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- Faculty Publications (501)
- June 2009
- Case
Executive Remuneration at Royal Dutch Shell (A)
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kaitlyn Simpson
The remuneration committee at Shell decided to exercise their discretionary power to award five top executives a bonus for 2008, even though they had not met the necessary performance measures under the compensation plan. Proxy advisors RiskMetrics and the British... View Details
- June 2009
- Supplement
Executive Remuneration at Royal Dutch Shell (B)
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kaitlyn Simpson
At the 2009 Shell annual meeting, the majority of shareholders vote against the exclusive pay package. The B case compares the remuneration committee perspective (and their rationale for using discretion to award the bonuses) as well as the shareholder perspective (and... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Watch What I Do, Not What I Say: The Unintended Consequences of the Homeland Investment Act
By: Dhammika Dharmapala, C. Fritz Foley and Kristin J. Forbes
This paper analyzes the impact on firm behavior of the Homeland Investment Act of 2004, which provided a one-time tax holiday for the repatriation of foreign earnings by U.S. multinationals. The analysis controls for endogeneity and omitted variable bias by using... View Details
- April 2009
- Case
Merck: Managing Vioxx (A)
By: Robert L. Simons, Kathryn Rosenberg and Natalie Kindred
This two-class case series allows students to stand in the shoes of CEO Ray Gilmartin during the unfolding stages of a reputational crisis. Merck's mission statement claims to "put patients first," but the company is widely criticized for putting profit before patient... View Details
- March 2009
- Case
Aderans
By: Robin Greenwood, Rakesh Khurana and Masako Egawa
Steel Partners is a U.S.-based hedge fund that has made a large investment in Japan-based wigmaker Aderans. The case is set at the close of the annual meeting in May 2008, when shareholders have voted against all incumbent board members. Steel Partners must act... View Details
- March 2009 (Revised December 2009)
- Case
Relational Investors and Home Depot (A)
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kaitlyn Simpson
In 2006, amidst shareholder upset over CEO Robert Nardelli's compensation and Home Depot's declining stock price, Relational Investors decided to further investigate the situation. As experts in turning around underperforming and undervalued companies, Relational's... View Details
- March 2009
- Background Note
Evaluating M&A Deals: Floors, Caps, and Collars
As equity consideration has become more popular in acquisitions, so has the use of the "pricing-protection" mechanisms, such as floors, caps, and collars. These contractual devices provide insurance to the shareholders of the target and may protect the buyer as well.... View Details
- March 2009 (Revised September 2010)
- Case
HOYA Corporation (A)
By: W. Carl Kester and Masako Egawa
In 2007, HOYA of Japan must decide whether to change its friendly exchange offer for Pentax into a hostile cash tender offer. A surprising sequence of events had caused a friendly merger agreement to fall apart, resulting in a boardroom coup at Pentax and the... View Details
- March 2009
- Supplement
Groupe Eurotunnel S.A. (B): Restructuring Under the Procedure de Sauvegarde
By: Stuart C. Gilson, Vincent Marie Dessain and Sarah Abbott
In mid-2007 the chairman and CEO of Eurotunnel Group, having elected to file for bankruptcy under a newly-enacted French insolvency law, awaits the outcome of a vote by creditors and shareholders. At least 50% of the shareholders must approve the plan, however they... View Details
- March 2009
- Article
Earnings Management and Corporate Tax Shelters, and Book-Tax Alignment
By: Mihir Desai and Dhammika Dharmapala
This paper reviews recent evidence analyzing the link between earnings management and corporate tax avoidance and considers the implications for how policymakers should evaluate the financial reporting environment facing firms. A real-world tax shelter is dissected to... View Details
- March 2009
- Article
The Impact of Shareholder Activism on Financial Reporting and Compensation: The Case of Employee Stock Options Expensing
By: F. Ferri and Tatiana Sandino
We examine the economic consequences of more than 150 shareholder proposals to expense employee stock options (ESO) submitted during the proxy seasons of 2003 and 2004, the first case in which the SEC allowed a shareholder vote on an accounting matter. Our results... View Details
- 2008
- Chapter
Corporate Honesty and Business Education: A Behavioral Model
By: Rakesh Khurana and Herbert Gintis
Since the mid-1970s neoclassical economic theory has dominated business school thinking and teaching in dealing with the nature of human motivation. However valuable in understanding competitive product and financial markets, neoclassical economic theory employs an... View Details
- November 2008
- Supplement
NEC Electronics (CW)
By: C. Fritz Foley, Robin Greenwood and James Quinn
Why do shares in NEC Electronics, a publicly listed subsidiary of Japan conglomerate NEC trade at a discount to their fundamental value? Can Perry Capital, a U.S. hedge fund, restructure this subsidiary and generate significant returns? This case provides students with... View Details
- October 2008 (Revised November 2010)
- Case
NEC Electronics
By: C. Fritz Foley, Robin Greenwood and James Quinn
Why do shares in NEC Electronics, a publicly listed subsidiary of Japan conglomerate NEC, trade at a discount to their fundamental value? Can Perry Capital, a U.S. hedge fund, restructure this subsidiary and generate significant returns? This case provides students... View Details
- October 2008
- Article
It's Time to Make Management a True Profession
By: Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana
In the face of the recent institutional breakdown of trust in business, managers are losing legitimacy. To regain public trust, management needs to become a true profession in much the way medicine and law have, argue Khurana and Nohria of Harvard Business School. True... View Details
- September 2008 (Revised October 2008)
- Case
Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A1)
By: Fabrizio Ferri, V.G. Narayanan and James Weber
Two activist investors, one a founder and one a hedge fund manager, seek to improve board oversight at a chain restaurant company. Prestley Blake founded Friendly Ice Cream in 1935 with his brother, and the two created a chain of full-service restaurants. In 1979, they... View Details
- September 2008 (Revised October 2008)
- Supplement
Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A2)
By: V.G. Narayanan, Fabrizio Ferri and James Weber
The A1 and A2 versions of the “Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A)” split the original A case into two parts. The A1 case ends as activists Sardar Biglari and Phil Cooley prepare to meet with CEO Don Smith at Friendly's headquarters in September 2006. The... View Details
- June 2008 (Revised July 2008)
- Case
Kit Hinrichs at Pentagram (A)
By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker
This case focuses on Kit Hinrichs, a 65-year-old partner at Pentagram, a privately owned multidisciplinary design firm. One of the world's most prestigious design firms, Pentagram was founded by five designers from different disciplines in London in the 1970s. By 2008,... View Details
- June 2008
- Supplement
Kit Hinrichs at Pentagram (B)
By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker
This case focuses on Kit Hindrichs, a 65 year-old partner at Pentagram, a privately-owned multidisciplinary design firm. One of the world's most prestigious design firms, Pentagram was founded by five designers from different disciplines in London in the 1970s. By... View Details