Publications

02 Feb 2016
First Look

February 2, 2016

forthcoming Journal of Accounting Research Causal Inference in Accounting Research By: Gow, Ian D., David F. Larcker, and Peter C. Reiss Abstract—This paper examines the approaches accounting researchers use to draw causal inferences... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2023
Article

When Executives Pledge Integrity: The Effect of the Accountant's Oath on Firms' Financial Reporting

By: Jonas Heese, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos and Caspar David Peter

We study the effect of executives’ pledges of integrity on firms’ financial reporting outcomes by exploiting a 2016 regulation that requires holders of Dutch professional accounting degrees to pledge an integrity oath. We identify chief executive officers (CEOs) and... View Details

Keywords: Integrity; Financial Reporting; Accounting; Earnings Management

SSRN

29 Jan 2013
First Look

First Look: Jan. 29

there are important implications for firm boundaries, design, and identity. The Consequences of Financial Innovation: A Counterfactual Research Agenda Authors:Lerner, Josh, and Peter Tufano Publication:The... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 17

Birchbox Defends Against Copycat Competitors Peter A. Coles and Benjamin EdelmanHarvard Business School Case 912-010 Birchbox offers trial-sized beauty products delivered monthly by mail-attracting rave... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2009
Article

Customer Experience Creation: Determinants, Dynamics and Management Strategies

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger, Peter C. Verhoef, Katherine N. Lemon, A. Parasuraman, Anne Roggeveen and Michael Tsiros

Retailers, such as Starbucks and Victoria's Secret, aim to provide customers a great experience across channels. In this paper we provide an overview of the existing literature on customer experience and expand on it to examine the creation of a customer experience... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

2013
Working Paper

The Impact of Conformance and Experiential Quality on Healthcare Cost and Clinical Performance

By: Claire Senot, Aravind Chandrasekaran, Peter T. Ward and Anita L. Tucker

The quality of operational processes is an important driver of performance in hospitals. In particular, processes that reliably deliver both evidence-based and patient-centered care, which we call conformance and experiential quality, respectively, have been argued to... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Experiential Quality; Conformance Quality; Clinical Outcomes; Cost Efficiency; Quality; Service Operations; Health Care and Treatment; Performance; Outcome or Result; Health Industry

May 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Lincoln Financial Meets the Financial Crisis

By: Robert C. Pozen and Peter Goodspeed Spring

In March of 2009, Lincoln Financial Group's CEO Dennis Glass was facing a difficult decision as to how he would replenish his company's capital, which could quickly fall to dangerously low levels as a result of the financial crisis. Though the cost of raising capital... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Financial Crisis; Capital; Private Equity; Crisis Management; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Insurance Industry

16 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 16

further provide evidence that these effects are due to increased competition for local resources. China: The Indigenization of Insurance Authors:Elisabeth Köll and David Faure Publication:In World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, edited View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 1

costs. But to realize those benefits, the acquirer needs to achieve economies of scale by absorbing the target's resources into its operations. CEOs, who are often unrealistic about the performance boost from such acquisitions, must be... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 27, 2007

while reciprocity seems useful to explain the way employees react to employer actions which the employees regard as unfair. H&R Block's Refund Anticipation Loan: Perilous Profits at the Bottom of the Pyramid? Authors:David Rose, Daniel Schneider, and View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 1997
Background Note

Copper and Zinc Markets 1996

Provides background information on copper and zinc markets as of mid-1996. Discusses supply and demand conditions, forecasts of the spot prices of the metals, and contracts for future delivery (forwards, futures, and options). View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Metals and Minerals; Supply and Industry; Mining Industry

March 1993 (Revised July 2008)
Case

Liability Management at General Motors

An analyst at General Motors charged with managing the structure of the automaker's debt must decide whether and how to modify the interest rate exposure of the firm's most recent debt offering. The analyst must take into consideration GM's liability management policy... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Financial Management; Interest Rates; Risk Management; Auto Industry; North America

July 1985 (Revised July 1990)
Case

Atlantic Corp.

Two forest products manufacturers negotiate the sale of a group of assets. ACRS would allow the buyer to rapidly depreciate the stepped up basis to justify a high valuation. The seller recently paid greenmail, and this transaction may be linked to its desire to avoid... View Details

Keywords: Assets; Negotiation; Acquisition; Forest Products Industry

January 2001 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Student Educational Loan Fund, Inc. (Abridged)

Rick Melnick oversees the Student Educational Loan Fund (SELF), which provides loans to Harvard Business School students. SELF is changing the terms of student loans from variable-rate with semiannual payments to fixed-rate loans with equal monthly payments. Melnick... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Financing and Loans; Business Education; Interest Rates; Education Industry; Boston

21 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 21

characterizes the financial world. They also overlook the role of natural selection. To be sure, natural selection in the financial world is not exactly analogous to the processes first described by Darwin and elaborated on View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 25, 2008

asked to consider whether entry into web services by Amazon, which had established its brand in retail, represented a prudent move by the company. The case provides an opportunity to highlight the benefits... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

21 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 21, 2009

that result in a failure to notice ethical erosion when it occurs slowly. Broadly, our studies provide evidence as to when and why people overlook cheating by others and examine the conditions under which the slippery slope effect occurs.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2010
Working Paper

The Job Market for New Economists: A Market Design Perspective

By: Peter A. Coles, John Cawley, Phillip B. Levine, Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth and John J. Siegfried

This paper provides an overview of the market for new Ph.D. economists. It describes the role of the American Economic Association (AEA) in the market and focuses in particular on two mechanisms adopted in recent years at the suggestion of our committee. First, job... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Information; Surveys; Jobs and Positions; Job Interviews; Job Search; Emerging Markets; Digital Platforms; Service Operations; Internet and the Web

August 2019
Case

Bark Gift Shop Ltd.

By: Susanna Gallani, Jan Bouwens and Peter Kroos

This case describes a setting in which the CFO of Bark Gift Shop Ltd., a gift items retailer, discovers an undesired pattern in the performance data suggesting that her shop managers that perform well during the first part of the year, purposely reduce their effort in... View Details

Keywords: Data Analytics; Employees; Behavior; Performance; Management; Goals and Objectives; Motivation and Incentives; Analysis