• November 2019
• Case

Gillette: Cutting Prices to Regain Share

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After losing market share to low-priced competitors such as Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club for several years, Gillette decided to fight back by launching new products and increasing advertising. When these efforts failed to stem the losses, Gillette decided to cut the... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Business Strategy; Competition; Price; Public Equity; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

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Esty, Benjamin C., and Daniel Fisher. "Gillette: Cutting Prices to Regain Share." Harvard Business School Case 720-378, November 2019.

• November 2019
• Supplement

United Technologies Corp.: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune Magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Valuation; Investment Activism; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

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Esty, Benjamin C., and Daniel Fisher. "United Technologies Corp.: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?" Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 220-714, November 2019.

• November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
• Case

United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

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Esty, Benjamin C., and Daniel Fisher. "United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?" Harvard Business School Case 220-018, November 2019. (Revised April 2021.)

• 2019
• Chapter

From Coast to Hinterland: Fiscal State Formation in British and French West Africa, c. 1880–1960

By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg

This chapter contrasts and compares the ways different colonial states in West Africa developed local fiscal capacity. We show that per capita revenues were higher in the more commercialised coastal export economies than in remote parts of the interior. We argue that... View Details

Keywords: Fiscal Capacity; Public Debt; French West Africa; British West Africa; Geography; History; Africa

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Frankema, Ewout, and Marlous van Waijenburg. "From Coast to Hinterland: Fiscal State Formation in British and French West Africa, c. 1880–1960." In Fiscal Capacity and the Colonial State in Africa and Asia, c. 1850–1960, edited by Ewout Frankema and Anne Booth, 161–192. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

• October 2019
• Case

Feeling Machines: Emotion AI at Affectiva

By: Shane Greenstein and John Masko

In 2016, Affectiva—a Boston-based emotion AI software company with a long track record of building emotion-sensing software for market research—had attempted to expand into new verticals by releasing a mobile software development kit (SDK) that downloaders could adapt... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Market Research; Business Model; Finance; Revenue; Decision Making; Risk and Uncertainty; Market Entry and Exit; Applications and Software; AI and Machine Learning; Information Technology Industry; Auto Industry; United States

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Greenstein, Shane, and John Masko. "Feeling Machines: Emotion AI at Affectiva." Harvard Business School Case 620-058, October 2019.

• October 2019 (Revised February 2020)
• Case

Brightview Senior Living

By: Lynda M. Applegate and James Weber

Marilynn Duker, CEO, was exploring how to grow the company while maintaining the culture that made it a leader in the field of senior housing. Brightview constructed and operated senior living apartment communities that offered independent living, assisted living, and... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Employee Relationship Management; Real Estate Industry; United States

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Applegate, Lynda M., and James Weber. "Brightview Senior Living." Harvard Business School Case 820-009, October 2019. (Revised February 2020.)

• October 2019
• Case

Kaspi.kz IPO

By: Victoria Ivashina and Esel Çekin

This case follows Kaspi.kz, a private equity (Baring Vostok) co-owned retail bank in Central Asia that evolved into a fintech, payments and e-commerce company. It provides insights into private equity financing, portfolio company management, and initial public offering... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Central Asia

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Ivashina, Victoria, and Esel Çekin. "Kaspi.kz IPO." Harvard Business School Case 220-007, October 2019.

• October 2019 (Revised August 2020)
• Case

Souqalmal: The Choice Is Yours (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Alpana Thapar

This case describes how Ambareen Musa, Founder and CEO of Souqalmal, a Dubai-based online comparison aggregator of banking and insurance products launched her business in 2011 and rapidly grew it over next couple of years. However, by 2017, the Mauritian entrepreneur... View Details

Keywords: Unit Economics; Finance; Accounting; Competitive Strategy; Financial Statements; Insurance Industry; Middle East

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Narayanan, V.G., and Alpana Thapar. "Souqalmal: The Choice Is Yours (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-028, October 2019. (Revised August 2020.)

• October 2019
• Article

Limited Investment Capital and Credit Spreads

By: Emil N. Siriwardane

Using proprietary credit default swap (CDS) data, I investigate how capital shocks at protection sellers impact pricing in the CDS market. Seller capital shocks—measured as CDS portfolio margin payments—account for 12% of the time-series variation in weekly spread... View Details

Keywords: Credit Risk; Derivatives; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Capital Markets; Credit; Financial Institutions

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Siriwardane, Emil N. "Limited Investment Capital and Credit Spreads." Journal of Finance 74, no. 5 (October 2019): 2303–2347.

• 2019
• Working Paper

Why Does Business Invest in Education in Emerging Markets? Why Does It Matter?

By: Valeria Giacomin, G. Jones and Erica Salvaj

This working paper examines why a significant number of businesses have made non-profit investments in education in emerging markets between the 1960s and the present day. Using a sample of 110 interviews with business leaders from an oral history database at the... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; CSR; Oral History; Emerging Markets; Education; Reputation; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business History

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Giacomin, Valeria, G. Jones, and Erica Salvaj. "Why Does Business Invest in Education in Emerging Markets? Why Does It Matter?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-039, October 2019.

• September 2019
• Case

JTC: Stronger Together with Shared Ownership

By: Ethan Bernstein and Daniela Beyersdorfer

Nigel Le Quesne, CEO of Jersey-based financial services firm JTC, firmly believed that "shared ownership" was at the heart of his company’s successful track record. The firm had seen its revenues, profits, and number of clients and staff grow steadily throughout its... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Employee Ownership; Leadership Style; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Going Public; Mission and Purpose; Management Practices and Processes; Human Resources; Financial Services Industry; Channel Islands; Europe; United States

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Bernstein, Ethan, and Daniela Beyersdorfer. "JTC: Stronger Together with Shared Ownership." Harvard Business School Case 420-008, September 2019.

• 2018
• Working Paper

The Limitations of Dynamic Capabilities

By: David J. Collis and Bharat Anand

The concept of dynamic capabilities draws its theoretical basis from two classic traditions within the strategy field—the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) (Wernerfelt, 1984) and market positioning (Porter, 1996). A dynamic capability qualifies as a source of... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Capabilities; Business Ventures; Performance; Competitive Advantage

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Collis, David J., and Bharat Anand. "The Limitations of Dynamic Capabilities." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-029, September 2019.

• 2019
• White Paper

Impact-Weighted Financial Accounts: The Missing Piece for an Impact Economy

By: George Serafeim, T. Robert Zochowski and Jennifer Downing

Reimagining capitalism is an imperative. We need to create a more inclusive and sustainable form of capitalism that works for every person and the planet. Massive environmental damage, growing income and wealth disparity, stress, and depression within developed... View Details

Keywords: Impact-Weighted Accounts; IWAI; Background; Economic Systems; Economy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Statements

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Serafeim, George, T. Robert Zochowski, and Jennifer Downing. "Impact-Weighted Financial Accounts: The Missing Piece for an Impact Economy." White Paper, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, September 2019.

• 2019
• Working Paper

On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Affects Labor Supply and Gender Norms

By: Natalia Rigol, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Simone Schaner and Charity Troyer-Moore

Can greater control over earned income incentivize women to work and influence gender norms? In collaboration with Indian government partners, we provided rural women with individual bank accounts and randomly varied whether their wages from a public workfare program... View Details

Keywords: Gender Norms; Economics; Gender; Employment; Income; Societal Protocols; India

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Rigol, Natalia, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Simone Schaner, and Charity Troyer-Moore. "On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Affects Labor Supply and Gender Norms." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 26294, September 2019.

• September 2019
• Article

The Dollar, Bank Leverage and Deviations from Covered Interest Parity

By: Stefan Advjiev, Wenxin Du, Catherine Koch and Hyun Song Shin

We document a triangular relationship in that a stronger dollar goes hand in hand with larger deviations from covered interest parity (CIP) and contractions of cross-border bank lending in dollars. We argue that underpinning the triangle is the role of the dollar as a... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Currency; Financial Markets; Banks and Banking

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Advjiev, Stefan, Wenxin Du, Catherine Koch, and Hyun Song Shin. "The Dollar, Bank Leverage and Deviations from Covered Interest Parity." American Economic Review: Insights 1, no. 2 (September 2019): 193–208.

• September 2019
• Article

The Effect of Enforcement Transparency: Evidence from SEC Comment-Letter Reviews

By: Miguel Duro, Jonas Heese and Gaizka Ormazabal

This paper studies the effect of the public disclosure of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) comment-letter reviews (CLs) on firms’ financial reporting. We exploit a major change in the SEC’s disclosure policy: in 2004, the SEC decided to make its CLs... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; SEC Comment-Letter Reviews; Public Enforcement; Governance; Information Publishing; Policy; Financial Reporting; Capital Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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Duro, Miguel, Jonas Heese, and Gaizka Ormazabal. "The Effect of Enforcement Transparency: Evidence from SEC Comment-Letter Reviews." Review of Accounting Studies 24, no. 3 (September 2019): 780–823.

• August 2019 (Revised November 2022)
• Case

Paradigm Capital Value Fund

By: Luis M. Viceira and Elena Corsi

Karl Jan Erick Hummel had founded Paradigm Capital Value Fund in 2007 together with Columbia Business School Professor Bruce Greenwald, an expert in value investing and now chairman of the fund. The fund followed the principles of value investing to their target... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism; Investment Portfolio; Financial Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry

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Viceira, Luis M., and Elena Corsi. "Paradigm Capital Value Fund." Harvard Business School Case 220-014, August 2019. (Revised November 2022.)

• 2021
• Working Paper

The Value of Intermediation in the Stock Market

By: Marco Di Maggio, Mark Egan and Francesco Franzoni

We estimate a structural model of broker choice to quantitatively decompose the value that institutional investors attach to broker services. Studying over 300 million institutional equity trades, we find that investors are sensitive to both explicit and implicit... View Details

Keywords: Financial Intermediation; Institutional Investors; Research Analysts; Broker Networks; Equity Trading; Institutional Investing; Financial Services Industry

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Di Maggio, Marco, Mark Egan, and Francesco Franzoni. "The Value of Intermediation in the Stock Market." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-016, August 2019. (Revised June 2021. Accepted at the Journal of Financial Economics.)