Publications

March 2025
Case

Taylor Guitars: Making Employee Ownership Work The Taylor Way

By: Dennis Campbell, Petros Kusmu and Stacy Straaberg

In 2013, guitar manufacturer Taylor Guitars’ co-founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug were considering several exit options including selling to a competitor or to a private equity firm. The co-founders decided, instead, to embark on a seven-year process to transfer 100%... View Details

2019
Working Paper

Does Public Ownership and Accountability Increase Diversity? Evidence from IPOs

By: Rembrand Koning and John-Paul Ferguson

Does public ownership improve employment diversity? Organizational researchers theorize that increased transparency to regulators and the public should lead firms to conform to legal and social norms—but that social closure and decoupling should preserve the status... View Details

Keywords: IPO; Initial Public Offering; Employees; Diversity; Gender; Race; Entrepreneurship; United States

February 2002
Background Note

States vs. Microsoft, The

By: Michael A. Wheeler and Gillian Morris

Although the federal Justice Department managed to settle its massive antitrust litigation against Microsoft in 2001, the state suit against the company continued. State attorney generals, perhaps emboldened by their recent victory over the Big Five tobacco companies,... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Public Ownership; Private Ownership; Negotiation Deal; Goals and Objectives; Lawsuits and Litigation; Decision Making; Information Industry; Legal Services Industry

October 2016
Supplement

24 Hour Fitness (B): Ownership Changes, 2005–2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In 2016, 24 Hour Fitness was the number-two fitness chain in the United States, generating revenues of $1.4 billion from 441 clubs serving 3.8 million members. Based in San Ramon, California, 24 Hour Fitness operated clubs in 13 states. Having grown rapidly to become... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Buildings and Facilities; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Age; Training; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Journals and Magazines; Human Capital; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Market Entry and Exit; Media; Organizational Design; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams; Sales; Salesforce Management; Situation or Environment; Welfare or Wellbeing; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Software; Web Sites; Value; Valuation; Health Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States; California; San Francisco

30 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Earnings Quality and Ownership Structure: The Role of Private Equity Sponsors

Keywords: by Sharon P. Katz; Financial Services

2021
Working Paper

Employee Ownership and Wealth Inequality: A Path to Reducing Wealth Concentration

By: Thomas Dudley and Ethan Rouen

This paper examines the impact of an economy-wide shift to broad-based employee ownership on wealth concentration in the United States. Relying on government data, we show that if all private firms became 30% employee-owned, the wealth distribution would be profoundly... View Details

Keywords: Wealth Inequality; Employee Ownership; Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Analysis; United States

SSRN

May 2025
Case

The Future of the BBC: Public Ownership vs. Privatization

By: Henry McGee

With viewership of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in decline, the country’s Culture Minister must recommend a new funding model for the venerated public institution which will allow the broadcaster to succeed in an increasingly competitive media environment. View Details

Keywords: Television Entertainment; Cooperative Ownership; State Ownership; Privatization; Public Ownership; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United Kingdom

18 Jun 2020
Working Paper Summaries

The Rise of the Investor State: State Capital in the Chinese Economy

Keywords: by Hao Chen and Meg Rithmire

02 May 2008
What Do You Think?

What is the Future of State Capitalism?

regulations even begin to deal with what in effect are global markets? Will some kind of global agreement be required? Just how easily will that be achieved? Or does this phenomenon really matter in the long run? Is state capitalism just... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

03 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The State of Customer Service Leadership

customer-owners requires a high percentage of employees who behave as owners with a stake in the success of the business. Customer ambassadors are not routinely created by interactions with employees who don’t have an owner mindset. Employee View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Retail

2006
Article

Measuring the Effect of Multimarket Contact on Competition: Evidence from Mergers Following Radio Broadcast Ownership Deregulation

By: Joel Waldfogel and Julie Wulf

This paper examines the effects of multimarket contact on advertising prices in the U.S. radio broadcasting industry. While it is in general difficult to measure the effect of multimarket contact on competition, the 1996 Telecommunications Act substantially relaxed... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Communications; Markets; Geographic Location; Advertising; Ownership; Price; Telecommunications Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

March 2010
Article

Extreme Governance: An Analysis of Dual-Class Firms in the United States

By: Paul A. Gompers, Joy Ishii and Andrew Metrick

We construct a comprehensive list of dual-class firms in the United States and use this list to analyze the relationship between insider ownership and firm value. Our data have two useful features. First, since dual-class stock separates cash-flow rights from voting... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Cash Flow; Stocks; Rights; Ownership Stake; Value; United States

November 2011
Article

Ownership Structure and Financial Constraints: Evidence from a Structural Estimation

By: Chen Lin, Yue Ma and Yuhai Xuan

This article examines the impact of the divergence between corporate insiders' control rights and cash-flow rights on firms' external finance constraints via generalized method of moments estimation of an investment Euler equation. Using a large sample of U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Social Enterprise; Reputation; Cash Flow; Annuities; Investment; Investment Funds; Financial Reporting; Accounting Audits; Financial Services Industry; United States

31 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

One Quarter of Entrepreneurs in the United States Are Immigrants

database includes records from 11 states, including immigration hotbeds California and Florida, from 1992 onward. Twenty-eight states are present from 2000 onward.) “The scope of the database is enormous,” says Kerr. “You are literally... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

28 Jun 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Leviathan in Business: Varieties of State Capitalism and their Implications for Economic Performance

Keywords: by Aldo Musacchio & Sergio G. Lazzarini

2023
Working Paper

State Employment as a Strategy of Autocratic Control in China

By: Jaya Y. Wen

This paper presents evidence that autocrats use state-owned firms to strategically pacify social unrest via employment provision, a role that may contribute to their favorable treatment and persistence across settings. I use variation in a regional conflict between... View Details

Keywords: State Ownership; Employment; Government and Politics; Conflict Management; China

16 May 2023
HBS Case

How KKR Got More by Giving Ownership to the Factory Floor: ‘My Kids Are Going to College!’

“quiet quitting” seen across many office spaces and factory floors. It also lit a pathway for companies looking to meet societal calls for a more just economy. “What if every company in United States gave employees meaningful View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

December 1994 (Revised January 1996)
Case

Constructing a Nation: The United States and Their Constitution, 1763-1792

By: David A. Moss

Examines the founding of the United States of America during the second half of the eighteenth century. Focuses on: 1) the reasons why the American colonists rebelled against Britain (1763-1774); 2) the problems the new nation confronted during the War of Independence... View Details

Keywords: History; Economic Systems; Laws and Statutes; Property; Government Administration; United States

August 2014 (Revised August 2015)
Technical Note

Overview of Senior Housing in the United States

By: Charles F. Wu and Joseph Beyer

This technical note provides an overview of the senior housing industry in the United States. There were 40 million seniors in America in 2010, and that number was expected to double by 2050. Seniors would make up 1 in every five Americans. This note explores the... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Senior Living; Retirement Homes; Development; Property; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Real Estate Industry; Massachusetts; United States