Publications

21 Sep 2015
News

A Real Path to Shared Prosperity in America

November 1991 (Revised September 1993)
Case

Oak Industries Inc.

By: William A. Sahlman and Burton C. Hurlock

Describes Bill Antle's proposed restructuring plans for Oak Industries, a company composed of nine divisions which seem to be experiencing operating difficulties. During the last ten years the company has been involved in a number of acquisitions and divestitures, as... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Operations; SWOT Analysis; Organizational Structure; Restructuring; Financial Management; Acquisition; Financial Markets

May 2007
Article

Capital Flows and Capital Goods

By: Laura Alfaro and Eliza Hammel

Studying the relation between equity market liberalization and imports of capital goods, we examine one channel through which international financial integration can promote growth. For the period 1980–1997, we find that after controlling for other policies and... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Equity; Financial Markets; Economy; Distribution Channels; Machinery and Machining; Capital

Read Now

December 2017 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Amazon Buys Whole Foods

By: José B. Alvarez, David Lane and Joni Coughlin

The June 2017 news that e-commerce giant Amazon was paying $13.7 billion for organic supermarket chain Whole Foods precipitated a broad sell-off in the shares of grocery retailers and suppliers. Behind the precipitous declines lay recognition that Amazon’s bold move... View Details

Keywords: Amazon; Whole Foods; Grocery; Grocery Delivery; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Business Models; Food Value Chain; Agribusiness; Mergers and Acquisitions; Operations; Competitive Strategy; E-commerce; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Retail Industry; Web Services Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

December 2017 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Tesla Motors (A): Financing Growth

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

The case analyzes the equity market value of Tesla Motors, the electric car company founded and led by Elon Musk. Wall Street analysts are wildly divided on the future growth prospects for this company, and analysts’ one year share price targets range from $160 to... View Details

Keywords: Valuation Methodologies; Investing; Equities; Public Equity; Finance; Valuation; Equity; Auto Industry; Energy Industry; United States

April 2019
Teaching Note

The a2 Milk Company

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) became the most valuable company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2018 by capitalizing on a biochemical discovery related to the protein composition of cow's milk. Because many people find the A1 protein difficult to digest, and... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Flow-Driven ESG Returns

By: Philippe van der Beck

I show that the recent returns to ESG investing are strongly driven by price impact from flows towards ESG funds. Using data on institutional trades, I estimate the market’s ability to accommodate the demand of ESG funds, which is given by the elasticity of... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Markets; Investment Return

Read Now

24 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 24, 2007

case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=407076 PublicationsMultinationals as Arbitrageurs? The Effect of Stock Market Valuations on Foreign Direct Investment Authors:Malcolm C.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

The Home Depot, Inc.

For its first 20 years, Home Depot was known for its entrepreneurial spirit and focus on customer service. Merchandising, purchasing, and store operations were all decentralized. When the company hit $45 billion in sales, many believed that a more disciplined approach... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Profit; Leading Change; Six Sigma; Service Operations; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Retail Industry

January 2002 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co., 2001

By: Joshua Musher and Andre F. Perold

Asset manager GMO underperforms the market during the 1996-2000 stock market bubble because of the focus on absolute risk. After suffering significant client withdrawals, performance again shines when the bubble collapses. Did they win the battle only to lose the war?... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Asset Management; Stocks; Investment; Price Bubble; Mathematical Methods; Risk and Uncertainty

January–February 2019
Article

Corporate Purpose and Financial Performance

By: Claudine Gartenberg, Andrea Prat and George Serafeim

We construct a measure of corporate purpose within a sample of U.S. companies based on approximately 500,000 survey responses of worker perceptions about their employers. We find that this measure of purpose is not related to financial performance. However, high... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Purpose; Purpose; Employee Motivation; Belief Systems; Corporate Performance; Human Capital; Middle Management; Culture; Corporate Culture; Meaning; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Employees; Perception; Values and Beliefs; Performance Effectiveness

SSRN

February 2008
Case

Cincom Systems, Inc.

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

Tom Nies, charismatic CEO of Cincom Systems, is considering a public offering of his software enterprise, but the 1987 stock market crash checks his plans. Nies reflects that capital for expansion will keep Cincom at the frontier of technological development in a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Capital; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology Industry

11 Aug 2011
News

Groupon IPO dented by market, new numbers

Research Summary

Financial Regulation and the Japanese Banking Crisis of the 1990s

As part of a long-term research interest in financial regulation and the role of the Ministry of Finance, Ulrike Schaede has studied various segments of Japan's financial markets to understand better the interaction between regulators and regulatees. This includes... View Details

December 2008
Article

Style Investing and Institutional Investors

By: Kenneth A. Froot and Melvyn Teo

This paper explores institutional investors' trades in stocks grouped by style and the relationship of these trades with equity market returns. It aggregates transactions drawn from a large universe of approximately $6 trillion of institutional funds. To analyze style... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Behavioral Finance; Stocks; Investment Return; Market Transactions; Performance Expectations; Personal Characteristics; Financial Services Industry

January 1994 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Pankaj Ghemawat

Focuses on the evolution of Wal-Mart's remarkably successful discount operations and describes the company's more recent attempts to diversify into other businesses. The company has entered the warehouse club industry with its Sam's Clubs and the grocery business with... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Price; Marketing Channels; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Information Technology

Research Summary

Capital Flows and Capital Goods (joint with Eliza Hammel)

By: Laura Alfaro

We examine one of the channels through which financial integration can help promote growth. In particular, we study the effects of capital account liberalization on the imports of capital goods. We pay particular attention to the effects of equity market... View Details

Research Summary

Good cop, Bad Cop: Complementarities between Debt and Equity in Disciplining Management

Joint work with Alexander Gümbel, Saïd Business School and Lincoln College Oxford

In this paper we examine how the quantity of information generated about firm... View Details

February 2008
Supplement

Shinhan Financial Group (B)

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew J. Morgan

By 2007, there were many signs that the merger of Chohung and Shinhan banks to form the Shinhan Financial Group in 2003 had met its goals. Shinhan Financial Group's stock price had increased from $31 a share at its opening on the New York Stock Exchange in September... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Global Strategy; Expansion; Markets; Strategic Planning; South Korea