Publications

Article

How NFTs Create Value

By: Steve Kaczynski and Scott Duke Kominers

How much could a cluster of pixels possibly be worth? More pointedly, why is it worth anything at all? The explosion of NFTs and their accompanying marketplaces have left many baffled, incredulous, and deeply skeptical. But while NFTs may be fetching eye-popping,... View Details

Keywords: Technological And Scientific Innovation; Crypto Economy; Blockchain; Technological Innovation; Currency; Technology Adoption; Digital Transformation

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Program

Senior Executive Program—Africa

Summary African countries face a distinct set of social, economic, and political conditions that create unique business challenges—along with exciting opportunities. To gain a competitive advantage, businesses across the continent need exceptional, View Details

2024
Working Paper

The Fading Light of Democratic Capitalism: How Pervasive Cronyism and Restricted Suffrage Are Destroying Democratic Capitalism as a National Ideal…and What to Do about It

By: Malcolm S. Salter

What are we to do about declining public trust and confidence in democratic capitalism, which many citizens consider a cornerstone of our national ideology and identity? While the answer is not entirely clear, I argue in this essay that any effort aimed at restoring... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Economic Systems; Trust; United States

Program

Succeeding as a Strategic CFO

as capital budgeting and managing risk, in an effective manner Gain confidence in situations outside of your areas of expertise Strengthen your communication skills Improve how you describe your plans and performance results to... View Details

Program

Authentic Leader Development

confidence in your own capabilities Recognize and address your blind spots as a leader Learn from feedback and the challenges you encounter daily Lead an integrated life that enables you to balance work, home, and other pursuits Learn to... View Details

Program

Senior Executive Leadership Program—Middle East

deliver value to customers Lead authentically and ethically at all levels and foster a culture of accountability across the organization Build confidence in yourself as a leader, decision-maker, and negotiator Develop enduring bonds with... View Details

September 2023 (Revised September 2024)
Case

IBJ, Inc. (A): Seeking Matrimony in Japan

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Akiko Saito

In March 2020, Shigeru Ishizaka, founder and CEO of IBJ, Inc., Japan's largest marriage matching service provider, faced a critical decision regarding the company’s planned ¥3.5 billion (US$32.8 million) acquisition of competitor ZWEI Co., Ltd. IBJ, founded in 2006,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Risk and Uncertainty; Business Model; Corporate Strategy; Value

December 2018
Case

The Global-Local Tension: Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao Leading with 'International Values and Local Roots' (A)

By: Tsedal Neeley

Vittorio Colao, CEO of telecommunication giant Vodafone, must respond to reports of disturbing accounting practices at two of Vodafone’s operating companies. In one case, €60 million have been misreported due to a series of failures to check manual accounting... View Details

Keywords: GLOBAL-LOCAL; Organization Culture; Global Identity; Local Identity; Accounting Discrepency; Globalization; Leadership; Trust; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Organizations; Identity; Local Range; Global Range; Values and Beliefs; Accounting Audits

March 1999 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Network Associates: Securing the Internet

By: Debora L. Spar

Follows one company's path through the uncharted terrain of government regulation and the Internet. In March 1998, Network Associates announced it would begin selling powerful encryption software from its Dutch subsidiary. Such a move looked to the U.S. government like... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry; Public Administration Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

Against a backdrop of intensifying competition, rising labor costs, and ascending customer expectations, companies are actively seeking ways to do more with less – for example, compelling customers to take on new roles in the value creation process. And, when... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Determinants of Early-Stage Startup Performance: Survey Results

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

To explore determinants of new venture performance, the CEOs of 470 early-stage startups were surveyed regarding a broad range of factors related to their venture’s customer value proposition, product management, marketing, technology and operations, financial... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Survey Research; Performance Analysis; Entrepreneurship; Performance; Analysis; Business Startups; Failure; Surveys

SSRN

December 2018
Supplement

The Global-Local Tension: Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao Leading with 'International Values and Local Roots' (B)

By: Tsedal Neeley

Vittorio Colao, CEO of telecommunication giant Vodafone, must respond to reports of disturbing accounting practices at two of Vodafone’s operating companies. In one case, €60 million have been misreported due to a series of failures to check manual accounting... View Details

Keywords: GLOBAL-LOCAL; Global Identity; Local Identity; Accounting Discrepency; Globalization; Leadership; Trust; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Organizations; Identity; Local Range; Global Range; Values and Beliefs; Accounting Audits

July 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Background Note

Staging Two-Sided Platforms

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Andrei Hagiu

Firms that aspire to develop two-sided platforms face a formidable challenge. Prospective users on each side will not invest in the platform until they are confident there will be enough users on the other side. Traditional strategies for dealing with this... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Risk Management; Two-Sided Platforms; Supply Chain; Strategy; Retail Industry

Program

Finance for Senior Executives

Benefits By examining corporate finance from both internal and external perspectives, this executive finance program provides a solid grounding in the fundamentals of finance. You will build the skills and confidence to immediately apply... View Details

March 2020
Case

Minneapolis Star Tribune

By: Joseph L. Bower, Elizabeth Hansen and Michael Norris

In the summer of 2019, Mike Klingensmith, CEO of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Twin Cities metro region’s largest newspaper, reviewed subscription trends and plans for future experimentation. The newspaper industry across the U.S. had suffered a steep decline for... View Details

Keywords: Financial Performance; Industry Evolution; Business Earnings; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Journalism and News Industry; Minnesota

Program

Private Equity and Venture Capital

industries Structure and negotiate better deals Make better investment decisions by examining the influence of risk, earnings, and organizational change Move quickly to select the best deals and negotiate with greater confidence Optimize... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Finance

2025
Article

Statistical Inference for Heterogeneous Treatment Effects Discovered by Generic Machine Learning in Randomized Experiments

By: Kosuke Imai and Michael Lingzhi Li

Researchers are increasingly turning to machine learning (ML) algorithms to investigate causal heterogeneity in randomized experiments. Despite their promise, ML algorithms may fail to accurately ascertain heterogeneous treatment effects under practical settings with... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Mathematical Methods; Analytics and Data Science

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2024
Conference Paper

Quantifying Uncertainty in Natural Language Explanations of Large Language Models

By: Himabindu Lakkaraju, Sree Harsha Tanneru and Chirag Agarwal

Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly used as powerful tools for several high-stakes natural language processing (NLP) applications. Recent prompting works claim to elicit intermediate reasoning steps and key tokens that serve as proxy explanations for LLM... View Details

Keywords: Large Language Model; AI and Machine Learning

September 2016 (Revised March 2020)
Teaching Note

Fasten: Challenging Uber and Lyft with a New Business Model

By: Feng Zhu

Fasten, a new ridesharing start-up in Boston, entered the scene in September 2015 hoping its unique vision of transparency for both driver and passenger and strategy to keep riders' fares low and charge drivers a flat $0.99 fee per ride, as opposed to the 20%–30%... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Transportation; Business Startups; Business Model; Transportation Industry; Boston