Publications

20 Aug 2018
Research & Ideas

Bargain Hunters Beware: A Store's 'Original Price' Might Not Be After All

by fake original prices, and regulators should consider cracking down on the practice more aggressively. “There is an attitude among a few policymakers that consumers are savvy enough anyway, View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising; Retail

May 1996
Background Note

The GM's Operational Challenge: Managing Through People

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

Highlights and explores how a general manager adds value to the firm at the operational level by managing through people. Discusses how assumptions about human motivation influence the employment contract that the general manager implicitly enters into with the workers... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Contracts; Managerial Roles; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Value

January 2025
Case

Constitutional Fiction: John Miller & The Legitimacy of Family Constitutions

By: Lauren Cohen, Octavian Graf Pilati and Sophia Pan

John Miller sat reviewing his family’s Constitution, grappling with how best to implement and enforce its provisions. Designed to prevent ambiguity in governance, the Family Constitution set out core values and guidelines to promote harmony and cohesion among family... View Details

January 2010 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Savage Beast (A1)

By: Noam Wasserman and LP Maurice

For several months, things had been spiraling downwards at Savage Beast, the music-recommendation company started three years before by Tim Westergren. The company's founder-CEO recently left due to pressures both at home and within the venture. Dozens of investors... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management Teams; Partners and Partnerships

28 Aug 2014
Op-Ed

Government Can Do More to Unfreeze Small Business Credit

and expanded the Regulation A "mini-public offering" cap from $5 million to $50 million. On the debt side, over the past few years programs at the SBA and other loan guarantee... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking

03 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 3

PublicationsLords of the Harvest: Symbolic Signaling and Regulatory Approval of Genetically Modified Organisms Authors:Shon R. Hiatt and Sangchan Park Publication:Best Paper Proceedings of the Academy of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2011
Article

How Do Acquirers Retain Successful Target CEOs? The Role of Governance

By: Julie Wulf and Harbir Singh

The resource-based view argues that acquisitions can build competitive advantage partially through retention of valuable human capital of the target firm. However, making commitments to retain and motivate successful top managers is a challenge when contracts are not... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Mergers and Acquisitions; Acquisition; Equity; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Contracts; Performance; Governance; Legal Services Industry

Find at Harvard

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21 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Bio-Piracy: When Western Firms Usurp Eastern Medicine

discover how immigration law affects the number of such patents, and explain how, under certain conditions, patenting traditional medicine can mutually benefit both corporate firms View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Legal Services; Biotechnology

24 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Why the Internet Doesn’t Change Everything

before. And anarchy has always yielded back to law and order. In this excerpt from her new book, Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos, View Details

Keywords: by Debora L. Spar

28 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Football Stars Debate ‘The Social Capital of the Savvy Athlete’

Bowl running back Arian Foster," according to a company press release. Fantex paid $10 million for a minority stake in Foster's brand. At the Harvard forum, Foster said that Security and Exchange Commission View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Sports

November 2005 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Meisterchef.com

By: Henry B. Reiling

Two underperforming companies are seeking to combine on terms that will preserve the net operating loss of one for use against their combined future profits or at least against the future profits of the company that generated the losses. The questions are whether the... View Details

Keywords: Code Law; Corporate Governance; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cost Accounting; Taxation; Corporate Strategy; Profit; Crisis Management; Financial Management; Legal Services Industry; Service Industry; United States

05 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 5

Regulation? By: Drake, David F., and Robin L. Just Abstract—A regulator's ability to incentivize environmental improvement among firms is vital in achieving long-term sustainability. However, firms can and... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

September 1992 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Martin Marietta: Managing Corporate Ethics (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Senior managers at Martin Marietta are considering two questions: how to assess the company's seven-year-old ethics program; and how to deal with employees' fear of retribution--real or imagined--for alerting the corporate ethics office to potential problems. The case... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Resignation and Termination; Employees; Law; Business or Company Management; Programs

17 Sep 2021
News

Clearing the Path to Citizenship

When Xiao Wang (MBA 2014) and his parents immigrated to the United States from China three decades ago, the process was a difficult and expensive one. The family spent the equivalent of five months’ rent on... View Details

01 Dec 2007
News

Mead Treadwell

sciences, climate, biology, and human development. While we focus on research goals, our advice is tied to major policy issues as well. For example, the commission advocates ratification of the United Nations Convention on the View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Oil and Gas Extraction; Oil and Gas Extraction; Oil and Gas Extraction; Oil and Gas Extraction; Oil and Gas Extraction

Article

Attracting Early Stage Investors: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

By: S. Bernstein, A. Korteweg and K. Laws

Find at Harvard

January 1994 (Revised April 2011)
Background Note

Note on Private Equity Partnership Agreements

By: Josh Lerner

Venture capital by necessity is a long-run investment. Consequently, since the mid-1960s virtually all venture financing has been raised through private partnerships with a ten-year or longer life span. To govern these investments, complex contracts have sprung up... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Investment; Governance; Contracts; Partners and Partnerships

July 1999 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Quickturn Design Systems, Inc. (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Katharina Pick

Quickturn Design Systems, Inc. faces a hostile takeover bid from its competitor, Mentor Graphics. Mentor makes the bid at a moment when Quickturn's stock price is depressed and the company is defending against a patent suit filed by Mentor. The two companies have a... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Governing and Advisory Boards; Behavior; Lawsuits and Litigation; Organizations; Acquisition; Corporate Governance; Service Industry