Publications

May 2009
Article

Asymmetric Information Effects on Loan Spreads

By: Victoria Ivashina

The paper estimates the cost arising from information asymmetry between the lead bank and members of the lending syndicate. In a lending syndicate, the lead bank retains only a fraction of the loan but acts as the intermediary between the borrower and the syndicate... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Interest Rates; Capital; Investment Portfolio; Credit; Diversification; Risk and Uncertainty

SSRN

Article

Debt Maturity: Is Long-Term Debt Optimal?

By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

We model and calibrate the arguments in favor and against short-term and long-term debt. These arguments broadly include: maturity premium, sustainability, and service smoothing. We use a dynamic equilibrium model with tax distortions and government... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Investment Return; Development Economics; Taxation; Risk and Uncertainty; Cost; Interest Rates; Developing Countries and Economies; Welfare; United States; Brazil

November 2008 (Revised August 2011)
Case

UnME Jeans: Branding in Web 2.0

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery

This case introduces emerging Web 2.0 social media in virtual worlds, social networking sites, and video-sharing sites and encourages students to explore the opportunities and risks they present for brands. The case allows students to grapple with the strategic and... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Risk and Uncertainty; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet and the Web; Apparel and Accessories Industry

October 2008 (Revised February 2014)
Case

The Northwest Passage

By: Herman B. Leonard and Peter Brannen

Following dozens of failed expeditions to "discover" the NW passage, a Norwegian adventurer employs a new approach that emphasizes rigorous preparation, a lighter, quicker style, and a willingness to adapt to the inhospitable Arctic environment and its people. The case... View Details

Keywords: Independent Innovation and Invention; Planning; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership Style; Adaptation; Canada

October 2008 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Intel NBI: Intel Corporation's New Business Initiatives (A)

By: Willy C. Shih and Thomas Thurston

For Intel Corporation, the processes and priorities that have made it so successful are difficult to overcome as the company tries to diversify away from its core. The case examines the history and evolution of the New Business Initiatives (NBI) group, as the leader... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Transition; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business History; Management Practices and Processes; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty

September 22, 2008
Article

How to Minimize the Risks of Hiring Outside Stars

By: Boris Groysberg, Lex Sant and Robin Abrahams

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Selection and Staffing

September 2008
Article

Firm Heterogeneity and Credit Risk Diversification

By: Samuel G. Hanson, M. Hashem Pesaran and Til Schuermann

This paper examines the impact of neglected heterogeneity on credit risk. We show that neglecting heterogeneity in firm returns and/or default thresholds leads to under estimation of expected losses (EL), and its effect on portfolio risk is ambiguous. Once EL is... View Details

Keywords: Volatility; Credit; Investment Return; Outcome or Result; Risk and Uncertainty; Loss; Diversification; Complexity; United States

August 2008
Teaching Note

Go Red for Women: Raising Heart Health Awareness (TN)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Madelene Bell

Teaching Note for [507026]. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Financing and Loans; Risk and Uncertainty; Advertising Campaigns; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

July 2008
Article

Fairness in Extended Dictator-Game Experiments

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Reiner Eichenberger

We test the robustness of behavior in dictator games by offering allocators the choice to play an unattractive lottery. With this lottery option, mean transfers from allocators to recipients substantially decline, partly because many allocators now keep the entire... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Fairness; Game Theory; Risk and Uncertainty; Behavior

June 2008 (Revised October 2008)
Case

International Carbon Finance and EcoSecurities

By: Andre F. Perold, Forest L. Reinhardt and Mikell Hyman

In late 2007, EcoSecurities had to decide whether to undertake a new Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project in China. EcoSecurities was an aggregator of carbon credits and also invested directly in projects that produced carbon credits. Governments and firms... View Details

Keywords: Non-Renewable Energy; Cost Management; Investment Return; Business and Government Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Investment; Cash Flow; Valuation; Pollutants; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Services Industry; China

June 2008
Article

Capital Structure with Risky Foreign Investment

By: Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley and James R. Hines Jr.

Keywords: Capital; Risk and Uncertainty; Foreign Direct Investment

SSRN

2008
Book

Predictable Surprises

By: Max Bazerman and Michael D. Watkins

Most events that catch us by surprise are both predictable and preventable, but we consistently miss (or ignore) the warning signs. This book shows why such "predictable surprises" put us all at risk, and shows how we can understand, anticipate, and prevent them before... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Behavior

March 2008 (Revised March 2010)
Module Note

Global Capital and National Institutions: Crisis and Choice in the International Financial Architecture

By: Laura Alfaro

This module note presents a series of case studies taught in the Harvard Business School course Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy (IMaGE). The course addresses the opportunities created by the emergence of a global economy and proposes strategies for... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; International Finance; Globalized Economies and Regions; Macroeconomics

March 8, 2008
Comment

Marketing Your Way Through a Recession

By: John A. Quelch

The signs of an imminent recession are all around us. The spillover from the subprime mortgage crisis is weakening both consumer confidence and the consumer spending—much of it on credit—that has been buoying the U.S. economy. View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Recession; Products And Sales; Core Values; Fluctuation; Volatility; Economic Growth; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Growth and Development; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Risk and Uncertainty; Salesforce Management; Asia; Europe; Latin America; North and Central America

2008
Working Paper

Variance-Seeking for Positive (and Variance-Aversion for Negative) Experiences: Risk-Seeking in the Domain of Gains?

By: Jolie Mae Martin, Gregory M. Barron and Michael I. Norton

In contrast to research which has conflated losses with negative experiences and gains with positive experiences, we argue that because reference points are set by memories of extremely good and bad experiences, most outcomes are seen as losses in positive domains and... View Details

Keywords: Change; Experience and Expertise; Marketing; Research; Risk and Uncertainty; Loss; Perspective

January 2008 (Revised August 2008)
Case

The Time Warner Center: Mixed-Use Development

By: A. Eugene Kohn, Arthur I Segel and David Lane

Despite the failure of other attempts to bring mixed use development in New York City, Related Companies in 2004 opened Time Warner Center, a huge complex incorporating offices, shops, restaurants, music auditoriums, a hotel, and luxury apartments on Columbus Circle in... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Marketing; Buildings and Facilities; Construction; Development Economics; New York (city, NY)

January 2008
Background Note

Measuring Investment Performance

By: Andre F. Perold and Kenneth A. Froot

Examines various approaches to measuring investment performance. The approaches include the use of risk exposure and the Sharpe and Information Ratios. Applies the approaches to a variety of mutual funds to demonstrate the effect of using different metrics to measure... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Investment; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Measurement and Metrics; Performance; Risk and Uncertainty

January 2, 2008
Editorial

A Better Way to Pay CEOs: Smarter Incentives Could Reduce the Risks They Pursue

By: A. Zelleke

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Management; Motivation and Incentives; Risk and Uncertainty

December 2007 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Xanadu on Broadway

By: Anita Elberse

Can one of Hollywood's biggest flops magically turn into a Broadway hit? Xanadu, an adaptation of a 1980 Olivia Newton-John roller-disco film described by one critic as "the epic failure to end all epic failures," opened on Broadway in July 2007. Producer Rob Ahrens,... View Details

Keywords: Theater Entertainment; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Risk and Uncertainty; Creativity; Entertainment and Recreation Industry