Publications

17 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Women Receive Harsher Punishment at Work Than Men

of the University of Texas-Austin and Amit Seru of Stanford Graduate School of Business. A spate of alleged fraud by Wells Fargo has highlighted a dirty little secret in the financial industry: Misconduct by View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

October 2018
Supplement

JetBlue: Relevant Sustainability Leadership (B)

By: George Serafeim and David Freiberg

The case outlines JetBlue's decision to disclose according to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards and the ESG metrics they began reporting. Data on resulting changes in institutional ownership are also provided. View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Metrics; Leadership And Change Management; Airlines; Innovation; Purpose; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Sustainability Reporting; Change Management; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Financial Reporting

July 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Revenue Recognition at Stride Funding: Making Sense of Revenues for a Fintech Startup

By: Paul M. Healy and Jung Koo Kang

The case explores the challenges of revenue recognition and financial reporting for Stride Funding (Stride), a fintech startup that has disrupted the student loan market. Stride leveraged proprietary machine learning and financial models to underwrite alternative... View Details

Keywords: Revenue Recognition; Financial Reporting; Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Governance Compliance; Accrual Accounting; Financial Services Industry; United States

Brian Baik is an assistant professor in the Accounting and Management Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches the Financial Reporting and Control course in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Baik studies how information, financial reporting, and... View Details

Keywords: private equity (LBO funds); venture capital industry

September 20, 2024
Article

It’s Time to Unbundle ESG

By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

ESG is at an inflection point. It has come to represent a broad and inchoate aspiration for what business should be doing beyond maximizing shareholder value. With ESG advocates on the defensive, business leaders need a new roadmap to determine which factors to... View Details

Keywords: ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Ratings; ESG Reporting; ESG Disclosure; Sustainability; Climate; Climate Finance; Climate Risk; Social Accounting; Investment; Governance; Safety; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Services Industry

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April 2018 (Revised December 2018)
Case

The Whistleblower at International Game Technology

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and James Weber

Robert Mayhem, a senior manager at International Game Technology, had filed a whistleblower report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that the company had misstatements in its financial reports. Mayhem’s report involved IGT’s practice of... View Details

Keywords: Whistleblower; Financial Reporting; Governance Compliance; Ethics

September 2023
Article

Stock Price Reactions to ESG News: The Role of ESG Ratings and Disagreement

By: George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon

We investigate whether ESG ratings predict future ESG news and the associated market reactions. We find that the consensus rating predicts future news, but its predictive ability diminishes for firms with large disagreement between raters. Relation between news and... View Details

SSRN

November 2008 (Revised November 2024)
Case

The Fall of Enron

By: Paul Healy and Krishna Palepu

The case traces the rise of Enron, covering the company's business innovations, personnel management, and risk management processes. It then examines the company's dramatic fall including the extension of its trading model into questionable new businesses, the... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Management Practices and Processes; Crime and Corruption; Financial Reporting; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards

January 2011 (Revised August 2011)
Supplement

Kanebo Ltd. (C)

By: David F. Hawkins, Suraj Srinivasan and Akiko Kanno

The exposure of the Kanebo Ltd. fraud raises questions of Japan's preparedness to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards. View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Standards; Financial Reporting; Crime and Corruption; Japan

Charles C.Y. Wang is the Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is a research member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and an associate editor of Management Science and Journal of Accounting Research,... View Details

February 2012 (Revised December 2012)
Supplement

Sino-Forest (B)

By: David F. Hawkins

Excerpts from a hedge fund's report accusing a Chinese bond company of using fraudulent financial statements. View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Crime and Corruption; Accounting Audits; Business Earnings; Financial Services Industry; China

TeachingInterests

Online Teaching

By: V.G. Narayanan

I teach introductory financial reporting online through HBS Online. View Details

Jonas Heese

Jonas Heese is... View Details

July 2006 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Changan Automobile Co., Ltd.

By: Dennis Campbell and Donglin Xia

Chairman Yin Jiaxu must communicate that the company's extraordinary reported performance in 2002 reflects Changan's unique strategy within the competitive dynamics of China's automobile industry. Changan's 2002 annual report demonstrated an extraordinary level of... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Media; Business and Shareholder Relations; Auto Industry; China

2015
Chapter

Corporate and Integrated Reporting: A Functional Perspective

By: Robert G. Eccles and George Serafeim

In this chapter, we present the two primary functions of corporate reporting (information and transformation) and why currently isolated financial and sustainability reporting are not likely to effectively perform these functions. We describe the concept of integrated... View Details

Keywords: Information; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Transformation

SSRN

August 2001 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Maria Hernandez & Associates

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

This case presents the situation of an unemployed web page designer who starts a new consulting firm with personal savings and a family loan. Two months later, she is to report on operations to her father, using financial reports she must design and construct. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Accounting; Business Startups; Design; Borrowing and Debt; Service Industry