Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,697)
- Faculty Publications (501)
- Article
A Head Start on Succession
By: Joseph L. Bower
Our studies of CEO succession over the past several years have shown some improvements in the trends in CEO turnover, often resulting from outside pressures for improved oversight and better corporate governance. The next step in improving CEO succession—and ultimately... View Details
- summer 2008
- Article
Corporate Social Responsibility Through an Economic Lens
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Robert N. Stavins and Richard H.K. Vietor
Business leaders, government officials, and academics are focusing considerable attention on the concept of "corporate social responsibility" (CSR), particularly in the realm of environmental protection. Beyond complete compliance with environmental regulations, do... View Details
- May 2008
- Supplement
Finansbank 2006 (CW)
By: C. Fritz Foley and Linnea Meyer
How do financial policy requirements and benefits of ownership concentration affect the need for and process of corporate restructuring? This case provides students with an opportunity to analyze the restructuring of a Turkish multinational business group by way of a... View Details
- April 2008 (Revised September 2008)
- Case
Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A)
By: Fabrizio Ferri, V.G. Narayanan and James Weber
Two activist investors, one a founder and one a hedge-fund manager, seek to improve board oversight at a chain restaurant company. Prestley Blake founded Friendly Ice Cream in 1935 with his brother, and the two created a chain of full-service restaurants. In 1979 they... View Details
- April 2008 (Revised August 2008)
- Supplement
Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (B)
By: V.G. Narayanan, Fabrizio Ferri and James Weber
This case study briefly describes the outcome of the Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A) case. View Details
- February 2008 (Revised October 2010)
- Case
Mellon Financial and The Bank of New York
By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and Ryan Taliaferro
Bob Kelly, the new CEO of Mellon Financial, is considering the terms of a proposed "merger of equals" with The Bank of New York, just before the final Board meeting to approve the deal. The combination offers a great strategic fit, and the expected synergies are large.... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised July 2008)
- Case
Opportunity Partners
By: Robin Greenwood and James Quinn
Philip Goldstein, the principal in a growing hedge fund and prominent activist investor, has taken a position in a Mexico-based closed-end fund. Following a hard-fought proxy contest in which he advocated for management to eliminate the fund's substantial discount,... View Details
- January 2008
- Article
Innovation Killers: How Financial Tools Destroy Your Capacity to Do New Things
By: Clayton M. Christensen, Stephen P. Kaufman and Willy C. Shih
Most companies aren't half as innovative as their senior executives want them to be (or as their marketing claims suggest they are). What's stifling innovation? There are plenty of usual suspects, but the authors finger three financial tools as key accomplices.... View Details
- December 2007
- Case
Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts
By: David A. Moss and Eugene Kintgen
In 1830, Governor Levi Lincoln, Jr. urged the Massachusetts state legislature to introduce a limited liability regime for manufacturing corporations similar to that adopted in neighboring states. At least since 1809, shareholders in the state's manufacturing... View Details
- November 2007 (Revised March 2009)
- Case
OppenheimerFunds and Take-Two Interactive (A)
By: Jay W. Lorsch, Andrew Hill and Kaitlyn Simpson
Describes the dilemma faced by Emmanuel Ferreira, a fund manager at OppenheimerFunds. As the largest shareholder and a long-time investor in software publisher Take-Two Interactive, Ferreira contemplates whether or not to get involved with other investors in trying to... View Details
- November 2007 (Revised March 2009)
- Case
Clear Channel 2006
By: Richard S. Ruback and Leslie Pierson
The Board of Directors of Clear Channel Communications, a radio broadcasting and outdoor advertising company, has to respond to a revised proposal from two private equity firms to take the company private. In November of 2006, the Board had unanimously approved an... View Details
- September 2007 (Revised September 2010)
- Case
ValueAct: Shareholder in the Boardroom
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Alexis Chernak
ValueAct, a San Francisco investment firm, makes an investment in PerSe Technologies. The partners of ValueAct build relationships with the PerSe board and management. Eventually ValueAct is given a seat on the PerSe board and is able to influence a significant imprint... View Details
- 2007
- Working Paper
The Impact of Shareholder Activism on Financial Reporting and Compensation: The Case of Employee Stock Options Expensing
By: Fabrizio Ferri and Tatiana Sandino
In this paper we examine the economic consequences of over 150 shareholder proposals to expense employee stock options (ESO) submitted during the proxy seasons of 2003 and 2004–the first case where the SEC has allowed an accounting matter to be subject to an advisory... View Details
- June 2007 (Revised December 2007)
- Case
AFL-CIO: Office of Investment and Home Depot
By: Rakesh Khurana and James Weber
Describes the AFL-CIO: Office of Investments activities in their campaign to improve governance at Home Depot by calling attention to Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli's compensation package and the company's poor performance. The AFL-CIO Office of Investments advocates... View Details
- June 2007 (Revised April 2008)
- Case
Say on Pay
By: Jay W. Lorsch, V.G. Narayanan and Alexis Chernak
Briefly describes the trend in 2006 and 2007 in the United States to give shareholders an advisory vote on executive compensation. Highlights a few examples where shareholders have successfully garnered a majority in support of an advisory vote measure on company proxy... View Details
- January 2007
- Article
Acquisitions and Firm Growth: Creating Unilever's Ice Cream and Tea Business
By: G. Jones and Peter Miskell
This article provides a longitudinal case study of the use of acquisitions by the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever to build the world's largest ice cream and tea businesses. The study supports recent resource-based theory which argues that complementary rather than... View Details
- winter 2006
- Article
Allocating Shareholder Capital to Pension Plans
By: Robert C. Merton
- November 2006 (Revised December 2011)
- Case
HCA, Inc. (A)
Focuses on the buyout of HCA by three private equity firms: Bain Capital, KKR, and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity. It provides an opportunity to discuss a variety of issues related to leveraged buyouts including the process, the role of private equity, the... View Details
- July 2006 (Revised March 2008)
- Case
Changan Automobile Co., Ltd.
By: Dennis Campbell and Donglin Xia
Chairman Yin Jiaxu must communicate that the company's extraordinary reported performance in 2002 reflects Changan's unique strategy within the competitive dynamics of China's automobile industry. Changan's 2002 annual report demonstrated an extraordinary level of... View Details
- April 2006 (Revised April 2012)
- Background Note
The Role of Private Equity Firms in Merger and Acquisition Transactions
Explores the importance of private equity firms in merger and acquisitions activity around the globe. In many countries, these firms now account for one quarter of the total merger and acquisition activity of all firms. The larger private equity firms generate fees for... View Details