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Article

Does the Classic Microfinance Model Discourage Entrepreneurship Among the Poor? Experimental Evidence from India

By: Erica Field, Rohini Pande, John Papp and Natalia Rigol

Do the repayment requirements of the classic microfinance contract inhibit investment in high-return but illiquid business opportunities among the poor? Using a field experiment, we compare the classic contract which requires that repayment begin immediately after loan... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Poverty; Development Economics; Contracts

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April 2021
Exercise

Valuing Employment Exercise

By: George Serafeim, Ethan Rouen and Katie Panella

The Valuing Employment exercise can be used to show the importance of impact measurement in designing incentives and contracts. The exercise has two phases. In the first phase, participants play the role of managers at the State of Massachusetts Infrastructure... View Details

Keywords: Bid Evaluation; Workforce; Impact Measurement; Bids and Bidding; Contracts; Design; Measurement and Metrics

February 1999 (Revised April 1999)
Case

Guaranty Trust Bank PLC Nigeria (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Hal Hogan

Fola Adeola, the CEO of Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank and one of its founders in 1991, is considering what should be done to maintain the bank's original vision and vitality in the face of its rapid growth and success in the marketplace. Known for its high ethical... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Organizational Culture; Ethics; Planning; Expansion; Business Processes; Law; Banking Industry; Nigeria

March 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Microsoft's IP Ventures

By: Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Microsoft's IP Ventures program, through which Microsoft spun out promising but unused technologies into new companies, is a new approach to corporate venture capital. The program provides "IP for equity" and has proven very successful in achieving its main... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Equity; Financing and Loans; Investment; Intellectual Property; Rights; Software; Washington (state, US)

20 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

Maybe Uber isn't God's Gift to Mankind

pick up passengers with disabilities. “Suddenly entrepreneurship is not about who can build a better mousetrap, but who can better ignore the law and develop a corporate advantage for ignoring the law”... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Transportation; Insurance

01 Sep 2007
News

Giving New Ventures a Boost

Some $80,000 in cash and in-kind legal and accounting services were awarded to winners and runners-up in the 11th annual HBS Business Plan Contest last April. Traditional track... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

23 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It’s Effective

better have transparency around these issues," he says. "If regulators care about these issues, they should ask companies to disclose their performance around them, and if companies want to change the way... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

2020
Chapter

Health Care Markets a Decade After the ACA: Bigger, but Probably Not Better

By: Leemore S. Dafny

Love it or hate it, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) embraced and extended the role of private markets in financing and delivering health care in the United States. Ten years after the ACA’s passage, it is unclear whether health care markets are better (along a range of... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Markets; Laws and Statutes; Outcome or Result; Health Industry; United States

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Keywords: Media; Entertainment; Diversified

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

January 1986 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Peripheral Products Company: The 'Gray Market' for Disk Drives

By: Frank V. Cespedes

In mid-1985, the vice president of marketing for a large manufacturer of disk drives is considering how to deal with a growing "gray market" for his company's products. The case provides good background material on the evolution of gray markets throughout the disk... View Details

Keywords: Price; Growth and Development; Code Law; Leadership; Marketing; Distribution; Production; Salesforce Management; Strategy; Distribution Industry

December 2008 (Revised February 2015)
Case

A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star

By: Andrew Wasynczuk and Nicole Shae Bennett

General Manager Luke Kolville, of the Los Angeles Spartans, struggles with the best approach to negotiate a long-term contract for his star quarterback. The agent for Washington is relatively new to the industry and has his sights set particularly high. Kolville needs... View Details

Keywords: Retention; Human Capital; Contracts; Managerial Roles; Negotiation; Groups and Teams; Sports Industry; Los Angeles

Keywords: Diversified

December 1984 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Burnet vs. Logan

By: Henry B. Reiling

The taxpayer sold mining company stocks and was to be paid royalty as ore was extracted from the corporation's mine. Because the factual issues of whether ore would be extracted and, if so, how much and when were so indeterminate, the court held that the contract right... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Law Enforcement; Asset Management; Valuation; Policy; Mining Industry

June 12, 2023
Article

The Limits of Capacity Building for Investment Contract Negotiations

By: Karl P. Sauvant, Vanessa Sze Wai Tsang and Louis T. Wells

Developing countries must negotiate the best possible investment contracts with foreign investors at the outset. Donor organizations regularly push for “capacity building” to create technical expertise for negotiations within host country governments. But building and... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Contracts; Negotiation