Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(404)
- Faculty Publications (44)
- June 2019
- Article
Debt Traps? Market Vendors and Moneylender Debt in India and the Philippines
By: Dean Karlan, Sendhil Mullainathan and Benjamin Roth
A debt trap occurs when someone takes on a high-interest rate loan and is barely able to pay back the interest, and thus perpetually finds themselves in debt (often by refinancing). Studying such practices is important for understanding financial decision-making of... View Details
Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Household; Personal Finance; Decision Making; Behavior; India; Philippines
- January 4, 2019
- Article
How Companies Can Balance Social Impact and Financial Goals
By: Marya L. Besharov, Wendy K. Smith and Michael Tushman
It’s notoriously difficult for a business to manage two separate-but-equal goals—making money and creating social value at the same time, for example, or managing an existing business at the same time that you invent a new one. Most attempts at managing these... View Details
- 2019
- Article
Structural Balance Emerges and Explains Performance in Risky Decision-Making
By: Omid Askarisichani, Jacqueline N. Lane, Francesco Bullo, Noah E. Friedkin, Ambuj K. Singh and Brian Uzzi
Polarization affects many forms of social organization. A key issue focuses on which affective relationships are prone to change and how their change relates to performance. In this study,
we analyze a financial institutional over a two-year period that employed 66... View Details
- Article
High School Curriculum and Financial Outcomes: The Impact of Mandated Personal Finance and Mathematics Courses
By: Shawn Cole, Anna Paulson and Gauri Kartini Shastry
Financial literacy and cognitive capabilities are convincingly linked to the quality of financial decision-making. Yet, there is little evidence that education intended to improve financial decision-making is successful. Using plausibly exogenous variation in exposure... View Details
- 2016
- Article
Organizational Decision-Making and Information: Angel Investments by Venture Capital Partners
By: Andy Wu
We study information aggregation in organizational decision-making for the financing of entrepreneurial ventures. We introduce a formal model of voting where agents face costly tacit information to improve their decision quality. Equilibrium outcomes suggest a... View Details
- January 8, 2016
- Article
When You’ve Made Enough Money to Cause Family Tension
By: Josh Baron, Rob Lachenauer and Diane Coutu
This article discusses the transition successful business founders face when moving from intense business focus to managing significant wealth in their "Second Act." It highlights the shift towards creating a family enterprise, requiring shared financial... View Details
- June 2015
- Case
The Valuation and Financing of Lady M Confections
By: Mihir A. Desai and Elizabeth A. Meyer
This case explores the decision-making process that small, private businesses must undertake when considering an expansion and when selling equity to outside investors. In the process, students are asked to complete two exercises: a break-even analysis and a valuation... View Details
- August 15, 2014
- Article
Can an Outside CEO Run a Family-Owned Business?
By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer
This article explores the intricate dynamics that often characterize family-owned businesses, shedding light on key archetypes that play prominent roles within these organizations. Using a narrative approach, the article illustrates the challenges faced by leaders... View Details
- July 2014
- Article
Smart Money? The Effect of Education on Financial Outcomes
By: Shawn A. Cole, Anna Paulson and Gauri Kartini Shastry
Household financial decisions are important for household welfare, economic growth and financial stability. Yet, our understanding of the determinants of financial decision-making is limited. Exploiting exogenous variation in state compulsory schooling laws in both... View Details
- March 2013
- Article
The Unintended Consequences of Ownership Transfer Planning
By: Josh Baron and Marion McCollom Hampton
The article discusses the challenges of passing down family businesses across generations, highlighting complexities in executive succession and estate planning. It emphasizes how emotional factors, complicated family dynamics, and unintended consequences influence... View Details
- November 2012
- Case
Occupy Wall Street
By: Rakesh Khurana and Eric Baldwin
This case examines the Occupy Wall Street movement, which emerged in late 2011 in response to the fallout from the global financial crisis of 2008 and the economic downturn that followed. Occupy Wall Street was born out of a sense of frustration with both a global... View Details
- Article
Employee Selection as a Control System
By: Dennis Campbell
Theories from the economics, management control, and organizational behavior literatures predict that when it is difficult to align incentives by contracting on output, aligning preferences via employee selection may provide a useful alternative. This study... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
Employee Selection as a Control System
By: Dennis Campbell
Theories from the economics, management control, and organizational behavior literatures predict that when it is difficult to align incentives by contracting on output, aligning preferences via employee selection may provide a useful alternative. This study... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
From Social Control to Financial Economics: The Linked Ecologies of Economics and Business in Twentieth Century America
By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana
As the main producers of managerial elites, business schools represent strategic research sites for understanding the formation of economic practices and representations. This article draws on historical material to analyze the changing place of economics in American... View Details
- 2008
- Other Unpublished Work
From Public Purpose to Financial Economics: The Linked Ecologies of Economics and Business in Twentieth Century America
By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana
As the main producers of managerial elites, business schools represent strategic research sites for understanding the formation of economic practices and representations. This article draws on historical material to analyze the changing place of economics in American... 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
- November 2004 (Revised March 2007)
- Case
10 Uncommon Values®: Optimizing the Stock-Selection Process
By: Paul M. Healy and Boris Groysberg
In 2003, Steve Hash, research director at Lehman Brothers, prepared to initiate the firm's "Ten Uncommon Values" stock-picking process for the year. An investment committee had to pick the 10 best stocks from about 100 stock ideas presented by the firm's analysts. The... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Internal Governance and Control at Goldman Sachs: Block Trading
By: Malcolm S. Salter and Ratna Sarkar
Although the explicit problem presented in the case concerns pricing a block trade, the real issue involves the decision-making and oversight processes used to arrive at a price that is appropriate for both the client and Goldman Sachs. Asks students in assignment... View Details
- January 2001
- Case
Valuing Project Achieve
By: Mihir A. Desai and Kathleen Luchs
Project Achieve is a start-up providing information management solutions for schools. Its founders see a need for software both to manage the volumes of information necessary to administer a school and to connect parents, teachers, and students in a more effective way.... View Details
- May 1993 (Revised May 1994)
- Case
Managing for Integrity: Three Vignettes
By: Lynn S. Paine
Three situations are described. A branch manager for a retail brokerage firm must decide whether to change the branch's cash management techniques to increase interest earnings. An auto mechanic must decide whether to oversell parts and repairs to meet sales and... View Details