Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,695)
- Faculty Publications (381)
- 2023
- Working Paper
Much Ado About Nothing? Overreaction to Random Regulatory Audits
By: Samuel Antill and Joseph Kalmenovitz
Regulators often audit firms to detect non-compliance. Exploiting a natural experiment in the lobbying industry, we show that firms overreact to audits and this response distorts prices and reduces welfare. Each year, federal regulators audit a random sample of... View Details
- July 2023
- Supplement
Reimagining Enel: Enabling Sustainable Progress (A)
By: Michael Tushman and Kerry Herman
This case describes the transformation of Enel from a traditional “brown” or fossil fuel energy firm to a sustainable and green firm focused on renewables, and finally to an energy supplier and integrated energy services firm. It describes a set of capabilities... View Details
- July 2023
- Article
Design and Analysis of Switchback Experiments
By: Iavor I Bojinov, David Simchi-Levi and Jinglong Zhao
In switchback experiments, a firm sequentially exposes an experimental unit to a random treatment, measures its response, and repeats the procedure for several periods to determine which treatment leads to the best outcome. Although practitioners have widely adopted... View Details
- 2023
- Chapter
Inflation and Misallocation in New Keynesian Models
By: Alberto Cavallo, Francesco Lippi and Ken Miyahara
The New Keynesian framework implies that sluggish price adjustment results in a distorted allocation of resources. We use a simple model to quantify these unobservable distortions, using data that depict the price-setting behavior of firms, specifically the frequency... View Details
- June 2023 (Revised June 2023)
- Supplement
Roche: Innovation and Access to Healthcare
By: George Serafeim
In May 2022, Roche Group, one of the largest healthcare companies in the world, hosted its first investor event focused exclusively on its efforts to impact access to healthcare. While Roche had recently set an ambitious goal to double the number of patients that had... View Details
Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Sustainable Finance; Growth Strategy And Execution; Sustainability Targets; Impact Evaluation; Healthcare Access; Healthcare Innovation; Healthcare Systems; Healthcare Operations; Finance; Strategy; Health Testing and Trials; Health Care and Treatment; Growth Management; Measurement and Metrics; Innovation Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Switzerland; North America; Europe; Asia; Latin America; Africa
- May–June 2023
- Article
Should Your Start-up Be For-profit or Nonprofit?: A Guide for Social Entrepreneurs
By: Cait Brumme and Brian Trelstad
Years ago the line between nonprofit and for-profit enterprises was clear, but that has changed. Nonprofits now offer products that compete with those of the best for-profits, and for-profits can deliver as much social value as charities. Despite the blurred... View Details
- April 2023
- Article
The Real Exchange Rate, Innovation and Productivity
By: Laura Alfaro, Alejandro Cuñat, Harald Fadinger and Yanping Liu
We evaluate manufacturing firms' responses to changes in the real exchange rate (RER) using detailed firm-level data for a large set of countries for the period 2001-2010. We uncover the following stylized facts about regional variation of manufacturing firms'... View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
Organizational Responses to Product Cycles
By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Vittorio Bassi, Anant Nyshadham, Jorge Tamayo and Nicolas Torres
Product cycles entail the mass production of new—and often increasingly complex—products on a regular basis. How do firms manage these changes? We use granular daily data from a leading automobile manufacturer to study the organizational impacts of introducing new... View Details
- March 2023 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Roche: Innovation and Access to Healthcare
By: George Serafeim, Susanna Gallani and Benjamin Maletta
In May 2022, Roche Group, one of the largest healthcare companies in the world, hosted its first investor event focused exclusively on its efforts to impact access to healthcare. While Roche had recently set an ambitious goal to double the number of patients that had... View Details
Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Sustainable Finance; Growth Strategy And Execution; Sustainability Targets; Impact Evaluation; Healthcare Access; Healthcare Innovation; Healthcare Systems; Healthcare Operations; Finance; Strategy; Health Testing and Trials; Health Care and Treatment; Growth Management; Measurement and Metrics; Innovation Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Switzerland; North America; Europe; Asia; Latin America; Africa
- January 2023 (Revised April 2025)
- Case
Peloton Interactive (A)
By: Suraj Srinivasan, Lynn S. Paine and David Lane
Early in February 2022, the board of Peloton Interactive faced some knotty challenges. Immense pandemic demand for its stationary exercise bicycles and treadmills had prompted the firm to scale up production rapidly. But as gyms reopened and the virulence of the virus... View Details
- November 2022
- Case
Ajax Health: A New Model for Medical Technology Innovation
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo
This case teaches key success factors for both startup and established MedTech firms. It examines how to structure a firm to maximize innovation and financial returns with organizational structures that better align the incentives for the different skill sets... View Details
- October 2022
- Case
Sustainable Finance at Itau BBA
By: George Serafeim, Maria Loumioti and Benjamin Maletta
As of August 2022, the Itau BBA had structured dozens of sustainability linked bonds, which made future interest payments a function of the borrower meeting a target for a sustainability metric, and had solidified its reputation as a pioneer of sustainable finance in... View Details
Keywords: Sustainable Finance; Corporate Social Responsibility; Environmental Sustainability; Growth Strategy; Debt Contracting; Performance Metrics; Risk Assessment; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Financial Instruments; Risk Management; Debt Securities; Measurement and Metrics; Banking Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Latin America
- May 2022
- Case
What to Propose?
By: David G. Fubini
Two audit and financial services firms, one of which your consulting firm has supported extensively, have merged to create one of the largest audit firms in the world. The audit firm's Executive Team has requested proposals aimed at re-evaluating their internal... View Details
- Article
Do the Right Firms Survive Bankruptcy?
By: Samuel Antill
In U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, firms are either reorganized, acquired, or liquidated. I show that decisions to liquidate often reduce creditor recovery, costing creditors billions of dollars every year. I exploit the within-district random assignment of... View Details
- April 2022
- Teaching Note
Tempur Sealy International (A, B & C)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 718-422, 718-423, and 718-424. The cases explore the long-term relationship between Tempur Sealy (TPX, a mattress manufacturer) and Mattress Firm (MFRM, a bedding retailer and TPX's largest customer). For almost 20 years, the firms... View Details
Keywords: Porter's 5 Forces; Bargaining Power; Buyer Power; Customer Power; Supplier Power; Negotiations; Value Capture; Private Equity; Consumer Durables; Consumer Discretionary; Mattresses; B-2-B; Industry Dynamics; Leadership; Compensation; Corporate Strategy; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Competition; Cooperation; Distribution; Negotiation; Industry Structures; Customers; Relationships; Distribution Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; South Africa
- April 2022
- Supplement
MicroStrategy: Accounting for Cryptocurrency (B)
By: Jonas Heese and Annelena Lobb
In early 2022, the technology firm MicroStrategy unveiled a series of letters with the SEC that questioned its accounting practices around its holdings of Bitcoin. Since 2020, the firm had shifted its strategy to include not just selling software but buying and holding... View Details
Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Bitcoin; Holding Structures; SEC; Accounting; Finance; Financial Strategy; Technology Industry
- February 2022 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Fondeadora
By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui and Mitchell Weiss
Norman Müller and René Serrano, cofounders of Fondeadora, a Mexican “neobank,” had lined up a $12.5 million in Series A funding round in 2020 only to run into a major obstacle: The lead investor was Gradient Ventures, a venture firm launched by Alphabet, Inc., and... View Details
- February 2022 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
MicroStrategy's Investment in Bitcoin
By: C. Fritz Foley
At the end of the second quarter of 2020, MicroStrategy, a Virginia based provider of analytics software and services, announced plans to acquire and hold bitcoin as a part of the firm’s treasury reserve policy and corporate strategy. Within a year, the firm purchased... View Details
- January 2022
- Article
Artificial Intelligence, Data-Driven Learning, and the Decentralized Structure of Platform Ecosystems
By: David R. Clough and Andy Wu
Gregory, Henfridsson, Kaganer, and Kyriakou (2020) highlight the important role of data and AI as strategic resources that platforms may use to enhance user value. However, their article overlooks a significant conceptual distinction: the installed base of... View Details
- November 2021
- Article
Corporate Strategy and the Theory of the Firm in the Digital Age
By: Markus Menz, Sven Kunisch, Julian Birkinshaw, David J. Collis, Nicolai J. Foss, Robert E. Hoskisson and John Prescott
The purpose of this article is to reinvigorate research in the intersection of corporate strategy and the theory of the firm in light of the rapid advancement of digital technologies. Using the theory of the firm as an interpretive lens, we focus our analysis on the... View Details