• Web

Accounting & Management - Faculty & Research

offer a practical framework for designing a board. The full volume brings together insights from legal advisors, investors, and governance experts and covers topics ranging from board refreshment and audit committees to shareholder... View Details

• January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
• Case

Pioneer Natural Resources: Enhancing the Capital Return Strategy with Variable Dividends

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Elisabeth Kempf and E. Scott Mayfield

In February 2021, Scott Sheffield, the CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources (an independent oil and gas company based in Texas), was considering the possibility of enhancing the firm’s capital return strategy by introducing a variable dividend tied to cash flows in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Cash Flow; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Return; Profit; Policy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Energy Industry; United States; North America; Texas

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Esty, Benjamin C., Elisabeth Kempf, and E. Scott Mayfield. "Pioneer Natural Resources: Enhancing the Capital Return Strategy with Variable Dividends." Harvard Business School Case 224-001, January 2024. (Revised May 2024.)

• Web

Finance - Faculty & Research

fourth-generation (G4) member of his family’s heavy manufacturing business, found himself reflecting on how the firm would navigate a deepening shareholder conflict. While the second generation (G2) had managed the business in harmony,... View Details

• Program

Compensation Committees

programs. You will explore best practices for aligning executive pay to business strategy and company goals and for meeting shareholder expectations as the regulatory climate evolves. You may also be interested in the related program:... View Details

• January 2008 (Revised July 2008)
• Case

Opportunity Partners

By: Robin Greenwood and James Quinn

Philip Goldstein, the principal in a growing hedge fund and prominent activist investor, has taken a position in a Mexico-based closed-end fund. Following a hard-fought proxy contest in which he advocated for management to eliminate the fund's substantial discount,... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value; Financial Services Industry; Mexico

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Greenwood, Robin, and James Quinn. "Opportunity Partners." Harvard Business School Case 208-097, January 2008. (Revised July 2008.)

• Web

Entrepreneurial Management - Faculty & Research

the company's shareholders and leaders. Some want to use the program as a fig leaf for laying off staff; others think it costs too much and might put the company at a competitive disadvantage relative to companies that are hiring... View Details

• May 2012
• Article

Global, Local, and Contagious Investor Sentiment

By: Malcolm Baker, Jeffrey Wurgler and Yu Yuan

We construct investor sentiment indices for six major stock markets and decompose them into one global and six local indices. In a validation test, we find that relative sentiment is correlated with the relative prices of dual-listed companies. Global sentiment is a... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Globalization; Stocks; Markets; Capital; Financial Services Industry

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Baker, Malcolm, Jeffrey Wurgler, and Yu Yuan. "Global, Local, and Contagious Investor Sentiment." Journal of Financial Economics 104, no. 2 (May 2012): 272–287.

• June 2021
• Technical Note

SPAC Space

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2020, over half of all initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United States were special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), blank-check companies that typically had two years to find a business to take public, usually through a reverse merger. Together, 248... View Details

Keywords: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies; SPACs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Going Public; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Strategy

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Wells, John R., and Benjamin Weinstock. "SPAC Space." Harvard Business School Technical Note 721-456, June 2021.

• 16 May 2017
• First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research, May 16

promulgated by academic economists in the 1970s, is behind the idea that corporate managers should make shareholder value their primary concern and that boards should ensure they do. The theory regards View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

• 04 Feb 2008
• Research & Ideas

Putting Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector

The social sector is big business. In the United States alone some 1.5 million nonprofits and other social ventures have combined revenues of $700 billion and control assets valued at $2 trillion—a seemingly substantial arsenal to tackle... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

• 08 Nov 2016
• Working Paper Summaries

Managers' Cultural Background and Disclosure Attributes

Keywords: by Francois Brochet, Gregory S. Miller, Patricia Naranjo, and Gwen Yu

• March 2018
• Teaching Note

Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity (A) and (B)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Victor Wu

Through the challenges facing Target, the case examines the ways in which corporations can become involved in political and legislative debates and processes, ranging from campaign contributions to lobbying. In 2016, Target CEO Brian Cornell must determine how to... View Details

Keywords: Public Opinion; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Problems and Challenges; Laws and Statutes; Rights; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Media; Political Elections; Taxation; Corporate Accountability; Values and Beliefs; Fairness; Diversity; Customers; Communication; Business and Government Relations; Retail Industry; United States

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Hsieh, Nien-hê, and Victor Wu. "Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 318-123, March 2018.

• 04 Sep 2001
• Research & Ideas

Governing the Family-Run Business

The topic of governance is hot. Shareholders, managers, and business advisors are demanding improved governance of (typically public) companies by strengthening their boards of directors and developing more responsive shareholder... View Details

• 18 Jul 2006
• First Look

First Look: July 18, 2006

acquisition and the management team running the acquired firm for the private equity sponsor share the shareholder value creation in a successful leveraged buyout. Purchase this note:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

• 16 Nov 2021
• HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

2001, the once-profitable company lost 8.3 billion euros (equal to $15.1 billion today)—the second-biggest loss of any French company ever. A year later, the company’s debts totaled 71 billion euros, three times the value of the firm.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

• 02 Sep 2014
• First Look

First Look: September 2

identity framework that incorporates reputation. Findings-The Nobel Prize is a "true" corporate heritage brand (in this case, organizational brand). It is the hub of a linked network of brands-"a federated republic." The brand core of the Nobel... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne