Lawsuits and Litigation - Publications - Faculty & Research

13 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Intermediaries for the IP Market

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu & David Yoffie

02 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Why We Still Need Twitter: How Social Media Holds Companies Accountable

also picked up by major news outlets, including The New York Times. “It actually got a real response from United Airlines,” says Pacelli, noting that the CEO publicly apologized for the incident and United later agreed to settle a View Details

Keywords: by Kasandra Brabaw; Technology

16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

office to go to and no work to do. Managers were told to expect the five stages of grief from their upset subordinates—the Kübler-Ross model typically associated with handling death. Senior leaders told lower-level managers to drum up... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

18 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Are Banks the ‘Bad Guys’? Overdraft Fees Are Crushing Low-Income Customers

services, and data from Equifax, a major consumer credit bureau that offers insights into installment loans for low-income borrowers. They complemented that data with hand-collected information about View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

10 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

Truth Be Told: Unpacking the Risks of Whistleblowing

relying on whistleblowers to prevent and investigate fraud, the professors realized, there is little understanding about the real risks faced by an employee who steps forward. Dey and Heese set out to study... View Details

Keywords: by April White

12 Sep 2023
What Do You Think?

Who Gets the Loudest Voice in DEI Decisions?

give greater emphasis to values in the company’s credo supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Evidence cited in support of the changes included: Eighty-one percent of employees would consider leaving their current organization... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 Apr 2024
Book

When Managers Set Unrealistic Expectations, Employees Cut Ethical Corners

school, for example, I had been asked to research insurance coverage for a raft of lawsuits being brought against Johns-Manville Corporation for injuries and deaths from exposure to asbestos. At the time,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

11 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

Why South Korea's Samsung Built the Only Outdoor Skating Rink in Texas

Gurun used a database that tracks litigation against 1,000 top firms in the US stock market, looking at all lawsuits between 1995 and 2013. They cross-referenced that with a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Legal Services

October 2021
Case

Financial Reporting at Mattel

By: Aiyesha Dey, Trung Nguyen, Marshal Herrmann and Julia Kelley

In September 2020, Diana Ferguson was nearing her first Audit Committee meeting as the newly appointed Audit Committee chair of Mattel, Inc. Mattel was just recovering from an accounting scandal which had revealed the company’s poor internal controls and weak board... View Details

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12 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Using the Law to Strategic Advantage

Most managers think the legal department is that office down the hall where they go to keep out of trouble or write a binding patent agreement. And that's shortsighted, says Harvard Business School professor Constance Bagley. A company... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Legal Services

October 2020 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Epic Games: Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite

By: Andy Wu, Miaomiao Zhang and Christopher Zhang

In the midst of intensifying public and political attention towards the market power of big technology, Epic Games in 2020 challenged the status quo that has existed for years in the Apple iOS and Google Android mobile application marketplaces and payment systems.... View Details

Keywords: Mobile Platforms; Mobile App Industry; Mobile Payment Systems; Antitrust; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Lawsuits and Litigation; Entrepreneurship; Competitive Strategy; Digital Platforms; United States

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Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

Acquisition (4) Knowledge Dissemination (5) Knowledge Management (40) Knowledge Sharing (14) Knowledge Use and Leverage (11) Knowledge (68) Labor and Management Relations (3) Labor (136) Law Enforcement (2)... View Details

July 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Call of Fiduciary Duty: Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard

By: Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli and James Barnett

In January 2022, Microsoft announces its acquisition of the video game company Activision Blizzard, in a deal valued at $68.7 billion, which would make Microsoft the world’s third largest video game company. The deal came as Activision Blizzard faced gender pay... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Goodwill Accounting; Analysis; Decision Making; Talent and Talent Management; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Ethics; Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Mergers and Acquisitions; Lawsuits and Litigation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; North America; California

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Business & Environment - Faculty & Research

Company Management ; Mission and Purpose ; Social Media ; Race ; Environmental Sustainability ; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms ; Governing and Advisory Boards ;... View Details

March 2020 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Culture at Google

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Amy Klopfenstein and Sarah Mehta

Beginning in 2017, technology (tech) company Google faced a series of employee-relations issues that threatened its unique culture of innovation and open communication. Issues included protests surrounding Google’s contracts with the U.S. government, restrictions of... View Details

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November 2021
Case

The Wolf in Cashmere: LVMH's Bid to Acquire Tiffany

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

In November 2019, the iconic U.S. jeweler Tiffany agreed to be acquired by the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. The $16.6 billion transaction was scheduled to close in mid-2020. However, in 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on the luxury goods sector. In... View Details

Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Luxury Brand; COVID-19 Pandemic; Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Pandemics; Lawsuits and Litigation; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Europe

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07 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Supervisor of Sandwiches? More Companies Inflate Titles to Avoid Extra Pay

of getting hit by a lawsuit and facing enforcement action by federal labor regulators. “The firms have an incentive—and a very real incentive—to put you just over the line,” Cohen says. Fixing the problem... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Six Steps for Making Your Threat Credible

In the classic game of Chicken, two drivers on a crash course speed toward each other. The rules are simple: Whoever swerves first and avoids collision loses, and whoever is brave enough to stay the course... View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra

Web

Social Enterprise - Faculty & Research

Lawsuits and Litigation ; Measurement and Metrics ; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact ; Business View Details

June 2017 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Sales Misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Dennis W. Campbell, Susanna Gallani and Amram Migdal

Set in early 2017, this case examines widespread sales misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank. Wells Fargo's governance and controls are described in the lead up to the September 2016 announcement that Wells Fargo had settled with regulators for $185 million in... View Details