Investment Evaluation - Publications - Faculty & Research

12 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Crowded at the Top: The Rise of the Functional Manager

collected information from some 300 large American firms, focusing primarily on the period between 1986 and 1999. By evaluating a combination of confidential compensation surveys, public accounting records, and technology View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

27 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Hard Work Isn't Enough: How to Find Your Edge

room). [div class=infogram-embed data-id=_/1o5OMrRU8PPPowRIfUXF][/div] In evaluating your own career goals, Huang recommends taking a page from Buc-ee’s and asking yourself: What are the strengths that set you apart from the pack and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 May 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 9

measures' informativeness about managerial effort and talent depends critically on the judicious selection of peer firms as performance benchmarks. By evaluating the efficacy of firms' chosen relative TSR benchmarks in performance-based... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

What Would It Take to Unlock Microfinance's Full Potential?

first installment. People who got the more flexible contract invested significantly more in their businesses and earned higher returns as a result. Their businesses were bigger three years later, and they are still bigger now, 10 years... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Financial Services

26 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Best Practices of Global Innovators

it's worth noting that evaluating the benefits from collaboration is hard. Many firms struggle with this issue, given they need to quantify the benefits before making the kinds of investment we are talking... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

22 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 22

evaluated under more permissive incentive schemes are rated significantly less risky than the same loans evaluated under pay-for-performance. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2018
Case

Candor at Clever

By: Ethan Bernstein and Om Lala

Clever, a high-growth EdTech company based in San Francisco, had grown quickly in market share and headcount. As with many high-growth companies, however, early employees (many of whom had never managed people before) had been given the opportunity to manage teams, and... View Details

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11 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 11, 2018

analyze and critique, and, therefore, the designers of society’s big data infrastructure, whether human or machines, play an unacknowledged legislative function of great consequence. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54683 forthcoming... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

28 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 28, 2018

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54899 forthcoming Management Science How Do Sales Efforts Pay Off? Dynamic Panel Data Analysis in the Nerlove-Arrow Framework By: Chung, Doug J., Byungyeon Kim, and Byoung G. Park Abstract— This paper View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

26 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

To Motivate Employees, Give an Unexpected Bonus (or Penalty)

curve,” for example, made employees in the top 20 percent of performance eligible for raises and promotions, while those in the bottom 10 percent risked being demoted or fired. Industries such as investment banking, consulting, and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing

June 2007 (Revised April 2016)
Case

Octone Records

By: Anita Elberse and Elie Ofek

In February 2007, Octone Records founders James Diener, Ben Berkman, and David Boxenbaum had been highly successful with the first two bands they had signed, Maroon 5 and Flyleaf. Known for its grassroots marketing campaigns, Octone operated through a unique... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Joint Ventures; Investment Return; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Development; Outcome or Result; Creativity; Music Industry

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11 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 11

a fictional case study on new product development and improvement after the successful launch of a first breakthrough product. Topics include business planning for brand name products, finance and investment for the development of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

19 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 19

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nejo.12003/abstract Working PapersInvestment Incentives in Open-Source and Proprietary Two-Sided Platforms Authors:Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Gaston Llanes Abstract We study incentives to View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 20

has received substantial attention in the strategy literature, where a number of qualitative approaches to describe, represent, and evaluate business models have been proposed. We contend that while helpful to understand a firm's overall... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Nov 2016
First Look

November 22, 2016

economies, many business enterprises defy traditional industry boundaries. In this study, we evaluate six "big data" approaches to peer firm identifications and show that some, but not all, "wisdom-of-crowd" techniques perform... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Nov 2006
What Do You Think?

What’s to Be Done About Performance Reviews?

suggestions for how to improve them. Typical of these were Thad Juszczak's recommendation that "The process of performance feedback should be continuous." Continuous feedback is an antidote to Hany Derias' concern that "the one thing that performance... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

14 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 14, 2007

acquired than those in a control sample. We argue that the combination of hedge funds' short investment horizons and their large positions in target firms makes M&A the only attractive exit option. The results also suggest that hedge... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2021 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Bed Bath & Beyond: The New Strategy to Drive Shareholder Value

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher

At one time, Bed Bath & Beyond was one of the most successful specialty retailers in the United States—its growth and profit margins far exceeded both peer retailers in the home goods market as well as many other discount retailers. But in 2014, its stock price peaked,... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Diversification; Corporate Governance; Leading Change; Performance Evaluation; Valuation; Investment Activism; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

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08 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

The Strategic Way To Hire a Sales Team

with engineering on custom applications, and up-selling or cross-selling additional services. Allocation of sales talent should change. Focus on behaviors in selection. In many firms, this means upgrading assessment skills. Managers are excessively confident about... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

March 2012
Article

How to Make Finance Work

By: Robin Greenwood and David S. Scharfstein

Once a sleepy old boys' club, the U.S. financial sector is now a dynamic and growing business that attracts the best and the brightest. It is tempting to declare the industry a roaring success. But its purpose is to serve the needs of U.S. households and firms, and by... View Details