Publications

December 2003 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Globalizing the Cost of Capital and Capital Budgeting at AES

By: Mihir A. Desai and Douglas Kurt Schillinger

With electricity generating businesses around the world, AES Corp. is seeking a methodology for calculating the cost of capital for its various businesses and potential projects. In the past, AES used the same cost of capital for all of its capital budgeting, but the... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Risk Management; Globalized Firms and Management; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Emerging Markets; Foreign Direct Investment; Capital Budgeting; Energy Industry; South America

19 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

backgrounds and characters, but most shared a passion for the beauty industry, combined with an ability to understand the societal values and artistic trends of their eras, and to translate them into brands. François Coty stands out as a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics

August 2024 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Discerene Group: Long-Term Public-Markets Investing

By: Luis M. Viceira and Brent Schwarz

This case discusses active investing based on fundamental valuations and price distortions created by market events, and whether contractual terms between investment managers and their investors can help align incentives between long-term investors and active managers.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Valuation; Financial Markets; Financial Services Industry; Connecticut

Forthcoming
Article

Training, Communications Patterns, and Spillovers Inside Organizations

By: Miguel Espinosa and Christopher T. Stanton

This paper examines how training affects productivity across hierarchical layers within organizations. After a randomized training program for frontline employees at a government agency, trained workers' output increased while their requests for managerial assistance... View Details

Keywords: Spillovers; Labor Productivity; Firm Objectives, Organization, And Behavior; Training; Performance Productivity

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27 Jan 2023
Op-Ed

Have We Lost Sight of Integrity?

means “telling the truth.” Santos has since admitted the lies he told during his campaign but has repeatedly refused to take accountability for his actions, referring to them as merely “embellishments” of his resume. Integrity is not the... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

2007
Text Book

Business Analysis and Valuation: Using Financial Statements

By: Paul M. Healy and Krishna G. Palepu

Financial statements are the basis for a wide range of business analysis. Managers, securities analysts, bankers, and consultants all use them to make business decisions. There is strong demand among business students for course materials that provide a framework for... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Framework; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Statements

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24 Oct 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Signaling Firm Performance Through Financial Statement Presentation: An Analysis Using Special Items

Keywords: by Edward J. Riedl & Suraj Srinivasan

24 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Boards and Corporate Governance: A Balanced Scorecard Approach

Companies can create shareholder value through more effective governance, and through boards that do not simply ensure compliance, but focus their time and efforts on the most critical strategic areas. Past board results have often not... View Details

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

2017
Working Paper

Cooperative Strategic Games

By: Elon Kohlberg and Abraham Neyman

We examine a solution concept, called the “value," for n-person strategic games. In applications, the value provides an a-priori assessment of the monetary worth of a player's position in a strategic game, comprising not only the player's contribution to the total... View Details

Keywords: Game Theory

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19 Jan 2021
Blog Post

2+2 Where Are They Now Spotlight: Marc Duranteau (MBA 2019)

both the mentees and me to learn from each other! What impact has HBS had on your career? The value of my HBS MBA is mainly the personal growth it allowed me to have (and it was gigantic!). The biggest impact HBS had on me was to greatly... View Details

29 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 29

requires sources of novelty, but the challenge is that not all sources lead to innovation, so its value needs to be determined. However, since ways of determining value stem from existing knowledge, this... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2023
Article

Attracting the Sharks: Corporate Innovation and Securities Class Action Lawsuits

By: Elisabeth Kempf and Oliver Spalt

This paper provides novel evidence suggesting that securities class action lawsuits, a central pillar of the U.S. litigation and corporate governance system, can constitute an obstacle to valuable corporate innovation. We first establish that valuable innovation output... View Details

Keywords: Class-action Litigation; Turnover; Lawsuits and Litigation; Innovation and Invention; Risk and Uncertainty

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05 Jun 2023
What Do You Think?

Is the Anxious Achiever a Post-Pandemic Relic?

system ministering to a student body with similarly high hopes for achievement. According to Aarons-Mele, anxious achievers have many qualities valued in the business world. As she puts it, they “are great at forward planning, attuned and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

August 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Zillow Offers: Winning Online Real Estate 2.0

By: Luis Viceira, Marco Di Maggio and Allison Ciechanover

Founded in 2005, Zillow had become the leading online real estate and home-related marketplace. The brand was recognized as a trusted resource for players in the real estate market, providing information and transparency on home prices. Revenue, which was historically... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Corporate Culture; Intermediation; Brokerage; Startup; Evaluating Business Investments; Property; Information Technology; Business Model; Expansion; Business Startups; Real Estate Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

Paul Healy is the James R. Williston Professor at the Harvard Business School. His research covers a broad range of topics, including white collar crime, governance, business ethics, financial analysis, and Wall Street research. He joined the HBS faculty in 1998,... View Details

Keywords: accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry

January 2018
Case

John Rogers, Jr.—Ariel Investments Co.

By: Steven Rogers and Greg White

John Rogers Jr., the founder and CEO of Ariel Investments, an enormously successful finance firm with $12 billion of invested capital, is one of the few African Americans in the asset management industry. As one of the high profile leaders in the black business... View Details

Keywords: Advocacy; Diversity; Investment Management; Affirmative Action; Disruption; Cost vs Benefits; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Leading Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Problems and Challenges; Financial Services Industry; Chicago

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Code of Change

values included involvement of all employees in improving the company, fair treatment of workers, support for the community around its plants, and openness and truthfulness in the company." Unlike the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Nitin Nohria

February 2003 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Flextronics: Deciding on a Shop Floor System for Producing the Microsoft Xbox

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Jim McCusker must guide a group decision-making process aimed at getting input and buy-in from key people in California, Mexico, and Austria to choose a shop floor IT system for Flextronics. McCusker is Flextronics' account manager for the Microsoft Xbox project.... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Power and Influence; Geographic Location; Problems and Challenges; Leadership; California; Mexico; Austria

October 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Ayala Corporation

Ayala Corporation is the oldest conglomerate in the Philippines and has been controlled by the Zobel de Ayala family for seven generations. Over the past 25 years, Ayala has evolved from a real estate family business into a highly diversified and professionally managed... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Family Business; Business Conglomerates; Valuation; Financial Strategy; Public Ownership; Real Estate Industry; Philippines