Publications
Publications
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(3,060)
- Faculty Publications (630)
- Article
ESG Integration in Investment Management: Myths and Realities
By: Sakis Kotsantonis, Christopher Pinney and George Serafeim
The authors’ aim in this article is to set the record straight on the financial performance of sustainable investing while also correcting a number of other widespread misconceptions about this rapidly growing set of principles and methods.
Myth Number 1:... View Details
- June 2016 (Revised January 2018)
- Case
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jordan Mitchell
Nearly all environmental organizations have a similar aim: to stop the degradation of the natural environment. However, the strategies that environmental organizations choose to employ are sometimes starkly different. This case compares the models of two dissimilar... View Details
- June 2016 (Revised May 2017)
- Case
FANUC Corporation: Reassessing the Firm's Governance and Financial Policies
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno
In February 2015, Daniel Loeb (a U.S.–based activist investor) announced his firm had a large investment in FANUC Corporation, a leading producer of industrial robots and software for machine tools. Loeb was demanding that the Japanese firm change its financial and... View Details
Keywords: Hedge Funds; Economic Policy; Investments; Government Policy; Deregulation; Financial Management; Valuation; Investment Funds; Policy; Corporate Governance; Macroeconomics; Investment Activism; Change Management; Financial Strategy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Japan; United States
- June 2016
- Supplement
FANUC Corporation: Reassessing the Firm's Governance and Financial Policies Spreadsheet Supplement
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Akiko Kanno
In February 2015, Daniel Loeb (a US-based activist investor) announced his firm had a large investment in FANUC Corporation, a leading producer of industrial robots and software for machine tools. Loeb was demanding that the Japanese firm change its financial and... View Details
- March 2016 (Revised November 2020)
- Case
Tableau
By: Boris Vallee
Matrix Capital Management, a long-short equity hedge fund based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is assessing its investment in Tableau, a data visualization company. Tableau, which conducted an IPO a few years ago, has been experiencing substantial growth as it aims at... View Details
- February 2016 (Revised May 2016)
- Case
Astroscale, Space Debris, and Earth's Orbital Commons
By: Matthew Weinzierl, Angela Acocella and Mayuka Yamazaki
An engineer and technology entrepreneur, Nobu Okada, had turned a mid-life crisis into a bold—some would say quixotic—quest to prevent a tragedy of the commons at the global scale. Namely, Okada believed the accumulation of debris in near-Earth orbital space posed a... View Details
- February 2016 (Revised May 2016)
- Case
Blue Origin, NASA, and New Space (A)
By: Matthew Weinzierl and Angela Acocella
Jeff Bezos, six years after starting a revolution in retailing with Amazon.com, turned his life-long passion for space into a start-up, Blue Origin. Blue (as it was called) was a part of the New Space industry, a collection of startup aerospace engineering companies... View Details
- July 2016
- Article
Kicking Off Social Entrepreneurship: How A Sustainability Orientation Influences Crowdfunding Success
By: Goran Calic and Elaine Mosakowski
Research generally suggests that, relative to commercial entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs stand at a disadvantage at acquiring resources through traditional financial institutions. Yet interest in social entrepreneurship appears to be at an all-time high. The... View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
Replicating Private Equity with Value Investing, Homemade Leverage, and Hold-to-Maturity Accounting
By: Erik Stafford
Private equity funds tend to select relatively small firms with low EBITDA multiples. Publicly traded equities with these characteristics have high risk-adjusted returns after controlling for common factors typically associated with value stocks. Hold-to-maturity... View Details
- January 2016 (Revised November 2019)
- Case
Blackstone at Age 30
By: Josh Lerner, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal
Since its IPO in 2007 and following the global financial crisis, Blackstone largely outpaced its alternative investment firm peers in assets under management, new business launches, profitability, and market capitalization. Under the leadership of Stephen A.... View Details
- January 2016 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
The Allergan Board Under Fire (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine, Suraj Srinivasan, John C. Coates and David Lane
In 2014, the Allergan Inc. board of directors received a surprise takeover offer from Valeant Pharmaceuticals in alliance with hedge fund activist Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management. In the unprecedented arrangement between an acquirer and a hedge fund... View Details
Keywords: Allergan, Inc.; Valeant; Ackman; Pershing Square; Tender Offer; Activist Investors; Business Models; R＆D; Board Of Directors; Securities Litigation; Acquisition Strategy; Takeover Defenses; Hedge Funds; Shareholder Rights; Proxy Contest; Shareholder Special Meetings; Legal Issues In Contested Takeovers; Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations; Pharmaceutical Industry
- 2015
- Case
Advanced Leadership Pathways: Howard Fischer, Eric Jacobsen, and Gratitude Railroad's Impact Investing
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Daniel Lennox-Choate
In 2013, Howard Fischer (hedge fund founder) and Eric Jacobsen (serial entrepreneur and private equity investor) established Gratitude Railroad as a community of impact investors in nine different "tracks." Each track represented a different concept for using... View Details
- October 2015
- Teaching Note
Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower... View Details
Keywords: Convertible Debt; Uncertainty; Competition; Startup; China; Supply ＆ Demand; Growth; Rare Earth Minerals; Discounted Cash Flows; Mining; Payoff Diagrams; Option Pricing; Capital Budgeting; Capital Structure; Cash Flow; Financial Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Vertical Integration; Valuation; Metals and Minerals; Mining Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Canada; California
- 2015
- Working Paper
The Impact of Funds: An Evaluation of CDC 2004-12
By: Josh Lerner, Ann Leamon, Steve Dew and Dong Ik Lee
CDC was founded in 1948 as part of the U.K. government's efforts to develop the economic resources of Britain's remaining colonies. Since then, CDC has pursued a series of strategies to "do good without losing money," as its original mission was phrased. Its approach... View Details
- October–December 2015
- Article
Reducing Bounded Ethicality: How to Help Individuals Notice and Avoid Unethical Behavior
Research on ethics has focused on the factors that help individuals act ethically when they are tempted to cheat. However, we know little about how best to help individuals notice unethical behaviors in others and in themselves. This paper identifies a solution:... View Details
- September 2015 (Revised September 2017)
- Case
Pershing Square 2.0
By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel Hanson and David Biery
In June 2015 William A. Ackman, the CEO and founder of New York hedge fund Pershing Square Capital, reflects on the success of the fund he has spent over a decade building. Since its inception in 2004, Pershing Square's assets under management had grown from $500... View Details
- September 2015 (Revised June 2017)
- Case
Futbol Club Barcelona
By: Anita Elberse
In June 2015, FC Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu sees his team lift the UEFA Champions League trophy, completing an impressive trophy haul in the 2014-2015 season. Unique for a club of its caliber, five of the starting eleven are products of FC Barcelona's youth... View Details
Keywords: Superstar; Talent; Talent Development And Retention; Talent Management; Marketing; Strategy; General Management; Nonprofit; Marketing Strategy; Talent and Talent Management; Entertainment; Media; Competitive Advantage; Sports; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Barcelona
- August 2015 (Revised September 2015)
- Case
Shareholder Activists and Corporate Strategy
By: David Collis and Ashley Hartman
By 2015, there had been an upsurge in activist shareholders arguing for radical changes in companies' corporate strategies. Personalities like Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman, and Daniel Loeb were feared and loathed in some quarters, celebrated in others. With nearly $120... View Details
Keywords: Scope; Activist Investors; Spin-offs; Synergy; Diversification; Consolidation; Hedge Fund; Corporate Strategy
- July 2015 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
Proxy Contest at DuPont
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Emily McTague
On January 9, 2015, Nelson Peltz of Trian Fund Management launched a proxy fight for four out of the twelve seats on the DuPont board. The fund had previously published a public letter addressed to shareholders outlining its proposal to break the company into three... View Details
- July 2015
- Exercise
An Activist Approach: Castle Rock-Fultons-Remingtons
By: Guhan Subramanian and Kait Szydlowski
A three party, multiple-issue negotiation exercise dealing with a potential merger between two leading department stores, called for by an activist investor hedge fund in a letter to both companies. Company management will now attempt to navigate next moves, which are... View Details