Publications

31 Aug 2021
Book

Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate

through persuasion or coercion.” But where does this power come from? It derives from controlling access to what others value, such as income, status, achievement, belonging, autonomy, and moral purpose. Strategies for shifting power When... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

September 2004 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Hedging Currency Risks at AIFS

By: Mihir A. Desai, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman

The American Institute for Foreign Studies (AIFS) organizes study abroad programs and cultural exchanges for American students. The firm's revenues are mainly in U.S. dollars, but most of its costs are in eurodollars and British pounds. The company's controllers review... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Forecasting and Prediction; Revenue; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Currency; Currency Exchange Rate; Education Industry; North and Central America

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

Fourthly, although a low-profile corporation, Unilever was embedded in business systems and official decision-making worldwide. This was derived from the company's long-established position as a large firm in many countries, from its role... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

Research Summary

Managing Processes

David A. Garvin is examining the nature and use of managerial and organizational processes—the means by which work is accomplished—including strategic processes that chart corporate direction, resource allocation processes that distribute funds,... View Details

08 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Creating Value in Your Business Ecosystem

Wal-Mart's and Microsoft's dominance in modern business has been attributed to any number of factors, ranging from the vision and drive of their founders to the companies' aggressive competitive practices. But the performance of these two very different firms View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

October 2013 (Revised November 2013)
Case

Blackstone and the Sale of Citigroup's Loan Portfolio

By: Victoria Ivashina and David Scharfstein

The credit boom that preceded the 2007-2009 financial crisis led to several lending practices that exposed banks to large risks. In particular, when the financial crisis unraveled, there were several billion dollars' worth of leveraged buyout (LBO) loans that were... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Private Equity; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Financial Markets; Investment; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

as a "structure for rational discourse": With wicked problems, the determination of solution quality is not objective and cannot be derived from following a formula. Solutions are assessed in a social context in which "many... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

28 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Investor Lawsuits Against Auditors Are Falling, and That's Bad News for Capital Markets

it will make investors more wary of engaging in the capital markets.” Two Supreme Court decisions, although not the only reasons, appear to have made a difference, according to the researchers. The rulings in Tellabs v. Makor (2007) and Janus v. First View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services; Accounting

20 Apr 2021
Book

A Simple Question That Can Guide Companies to Epic Success

satisfaction that she derives from work. The idea is simple. If compensation were set exactly at WTS, she would be indifferent between work and her next best opportunity—perhaps another job, perhaps leisure. If the firm pays more than... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

14 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Pay Attention To Your ‘Extreme Consumers’

interview consumers of their type of product in neighborhoods near the Harvard Business School campus. Boston. Frequently, however, they found that students would only seek out people much like themselves, such as middle-class students in Harvard Square. The insight... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Research Summary

Competing on a Common Platform

Why have over 100 firms joined the Eclipse Foundation to collectively produce an open source platform and tools for software application development? What are they trying to accomplish? This research analyzes IBMs divestment of the Eclipse Java Integrated Development... View Details

2015
Working Paper

Competitiveness and Clusters: Implications for a New European Growth Strategy

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

This paper develops policy recommendations on the use of cluster-based economic policies and the adoption of a new concept of competitiveness in the context of the new growth path that WWWforEurope aims to outline.
A first section discusses and derives an... View Details

Keywords: Competitiveness; Clusters; Economic Policy; European Union; Competition; Industry Clusters; Policy; Economic Growth; European Union

Read Now

07 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

What Drives Supply Chain Behavior?

provide prescriptive recommendations, many of these papers pursue an optimizing approach given the assumption of a completely rational decision maker. Testament to the complexity of these activities is the high level of mathematical sophistication used to View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston

March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies at General Motors: Competitive Exposures

By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen

How can a multinational firm analyze and manage currency risks that arise from competitive exposures? General Motors has a substantial competitive exposure to the Japanese yen. Although the risks GM faces from the depreciating yen are widely acknowledged, the company's... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Currency Exchange Rate; Competition; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; International Finance; Financial Management; Investment Funds; Risk and Uncertainty; Auto Industry

2024
Working Paper

Does Private Equity Have Any Business Being in the Health Care Business?

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Zirui Song

Private Equity (“PE”) has come under increased scrutiny by the press, academics, and policymakers, as well as the public, for its investments in health care delivery. This scrutiny has been exacerbated by recent high profile hospital bankruptcies following PE... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Government Administration; Acquisition; Health Industry