Publications

18 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 18, 2009

and probabilistic delayed observation of agents' types. I derive conditions in which an advertising principal can set its payment delay to deter rogue agents and to attract solely or primarily good-type agents. Through the savings from excluding rogue agents, the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 3

private firms (firms incorporated before 1985). Sectors dominated by state-owned and traditional private firms before 1988-1990, with assets, sales, and profits representing shares higher than 50%, generally remained so in 2005. The... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

14 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 14

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/13-010.pdf IP Modularity: Profiting from Innovation by Aligning Product Architecture with Intellectual Property Authors:Joachim Henkel, Carliss Y. Baldwin, and Willy C. Shih Abstract Distributed value... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 May 2016
First Look

May 17, 2016

revenue-focused, secretive corporation in the years after, providing little information on the profitability of its lines of business, many of which were believed to be unprofitable. Which businesses would... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2023
Case

Elliott Management: Capital Allocation in Biopharma

By: Amitabh Chandra, Paul Clancy and Lauren Gunasti

The case explores the intersection of capital allocation and shareholder activism in the biopharmaceutical industry. As many biopharma companies face looming patent expirations for key medicines, the case asks the question of whether investing in R&D and M&A is an... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Strategy; Capital Allocation; Biopharmaceutical Industry; Shareholder Activism; Investment Activism; Resource Allocation; Research and Development; Business and Shareholder Relations; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

company. In December 2020, Bastian announced that Delta would become a charter member of the newly formed OneTen corporate coalition, a group of business leaders from more than 30 large companies who aimed to collectively hire and advance... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

November 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

ConAgra Foods

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Ingrid Vargas

In 2002, ConAgra Foods CEO Bruce Rohde was deliberating the next steps in the process of transforming the company from an agribusiness giant to a value-added food processor. ConAgra had become the second largest food company and number one food service supplier in the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Leading Change; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Food; Agribusiness; Product; Business Processes; Management Teams; Expansion; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

09 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Clayton Christensen’s “How Will You Measure Your Life?”

2010) and Karen Dillon, the book uses meaningful corporate and personal anecdotes to extoll the value of theory in finding and creating happiness. "You'll see that without theory, we're at sea without a map or a sextant,"... View Details

May 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Arcos Dorados: Decarbonizing McDonald’s in Latin America

By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

This case describes the decarbonization strategy of Arcos Dorados—McDonald’s largest independent franchisee, operating in 20 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean—and how the company measured its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including those... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Accounting; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Change Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Environmental Sustainability; Food; Growth Management; Supply Chain; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Green Technology Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Latin America; North and Central America; South America

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

January 31, 2019
Article

The Backlash to Larry Fink's Letter Shows How Far Business Has to Go on Social Responsibility

By: Mark R. Kramer

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest investor with $6 trillion under management, evoked heated controversy with his remarks last week that his company would change its hiring and potentially its compensation structure to advance diversity and ensure that... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose

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April 1993 (Revised October 1995)
Case

ALZA and Bio-Electro Systems (A): Technological and Financial Innovation

By: Josh Lerner and Peter Tufano

To develop the next generation of risky products, ALZA, a mature and profitable biotechnology firm specializing in drug delivery systems, must raise $40 million. Organizational constraints and competitive concerns demand that the work be done inside the firm. However,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Technological Innovation; Business Subsidiaries; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Finance; Biotechnology Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

September 2013
Case

United Rentals (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch, Kathleen Durante and Emily McTague

In December 1997 United Rentals (URI) went public on the NYSE. Ten years later, during the peak of the economic meltdown, the company's performance was in decline. United Rentals had experienced its share of problems in the prior years and was still struggling to... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Board Dynamics; Accounting Fraud; Governance; Board Committees; Merger; Corporate Governance; Construction Industry; United States

Article

Why Do Firms Have 'Purpose'? The Firm's Role as a Carrier of Identity and Reputation

By: Rebecca Henderson and Eric Van den Steen

Why do so many firms publicly espouse a "purpose" beyond simple profit maximization? And why do so many managers and employees appear to care deeply about this purpose and to believe that it is critically important? In this paper we argue that the conventional answers... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Identity; Reputation

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2014
Working Paper

Making the Business Case for Environmental Sustainability

By: Rebecca Henderson

Can a business case be made for acting sustainably? This is a difficult question to answer precisely, largely because there is no generally accepted definition of the term "sustainability". Is it acting sustainably to protect the human rights of the firm's workforce?... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability

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October 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Accounting Red Flags or Red Herrings at Catalent? (A)

By: Joseph Pacelli, ZeSean Ali and Tom Quinn

Fund manager Janet Curie asked for a recommendation about the pharmaceutical company Catalent. The company seemed like a solid investment. However, a pair of research reports issued over the previous two months complicated this narrative. GlassHouse Research, a short... View Details

11 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

The High Risks of Short-Term Management

themselves and their investors. There's another surprise in the research: short-termism might not be as widespread as we think, and a substantial number of corporations are rising to the challenge. "One important takeaway is that firms... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

08 Dec 2022
HBS Case

The War in Ukraine and Nestlé’s Moral Dilemma: Stay or Leave Russia?

products such as baby formula. At the same time, the company declared it would donate all profits to humanitarian relief organizations, and would therefore not pay any corporate taxes to the Russian... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consumer Products

March 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Pakistan Rising: Bazaar's Growth Story (A)

By: Paul A. Gompers and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in September 2021 as Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, co-founders of Bazaar technologies (Bazaar), the Pakistani high growth B2B e-commerce marketplace, are contemplating whether the year-and-a half old startup should also venture into offering financing to... View Details

Keywords: B2B; Business Model; Emerging Markets; For-Profit Firms; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Value Creation; Globalization; Competition; Expansion; Profit; Resource Allocation; Diversification; Corporate Strategy; Pakistan