Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,863)
- Faculty Publications (431)
- 2006
- Working Paper
On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture)
This paper shows why members of an organization often share similar beliefs. I argue that there are two mechanisms. First, when performance depends on making correct decisions, people prefer to work with others who share their beliefs and assumptions, since such... View Details
- December 2005 (Revised November 2006)
- Case
Corning, 2002
By: Malcolm P. Baker and James Quinn
Corning, with large investments in fiber optic technology, was hit particularly hard by the collapse of the telecommunications industry in 2001. With over $4 billion in debt, the firm's survival appears to rest on raising additional equity capital. The protagonist is... View Details
- 2005
- Other Unpublished Work
Corporate Financing Decisions When Investors Take the Path of Least Resistance
By: Malcolm Baker, Joshua Coval and Jeremy Stein
We explore the consequences for corporate financial policy that arise when investors exhibit inertial behavior. One implication of investor inertia is that, all else equal, a firm pursuing a strategy of equity-financed growth will prefer a stock-for-stock merger to... View Details
- February 2005
- Article
European Integration and Corporate Restructuring: The Strategy of Unilever c1957-c1990
By: Geoffrey Jones and Peter Miskell
This article examines the role of the large Anglo-Dutch consumer products company in promoting European integration. It shows that Unilever contributed financially to campaigns to support the creation of the European Union, and its subsequent expansion, despite a... View Details
- 2005
- Article
Early Decisions: A Regulatory Framework
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We describe a regulatory framework that helps consumers who have difficulty sticking to their own long-run plans. Early Decision regulations help long-run preferences prevail by allowing consumers to partially commit to their long-run goals, making it harder for a... View Details
- June 2004
- Article
A Catering Theory of Dividends
By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler
We propose that the decision to pay dividends is driven by prevailing investor demand for dividend payers. Managers cater to investors by paying dividends when investors put a stock price premium on payers, and by not paying when investors prefer nonpayers. To test... View Details
- October 2003
- Case
ABS Global
By: David E. Bell, Hal Hogan and Jose M. M. Porraz
ABS Global is considering an acquisition in Australia. Efficient production and distribution is becoming more difficult as it becomes global. Yet trade restrictions and local preferences for its product, bull semen, dictate that ABS come up with a new way to... View Details
- July 2003
- Article
Probabilistic Representation of Complexity
By: Nabil I Al-Najjar, Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Emre Ozdenoren
We study individuals' behavior in an environment that is deterministic, but too complex to permit tractable deterministic representation. Under mild conditions, behavior is represented by a unique probabilistic model in which the agent's inability to think through all... View Details
- 2003
- Book
When You Say Yes But Mean No: How Silencing Conflict Wrecks Relationships and Companies
By: Leslie Perlow
“Saying yes when you really mean no” is a problem that haunts organizations from start-ups to multi-nationals. It exists across industries, levels, and functions. And it’s exacerbated by a down economy, when the fear of losing one’s job is on everybody’s mind and the... View Details
- July 2002 (Revised March 2003)
- Case
North East Medical Services
By: Thomas J. DeLong and Wendy Carter
Sophie Wong, president and CEO of North East Medical Services, a health care organization dedicated to serving the underprivileged Asian American community in San Francisco, must decide how to reposition the organization to serve patients from multiple income levels... View Details
- February 2002 (Revised February 2004)
- Case
Brazos Partners: the CoMark LBO
By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon
The partners of a new midmarket buyout fund are working on a buyout of a closely held modular building company. Although originally structured as a stock deal, they have realized that an asset deal would be preferable from their point of view and are trying to... View Details
- April 2001 (Revised July 2001)
- Case
Verge Software (A)
By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Elizabeth Kind
Scott Rozic, CEO of start-up Verge Software, has just told his board that he is taking the company in a totally new direction, moving from enterprise knowledge management software to Internet direct marketing. This case covers the start-up of the business, and Rozic's... View Details
Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Technological Innovation; Applications and Software; Management Teams; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Product Development; Information Technology Industry; United States
- March 2001 (Revised April 2001)
- Case
Sustainable Development & Socially Responsible Investing: ABB in 2000
Several investment firms and mutual funds position themselves as providers or facilitators of opportunities for socially responsible investment. This case addresses the impact of these firms on publicly traded companies. Focuses on managers at ABB, a large... View Details
- March 2001
- Article
Preferences over Inflation and Unemployment: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness
By: Rafael Di Tella, Robert MacCulloch and Andrew Oswald
- February 2001 (Revised October 2002)
- Background Note
Entrepreneurial History: A Conceptual Overview
By: Nancy F. Koehn
Analyzes HBS cases on five entrepreneurs and the companies they built: Josiah Wedgwood, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and Michael Dell. These five cases and their accompanying teaching notes comprise a course module on entrepreneurial... View Details
- May 2000
- Article
Maxmin Expected Utility over Savage Acts with a Set of Priors
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Peter Klibanoff and Emre Ozdenoren
This paper provides an axiomatic foundation for a maxmin expected utility over a set of priors (MMEU) decision rule in an environment where the elements of choice are Savage acts. This characterization complements the original axiomatizations of MMEU developed in a... View Details
- 1999
- Chapter
Multinational Cross-Investment between Switzerland and Britain 1914-1945
By: G. Jones
This chapter examines multinational cross-investment between Switzerland and Great Britain between 1914 and 1945. While Great Britain and Switzerland were both major home economies for multinationals,few companies from either country were interested in investing in the... View Details
- September 1999
- Article
Preference Reversals between Joint and Separate Evaluations of Outcomes
By: C. K. Hsee, G. F. Loewenstein, S. Blount-Lyons and M. H. Bazerman
Keywords: Outcome or Result
- May 1999
- Article
Explaining How Preferences Change across Joint Versus Separate Evaluations
By: M. H. Bazerman, D. Moore, A. E. Tenbrunsel and K. A. Wade-Benzoni
- March 1999 (Revised December 2001)
- Background Note
Analyzing Consumer Preferences
By: Robert J. Dolan
Presents a non-traditional description of the conjoint analysis methodology. Discusses the process by which a study is done and cites areas of application. View Details