Publications

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January 26, 2016
Article

Hiding Personal Information Reveals the Worst

By: Leslie K. John, Kate Barasz and Michael I. Norton

Seven experiments explore people's decisions to share or withhold personal information and the wisdom of such decisions. When people choose not to reveal information—to be "hiders"—they are judged negatively by others (experiment 1). These negative judgments emerge... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; Transparency; Policy-making; Privacy; Information; Corporate Disclosure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Trust

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June 2008 (Revised January 2012)
Background Note

Solving a Problem or Sounding the Alarm? Guidelines on Blowing the Whistle

By: Lynn S. Paine and Lara Adamsons

Many of us will at some point in our professional lives encounter situations involving what we believe to be wrongful or injurious activities that may cause harm to innocent parties, our company, or the public. It may be necessary to bring the matter to the attention... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Business Processes; Behavior

November 2017
Case

Third Point Paints a Target on Sotheby's

By: Lena G. Goldberg

When faced with the increasing accumulation of its stock by activist investors led by Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC and the activists’ stated objective to replace management and at least some Sotheby’s Board members, Sotheby’s, the world’s oldest auction house,... View Details

Keywords: Fiduciary Duties; Activists; Activist Investors; Rights Plan; Poison Pills; Takeover Defenses; Corporate Governance; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Ownership Stake; Value Creation; Crisis Management

February 2019
Article

Does It Matter If Your Health Insurer Is For Profit? Effects of Ownership on Premiums, Insurance Coverage, and Medical Spending

By: Leemore S. Dafny

There is limited empirical evidence about the impact of for-profit health insurers on various outcomes. I study the effects of conversions to for-profit status by Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) affiliates in 11 states, spanning 28 geographic markets. I find both the... View Details

Keywords: Health Insurance; Medical Loss Ratio; Blue Cross; Corporate Governance; Health; Insurance; For-Profit Firms; Insurance Industry; United States

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2013
Other Unpublished Work

How ISS Dictates Equity Plan Design

By: David F. Larcker, Ian D. Gow, Allan McCall and Brian Tayan

Proxy advisory firms have long been known to influence the voting decisions of institutional investors. Now, a growing body of evidence suggests that they also influence company decisions in equity plan design. Should shareholders and the SEC be concerned? View Details

Keywords: Voting; Institutional Investing; Corporate Governance

20 Nov 2019
News

Lifting Fallen Families

some 20,000 dependents over the past 35 years. With those kinds of numbers, Children of Fallen Patriots figures that, after government help, the gap is half a billion dollars. “So that’s the total we’re going after,” Kim says. Through... View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon

06 Nov 2019
Op-Ed

Torched Planet: The Business Case to Reinvent Almost Everything

addressing the enormous problems that we face. Investors are increasingly turning to environmental, social, and governance metrics—ESG metrics—to help identify firms who are future-proofed in today’s environment. Firms are finding new... View Details

Keywords: by Rebecca Henderson; Energy

23 Sep 2020
News

Alumni Consider Election Reform; Clubs Explore Parenting by Case Method

New York members, based on research by business executive Katherine Gehl and HBS Professor Michael Porter, detailing how partisan polarization has rendered government ineffective. That research resulted in a recently-released book, The... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

May 2007
Case

Free the Grapes--Direct-to-Consumer Shipping in the Wine Industry

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Dennis A. Yao, Patricia Wu and Libby Cantrill

While wine tourism in the United States was booming, the majority of consumers who tasted a Cabernet Sauvignon in one of Napa Valley's tasting rooms were not permitted to ship the wine directly to their home. In 2002, direct-to-consumer shipping was either banned or... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Lawsuits and Litigation; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

01 Dec 1996
News

New Releases

Technology Fountainheads by E. Raymond Corey (Harvard Business School Press) As corporate research and development costs rise, many firms choose to participate in R&D; consortia - collaborative ventures with academic institutions and... View Details

22 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

How Businesses Can Respond to AIDS

Asia: Building Sustainable Partnerships," held September 4 and 5, brought together over seventy participants from business, government, non-governmental organizations, and activist groups to share experiences and offer a strong View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2021
Working Paper

The Green Bonding Hypothesis: How Do Green Bonds Enhance the Credibility of Environmental Commitments?

By: Shirley Lu

This paper proposes and provides evidence on a green bonding hypothesis, where green bonds act as a commitment device that subjects firms to institutions holding them accountable to their environmental promises. I find that green-bond issuers face higher climate change... View Details

Keywords: Bonding Hypothesis; Sustainable Finance; Climate Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Bonds; Corporate Accountability

SSRN

02 Dec 2002
What Do You Think?

How Will We Respond to the “Moment of Truth” in Option Plans?

matter warrant more careful investigation? Or must we continue to rely on the compensation consulting community to guide us in these matters? What do you think? Original Article Stock option plans are thought to be under attack. View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 30, 2008

with an increase in service quality, in this setting there is no significant relationship between service quality and profitability. My findings highlight the importance of attending to process discipline in certain service settings. They also show that too much View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2013 (Revised September 2014)
Case

The TELUS Share Conversion Proposal

By: Lucy White, Benjamin C. Esty and Lisa Mazzanti

On February 21, 2013, TELUS announced a proposal to convert the firm's non-voting shares into voting shares on a one-to-one basis, thereby eliminating the firm's dual class structure. Shareholders were scheduled to vote on the proposal at the firm's annual general... View Details