Publications

Find at Harvard

Read Now

05 May 2015
News

Economist: The Internet of Things will deliver surge of productivity

Boris Vallee

Boris Vallée is an Associate Professor in the Finance Unit. He teaches Real Property in the MBA elective curriculum, and previously taught the Finance II course in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor’s Vallée’s research traces the motives behind and the... View Details

January 2021 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Aptiv PLC Board of Directors (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Aptiv’s board must decide whether a joint venture with an auto maker is the right next step in the company’s efforts to develop and commercialize a production-ready autonomous driving system. While many commentators believed that Aptiv’s self-driving technologies had... View Details

November 2006 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Centre Partners - American Seafoods 2003

Centre Partners, a leading private equity firm, is contemplating ways to realize liquidity from its successful investment in American Seafoods Corp., Inc. An apparently innovative solution is developed, which calls for issuing Income Deposit Securities. Does this... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Capital Structure; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

February 2017 (Revised June 2017)
Case

ExxonMobil: Business as Usual? (A)

By: George Serafeim, Shiva Rajgopal and David Freiberg

Climate change was becoming an important societal and business issue as more governments were introducing climate change related regulations and investors became increasibly worried about stranded assets within oil and gas firms. In September 2016, the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Oil ＆ Gas; Oil Prices; Oil Companies; Asset Impairment; Predictive Analytics; Sustainability; Environmental Impact; Innovation; Disclosure; Accounting; Valuation; Climate Change; Renewable Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Reporting; Energy Industry

September 2011 (Revised August 2013)
Case

The Pepsi Refresh Project: A Thirst for Change

By: Michael I. Norton and Jill Avery

In 2010, for the first time in 23 years, PepsiCo did not invest in Superbowl advertising for its iconic brand. Instead, the company diverted this $20 million to the social media-fueled Pepsi Refresh Project: PepsiCo's innovative cause-marketing program in which... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Advertising Campaigns; Investment Return; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Social Marketing; Cost vs Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry

Video

Sanjay Lalbhai

Sanjay Lalbhai, Chairman of India-based Arvind, a large textile manufacturer and the flagship company of the Lalbhai Group based in Ahmedabad, discusses how the technological disruption caused by power looms... View Details

23 Aug 2020
News

In the UK, She Leads the Search for a COVID Vaccine

told the Daily Mail. In fact, Bingham’s role—working with pharmaceutical firms, planning manufacturing facilities, and making investment decisions—ties in directly with her career experience. “As a venture capitalist, I have to write a... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; vaccines; leadership; biomedicine; venture capital; operations; public health; government innovation; Finance; Scientific Research and Development Services

01 Jun 2024
News

Outside Voices

In just 15 years, Greece managed to seesaw from one economic extreme to the other, from almost breaking the eurozone at the depth of its debt crisis to becoming one of the fastest growing economies in Europe in 2023, according to the IMF. Now wages are rebounding,... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; illustration by Pete Ryan; immigration; repatriation; innovation; public policy; Greece

2012
Book

The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations

By: Josh Lerner

Innovation is a much-used buzzword these days, but when it comes to creating and implementing a new idea, many companies miss the mark—plans backfire, consumer preferences shift, or tried-and-true practices fail to work in a new context. So is innovation just a... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Organizational Structure; Microeconomics

Teaching Interest

Private Equity and Venture Capital (Executive Education)

By: Josh Lerner

As equity markets appear to strengthen, interest rates remain low, and asset values look attractive, private equity firms are uniquely positioned to pursue new opportunities. This View Details

Video

María Michelena

María Michelena, Executive Director of InGenia Uruguay and Chairwoman of OMEU, describes the growth of impact investing in Uruguay and Latin America more broadly, citing opportunities for innovative solutions to socioeconomic gaps. View Details

06 Jan 2010
What Do You Think?

Is a Stringent Climate Change Agreement a Pot of Gold?

Summing Up Do we even need a stringent climate change agreement? Judging from this month's comments, a question can be raised about the necessity of a climate change agreement, stringent or not, as a catalyst to foster innovation and the... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Energy; Utilities

May 2020 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Valuing Peloton

By: E. Scott Mayfield

Peloton Interactive, a well-known venture-capital-backed unicorn in the connected fitness space, recently had gone public with a market capitalization of over $8.0 billion. However, in the weeks following its public debut, Peloton’s stock price had fallen by over 25%.... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Public Equity; Initial Public Offering; Disruptive Innovation; Business Strategy; Valuation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

October 2018 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Masayoshi Son and the Vision Fund

By: Tom Nicholas, Ramana Nanda and Benjamin N. Roth

In October 2016, SoftBank Group Corp., the Japanese conglomerate giant caused a significant shock to the worldwide market for venture capital and private equity by announcing the Vision Fund, the largest tech investment fund in the world at close to $100 billion. The... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Entrepreneurship; Competitive Strategy