Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,331)
- Faculty Publications (551)
- August 2011 (Revised July 2012)
- Case
Mike Mayo Takes on Citigroup (A)
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Kaser
The case details the conflict between Mike Mayo, an influential banking analyst and Citigroup about what Mayo considers aggressive accounting policies. Mike Mayo questions Citigroup's lack of a valuation allowance against their Deferred Tax Assets despite Citi's recent... View Details
- August 2011 (Revised July 2012)
- Case
Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID
By: Elie Ofek
In mid 2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details
- August 2011
- Article
Independent Invention During the Rise of the Corporate Economy in Britain and Japan
By: Tom Nicholas
Independent inventors accounted for approximately half of all patents in Britain and Japan by 1930, despite the rise of the corporate economy and the spread of industrial R&D. A mixture of patent renewal and historical citations data reveals that the quality of... View Details
- 2011
- Working Paper
The Organization of Firms Across Countries
By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen
We argue that social capital as proxied by trust increases aggregate productivity by affecting the organization of firms. To do this we collect new data on the decentralization of investment, hiring, production, and sales decisions from Corporate Headquarters to local... View Details
- July 2011 (Revised September 2011)
- Case
CEO Compensation at GE: A Decade with Jeff Immelt
By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem
When ISS, a large shareholder advisory group, recommended a "no" vote on Jeff Immelt's award of 2 million stock options in April 2011, GE's compensation committee had to decide whether to rescind or amend the award or ignore the ISS recommendation. Was Immelt's 2010... View Details
- July 2011 (Revised June 2013)
- Case
Foxconn Technology Group (A)
By: Robert G. Eccles, George Serafeim and Beiting Cheng
In 2010, Foxconn Technology Group, the largest and fastest growing multinational company in the Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) industry, came under public scrutiny after a string of employee suicides reached the international press. Although the company was... View Details
Keywords: Multinational; Labor Market; Electronic Manufacturing Services; Health ＆ Wellness; Robots; Automation; Social Responsibility; Employee Relationship Management; Leadership; Stocks; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Capital Markets; Supply Chain Management; Safety; Environmental Accounting; Human Capital; Human Resources; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry; China
- 2011
- Working Paper
Non-Audit Services and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from 1978-1980
By: Kevin Koh, Shiva Rajgopal and Suraj Srinivasan
We provide evidence for the long-standing concern on auditor conflicts of interest from providing non-audit services (NAS) to audit clients by using rarely explored NAS fee data from 1978 to 1980. Using this earlier setting, we find cross-sectional evidence of improved... View Details
- July–August 2011
- Article
Putting Business Models Under the Microscope
By: K. Merchant, Tatiana Sandino and D. Huelsbeck
The article provides advice for financial managers on evaluating business models for corporate performance measurement. Emphasis is given to a study sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) that examined the business model of a medical... View Details
- June 2011
- Case
Trouble in Islandia; Computer Associates 2001 - 2004
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Melissa Barton
The Board of Directors of Computer Associates deals with pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice as its members try to gain better insight into the accounting practices of the company's top management team. View Details
- June 2011 (Revised February 2013)
- Case
Mandatory Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosure in the European Union
By: George Serafeim
In 2011, the European Commission was deciding on how to best modify the existing European Union policy on corporate disclosure of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. Previous directives had recommended that European companies report ESG... View Details
- May 23, 2011
- Article
Leading and Lagging Countries in Contributing to a Sustainable Society
By: Robert G. Eccles and George Serafeim
To determine the extent to which corporate and investor behavior is changing to contribute to a more sustainable society, researchers Robert Eccles and George Serafeim analyzed data involving over 2,000 companies in 23 countries. One result: a ranking of countries... View Details
- May 2011 (Revised March 2012)
- Case
InterfaceRAISE: Sustainability Consulting
By: Michael W. Toffel, Robert G. Eccles and Casey Taylor
InterfaceRAISE is a sustainability management consulting firm created to leverage the capabilities of its parent company Interface Inc., a carpet manufacturer recognized as a global leader in corporate environmental sustainability. This case illustrates the challenges... View Details
Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Entrepreneurship; Performance; Environmental Accounting; Profit; Marketing Strategy; Human Resources; Business Model; Leveraged Buyouts; Salesforce Management; Consulting Industry; Manufacturing Industry
- May 2011
- Article
Consequences and Institutional Determinants of Unregulated Corporate Financial Statements: Evidence from Embedded Value Reporting
By: George Serafeim
I analyze Embedded Value (EV) reporting by firms with life insurance operations to assess the impact of unregulated financial reporting on transparency and to examine the institutional characteristics that promote unregulated reporting. Under EV accounting the present... View Details
- April 2011
- Teaching Note
Accounting for the iPhone at Apple, Inc. (TN)
By: Francois Brochet and Krishna G. Palepu
Teaching Note for 111003. View Details
- April 2011 (Revised December 2013)
- Case
Boardroom Change in Norway
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Melissa Barton
In 2003, the Norwegian Parliament amended the Public Limited Companies Act in order to achieve greater representation of women on corporate boards. According to the amendment, all state-owned companies and public limited companies were required to have at least 40%... View Details
- Apr 2011 - 15 Apr 2011
- Conference Presentation
The Globalization of Corporate Environmental Disclosure: Accountability or Greenwashing?
- April 2011
- Article
Ethical Breakdowns: Good People often Let Bad Things Happen. Why?
By: Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel
Companies are spending a great deal of time and money to install codes of ethics, ethics training, compliance programs, and in-house watchdogs. If these efforts worked, the money would be well spent. But unethical behavior appears to be on the rise. The authors observe... View Details
- March 2011 (Revised December 2019)
- Case
Wealth Management Crisis at UBS (A)
By: Paul M. Healy
The case describes the challenges that UBS faced as a result of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation for tax fraud, that claimed that UBS had helped some 52,000 U.S. residents hide billions of dollars in untaxed assets in secret Swiss accounts between... View Details
Keywords: Fraud; Regulatory Enforcement; Reputation Incentives; Crony Capitalism; Tax Havens; Legitimacy; Multinational; Strategic Change; Incentives; Transparency; Financial Services; Taxation; Crime and Corruption; Global Range; Asset Management; Ethics; Problems and Challenges; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Governance; Financial Services Industry; United States; Switzerland
- March 2011
- Article
Accounting Scholarship That Advances Professional Knowledge and Practice
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Recent accounting scholarship has used statistical analysis on asset prices, financial reports and disclosures, laboratory experiments, and surveys of practice. The research has studied the interface among accounting information, capital markets, standard setters, and... View Details
- March 2011
- Article
Institutional Demand Pressure and the Cost of Corporate Loans
By: Victoria Ivashina and Zheng Sun
Between 2001 and 2007, annual institutional funding in highly leveraged loans went up from $32 billion to $426 billion, accounting for nearly 70% of the jump in total syndicated loan issuance over the same period. Did the inflow of institutional funding in the... View Details