Publications

November 2010 (Revised October 2012)
Background Note

Farmland Investing: A Technical Note

By: Ray Goldberg, Arthur I Segel, Gustavo Herrero and Andrew Terris

This note seeks to provide an overview of farmland investing, the investment thesis behind investing in agriculture, how and why investors would choose farmland, and the general risks and return characteristics of this asset class. In recent years, a growing number of... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Investment; Investment Return; Risk Management; Property; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Asia; United States; South America

August 2008
Case

Du Pont: The Birth of the Modern Multidivisional Corporation

By: Richard S. Tedlow and David Ruben

Du Pont's realization in 1921 that its "U-form" corporate structure was ill-suited to its new diversification strategy led to a pioneering new kind of organization—the "M" or multidivisional form—that has been called the most important innovation of capitalism in the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Alignment; Corporate Strategy

15 Aug 2014
News

Getting a handle on inversion

17 Feb 2011
News

Business Ready for 'Shared Values,' But Government Lags

28 Jan 2020
News

Constraints Don’t Have to Be Constraining

June 2018
Teaching Note

ALAC International

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

ALAC International (ALAC) was awarded the U.S. distributorship of di-isononyl phthalate (DINP) which provided ALAC an opportunity to increase its sales and profits. But the opportunity required a significant additional investment in working capital. The DINP, shipped... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Financing and Loans; Growth Management

November 2013
Article

Investment Cycles and Startup Innovation

By: Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

We find that VC-backed firms receiving their initial investment in hot markets are more likely to go bankrupt, but conditional on going public are valued higher on the day of their IPO, have more patents, and have more citations to their patents. Our results suggest... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Market Cycles; Financing Risk; Risk and Uncertainty; Venture Capital; Investment; Innovation and Invention

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18 Jul 2024
Blog Post

Building the Future: An HBS Alumna’s Journey in Sustainable Infrastructure Investment

Abisinuola David-Olusa (MBA 2024) is a recent graduate from Nigeria. Prior to HBS, she worked with an African-focused private equity fund deploying capital for infrastructure investing. At HBS, she was Section E’s Education... View Details

December 1997 (Revised May 1998)
Case

CUC and HFS: Corporate Identity for a "Merger of Equals"

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Robert J. Crawford

In the wake of a major $20 billion market capitalization "merger of equals," two large consumer service firms must determine a new name for the new entity. Neither CUC nor HFS is well known among consumers. The CUC Services (e.g., shopping, travel, credit card... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital; Brands and Branding; Identity; Customization and Personalization; Value; Service Industry

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Web

Accounting & Management - Faculty & Research

prices staying high, Greece adopting Carbon Contracts for Difference, and rapid build-out of transport-and-storage infrastructure. Internally, supporters laud the strategic leap and capacity upside; critics fear concentration of risk, View Details

09 Jan 2024
In Practice

Harnessing AI: What Businesses Need to Know in ChatGPT’s Second Year

As a new year begins, the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the future of work permeates nearly every workplace-related discussion, from diversity, equity, and inclusion goals and venture capital funding to strategic... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology

October 2015
Case

Integrating Avocent Corporation into Emerson Network Power

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Vincent M. Servello

This case reviews Emerson Electric’s proposed acquisition of Avocent Corporation in 2009. The focus of this case is how a technology company such as Avocent, with a dramatically different business model compared to its acquirer, should be integrated into a large,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Integration; Human Capital; Acquisition; Technology Industry

Teaching Interest

MBA Elective Curriculum: Investment Strategies

By: Malcolm P. Baker

This is a CORE course for students pursuing careers in finance. Thus, students interested in pursuing careers in mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds, endowments, wealth management, financial consulting, marketing and client service, sales and trading,... View Details

July–August 2016
Article

How to Pay for Health Care

By: Michael E. Porter and Robert S. Kaplan

The United States stands at a crossroads in how to pay for health care. Fee for service, the dominant model in the United States and many other countries, is now widely recognized as perhaps the biggest obstacle to improving health care delivery. A battle is currently... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Finance; Health Industry; United States

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2011
Working Paper

Top Executive Background and Financial Reporting Choice

By: Francois Brochet and Kyle Travis Welch

We study the role of executive functional background in explaining management discretion in financial reporting. Taking goodwill impairment as our reporting setting, we focus on top executives (CEOs and CFOs) whose employment history includes experience in investment... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Goodwill Accounting; Experience and Expertise; Decision Choices and Conditions; Managerial Roles; Agency Theory

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September 2019 (Revised August 2021)
Case

It's All About Family: Esas Group

By: Christina R. Wing and Alpana Thapar

This case describes how Ali Sabancı and his sister Emine Sabancı Kamışlı, shareholders of Esas Group, one of Turkey’s largest family-owned investment firms, worked to grow and professionalize the business. While their father Şevket Sabancı, played an instrumental role... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Governance; Growth and Development Strategy; Turkey

May 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Mobike and ofo: Dancing with Titans (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Haibo Zhao

This case address pacing issues – how fast does a company need to scale? It also examines the role of investors in determining company strategy and exit.
Mobike and ofo were two dominant players in China’s emerging dockless bike-sharing market, that allowed users... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Competition; Value Creation; Governance; Economics; Business Startups; Strategy; Business Exit or Shutdown; Entrepreneurship; Infrastructure; Transportation; Bicycle Transportation; China

March 2025
Case

Silicon Valley Bank: Gone in 36 Hours

By: Jung Koo Kang, Krishna G. Palepu, Charles C.Y. Wang and David Lane

This case examines factors contributing to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March 2023, an event as unpredicted as it was quick. SVB funded nearly half of all U.S. venture-backed startups and at the end of 2022 held $173 billion in deposits, largely... View Details