Publications

07 Dec 2009
Research & Ideas

Government’s Positive Role in Kick-Starting Entrepreneurship

Public Efforts to Boost Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Have Failed—and What to Do about It. Government has played similar catalytic roles in creating hubs of innovation is places such as Tel Aviv and Singapore. Such success stories... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

01 Mar 2010
Op-Ed

A Golden Opportunity for Ford and GM

their own. The bigger question is, will Ford and GM be able to capitalize on this opportunity for the long term? I was with Whitacre when he initially learned that Toyota was suspending sales of 57 percent of its autos sold in the United... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Auto

06 Oct 2009
First Look

First Look: October 6

double the company's size and take it to new geographies, he wonders if the right capabilities are in place for what should be changed to manage the integration process effectively. Purchase this case:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Expensing Options Doesn’t Solve the Problem

company to transfer assets and liabilities to certain so-called special purpose entities (SPEs). According to the Powers report, which was published by a special committee of Enron's board after the company entered bankruptcy protection proceedings, Enron's View Details

Keywords: by William Sahlman

23 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 23, 2008

identification and party mapping, to "social mapping" and building guanxi, to creative deal design and tactics, in order to most effectively work out issues of equity, management control, territory, and exclusivity. Purchase the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 3, 2006

of the benefits associated with a diverse workforce. While it is critical for managers and researchers to understand the processes and outcomes associated with diversity, much work remains to be done in this important area of scholarship.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 May 2009
First Look

First Look: May 12, 2009

Should Linden Lab continue to offer an open platform or build its own solutions for customers? Should it target adult consumers, teens, enterprise customers, or the education market? Purchase this case: http://hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=809147... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

18 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 18, 2008

internal coordination issues with the company's sales force, and the financial returns versus other uses of capital for the company. The case raises issues in aligning business strategy and sales management... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2008
Supplement

Joe Bachelder: Reflections

By: Brian Hall and James K. Sebenius

After Charles Suarez's failed compensation negotiations with Victor, Suarez's attorney, Joe Batchelder, joined class discussions of the case in a course taught by Professor Brian Hall. Professor James Sebenius also interviewed Joe Bachelder at length on this case and... View Details

Keywords: Courts and Trials; Attorney and Client Relationships; Negotiation Deal; Executive Compensation; Knowledge Sharing; Talent and Talent Management; Perspective; Organizations

07 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

The Case for Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking

oft-discussed issue of temporal shortsightedness—the very human tendency to focus on present-day concerns without considering how our actions will affect the future. But there's also ideological myopia—a failure to realize that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

23 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Break Your Addiction to Service Heroes

your biggest buckets of cost and rethinking those strategically in ways that give your customers something they value," notes Frei, the UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management at Harvard Business School. Morriss (HBS MBA '04),... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; Service

April 2011 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Renewing GE: The Africa Project (A)

By: David A. Thomas and Stephanie J. Creary

This case profiles the evolution of General Electric's African American Form (AAF), an employee affinity group, and its efforts to increase the company's involvement in Africa. The AAF formed in 1991 to help advance GE's recruitment, retention and development of black... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Africa; United States

February 2020
Case

Drift: The First Sales Hire

By: Mark Roberge

David Cancel and Elias Torres, the co-founders of Drift, scaled their business to thousands of users and hundreds of thousands in revenue. However, they were falling short of the annual revenue target they communicated to the board of directors. Having scaled the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Salesforce Management; Selection and Staffing

29 Jan 2015
Op-Ed

The Fall of Greece

cohesiveness, freedom of speech, and non-violence. Greece badly needs the creative destruction brought by the forces of competition—not a destruction brought by outdated and failed political views. However, with both financial and human... View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

2021
Working Paper

Time Dependence and Preference: Implications for Compensation Structure and Shift Scheduling

By: Doug J. Chung, Byungyeon Kim and Byoung G. Park

This study jointly examines agents’ time dependence—period effects within instantaneous utility—and time preference—behavior on discounting future utility. The study considers the start- and end-of-period effects for time dependence and exponential and hyperbolic... View Details

Keywords: Time Preferences; Present Bias; Hyperbolic Discounting; Compensation; Dynamic Structural Models; Identification; Time Management; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Performance; Compensation and Benefits

SSRN

Read Now

May 2004 (Revised April 2005)
Case

United States Army

By: Rajiv Lal and Laura Coleman

After three months of close collaboration, the Leo Burnett USA/Worldwide agency and partner Cartel and Images advertising/creative team were poised to unveil to senior Army officials at the Pentagon their replacement to the "Be All You Can Be" campaign to help increase... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Decisions; Globalization; Recruitment; Management Teams; Marketing Strategy; United States

April 1994 (Revised August 1996)
Case

American Express (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch

In January 1993, the American Express board met to decide who would succeed James D. Robinson, III as chairman and CEO. The board needed to act in the spotlight of intense media and investor scrutiny, and after leaks had revealed that there was a conflict among the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Corporate Governance; Resignation and Termination; Leadership; Management Succession; Performance Evaluation

January 1997 (Revised November 1997)
Case

Fojtasek Companies and Heritage Partners, The: March 1995

By: Samuel L. Hayes III and Josh Lerner

The Fojtasek Companies, a family business, faces several financing choices to address generational succession issues. Several buyouts have expressed interest in acquiring the firm outright; an investment bank has proposed a leveraged recapitalization; and a private... View Details

Keywords: Family Ownership; Financing and Loans; Private Equity; Mergers and Acquisitions; Investment Banking; Partners and Partnerships; Management Succession; Capital Structure; Financial Strategy

May 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Sarvega

By: Paul A. Gompers and Vanessa del Valle Broussard

David Cowan, general partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, has taken the lead on Sarvega, a Bessemer-backed company that was recently orphaned by the departure of one of Bessemer's other general partners. Cowan must decide whether to reinvest in Sarvega and, if so,... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Venture Capital; Investment; Governance Compliance; Resignation and Termination; Negotiation Deal; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology Industry