and public resentment toward foreign shareholder... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Public Equity; Stocks; Investment Activism; Music Entertainment; Corporate Governance; Success; Business and Shareholder Relations; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; South Korea

2016
Book

Building a Culture of Health: A New Imperative for Business

By: John A. Quelch and Emily C. Boudreau

This ambitious volume sets out to understand how every company impacts public health and introduces a robust model, rooted in organizational and scientific knowledge, for companies committed to making positive contributions to health and wellness. Focusing on four... View Details

Keywords: Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health

Find at Harvard

02 Feb 2012
News

Will Facebook Live Up to the Hype?

February 2025
Supplement

Align Partners and SM Entertainment: Korean Shareholder Activism Meets K-Pop (B)

By: Charles CY Wang and Billy Chan

For years, institutional investors had experienced very limited success in influencing the management of listed companies through shareholder activist campaigns in Korea. The common practice of circular ownership and public resentment toward foreign shareholder... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Public Equity; Stocks; Investment Activism; Music Entertainment; Corporate Governance; Success; Business and Shareholder Relations; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; South Korea

January 2005 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Arch Wireless, Inc.

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Perry L. Fagan

The largest wireless paging company in the United States has to restructure its debt in response to the collapse of its market. The restructuring faces formidable challenges. Valuing the company is extremely difficult because Arch's public competitors are also severely... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Organizational Structure; Valuation

June 2010
Case

Digital Link (A)

The Digital Link (A) and (B) cases present the struggles of a small public technology company to get and maintain analyst and investor attention during the "dot-com boom" of the 1990's. The case can be used in MBA or Executive Education classes. The (A) case takes... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Institutional Investing; Public Ownership

Find at Harvard

March 2017 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Corey Thomas and the IPO

By: Steven Rogers and Derrick Collins

Corey Thomas, the African American CEO of the company Rapid7, must decide if it is the right time to take the 15-year-old company public, as it stood poised to capitalize on what appeared to be the next frontier for digital technology markets—cybersecurity. In spite of... View Details

Keywords: Business Finance; Capital Markets; Private Equity; Internet and the Web; Initial Public Offering; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; United States

October 2007 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation: Venture Philanthropy Funding for Biotech

By: Robert F. Higgins, Sophie LaMontagne and Brent Kazan

In 2001, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated acquired the San Diego-based biotech company, Aurora Biosciences. The combination of Vertex's and Aurora's technologies would improve the flow of novel drug candidates into development. However, several questions related to... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Philanthropy Funding; Innovation; Funding Model; Venture Capital; Partners and Partnerships; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Acquisition; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; San Diego