Publications

February 2004 (Revised March 2004)
Background Note

Profitability Drivers in Professional Service Firms

By: Ashish Nanda

This case presents a simple model of the drivers of profitability in a professional service partnership and conducts an empirical exploration of the determinants of profitability among AmLaw 100 firms over the period 1994 to 1999. View Details

Keywords: Profitability; Model; Profit; Partners and Partnerships; Law; Service Industry

Keywords: Jennifer Myers; illustration by Dan Bejar; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments

01 Sep 2018
News

After the Fall

traditional banks to one where non-bank financial intermediaries played a much more important role,” he says. These less regulated intermediaries, which included money market funds, hedge funds, and... View Details

01 Jun 2010
News

$how Me the Money

petition that calls for greater transparency in the global financial system and stronger enforcement of international money-monitoring laws and regulations. For Baker, this is... View Details

June 2022
Teaching Plan

Pacesetters

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Mel Martin

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 322-019. City Sealcoating CEO Keith Chaney had just publicly called out the Boston Chamber of Commerce for their slow progress on their supplier diversity program, Pacesetters. Established in 2018 by regional business leaders,... View Details

Keywords: Minority-owned Businesses; Procurement; Racial Wealth Gap; Diversity; Small Business; Restructuring; Contracts; Goals and Objectives; Performance Improvement; Performance Evaluation; United States; Massachusetts

September 1984 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Higgins v. Commissioner

By: Henry B. Reiling

Discusses the issue of whether an activity is a trade or business. The Court held that the taxpayer's very substantial stock and bond portfolio management activities were not a trade or business, whereas the taxpayer's real estate activities did constitute a trade or... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Courts and Trials; Investment Portfolio; Property; United States

Find at Harvard

September 1994 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Forging the New Salomon

By: Lynn S. Paine and Michael Santoro

Describes Salomon Brothers' recovery from the August 1991 Treasury auction scandal. Details the impact of the firm's disclosure of bidding improprieties and describes how the new management team, led by Warren Buffett and Deryck Maughan, guided the company through the... View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Ethics; Organizational Culture; Law; Business or Company Management

22 Sep 2009
News

The Case for Regulatory Reform

guarantees” that compel the government to bail out large financial institutions. Moss’s own reform ideas have helped frame the ongoing Washington debate and make a clear, persuasive argument for more federal View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

January 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

EMC Corporation: Response to Shareholder Litigation (A)

By: Josh Lerner

EMC Corp. is the target of a shareholder class-action lawsuit for the second time. CEO, Richard Egan, must decide whether to settle the case, as is done in 96% of such cases and as EMC itself did previously, or fight the action. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Lawsuits and Litigation; Going Public; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations; Technology Industry; United States

August 2000 (Revised November 2001)
Background Note

Liability Reporting

By: Paul M. Healy and Preeti Choudhary

By examining key criteria for recognizing a liability, this case explores liability recognition in straightforward situations and then examines the most difficult reporting issues in recording liabilities. These often arise when: 1) uncertainty arises about whether an... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Legal Liability; Valuation; Problems and Challenges; Accounting Industry

March 2011
Case

MorphoSys AG: The Evolution of a Biotechnology Business Model

By: Gary P. Pisano, Ryan Johnson and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In the biotech world, the 18-year-old Munich-based company MorphoSys was a rarity: it was profitable. The company achieved this profitability not by developing and selling its own drugs, but by licensing access to its proprietary library of human antibodies. Recently,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Profit; Intellectual Property; Rights; Risk Management; Digital Platforms; Product Development; Business and Shareholder Relations; Vertical Integration; Biotechnology Industry; Munich

29 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 29, 2007

Cultural Change (forthcoming) Abstract We examine the impact of the 1993 Land Law of Vietnam which gave households the power to exchange, transfer, lease, inherit and mortgage their land-use rights. We use... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2010
News

HBS Grads Make Their Mark in India

Group CEO Abhi Shah (MBA ’06) Clutch Group is a global provider of legal support services, working with corporate legal departments and major law firms. Founded in 2006, based in Washington, D.C., with... View Details

20 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 20

their increased tendency to behave fairly. Read the paper: http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/shaw et al.pdf Robust Enforcement Should Complement Voluntary Regulation Authors:Jodi L. Short and Michael W.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Apr 2014
News

Agent of change

Working in law enforcement made Skovran notice inefficiencies in the way the government approached societal problems. "I became interested in finding more effective ways to reduce crime and violence," she... View Details

17 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 17, 2006

find support for these hypotheses. Download working paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-022.pdf Resolving Information Asymmetries in Markets: The Role of Certified Management Programs Author: Michael W. Toffel Abstract Firms and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2018 (Revised November 2018)
Case

An Innovative Anti-bribery Commitment?

By: Eugene Soltes

Reebonz, an online luxury goods platform based in Singapore that operates across the Asia-Pacific region, offers its investors the opportunity to redeem shares if either the firm or its founder are investigated by the U.S. or U.K governments with regard to complying... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; United Kingdom Bribery Act; Law; Leadership; Moral Sensibility; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; United States; United Kingdom; Asia