Publications

Article

Does the Scope of the Sell-Side Analyst Industry Matter? An Examination of Bias, Accuracy, and Information Content of Analyst Reports

By: Kenneth Merkley, Roni Michaely and Joseph Pacelli

We examine changes in the scope of the sell-side analyst industry and whether these changes impact information dissemination and the quality of analysts’ reports. Our findings suggest that changes in the number of analysts covering an industry impact analyst... View Details

Keywords: Analyst Industry; Sell-side Analysts; Analyst Reports; Finance; Analysis; Information; Reports; Quality; Financial Services Industry

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July 2021
Supplement

CIAM: Home-Grown Shareholder Activism in France (B)

By: Charles C.Y. Wang, Tonia Labruyere and Vincent Dessain

This case is a complement to CIAM: Home-Grown Shareholder Activism in France (A) and describes the events after CIAM learned about a potential misuse of corporate assets at Altice/SFR. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Valuation; Investment Activism; Accounting; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; France

February 1977
Case

Available Finance Corp.

By: Jay O. Light

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Credit; Financial Services Industry

October 1975
Case

E.F. Hutton and Co. (B)

By: Samuel L. Hayes III

Keywords: Financial Services Industry

September 2018 (Revised August 2021)
Teaching Note

Blackstone at Age 30 and Blackstone at 35

By: Josh Lerner

This teaching note is meant to guide in the instruction of HBS No. 316-013 "Blackstone at 30" case. It examines the process of institutionalization and scaling in private equity and alternative investments more generally, looking specifically at how Blackstone's size... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Blackstone; Alternative Assets; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Business Growth and Maturation; Public Ownership; Cost vs Benefits; Financial Services Industry

2018
Working Paper

Show or Tell? Improving Agent Decision Making in a Tanzanian Mobile Money Field Experiment

By: Jason Acimovic, Chris Parker, David F. Drake and Karthik Balasubramanian

When workers make operational decisions, the firm's global knowledge and the workers’ domain-specific knowledge complement each other. Oftentimes workers have the final decision-making power. Two key decisions a firm makes when designing systems to support these... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Decision Making; Training; Performance Improvement; Money; Mobile Technology; Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Services Industry

SSRN

May 2018 (Revised June 2018)
Case

Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry

By: Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Jiahua Xu

Connecting life insurance policyholders with potential investors (called Life Settlement Providers), Ashar Group plays a pivotal role in the industry. Its current position is, however, increasingly being challenged by consumer-direct models, led by major providers... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Investment; Markets; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; Financial Services Industry

June 2017
Teaching Note

Qalaa Holdings and the Egyptian Refining Company

By: Victoria Ivashina and Jeffrey Boyar

Teaching Note for HBS No. 217-011 View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Infrastructure; Emerging Markets; Africa; Structuring And Financing Large Projects; Financial Services Industry; Egypt

November 2016 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in Motion

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Evan Siddall, newly appointed CEO of Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation, a governmental organization focused on the residential housing market, is charged with leading change at the organization. The case follows this process of change step by step and looks at the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership, Personal Strategy ＆ Style; Government Organizations; Performance Management; Organizational Change And Transformation; Culture; Leading Change; Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Government Administration; Risk Management; Restructuring; Leadership; Performance; Change Management; Financial Services Industry; Canada

August 2016 (Revised August 2017)
Case

AnswerDash (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek and Jeffrey D. Shulman

It is 2014 and AnswerDash, a startup backed by venture capital, has not seen the widespread adoption of their online self-service customer support solution that they were expecting based on early success in helping clients save and generate substantial amounts of... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Economic Value Estimation; Price Metrics; Organizational Selling; Innovation Adoption; Business To Business; Marketing; Customer Lifetime Value; Venture Capital; Customer Relationship Management; Price; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Business Startups; Sales; Innovation and Invention; Product Marketing; Financial Services Industry

June 1997
Teaching Note

First Securities, Inc. TN

By: David F. Hawkins

Keywords: Financial Services Industry

June 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

The Role of Real Estate in Endowment Portfolios: The Case of Christ Church, Oxford

By: David Chambers, Elroy Dimson, Arthur I Segel and Eva Steiner

The case centers on Christ Church's Treasurer, James Lawrie, who is contemplating his options for investing a portion of the College's endowment in real estate. Approximately 1/3 of the total $690 million endowment was allocated towards real estate, much higher than... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Endowment Management; Endowments; United Kingdom; Oxford; Portfolio Allocation; Higher Education; Investment Portfolio; Property; Corporate Finance; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

June 2016 (Revised August 2017)
Case

AnswerDash

By: Elie Ofek and Jeffrey D. Shulman

It is 2014, and AnswerDash, a startup backed by venture capital, has not seen the widespread adoption of their online self-service customer support solution that they were expecting based on early success in helping clients save and generate substantial amounts of... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Economic Value Estimation; Price Metrics; Organizational Selling; Innovation Adoption; Business To Business; Marketing; Customer Lifetime Value; Venture Capital; Customer Relationship Management; Price; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Business Startups; Sales; Innovation and Invention; Product Marketing; Financial Services Industry

February 2016
Supplement

Financing Curtis LLP

By: Nikolaos Trichakis

This is a follow-up to "Curtis LLP: A Case on Cases," HBS case No. 616-049. It explores the challenges facing debtors when dealing with borrowing firms that have operational flexibility. View Details

Keywords: Management; Operations; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Services Industry

March 2015 (Revised May 2018)
Case

JPMorgan Chase: Tapping an Overlooked Talent Pool

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly

By the spring of 2014, the pilot had come to an end for JPMorgan Chase's ReEntry Program, a program designed for women coming back to the workforce after a period of time away. Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of Asset Management, and her team had to evaluate whether or not... View Details

Keywords: Women; Training; Leadership; Motherhood; Talent and Talent Management; Experience and Expertise; Diversity; Gender; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Human Capital; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Programs; Financial Services Industry; United States

Article

The Cost of Capital for Alternative Investments

By: Jakub W. Jurek and Erik Stafford

Traditional risk factor models indicate that hedge funds capture pre-fee alphas of 6% to 10% per annum over the period from 1996 to 2012. At the same time, the hedge fund return series is not reliably distinguishable from the returns of mechanical S&P 500 put-writing... View Details

Keywords: Hedge Funds; Required Returns; Downside Risk; Index Options; Investment Funds; Cost of Capital; Investment Return; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Services Industry

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Article

What is the Other Reason of Why Private Equity Matters in Emerging Markets?

By: Roberto Charvel

Private equity investments in emerging markets can help increase the availability of credit for firms. View Details

Keywords: Alternative Assets; Emerging Economies; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Financial Services Industry; Latin America

2012
Chapter

Is Private Equity in Emerging Markets Coming of Age?: Evidence of the Mexican Private Equity Market

By: Roberto Charvel and Darek Klonowski

This chapters reviews the potential of the private equity and alternative assets industry in Mexico. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Emerging Markets; Latin America; Mexico; Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Ventures; Economics; Finance; Market Design; Financial Services Industry; Latin America; Mexico

March 2014
Technical Note

Venture Capital Investment in the Clean Energy Sector

By: Ramana Nanda and Shikhar Ghosh

In this note, we examine the extent to which venture capital is adequately positioned for the rapid commercialization of clean energy technologies in the United States. The need for a revolution in clean energy is driven not just by environmental consequences of energy... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Financial Services Industry