Publications

2020
Working Paper

Arbitration with Uninformed Consumers

By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru

This paper studies the impact of the arbitrator selection process on consumer outcomes by examining roughly 9,000 consumer arbitration cases in the securities industry. Securities disputes present a good laboratory: arbitration is mandatory for all disputes,... View Details

Keywords: Arbitration; Financial Advisers; Financial Advisors; Brokers; Consumer Finance; Financial Misconduct; Fraud; Personal Finance; Conflict and Resolution; Information; Fairness

SSRN

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March 2025
Case

Stagwell: AI and the Future of Marketing

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Radhika Kak

In early 2025, Mark Penn, Founder, CEO and Chairman of Stagwell, a global marketing company with a network of over 70+ agencies that served over 4000 blue-chip customers across 40 countries, was looking at ways that marketers should navigate the disruption emanating... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Innovation Strategy; Change Management; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Transformation; Technology Adoption; Marketing Strategy; Service Delivery; Creativity; Business Model; Advertising Industry; Technology Industry

Web

Commercialization of the Polarizer - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

Clubs Faculty & Research Business & Environment Business History Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning Entrepreneurship Faculty & Research Global Healthcare HBS Working Knowledge Institute for Strategy & Competitiveness Leadership Networked Business Research... View Details

01 Mar 2024
News

The Internet's Next Frontier

While the Crypto, Fintech, and Web3 Lab—one of 13 labs contained within Harvard’s Digital Data Design Institute—might not have the Bunsen burners and test tubes found in science and engineering labs, it does share a philosophical construct: it is a sandbox—an... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

11 Apr 2023
Blog Post

BTG Bioliquids: Creating Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oil from Biomass Residue Streams

visit we learned that the volatility of the input prices can have a profound impact on renewable energy production. The price of the biomass sourced to produce fast pyrolysis bio-oil fluctuates greatly. In fact, since BTG Bioliquids first... View Details

13 Mar 2023
Blog Post

Career Journey: Karan Khimji, Co-Founder of 44.01

Tell us a little about your background. I grew up in Oman, an incredibly beautiful country blessed with mountains, oceans, and deserts. I spent weekends going on treks in the mountains, scuba diving, or just spending time at the beach. But as I got older, I started to... View Details

24 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Boards and Corporate Governance: A Balanced Scorecard Approach

capital to the best ideas, weeding out the bad ones. Investors have the challenge of sorting through the overwhelming number of ideas to discern the good ones, a process compared to finding a needle in a haystack. They often lack the information necessary to make good... View Details

Keywords: Re: Robert S. Kaplan & Krishna G. Palepu

June 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Sustainability Reporting at Dollar Tree, Inc.

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

The cases discusses the ESG strategy of Dollar Tree Inc., a U.S. Fortune 500 company in the deep discount retail industry and the and shareholder pressure faced by the company. In 2022, the company faced a shareholder resolution from a renowned shareholder advocacy... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Sustainability; Shareholder Activism; Dollar Tree; Sustainability Reporting; ESG Reporting; Board Of Directors; Shareholder Engagement; GHG; Environmental Accounting; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Trends; Communication; Announcements; Voting; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Reports; Business or Company Management; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Outcome or Result; Strategic Planning; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Situation or Environment; Opportunities; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Public Opinion; Strategy; Adaptation; Alignment; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Value Creation; Retail Industry; United States; Virginia

06 Jun 2005
What Do You Think?

Is a “Level Playing Field” a Good Thing?

especially in math and science, so graduates will be able to compete effectively with government-subsidized colleges in India and China." So let's assume that there is no such thing as a level playing field. Does it follow that efforts to make it more level are... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 2025
Case

Netflix: Takedown Troubles

By: Clayton S. Rose, Tom Quinn and Maxim Pike Harrell

In October 2021, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos sent an all-staff email addressing backlash to comedian Dave Chappelle’s new stand-up special, The Closer. Released on October 5, the comedian’s depiction of the transgender community and other LGBTQ+ groups prompted... View Details

Web

HBS - The year in Review

distancing policies. Dining facilities were de-densified to accommodate just one or two diners per table, with only grab-and-go food service available. Outdoor areas were designated where students could gather safely for cocurricular and View Details

September 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Bear to Bull: An Analyst’s Journey with Netflix

By: Aiyesha Dey, Joseph Pacelli, Jennifer G. Lawson and Tom Quinn

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said “hell freezing over” was more likely than him upgrading the “sell” rating he had maintained on movie and television streaming giant Netflix since 2011, despite meteoric subscriber and share price growth. In 2022, however,... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Asset Pricing; Cash Flow; Investment; Stocks; Equity; Analysis; Attitudes; Financial Services Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

November 2022 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Northvolt: Building Batteries to Fight Climate Change

By: George Serafeim, Debora L. Spar, P. Tufano and Julia M. Comeau

In 2016, Swedish entrepreneurs Carl-Erik Lagercrantz and Peter Carlsson founded an electric battery company called Northvolt with the dual goals of creating a company to address climate change and bringing battery manufacture to Europe. Northvolt, which succeeded in... View Details

Keywords: Batteries; Climate Change; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Green Technology; Mission and Purpose; Goals and Objectives; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Green Technology Industry; Battery Industry; Sweden; Europe

21 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

From Emerging Economies to the Global Market: The Case of Embraer

number of investments in Brazil. Things will calm down." Added another: "My impression is that the arguments are very biased in favor of the developed country. Secondly, the developed countries are a lot more professional in... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Manufacturing

2015
Working Paper

Online Word of Mouth and Product Review Disagreement

By: Frank Nagle and Christoph Riedl

Studies of online word of mouth have frequently posited―but never systematically conceptualized and explored―that the level of disagreement between existing product reviews can impact the volume and the valence of future reviews. In this study we develop a theoretical... View Details

Keywords: Online Word Of Mouth; Online Communities; Viral Marketing; Online Product Reviews; Quality; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Reference Programs; Social and Collaborative Networks; Digital Marketing; Analytics and Data Science