Publications

November 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Fair Value Accounting at Noble Group (A)

By: Siko Sikochi, Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

Noble Group was a large commodities trader based in Hong Kong and listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. In 2012, Noble shifted its business strategy towards an asset-light model. Under this model, Noble did not own mines or farms to produce commodities but built... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Policy; Goods and Commodities; Contracts; Valuation

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

10 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: First Look: October 10

corporate confessions presents something of a behavioral paradox. Tasked with monitoring the legality of its own operations, why would firms that identify violations turn themselves in to regulators rather than quietly fix the problem?... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 6, 2007

to self-disclose violations of environmental laws and regulations in exchange for reduced sanctions. We find that facilities are more likely to self-disclose if they were... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

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

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

March 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Carrot or Stick? Getting Paid for Innovation at Tessera Technologies

By: Willy C. Shih

Tessera Technologies has been very successful developing technologies for the semiconductor and mobile device industry, and then licensing them broadly to manufacturers. In addition to licensing patents, it also supplies know-how to help manufacturers move into... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Innovation Strategy; Patents; Courts and Trials; Rights; Mobile Technology; Semiconductor Industry; California

18 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 18

about it. We discuss the implications of these results for collaborations in the social realm. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/13-028.pdf License to Cheat: Voluntary Regulation and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2004 (Revised March 2005)
Case

Music Downloads

By: David B. Yoffie and Deborah Freier

Examines the competition between competing music formats. In the '90s, the MP3 format challenged the traditional means of music distribution by allowing for storage of near CD-quality recordings at 1/10th of their previous size. The threat to traditional distribution... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Music Entertainment; Legal Liability; Distribution; Competition; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Information Infrastructure; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Find at Harvard

October 2015 (Revised September 2016)
Technical Note

Flight: Now without Humans Aboard

By: Mitchell Weiss, Karim Lakhani, HT Kung and Kerry Herman

This note provides an overview of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) industry in September 2015. UAVs offered many potential applications in industries as diverse as aerial imaging and photography, agriculture, construction, infrastructure inspection and... View Details

Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Drones; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Product Design; Research and Development; Technological Innovation; Rights; Ethics; Strategy; Transportation Networks; Market Entry and Exit; Innovation and Management; European Union; Asia; United States

June 2001
Case

GE's Early Dispute Resolution Initiative (A)

By: Michael A. Wheeler and Gillian Morris

GE's chief litigation counsel sought to rationalize litigation flow by viewing it as a manufacturing process. By applying the principles of Six Sigma, P.D. Villareal created an Early Dispute Resolution (EDR) system that enabled both lawyers and managers to work... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Lawsuits and Litigation; Six Sigma; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; Conflict and Resolution; Energy Industry; Technology Industry; United States

November 1994 (Revised February 1997)
Case

Levi Strauss & Co.: Global Sourcing (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Jane Palley Katz

In 1993, senior managers at Levi Strauss & Co., the world's largest brand-name apparel manufacturer, were deciding whether the company should have a business presence in China, given the human rights and other problems there. The China Policy Group has been asked to... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Decisions; Management Skills; Trade; Brands and Branding; Rights; Ethics; Foreign Direct Investment; Apparel and Accessories Industry; China

November 2017
Case

Third Point Paints a Target on Sotheby's

By: Lena G. Goldberg

When faced with the increasing accumulation of its stock by activist investors led by Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC and the activists’ stated objective to replace management and at least some Sotheby’s Board members, Sotheby’s, the world’s oldest auction house,... View Details

Keywords: Fiduciary Duties; Activists; Activist Investors; Rights Plan; Poison Pills; Takeover Defenses; Corporate Governance; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Ownership Stake; Value Creation; Crisis Management

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

April 2011
Supplement

Emergia: Driving Profitability on Help Desk Contracts (CW)

By: F. Asis Martinez Jerez

Contact Data for September 2010, dictionary of terms, and agent login information. View Details

Keywords: Contracts

9 May 2011 - 11 May 2011
Conference Presentation

How Firms Respond to Mandatory Information Disclosure

By: Anil Doshi, Michael Toffel and Glen W. S. Dowell

When new institutional pressures arise, which organizations are particularly likely to resist or acquiesce? When subjected to new information disclosure mandates, an increasingly popular form of market-based government regulation, which types of organizations are... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Environmental Regulation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Read Now

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

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

April 2024
Case

Qualcomm, Inc. in 2024

By: David B. Yoffie and Sarah von Bargen

Qualcomm was facing a new era in 2024. After a judge’s adverse anti-trust decision almost destroyed Qualcomm’s business model, the company was victorious on appeal. The new CEO was optimistic about new growth opportunities in technologies such as 5G, AI, and augmented... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Lawsuits and Litigation; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Valuation; Business Strategy; Technology Industry; United States; China