Publications

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September 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Dimensional Fund Advisors, 2002

By: Randolph B. Cohen

Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) is an investment management firm that prides itself on basing its investment strategies on sound academic research. Many of the best-known finance research papers of the past two decades (especially those by Eugene Fama and Kenneth... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Use and Leverage; Research; Success; Investment; Financial Services Industry

Career Coach

Arun Munthala

As the CFO of Finance Club, Arun can help point students to resources and opportunities available at HBS for preparing for interviews with investment banks and new job opportunities. Arun can also provide insight as to what banking... View Details

February 2004
Case

Bradman and Tendulkar, LLC

By: Ananth Raman and Vishal Gaur

An investment firm is trying to project inventory turns for Radio Shack, a chain of consumer electronics stores. The investment firm has access to public financial data but not to internal operational metrics. It needs to project inventory turns because inventory... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cash Flow; Demand and Consumers; Distribution Channels; Mathematical Methods; Valuation

March 2001
Case

Charlene Barshefsky (B)

By: James K. Sebenius and Rebecca Hulse

Details former U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky's strategic and tactical approach to surmounting the barriers laid out in the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Trade; International Relations; Copyright; Negotiation Style; Negotiation Tactics; Alliances; Business and Government Relations; China; United States

June 2007 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Thomas J. Watson, IBM and Nazi Germany

By: Geoffrey Jones, Grace Ballor and Adrian Brown

Considers the strategy of U.S.-owned IBM, then a manufacturer of punch cards, in Nazi Germany before 1937. Opens with IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson meeting Adolf Hitler in his capacity as President of the International Chamber of Commerce. IBM had acquired a German company... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Values and Beliefs; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Business and Government Relations; Germany; United States

Luis M. Viceira is the George E. Bates Professor in the Finance Unit and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research, course development, and teaching focus on the areas of investment management... View Details

Keywords: banking; education industry; financial services; nonprofit industry; retail financial services

2021
Other Unpublished Work

Obsolescence of the Obsolescing Bargain: Why Governments Must Get Investor-State Contracts Right

By: Louis T. Wells and Karl P. Sauvant

Gone are the days when governments could easily renegotiate natural resource and other investment contracts if foreign investors, e.g., reaped bonanzas from rising resource prices, surprisingly rich discoveries, or terms that were too favorable. Today, international... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Investment; Contracts; Natural Resources; Negotiation; Global Range

SSRN

June 2003 (Revised March 2008)
Case

India on the Move

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Emily Thompson

By 2003, India had been growing at almost 6% annually since 1992, after it suffered a financial collapse, abandoned import substitution, and moved gradually to adopt the Washington Consensus. Now, financial controls and competition barriers are less burdensome,... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Foreign Direct Investment; Business and Government Relations; India

May 2025
Teaching Note

From oneworld to a New World? LATAM’s High-Stakes Alliance Dilemma

By: Juan Alcacer and Valentina Tarzijan

As global alliances evolve and regulatory barriers mount, LATAM Airlines must reassess the strategic logic of partnerships. In 2019, Delta Air Lines proposed a $1.9 billion investment and deeper cooperation via a Joint Business Agreement, prompting LATAM to evaluate... View Details

Keywords: Latin America; North America

May 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Sovereign Wealth Funds: For Profits or Politics?

By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim

On March 21, 2008, the U.S. government secured an agreement from two leading sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) to adopt a new set of investment principles to govern the Funds' activities. SWFs, broadly defined as an investment fund owned by a national or a government, were... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Investment Funds; Sovereign Finance; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; International Relations; State Ownership; United States

Working Paper

How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?

By: Paul A. Gompers, William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan and Ilya A. Strebulaev

We survey 885 institutional venture capitalists (VCs) at 681 firms to learn how they make decisions across eight areas: deal sourcing, investment selection, valuation, deal structure, post-investment value-added, exits, internal firm organization, and relationships... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Decision Choices and Conditions

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28 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

Earth Day Reflections

also examine the strategic and organizational barriers that corporations face in making more efficient use of natural resources or deciding to invest in sustainable technologies. There are four major... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

May 2025
Case

From oneworld to a New World? LATAM’s High-Stakes Alliance Dilemma

By: Juan Alcacer and Valentina Tarzijan

As global alliances evolve and regulatory barriers mount, LATAM Airlines must reassess the strategic logic of partnerships. In 2019, Delta Air Lines proposed a $1.9 billion investment and deeper cooperation via a Joint Business Agreement, prompting LATAM to evaluate... View Details

Keywords: Aviation; Airlines; Transportation; Latin America; North America

Career Coach

Alejandro Maldonado

talent-related topics at Advent International Private Equity, where he works closely with investment and portfolio professionals as well as c-level executives of its portfolio companies as an executive... View Details

Keywords: Investment Banking; Investment Banking; Investment Banking; Investment Banking; Investment Banking; Investment Banking; Investment Banking; Investment Banking; Investment Banking; Investment Banking

November 1999 (Revised April 2003)
Case

Financing the Mozal Project

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Fuaad Qureshi

It is June 1997, and a team from the International Finance Corp. (IFC) is recommending that the board approve a $120 million investment in a $1.4 billion aluminum smelter in Mozambique, known as the Mozal project. Four factors make the investment controversial: it... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Capital Markets; Emerging Markets; Projects; Financial Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Developing Countries and Economies; Metals and Minerals; Financial Strategy; Government and Politics; International Finance; Infrastructure; Mozambique

March 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

The Xiamen PX Project: The Rule of Contract or Citizens in China Today

This case examines the effect of environmental activism on China's investment climate, focusing on the petrochemical sector. It shows how tensions between a country's national economic development goals and political constraints make for a more unpredictable investment... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Conflict and Resolution; China

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14 Aug 2023
Blog Post

Crossing the Bridge: A Reflection on the HKS/HBS Joint Degree Program

have had coffee chats with a former United States Governor, Fortune 500 CEOs, revered thought leaders, and international diplomats solely because of events on campus and in the classroom. I have been elected as Co-President of the Black... View Details

March 2006 (Revised November 2010)
Background Note

Protecting Foreign Investors

By: Louis T. Wells Jr.

Describes the emergence of several kinds of efforts to assure the safety of foreign investment in emerging markets: international arbitration, expanded official political risk insurance, credit from government agencies, and intervention by investors' home governments.... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Risk Management; Emerging Markets; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Government Relations; Safety