Publications

April 2015 (Revised April 2022)
Case

Bankruptcy in the City of Detroit

By: Stuart Gilson, Kristin Mugford and Annelena Lobb

The June 2013 bankruptcy of the city of Detroit, Michigan was, at the time, the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. Detroit had struggled for years with a weakening tax base, high unemployment, a heavy debt load and increasing retiree costs. These... View Details

01 Oct 2021
News

Fueling the Faculty Pipeline

private equity,” he says. Learning through the case method taught him how to analyze industries, recognize patterns, and make decisions with imperfect information, all skills he has used since he graduated,... View Details

18 Nov 2022
HBS Case

What Does It Take to Safeguard a Legacy in Asset Management?

members of the investment team are at par and make investment decisions together, instead of having someone who ultimately makes the investing calls. This is possible when... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

November 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Background Note

Assessing a Company's Future Financial Health

By: Thomas R. Piper

The case provides students with (1) an understanding of the essence of long-term financial health; (2) familiarity with the calculation and meaning of various financial ratios; and (3) an understanding of the influence of a company's operating and competitive... View Details

Keywords: Financial Condition; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment Return; Operations; Competitive Strategy

08 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Representation Matters: Building Case Studies That Empower Women Leaders

opportunities for women to lead. At HBS, we create case studies to help teach students to become future leaders. Each case generally focuses on one organization and features a protagonist, often an executive facing a difficult decision or... View Details

Keywords: by Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

31 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

It’s Not All About Pay: College Grads Want Jobs That ‘Change the World’

altruistic jobs become a “luxury good” whose value in doing good makes giving up some compensation a worthwhile trade for some workers who could earn more in a traditional position, the authors write. The shift may eventually broaden... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

17 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 17, 2007

decision for firms that aspire to develop platform-mediated networks is whether to preserve proprietary control or share their platform with rivals. A proprietary platform has a single provider that solely controls its technology, for... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2019
Working Paper

The Wisdom of Crowds in Operations: Forecasting Using Prediction Markets

By: Achal Bassamboo, Ruomeng Cui and Antonio Moreno

Prediction is an important activity in various business processes, but it becomes difficult when historical information is not available, such as forecasting demand of a new product. One approach that can be applied in such situations is to crowdsource opinions from... View Details

Keywords: Wisdom Of Crowds; Demand Forecasting; Price Forecasting; Forecasting and Prediction; Social and Collaborative Networks; Size; Performance

SSRN

16 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

When the Internet Runs Out of IP Addresses

infrastructure is largely private. ISPs make their own decisions about what systems to install, and what services to provide. Certainly governments can offer incentives, but when Japan experimented with IPv6... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Telecommunications

10 Oct 2023
Blog Post

Policy Drivers for Environmental Justice: What Businesses Need to Know

Disadvantaged Communities (DACs): communities “marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.”[1] Environmental Racism: “racial discrimination in environmental policy making, corporate decision making, and/or practice which... View Details

Profile

Peter Gumulia

management is only one piece of the puzzle. I wanted to get closer to the decision making – which ultimately led me to business.” After college, Peter turned to management consulting with a two-year stint at... View Details

24 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

The Yelp Factor: Are Consumer Reviews Good for Business?

reviews. “Restaurants are a classic example in economics where the consumer has to make a decision based on very little information” Most would agree these sites do influence consumers' decisions. In the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

24 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

The 'Amazon Effect' Is Changing Online Price Competition—and the Fed Needs to Pay Attention

locations. “It’s not about just the markup, which, to some extent, is just a temporary effect,” Cavallo says. “If competition with Amazon changes the way firms such as Walmart or Best Buy make pricing decisions, it can have much... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Retail

06 Sep 2022
Blog Post

Student Spotlight: Summer Internships in Business & Environment

reach net zero and make smart decisions that benefit the health of the planet. Bobby's role prior to HBS was a Private Equity Associate at Macquarie Group. View Details

August 2018 (Revised September 2018)
Case

LendingClub (A): Data Analytic Thinking (Abridged)

By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler

LendingClub was founded in 2006 as an alternative, peer-to-peer lending model to connect individual borrowers to individual investor-lenders through an online platform. Since 2014 the company has worked with institutional investors at scale. While the company assigns... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Data Analytics; Investing; Loans; Investment; Financing and Loans; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Model

April 2025
Case

Lisa Su and AMD (A)

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Matthew Preble and Dave Habeeb

This multimedia case study focuses on CEO Lisa Su’s turnaround and subsequent transformation of the technology company Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). When Su accepted the top position in 2014, AMD was on the verge of collapse. Su focused the company’s culture,... View Details

September 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Hot Wheels at Mattel: Reinventing the Wheel

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., were considering which innovation path to pursue in order to "future proof" the Hot Wheels franchise going forward. Hot Wheels was the... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Industry Evolution; Innovation Strategy; Product Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decision Making; Digital Transformation