Publications

October 1997 (Revised November 1997)
Case

NAACP, The

By: James E. Austin, Paul Barese, Stephanie L. Woerner and Elaine V. Backman

In February 1995, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the largest civil rights organization in the United States, was in the midst of a crisis. The executive director had been fired due to financial improprieties amid charges of... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Capital; Governance Controls; Resignation and Termination; Selection and Staffing; Rights; Leadership; Management; United States

August 2002 (Revised July 2003)
Case

LAE Enterprises Corp.

Jay Entrepreneur had to decide whether it was worth his time to plow through a 12-page term sheet for a Series A round of preferred stock prepared by HBS Investors, a well-established venture capital firm that did seed, early-round, and mezzanine financings. He could... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Contracts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Startups; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

20 Sep 2016
First Look

September 20, 2016

Abstract—We study the effect of staggered boards on long-run firm value, using a natural experiment: a 1990 law that imposed a staggered board on all firms incorporated in Massachusetts. We find a significant View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 25

Working PapersAnger and Regulation Authors:Rafael Di Tella and Juan DubraNBER Working Paper Series, No. 15201, August 2009 Abstract We propose a model where voters experience... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2023
Article

Financing the Litigation Arms Race

By: Samuel Antill and Steven R. Grenadier

Using a dynamic real-option model of litigation, we show that the increasingly popular practice of third-party litigation financing has ambiguous implications for total ex-post litigant surplus. A defendant and a plaintiff bargain over a settlement payment. The... View Details

Keywords: Litigation Financing; Dynamic Bargaining; Real Options; Lawsuits and Litigation; Financing and Loans

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Keywords: Diversified

January 2011 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Marvel Enterprises, Inc. (Abridged)

By: Anita Elberse

The management team of Marvel Enterprises, known for its universe of superhero characters that includes Spider-Man, the Hulk, and X-Men, must reevaluate its marketing strategy. In June 2004, only six years after the company emerged from bankruptcy, Marvel has amassed a... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Intellectual Property; Rights; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Student-Profile

Talia Gillis

complex situations led me to become a doctoral student at Harvard Law School. Focusing on consumer financial regulation it became clear that to address the questions I was interested in I needed the... View Details

January 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Technical Note

Legal Analysis: Sexual Misconduct in the Workplace

By: J.S. Nelson and Trevor Fetter

This background piece describes the spectrum of sexual misconduct, from sexual assault through sexual harassment to gender discrimination. It outlines the patterns involved in this behavior, the legal process for reporting it, and its prevalence both domestically and... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Gender; Social Psychology; Behavior; Lawsuits and Litigation

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

Career Coach

Phillip Andrews

Phillip (MPA, New Hampshire ’06; JD, Suffolk Law ’09) is a Corporate Relations Director in HBS Career & Professional Development responsible for employer relations in Africa, Europe, Latin America, and... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Education; Emerging Markets; Investment Management; Financial Services (All); Private Equity; Financial Services (All); Venture Capital; Financial Services (All); Government; Social Enterprise; Clean Technology; Energy; Telecommunications; Impact Investing; Financial Services (All); Manufacturing; Auto/Transportation/Logistics

Summer 2013
Article

Strategic Management of Intellectual Property: An Integrated Approach

By: William W. Fisher III and Felix Oberholzer-Gee

In many organizations, the R&D, strategy, and legal functions are poorly integrated. As a consequence, firms miss opportunities to create and exploit the value of intellectual property. Functional silos are one reason for the lack of integration. More important,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; Strategic Management; Legal Aspects Of Business; Licensing; Law; Innovation and Management; Knowledge Management; Intellectual Property; Business Strategy

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May 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Case

The Crisis at Tyco - A Director's Perspective

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Aldo Sesia

In 2002, Wendy Lane had been a member of the board of directors at Tyco International a little more than a year when the company's CEO Dennis Kozlowski and other top executives were accused of fraud, which ultimately led to resignations, imprisonments, lawsuits, and... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Reputation; Governing and Advisory Boards; Crisis Management; Accounting Audits; Problems and Challenges; Risk Management; Finance; Managerial Roles; Lawsuits and Litigation; Service Industry; United States

22 Nov 2016
First Look

November 22, 2016

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50058 Fall 2016 Administrative & Regulatory Law News The Integrity of Private Third-party Compliance Monitoring By: Short, Jodi L., and Michael W. Toffel... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2019
Article

Patent Trolls: Evidence from Targeted Firms

By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and Scott Duke Kominers

We provide the first large-sample evidence on the behavior and impact of nonpracticing entities (NPEs) in the intellectual-property space. We find that, on average, NPEs appear to behave as opportunistic “patent trolls.” NPEs sue cash-rich firms and target cash in... View Details

Keywords: Patent Trolls; Innovation; Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; Ethics; Innovation and Invention

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15 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

3 Steps to Reduce Financial System Risk

best equipped to handle such a complex task. Especially when compared with bank regulators and boards, bodies overseeing insurance companies and pension funds have had limited... View Details

Keywords: by Mohamed El-Erian; Financial Services; Banking

November 2002 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Merchant Card Services, Inc. (A)

By: Constance E. Bagley and David Lane

Explores the interaction between a venture capital firm that negotiates a good deal for itself and the portfolio company that seeks to extricate itself from its obligations. Exemplifies the potential conflicts between the fiduciary duty of board members and the... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Deal; Legal Liability; Conflict and Resolution; Financial Services Industry

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December 2019 (Revised June 2024)
Supplement

The Dutch East India Company in 1612 (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci

The case relates the decision made in the A case and what happened in the aftermath. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Globalized Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Laws and Statutes; Financial Markets; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business History; Shipping Industry; Netherlands