Publications

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Research Summary

Retailing: Past, Present, and Future

Walter J. Salmon is working on several retailing-related research and course development projects, including a study (with Gwen K. Ortmeyer) of the evolution and future of American department stores, and a case book (with DAVID E. BELL) for use in graduate... View Details

November 2009
Journal Article

A Theory of Growth and Volatility at the Aggregate and Firm Level

By: Diego A. Comin and Sunil Mulani

This paper presents an endogenous growth model that explains the evolution of the first and second moments of productivity growth at the aggregate and firm level during the post-war period. Growth is driven by the development of both (i) idiosyncratic R&D innovations... View Details

Keywords: Volatility; Microeconomics; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Performance Productivity; Mathematical Methods; Research and Development

Find at Harvard

03 May 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Pay Now or Pay Later? The Economics within the Private Equity Partnership

Keywords: by Victoria Ivashina and Josh Lerner; Banking; Financial Services

Program

Aligning Strategy and Sales

Admissions Committee makes selections that balance each participant's experience, scope of current responsibilities, and type of organization. HBS seeks candidates who reflect a broad range of industries,... View Details

17 Aug 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The Empirical Economics of Online Attention

Keywords: by Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein, and Jeffrey Prince; Media & Broadcasting

July 2012
Case

LEGO

By: Jan W. Rivkin, Stefan Thomke and Daniela Beyersdorfer

LEGO has emerged as one of the most successful companies in the toy industry. The case describes LEGO's gradual rise, rapid decline, and recent revitalization as it is keeping up with a changing market place. Central to LEGO's management model is the ability to find... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; Innovation; Operations Management; Organizational Change And Transformation; Operations; Competitive Strategy; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Research Summary

The Fragile State of the World: Unfairness, Discontent, and Global Capitalism

By: Rawi E. Abdelal

In this project, Abdelal explores the varieties of domestic discontent that undermine the stability of global capitalism. Discontent has manifested itself in the rise of populist movements and parties on both the Left and the Right, thereby weakening the Center. The... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Populism; Inequality; Fairness; Geopolitics

August 1995 (Revised August 1995)
Case

CIGNA Property and Casualty Reengineering (A)

By: Richard L. Nolan, Donna B. Stoddard, Chiara Francalanci and Elise C Martin

Reengineering was introduced at CIGNA Corp. in 1988. CIGNA entered a second wave reengineering effort through a major project at CIGNA P&C, one of CIGNA's larger businesses. P&C was in financial crisis and as a result brought in a new executive team in 1991 to head the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Cost vs Benefits; Design; Growth and Development; Analytics and Data Science; Growth and Development Strategy; Balanced Scorecard; Financial Crisis; Crisis Management; Projects; Information Technology; Insurance Industry

24 Apr 2020
Op-Ed

Lessons from the NFL: Virtual Hiring, Leadership, Building Teams and COVID-19

necessarily surprising. Also worth noting—those wide receivers who switched teams and experienced a subsequent decline in performance saw that performance stabilize after only a year, suggesting that after... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Abbott , Boris Groysberg, Tali Groysberg, and Abhijit Naik; Sports

2020
Working Paper

Bankruptcy and the COVID-19 Crisis

By: Jialan Wang, Jeyul Yang, Benjamin Iverson and Raymond Kluender

We examine the impact of the COVID-19 economic crisis on business and consumer bankruptcies in the United States using real-time data on the universe of filings. Historically, bankruptcies have closely tracked the business cycle and contemporaneous unemployment rates.... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Financial Distress; COVID-19; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Crisis; Health Pandemics; United States

SSRN

November 2022
Technical Note

National Security and Transnational Capitalism

By: Meg Rithmire

Though the relationship between national security and transnational commerce had long been interrogated and contested, the 2020s saw the escalation of concerns about insecurity and interdependence. These concerns manifested in a suite of institutional innovations and... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; National Security; Globalization

January 2019 (Revised July 2019)
Case

New Balance: Managing Orders and Working Conditions

By: Michael W. Toffel, Eileen McNeely and Matthew Preble

New Balance Athletics, Inc., a major U.S.-based athletic footwear and apparel brand, sources most of its footwear products from independent suppliers whose factories are located in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Monica Gorman, vice president of responsible leadership... View Details

Keywords: Footwear; Athletic Footwear; Manufacturing; CSR; Sustainability; Quality Management; Supply Chains; Operations; Management; Production; Working Conditions; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Labor and Management Relations; Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

07 Jul 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Predictable Financial Crises

Keywords: by Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson, Andrei Shleifer, and Jakob Ahm Sørensen

Article

Robust and Stable Black Box Explanations

By: Himabindu Lakkaraju, Nino Arsov and Osbert Bastani

As machine learning black boxes are increasingly being deployed in real-world applications, there has been a growing interest in developing post hoc explanations that summarize the behaviors of these black boxes. However, existing algorithms for generating such... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Black Box Models; Framework

February 2007 (Revised March 2007)
Case

UBS and Climate Change--Warming Up to Global Action?

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Forest L. Reinhardt and Elizabeth Raabe

Marco Suter, Executive Vice-Chairman, UBS Board of Directors, carefully studied the chart on his desk. It showed the public commitment of major financial institutions to help mitigate global warming. Evidently, UBS lagged behind its competitors. The graph was part of a... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Energy Conservation; Cost vs Benefits; Law; Financial Institutions; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Accountability; Financial Services Industry

20 Jun 2011
News

Fame, Faith, and Social Activism: Business Lessons from Bono

01 Dec 2019
News

In My Humble Opinion: Taking Attendance

Constance “CJ” Jones (MBA 2008) had a tough time as a student at her middle school in Durham, North Carolina. Often the only person of color in the academically advanced classes, she felt rejected by both her white and her black peers for... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; public education; leadership; charter schools; career paths; work-life balance; Elementary and Secondary Schools; Elementary and Secondary Schools

March 2022
Article

Loan Types and the Bank Lending Channel

By: Victoria Ivashina, Luc Laeven and Enrique Moral-Benito

Using credit-registry data for Spain and Peru, we document that four main types of commercial credit—asset-based loans, cash flow loans, trade finance and leasing—are easily identifiable and represent the bulk of corporate credit. We show that credit growth dynamics... View Details

Keywords: Bank Credit; Loan Types; Bank Lending Channel; Credit Registry; Banks and Banking; Credit; Financing and Loans