Publications

SSRN

January 2017
Case

The Six CEOs of Tyco International Ltd.

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In September 2016, Johnson Controls, Inc. completed the acquisition of Tyco International PLC, a $9.9 billion business with operating profits of $884 million. The purchase consideration was $14.4 billion. Although the deal was billed as a merger, Ireland-based Tyco... View Details

Keywords: Tyco; Dennis Kozlowski; Edward Breen; Fire Safety; Fire Protection; Security; Packaging; Securities And Exchange Commission; Fraud; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Earnings Management; Financial Statements; Goodwill Accounting; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Divisions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Headquarters; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Restructuring; Crime and Corruption; Engineering; Applied Optics; Chemicals; Construction; Metals and Minerals; Ethics; Finance; Cash Flow; Public Equity; Stock Options; Financing and Loans; Initial Public Offering; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Global Range; Globalized Firms and Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Disclosure; Health Care and Treatment; Business History; Executive Compensation; Selection and Staffing; Courts and Trials; Lawfulness; Lawsuits and Litigation; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Horizontal Integration; Value; Chemical Industry; Construction Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry; Energy Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Mining Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Semiconductor Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Utilities Industry; Republic of Ireland; Switzerland; Bermuda; United States; New Hampshire

12 Dec 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Can Sustainability Drive Innovation at Ferrari?

Keywords: Re: Raffaella Sadun; Auto

10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

people you would expect to be most active in the field: scholars. "If we look at the leading research universities and at the business schools within them, the topic of leadership has been actually given fairly short shrift,"... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

01 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The ‘Luxury Prime’: How Luxury Changes People

Y.J. Chua and Xi Zou, an assistant professor at London Business School, suggest that luxury goods have an important effect on human behavior that is only now becoming clear—and that may have implications for addressing the continuation of... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

14 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 14

Cloud Computing Authors:Kyle Armbrester and Robert G. Eccles Publication:European Business Review (January 2012) An abstract is unavailable at this time. Publisher's Link: http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/?p=5748 Assent-maximizing... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2009
Chapter

Evaluating the Impact of SA8000 Certification

By: Michael J. Hiscox, Claire Schwartz and Michael W. Toffel

SA 8000, along with other types of certification standards and corporate codes of conduct, represents a new form of private governance of working conditions, initiated and implemented by companies, labor unions, and non-governmental activist groups. Whether these codes... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Working Conditions; Standards; Performance Evaluation

Read Now

15 Apr 2024
Book

Struggling With a Big Management Decision? Start by Asking What Really Matters

Business leaders face a wide variety of difficult decisions: whether their companies should stay small or go big, whether layoffs are necessary for survival, whether a proposed partnership is a good idea or a recipe for disaster. When... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2022
Chapter

Capitalism and the Environment

By: Geoffrey Jones

Capitalism drove the environmental decimation of the planet. The environment was seen as a free good, while the consequences of dirty industrial and agricultural processes were seen as external to the firm. Public policies largely allowed this to happen, as politicians... View Details

Keywords: History; Environment; Sustainability; Capitalism; Ethics; Business History; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Pollution; Climate Change

September 2016 (Revised April 2022)
Case

Zhang Xin and the Emergence of Chinese Philanthropy

By: Geoffrey Jones and Amanda Yang

This case examines the recent emergence of Chinese business philanthropy through the case of the SOHO China Foundation established by the wife and husband real estate moguls Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi. It begins by describing the early careers of Zhang and Pan, and how... View Details

Keywords: China; Philanthropy Funding; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Personal Development and Career; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Higher Education; Real Estate Industry; China

08 Feb 2010
HBS Case

Looking Behind Google’s Stand in China

working inside the country to create value for its Chinese users, employees, and business partners. To critics, Google was selling out its core principles to play in the world's second largest economy. “Google shot themselves in the foot... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

July 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Banking on Change: Aligning Culture and Compensation at Morgan Stanley

By: Malcolm S. Salter

This case study was prepared as part of a research project on Culture, Conduct, and Governance in Financial Firms. The objective of this project is to compare and contrast the efforts of U.S. and European banks to induce changes in organization culture in the aftermath... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Organizational Culture; Corporate Governance; Banks and Banking; United States; Europe

03 Oct 2023
Research Event

Build the Life You Want: Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey Share Happiness Tips

View Video “Are you happy?” asks Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg of happiness expert Arthur C. Brooks. “Next question,” Brooks jokes, before answering: “No one is. Happiness is not a destination. It’s a direction.” In this video, Brooks, a professor at Harvard View Details

Keywords: by HBS Staff

March 2017 (Revised June 2019)
Case

CEO Activism (A)

By: Michael W. Toffel, Aaron K. Chatterji and Julia Kelley

This case introduces CEO activism, a phenomenon in which business leaders engage in political or social issues that do not relate directly to their companies. The case uses several examples to describe why business leaders are engaging in CEO activism and the potential... View Details

06 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 6

Publications The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations Author: Josh Lerner Publication: Harvard Business Press Books, 2012 Abstract Innovation is a much-used buzzword these days, but when it comes to creating... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Sep 2023
Book

Successful, But Still Feel Empty? A Happiness Scholar and Oprah Have Advice for You

The path to becoming the very best leader—or the very best anything, really—is to become “the greatest CEO in the world of yourself, incorporated,” says Harvard Business School professor Arthur Brooks. Understanding your emotions, and how... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

February 2022
Case

NFX Capital and Moov Technologies

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Nicole Tempest Keller

In July 2019, James Currier, a general partner at San Francisco-based NFX Ventures, was considering a seed stage investment of $1.5 million in Moov Technologies, a B2B marketplace for used industrial equipment. NFX was a venture capital firm focused on seed-stage... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Network Effects; Marketplace Matching; Digital Platforms; Market Design; Applications and Software; Semiconductor Industry; Financial Services Industry; San Francisco

27 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

Voting Democrat or Republican? The Critical Childhood Influence That's Tough to Shake

American political candidates are forecast to spend as much as $12 billion by next November to put ads on airwaves, texts on phones, and signs on lawns. Yet new research from Harvard Business School finds that no amount of money can undo... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

April 2017 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Victor Wu

Through the challenges facing Target, the case examines ways in which corporations can become involved in political and legislative debates and processes, ranging from campaign contributions to lobbying to political activism. In 2016, Target CEO Brian Cornell must... View Details