Publications

September 2009
Supplement

One South: Investing in Emerging Markets (B)

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas and Justin Seth Ginsburgh

A United States private equity fund, The Saboput Group, must decide whether to invest in a new technology park development in Chennai, India. The B case provides the reader with due diligence observations, which reveal numerous potential problems with the investment.... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Private Equity; Investment; Foreign Direct Investment; Markets; Emerging Markets; Problems and Challenges; Partners and Partnerships; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; Chennai; United States

January 2013 (Revised May 2013)
Case

Kunshan, Incorporated: The Making of China's Richest Town

By: William C. Kirby, Nora Bynum, Tracy Yuen Manty and Erica M. Zendell

In 1980, the city of Kunshan was mere countryside, registering neither on the Chinese government's nor the international business community's radar. By 2010, Kunshan had become the richest city per capita in China and a global technology powerhouse, home to companies... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Investment; Entrepreneurship; Competition; Emerging Markets; FDI; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Innovation Leadership; Technology Industry; China; Taiwan Strait

August 2022 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Boston Impact Initiative: Investing in Local Change

By: Emily R. McComb, Amy Klopfenstein and Mel Martin

In fall 2021, Aliana Piñeiro, impact director at Boston Impact Initiative (BII) discovered that an entrepreneur the organization was considering for an investment had failed to disclose pre-existing debt with another lender. Although the business scored highly on BII’s... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Investment; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Society; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Wealth; Poverty; Risk Management; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States; Massachusetts; Boston

18 Jul 2024
Blog Post

Building the Future: An HBS Alumna’s Journey in Sustainable Infrastructure Investment

joined an investment bank where I gained valuable experience in financial analysis and then transitioned to a pan-African infrastructure fund. I was deeply involved in the investment lifecycle, from due... View Details

October 2012 (Revised April 2017)
Case

Brazil's Enigma: Sustaining Long-Term Growth

By: Laura Alfaro, Hilary White and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason

Over the past decade, Brazil's future as a leading world economic power appeared certain. An expanding middle class and commodity boom had fueled economic growth, with GDP growth hitting a peak of 7.5% in 2010. However, the high cost of conducting business in Brazil,... View Details

Keywords: Capital Controls; Inflation; Exchange Rates; Stimulus; Competitiveness; Productivity Growth; Foreign Investment; Infrastructure; Inflation and Deflation; Currency Exchange Rate; Brazil

Fast Answer

Sustainable investing and ESG resources

Information Type Recommended Resources Overview & News ImpactAlpha
News and information covering the sustainable and impact investment markets. Our subscription includes the daily publication, The Brief, as well as their... View Details

Web

Investment Strategies - Course Catalog

wealth. The focus of Investment Strategies is financial markets, principally equity markets, taking the perspective of an institutional portfolio manager and considering the efficacy of value investing,... View Details

September–October 2012
Article

Egalitarianism, Cultural Distance, and Foreign Direct Investment: A New Approach

By: Jordan I. Siegel, Amir N. Licht and Shalom H. Schwartz

This study addresses an apparent impasse in the research on organizations' responses to cultural distance. Using historically motivated instrumental variables, we observe that egalitarianism distance has a negative causal impact on FDI flows. This effect is robust to a... View Details

Keywords: FDI; Neo-institutionalism; Multinational Firm; Cultural Distance; Egalitarianism; Regulatory Arbitrage; Pollution Haven Hypothesis; Foreign Direct Investment; Global Strategy; Culture; Entrepreneurship

Read Now

There is growing interest in impact investing, the idea of deploying capital to obtain both financial and social or environmental returns. Examination of every equity investment made by the International Finance Corporation, one of the largest and... View Details

March 1993 (Revised July 1994)
Case

Gerber Products Company: Investing in the New Poland

By: Debora L. Spar

Examines Gerber Products Co.'s evaluation of Alima S.A., one of Poland's largest food processing plants, as a potential overseas investment in 1991. Factors that influenced Gerber's decision are discussed in detail: property rights, taxation issues, and Poland's... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Food and Beverage Industry; Poland

Web

Alternative Investments Course | HBS Online

next level by learning how to maximize investment portfolio value with alternative investments, including private equity and real estate. 5 weeks 6-7 hours per week 5 modules Self-Paced with regular... View Details

15 Oct 2019
News

Advancing China’s Impact Investing Ecosystem

As a second-year student, Cissy Chen (MBA 2019) worked with Jingsheng Huang, managing executive director of the Harvard Center Shanghai, to organize an impact investing conference in Shanghai. (photo courtesy Harvard Center Shanghai) As a... View Details

Article

Business Investment in Education in Emerging Markets Since the 1960s

By: Valeria Giacomin, Geoffrey Jones and Erica Salvaj

This article examines non-profit investments by business 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, the study shows that more than three-quarters of such... View Details

Keywords: Economic History; Oral History; Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Business History; Emerging Markets; Reputation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Education Industry; Africa; Asia; Latin America; Middle East; India; Chile; Colombia; Sri Lanka; Kenya

Find at Harvard

September 2021 (Revised November 2022)
Case

MAYA Capital

By: Robert F. White, Carla Larangeira and Pedro Levindo

MAYA Capital co-founders Lara Lemann and Monica Saggioro raised $41.5 million through a series of closings for their early-stage Latin American venture capital fund. The two women had met for the first time in mid-2016 when Lemann was contemplating scaling her angel... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage; Portfolio Construction; Fund Management; Investment; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Strategy; Business Startups; Management; Investment Funds; Latin America

07 Dec 2016
HBS Case

Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing

the responsibility elsewhere so they have more time for their passions, whether that’s their careers, hobbies, or travel. Despite the big differences in operations, the investment strategy Wealthfront pursues is not dissimilar from a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

January 2006
Teaching Note

Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies at General Motors: Competitive Exposures (TN)

By: Mihir A. Desai and Kathleen Luchs

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Investment Funds; Auto Industry

Web

Sustainable Investing - Course Catalog

transaction structuring and exits, as well as equity selection and portfolio construction. The course also explores incentives, decision-making, and the crucial problems and opportunities within the industry itself. This course is geared... View Details

March 2001 (Revised June 2001)
Case

Identifying and Realizing Investments in Eastern Europe (A)

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Robert E. Kennedy and Laure Mougeot Strook

A Greek milling firm wants to invest in Eastern Europe. The case explores the firm's search strategy and its due diligence process after a potential investment, and considers how the company should structure its bid. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Venture Capital; Emerging Markets; Business and Government Relations; Financial Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe