Publications

July–August 2011
Article

Putting Business Models Under the Microscope

By: K. Merchant, Tatiana Sandino and D. Huelsbeck

The article provides advice for financial managers on evaluating business models for corporate performance measurement. Emphasis is given to a study sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) that examined the business model of a medical... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Financial Management; Performance Evaluation

August 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Mike Mayo Takes on Citigroup (A)

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Kaser

The case details the conflict between Mike Mayo, an influential banking analyst and Citigroup about what Mayo considers aggressive accounting policies. Mike Mayo questions Citigroup's lack of a valuation allowance against their Deferred Tax Assets despite Citi's recent... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Taxation; Capital; Financial Reporting; Corporate Disclosure; Valuation; Banks and Banking; Financial Strategy; Money; Conflict Management; Capital Budgeting; Asset Management; Banking Industry

August 2000 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Sears, Roebuck and Co. vs. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

This case is designed to familiarize students with the use of financial ratios. Two retailers, Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., have a very similar value for return on equity (ROE) in the 1997 fiscal year. Students use the information in the case and... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Financial Statements; Retail Industry; United States

19 Apr 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Top Executive Background and Financial Reporting Choice: The Case of Goodwill Impairment

Keywords: by Francois Brochet & Kyle Welch; Accounting

Research Summary

Overview

By: Ethan C. Rouen

Relying on empirical archival methodologies—as well as techniques in data science—to develop and structure new sources of data by which to approach questions of looming disclosure changes, Professor Rouen has focused on one of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s... View Details

16 Aug 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The International Politics of IFRS Harmonization

Keywords: by Karthik Ramanna; Accounting

October 2017 (Revised October 2022)
Case

JetBlue: Relevant Sustainability Leadership

By: George Serafeim

In 2017, JetBlue, the airline founded on the mission to “bring humanity back to air travel,” was considering becoming one of the first companies to report its sustainability performance according to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards. SASB... View Details

12 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Using the Law to Strategic Advantage

Most managers think the legal department is that office down the hall where they go to keep out of trouble or write a binding patent agreement. And that's shortsighted, says Harvard Business School professor Constance Bagley. A company that makes proactive use of the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Legal Services

31 May 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Stock Price Synchronicity and Material Sustainability Information

Keywords: by Jody Grewal, Clarissa Hauptmann, and George Serafeim; Accounting; Accounting

July–August 2024
Article

Disclosing Downstream Emissions

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

An increasing number of companies are using the E-liability carbon-accounting method as an important tool for tracking progress toward reducing global emissions in their supply chains. The system does not require formal accounting for downstream emissions—those... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Environmental Accounting; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Disclosure; Environmental Sustainability

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April 1982 (Revised June 1985)
Case

Westinghouse Electric Corp.: Quality of Earnings Analysis

Westinghouse had just issued its annual report to shareholders for the year ending December 31, 1973. The report indicates that sales have increased to a record $5.7 billion but that net income is down almost 20% from its record level of $199 million in the previous... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Financial Reporting; Corporate Finance; Electronics Industry

13 May 2002
Op-Ed

A Cure for Enron-Style Audit Failures

If companies and regulators are ever to learn from the collapse of Enron—and prevent similar corporate debacles in the future—they must look more closely at the relationship between auditors, managers and the company audit committee. The... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Lorsch; Accounting

November 2003 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Ivar Kreuger and the Swedish Match Empire

By: Geoffrey Jones and Ingrid Vargas

Taught in Evolution of Global Business. Globalization and corporate fraud are the central themes of this case on the international growth of Swedish Match in the interwar years. Between 1913 and 1932, Ivar Kreuger, known as the "Swedish Match King," built a small,... View Details

Keywords: History; International Finance; Globalized Firms and Management; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Monopoly; Business and Government Relations; Sweden

March 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Supplement

Growing Integrated Services at Jones Lang LaSalle (2008) (C)

By: Ranjay Gulati and Luciana Silvestri

This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced between 2005 and 2008. Having dismantled its long-standing service-line-oriented structure, JLL created two interdependent groups: Accounts and Markets. Accounts housed... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Strategy; Integration; Real Estate Industry; North America; South America; Central America

2021
Working Paper

How Much Should We Trust Staggered Difference-In-Differences Estimates?

By: Andrew C. Baker, David F. Larcker and Charles C.Y. Wang

Difference-in-differences analysis with staggered treatment timing is frequently used to assess the impact of policy changes on corporate outcomes in academic research. However, recent advances in econometric theory show that such designs are likely to be biased in the... View Details

Keywords: Difference In Differences; Staggered Difference-in-differences Designs; Generalized Difference-in-differences; Dynamic Treatment Effects; Mathematical Methods

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2007
Book

Global Accountabilities: Participation, Pluralism, and Public Ethics

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and Edward Weisband

This edited volume contributes analytical depth to the diverse debates on accountability in modern organizations. It explores the nature, forms and impacts of accountability efforts in civil society organizations, public and inter-governmental agencies, and private... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Accountability; Business and Government Relations

November 1999
Background Note

Operating Segment Disclosures

By: David F. Hawkins

Discusses the accounting rules that govern operating segment disclosure. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Operations

October 2012 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Olympus (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch, Suraj Srinivasan and Kathleen Durante

As 2012 approached, the woes of the financial crisis seemed to be fading, companies were resuming business as usual, and some of the scrutiny on corporate governance practices began to recede as well. That is until another major financial scandal emerged in Japan in... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Corporate Governance; Electronics Industry; Health Industry; Japan

October 2021
Case

Financial Reporting at Mattel

By: Aiyesha Dey, Trung Nguyen, Marshal Herrmann and Julia Kelley

In September 2020, Diana Ferguson was nearing her first Audit Committee meeting as the newly appointed Audit Committee chair of Mattel, Inc. Mattel was just recovering from an accounting scandal which had revealed the company’s poor internal controls and weak board... View Details