Publications

July 2003
Background Note

Expropriation in International Business

By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Meghan Gallagher-Kernstine

Covers several important expropriation cases in international business from the 20th century and highlights the legal and political difficulties these companies faced. Serves to explain expropriation, to stress the vulnerability of foreign direct investments to... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Global Strategy; Government and Politics; Common Law; Risk Management; Property; Risk and Uncertainty

December 2017
Case

Charity or Bribery?

By: Eugene Soltes and Brian Tilley

Filip Kowalski, a senior manager at the pharmaceutical company Healthgen, leads sales for the firm’s Polish division. While pitching Healthgen’s products, he develops a relationship with a director of a regional health fund who also runs a private foundation. After a... View Details

Keywords: Bribery; Crime and Corruption; Law; Ethics; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; United States; Europe

09 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 9

legal event as a natural experiment to examine equity-debt conflicts in the vicinity of financial distress. A 1991 Delaware bankruptcy ruling changed the nature of corporate... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 1992 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Martin Marietta: Managing Corporate Ethics (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Senior managers at Martin Marietta are considering two questions: how to assess the company's seven-year-old ethics program; and how to deal with employees' fear of retribution--real or imagined--for alerting the corporate ethics office to potential problems. The case... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Resignation and Termination; Employees; Law; Business or Company Management; Programs

March 2009
Background Note

Evaluating M&A Deals: Floors, Caps, and Collars

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

As equity consideration has become more popular in acquisitions, so has the use of the "pricing-protection" mechanisms, such as floors, caps, and collars. These contractual devices provide insurance to the shareholders of the target and may protect the buyer as well.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Equity; Price; Contracts; Business and Shareholder Relations

July 1982 (Revised August 2006)
Background Note

Tax Factors in Business Combinations

By: Henry B. Reiling

Discusses the theory and rules governing the taxation of business combinations (mergers and acquisitions). Related information from state corporate law, federal securities law, accounting, and finance is also provided. A rewritten version of an earlier note. View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Law

November 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Hollywood in India: Protecting Intellectual Property (A)

By: Lakshmi Iyer and Namrata Arora

In January 2010, Fox Star Studios is preparing to release the Bollywood film My Name is Khan in Indian and international markets. What strategies should the company adopt to protect their intellectual property? How much should the company invest in anti-piracy... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Copyright; Lawsuits and Litigation; Emerging Markets; Business Strategy; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; India

January 2011
Article

Does Intellectual Property Rights Reform Spur Industrial Development?

By: Lee G. Branstetter, Ray Fisman, C. Fritz Foley and Kamal Saggi

An extensive theoretical literature generates ambiguous predictions concerning the effects of intellectual property rights (IPR) reform on industrial development. The impact depends on whether multinational enterprises (MNEs) expand production in reforming countries... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Intellectual Property; Rights; Production; Expansion; United States

Find at Harvard

Read Now

February 1994 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Competitive Information Policy at Pratt & Whitney

By: Lynn S. Paine

Officials at United Technologies Corp. (UTC) must decide on an ethics policy to govern competitive intelligence gathering. The flow of competitor information into the Pratt & Whitney division has declined sharply since adoption of UTC's code of ethics. A rewritten... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Competition; Information Management; Business or Company Management; Law

December 1997
Case

American Cyanamid (A) & (B) (Combined)

American Home Products' (AHP) $9 billion hostile takeover of American Cyanamid (Cyanamid) was the largest merger-and-acquistion transaction in 1994, and made AHP the fourth largest pharmaceutical firm in the United States. At the time of AHP's offer, Cyanamid had... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Conflict and Resolution; Pharmaceutical Industry

22 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 22

contribute to the intensity of violence once conflict has started. Finally, in contrast with some cross-country analyses, ethnic and caste polarization, land inequality, and political participation are not... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

13 Feb 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 13, 2018

innovations also present a panoply of challenges for communities and states. Surprisingly, federal laws are chief among those challenges despite the fact that online marketplaces facilitate transactions... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Nov 2015
Blog Post

Casey Gerald: Becoming a Leader at HBS

unsolved problems. Now, one year out of HBS, Casey is the CEO and co-founder of MBAs Across America, a movement that pairs MBAs with entrepreneurs and local businesses across the country. Here, we ask Casey... View Details

22 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 22

industries, organizations operate in increasingly complex and uncertain environments. To succeed in such environments, organizations require their members to think creatively and integrate conflicting demands. We propose that the adoption... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Background Note

Restructuring Distressed Companies -- Cross-National Comparisons

By: William E. Fruhan

This note describes briefly bankruptcy regimes and out of court restructuring in 5 countries, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France and Japan. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Laws and Statutes

08 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

Solving an Economic Mystery Surrounding Argentina and Chile

recognized. But the nature of these institutions has been very crudely defined. A whole body of research has unfavorably compared Latin American institutions with those in North America. The View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Supplement

Sara Campbell Ltd. (C)

By: Romana L. Autrey, V.G. Narayanan and Julia Rozovsky

Supplements the Sara Campbell Ltd. (A) and (B) cases by revealing the aftermath of issues presented in the (B) case. The students are given context to discuss how this situation could have been prevented. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Employee Relationship Management; Outcome or Result; Situation or Environment; Conflict Management; Apparel and Accessories Industry

Forthcoming
Article

It Takes Two to Untangle: Illuminating How and Why Some Workplace Relationships Adapt While Others Deteriorate After a Workplace Microaggression

By: Summer R. Jackson and Basima A. Tewfik

Although scholars largely assume that workplace microaggressions negatively impact the work relationship between the target and the perpetrator, relational deterioration is not the only observable relational outcome. Indeed, there are instances of relational... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Interpersonal Communication; Motivation and Incentives; Relationships; Conflict and Resolution

Read Now

November 2019 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Russia: A Drama In Three Acts

By: Rawi Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella, Galit Goldstein, Sogomon Tarontsi and Lavinia Teodorescu

The collapse of central authority in the Soviet Union in 1991 ushered in a period of revolutionary transformations for the states that emerged in its wake. The leaders of Russia, the USSR's successor, struggled to reestablish central authority while also seeking to... View Details