Large Investors - Publications - Faculty & Research

18 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

WeWork—The IPO That Shouldn’t?

give guidance to potential investors in other areas. WeWork fails to discuss the impact of the free rent and other concessions it has to give to its enterprise tenants as an offset to the concessions they have received from landlords.... View Details

Keywords: by Nori Gerardo Lietz; Financial Services; Real Estate

24 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Boards and Corporate Governance: A Balanced Scorecard Approach

capital to the best ideas, weeding out the bad ones. Investors have the challenge of sorting through the overwhelming number of ideas to discern the good ones, a process compared to finding a needle in a haystack. They often lack the... View Details

Keywords: Re: Robert S. Kaplan & Krishna G. Palepu

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Most Accountants Aren’t Crooks—Why Good Audits Go Bad

accounting firms that deliver unfavorable audits. Even if an accounting firm is large enough to absorb the loss of one client, individual auditors' jobs and careers may depend on success with specific clients. Moreover, in recent decades,... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, George Loewenstein & Don A. Moore; Accounting; Financial Services

26 Nov 2001
Op-Ed

Why Corporate Budgeting Needs To Be Fixed

revenues—she increases her chances of getting a large bonus the following year. This is a variation on the "big bath" theory of corporate financial reporting: If you're going to take a loss, take as big a loss as possible.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

04 Nov 2010
What Do You Think?

Why Do We Chase Stars?

performance," and reaches conclusions that might give pause to many who chase stars. Their subjects are top investment analysts (as identified annually by Institutional Investor magazine) and the organizations that develop and hire... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

21 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 21

welcome counterpoint to the largely hidden involvement of corporate leaders in shaping policy through the hundreds of millions of dollars they direct to Super PACs, trade associations, and think tanks to promote liberal and conservative... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel & Sean Silverthorne

15 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 15

political consensus to make investments in the infrastructure that will lead to more effective use of these resources. There is a largely unrecognized opportunity for the private sector to engage in selective investments that consider... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Your Company Wants to be a 'Cognitive Referent' (Hint: SpaceX)

McDonald and others in academia call a cognitive referent. Simply put, a cognitive referent is the king of its category. More importantly, it enjoys all kinds of benefits over competitors further down the brand-recognition chain. The smartest people want to work there.... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Aerospace; Food & Beverage; Retail

13 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Science: The Unlikely Frontier for New Business Ideas

and greater novelty. Krieger and his colleagues detailed their findings in the working paper Standing on the Shoulders of Science, released in June. A changing R&D landscape Over the years, Krieger says, large firms have retreated... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

23 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 23

model, poor people give little because they expect donations to come mainly from richer individuals. In others, donations by poor individuals constitute a large fraction of donations, and this raises the incentive for poor people to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Jun 2021
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2021

enjoying my colleague Tom Eisenmann's latest book, Why Startups Fail. This book is a well-crafted collection of case examples of how startups fail. Eisenmann offers a means for both entrepreneurs and their investors to see around corners... View Details

Keywords: by Kathryn Haviland

28 Aug 2017
Research & Ideas

Should Industry Competitors Cooperate More to Solve World Problems?

for the whole industry. We are unlikely to see progress in cases where collaboration is unprofitable in both the short and the long term. Second, large institutional investors must have significant ownership... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Manufacturing; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Mining

30 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Vanguard, Trian And The Problem With 'Passive' Index Funds

in index funds while $310 billion exited actively managed funds. But have they become too popular? Researchers and analysts are increasingly concerned that managers in companies with a large number of passive fund View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

05 Jul 2017
Research & Ideas

Are Stockbrokers Illegally Leaking Confidential Information to Favored Clients?

information about large stock trades to their best, most lucrative clients. When a savvy activist investor submits a trading order through a brokerage firm, for example, the brokers will exploit this... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

Research Summary

The Value of Family Ownership, Control, and Management

In collaboration with Professor Raphael Amit of Wharton, Belén Villalonga is investigating how family ownership, control, and management affect firm value. Their forthcoming Journal of Financial... View Details

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

How to Write a Great Business Plan

Every seasoned investor knows that detailed financial projections for a new company are an act of imagination. Nevertheless, most business plans pour far too much ink on the numbers—and far too little on the information that really... View Details

Keywords: Re: William A. Sahlman

09 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

How Social Entrepreneurs Can Increase Their Investment Impact

social and environmental entities can shift billions in capital.” Traditionally, philanthropic organizations make donations, not investments. Yet, some 41 percent of large foundations make investments, alongside their traditional grants,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

04 Oct 2007
What Do You Think?

Has Managerial Capitalism Peaked?

transfer of wealth from public investors to the hands of business leaders, corporate insiders, and financial intermediaries." Headlines remind us of very large payouts to CEOs, regardless of their... View Details