Publications

June 2021
Case

Modern Endowment Management: Paula Volent and the Bowdoin Endowment

By: Luis M. Viceira, Emily R. McComb and Dean Xu

This case examines modern endowment investment management through the lens of a leadership transition between Chief Investment Officers (CIOs). In March 2021, Paula Volent is about to step down as the CIO of the endowment of Bowdoin College after twenty-one years, and... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Investment Banking; Growth Management; Investment Return; Capital Markets; Interest Rates; Competition; Cost Management; Risk Management; Financial Liquidity; Performance Evaluation

February 2025
Case

Align Partners and SM Entertainment: Korean Shareholder Activism Meets K-Pop (A)

By: Charles CY Wang and Billy Chan

For years, institutional investors had experienced very limited success in influencing the management of listed companies through shareholder activist campaigns in Korea. The common practice of circular ownership and public resentment toward foreign shareholder... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Public Equity; Stocks; Investment Activism; Music Entertainment; Corporate Governance; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; South Korea

13 Jan 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Private Equity and Industry Performance

Keywords: by Shai Bernstein, Josh Lerner, Morten Sørensen & Per Strömberg

2014
Article

Corporate Governance and the Financial Crisis in Italy

By: Dante Roscini

The financial crisis hit Italy harder than many other Eurozone countries. In part this was due to the fact that the crisis came upon a system that was weakened by years of sub-par economic growth. One of the several endogenous factors that explain the stagnation of the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Corporate Governance; Italy; European Union

Peter Tufano is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and Senior Advisor to the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. From 2011 to 2021, he served as the Peter Moores Dean at View Details

August 1993 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Dimensional Fund Advisors: 1993

By: Jay O. Light

A small California-based money manager is now offering specialty products for institutional investors based upon recent financial research findings. View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Investment; Financial Services Industry; California

Charlotte Robertson is an Assistant Professor in the Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches BGIE in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Robertson conducts research on the history of financial... View Details

15 Nov 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Do Fire Sales Create Externalities?

Keywords: by Sergey Chernenko and Adi Sunderam; Financial Services; Banking

07 Jun 2012
Working Paper Summaries

How Short-Termism Invites Corruption--And What to Do About It

Keywords: by Malcolm S. Salter

A New Way to Understand Corporate Leverage

The link between measures of risk and return within the equity market has been very weak over the past 47 years: in the United States, returns on high-risk stocks have cumulatively fallen short of the returns on low-risk stocks, during a period when the equity market... View Details

07 Feb 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Which Does More to Determine the Quality of Corporate Governance in Emerging Economies, Firms or Countries?

Keywords: by Andrea Hugill & Jordan Siegel

March 2017
Article

Entrepreneurial Beacons: The Yale Endowment, Run-ups, and the Growth of Venture Capital

By: Y. Sekou Bermiss, Benjamin J. Hallen, Rory McDonald and Emily Cox Pahnke

This paper investigates the social context of entrepreneurship in organizational sectors. Prior research suggests that firm foundings are driven by collective patterns of activity—that is, by patterns of prior foundings—including support from related markets as well as... View Details

Keywords: Signals; Social Salience; Venture Capital; Higher Education; Organizations; Entrepreneurship; Investment

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January 2001 (Revised June 2004)
Case

PetroChina

By: Alexander Dyck, Yasheng Huang and David Lane

In March 2000, plans for the initial public offering of shares in PetroChina were proceeding on schedule, and institutional investors were evaluating the deal. PetroChina was China's largest oil and gas company and an attractive play on China's continued economic... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Governance; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; China

July 2020
Case

Mortgage Backed Securities and the Covid-19 Pandemic

By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Luis M. Viceira and Dean Xu

In April 2020, global financial markets were still reeling as the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly across the world. Global equity markets had initially fallen by 30% in response to the pandemic, and high-yield credit markets had dropped by nearly 20%. In contrast,... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Mortgage-backed Securities; Health Pandemics; Financial Markets; Assets; Resource Allocation; Financial Instruments; Decision Making

January 2020 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Governing PG&E

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

The five commissioners of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) listened intently at a public forum in April 2019 as PG&E Corporation’s out-going chairman Richard Kelly described the company’s proposed new board. PG&E, which provided electricity and natural... View Details

13 Jul 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Catering Through Disclosure: Evidence from Shanghai-Hong Kong Connect

Keywords: by Aaron S. Yoon

Innovations in Governance

In this paper we explore the innovations in governance that have promoted investment and growth. Some policymakers have tinkered with their country's institutions, some have undertaken wholesale changes, while others have attempted to influence the rules in other... View Details

Research Summary

International Competitiveness in High Technology and Science Based Sectors

By: Gary P. Pisano

This research project examines shifts in competitive capabilities of companies and countries in high technology and science based businesses. It is particularly concerned with the potential loss of such capabilities in various industrial sectors in the... View Details

Article

Gains from Foreign Direct Investment: Macro and Micro Approaches

By: Laura Alfaro

This paper discussed the importance of an “integrated approach” to the study of the effects of FDI on host countries. Macro-level work that examines countries at different stages of development and institutional capacity is needed to surface the role of local... View Details

Keywords: Spillovers; Complementarities; Mechanism; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Growth