Publications

August 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Supplement

Cosmeticos de Espana, S.A. (C)

By: David F. Hawkins

The third case in the Cosmeticos de Espana case series. What should management's accounting response be to a further devaluation of the Bolivar? View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Decision Choices and Conditions; Inflation and Deflation; Currency Exchange Rate; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Spain; Venezuela

January 1995 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Syscom Computers

By: Kenneth A. Froot, Peter Tufano and Chris L Marshall

Discusses a company deciding what it should do to manage its worldwide hedging operations. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Currency Exchange Rate; Information Management; Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Operations

Find at Harvard

April 1993
Teaching Note

Grupo Industrial Alfa, S.A.,1982 (TN)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Teaching Note for (9-292-008). View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Borrowing and Debt; Restructuring; Rights; Business Strategy; Negotiation; System; Business Conglomerates; Currency Exchange Rate; Energy Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Mexico

November 2010 (Revised July 2011)
Supplement

Oriflame S.A. (B)

By: David F. Hawkins and Karol Misztal

Exercise for recording derivative hedging transactions, accompanied by a technical note on IFRS derivative accounting. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; International Accounting; Currency Exchange Rate; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Risk Management; Standards; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

May 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

China: To Float or Not To Float? (F)- Alcatel and Strong Chinese Competition

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

The Chinese operations of Alcatel, a global communications solution provider based in France, were faced with strong local competition and a difficult market. It remained unclear how Alcatel would be able to recover growth in the Chinese market. Initiatives were... View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; International Relations; Growth and Development Strategy; Research and Development; Competitive Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Communications Industry; China; France; United States

October 2008
Teaching Note

Samoa Tala (TN)

By: Joshua D. Coval, Bhagwan Chowdhry and Konark Saxena

Teaching Note for [209053]. View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Risk Management; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Microfinance; Strategy; Borrowing and Debt; Currency; Cash Flow; Samoa

15 Sep 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Debt Redemption and Reserve Accumulation

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

September 2010 (Revised March 2012)
Teaching Note

China "Unbalanced" (TN)

By: Diego A. Comin and Richard H.K. Vietor

Teaching Note for 711010. View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Growth and Development Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Policy; Trade; Currency Exchange Rate; Energy; Investment; China; United States

March 2005 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Capital Controls in Chile in the 1990s (B)

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Financial Crisis; Foreign Direct Investment; Currency Exchange Rate; Inflation and Deflation; Demand and Consumers; Interest Rates; Capital; System; Central Banking; Chile

November 2010 (Revised December 2011)
Supplement

Oriflame S.A. (C)

By: David F. Hawkins and Karol Misztal

Notes from Oriflame's 2009 annual report relevant to the assessment of the monetary impact of Oriflame's FX risk management actions. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; International Accounting; Currency Exchange Rate; Annual Reports; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Risk Management; Standards; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

29 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Is the Digital Age Making Us Petty?

attentiveness to trivial details,” as defined in a recent research study, can drag down relationships, result in recriminating behavior, and ruin the good intentions behind very generous donations. On the flip side, leaving room for error in View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

February 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Alphatec Electronics Pcl

By: Stuart C. Gilson, C. Fritz Foley and Perry Fagan

The newly appointed CEO of an important high-technology company in Thailand must lead the company through a complicated debt restructuring. Due to the collapse of the Thai currency, the company's debt burden, like that of most Thai companies, has skyrocketed because it... View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Valuation; Management Teams; Restructuring; Laws and Statutes; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Technology Industry; Electronics Industry; Thailand; United States

March–April 2015
Article

The Almighty Ruble

By: Debora L. Spar

At 1 AM Moscow time on December 16, Russia's central bank announced a massive hike in the country's interest rate, from 10.5% to 17%. It's not clear how Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his colleagues could realistically have expected to achieve anything by hiking the... View Details

Keywords: Monetary Policy; Economy; Policy; Currency; Interest Rates; Sovereign Finance; Russia

Find at Harvard

02 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Explaining China's Crash

intervene in the currency market. Finally, the Chinese central bank has room for further monetary stimulus; they can lower the reserve requirement for banks from the current 18 percent of deposits and they can reduce interest rates. For... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese; Financial Services

02 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: May 2, 2017

diminishing the return on lending in foreign currency. We show that, in response to domestic monetary policy easing, global banks increase their foreign reserves in currency areas with the highest interest View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

07 Jun 2016
First Look

June 7, 2016

spread, defined as the spread of local currency bonds over the synthetic local currency risk-free rate constructed using cross-currency swaps. We find that local View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Mar 2015
First Look

First Look: March 3

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/715432-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 715-019 A Currency We Can Call Our Own: Populism, Banking Crises, and Exchange Rate Crises... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Apr 2019
What Do You Think?

Does Our Bias Against Federal Deficits Need Rethinking?

a deficit limit although a very high one.” Tony E opined, “The US is unique globally in providing a stable currency (that allows) the rest of the world to eliminate uncertainty in asset/commodity valuation." This confidence , he... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 2025
Case

Untapped Global: Financing Africa's Missing Middle

By: Raymond Kluender and Emanuele Colonnelli

In November 2024, Jim Chu, founder and CEO of Untapped Global, faced mounting internal tensions over the company’s strategic direction. Untapped had developed a data-driven revenue-based financing (RBF) model to address the “missing middle” problem—the $5.2 trillion... View Details