Publications

Sep 2016
Survey

Problems Unsolved & A Nation Divided

calls for a national economic strategy for America and proposes federal policy priorities that can form the core of such a strategy. Further, the report highlights corporate and personal tax reform as a... View Details

23 May 2011
Op-Ed

Leading and Lagging Countries in Contributing to a Sustainable Society

Editor's note: Please see related story, Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It's Effective. To what extent companies contribute to a sustainable society is a question increasingly important, not only to the companies themselves, but also to investors, the countries... View Details

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles & George Serafeim

The Contract Year Phenomenon in the Corner Office: An Analysis of Firm Behavior During CEO Contract Renewals

This paper investigates how executive employment contracts influence corporate financial policies during the final year of the contract term, using a new, hand-collected data set of CEO employment agreements. On the one hand, the impending... View Details

2008
Article

Governance and Merger Accounting: Evidence from Stock Price Reactions to Purchase versus Pooling

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

This paper examines the effect of corporate governance on investor reactions to accounting choice in the context of accounting for business combinations. Using a sample of 324 recent stock swap acquisitions I find that, contrary to practitioners' belief that capital... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Markets; Stocks; Price; Corporate Governance

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November 2011 (Revised February 2012)
Case

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul: Building on a Diversified Base

By: William W. George

Since the 1970s, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region (MSP) had outpaced the nation in job creation and income per capita. MSP's diversified base of industry clusters had enabled the region to adapt to economic downturns and an exodus of major corporate... View Details

Keywords: Industry Clusters; Employment; Organizations; Transformation; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Minneapolis; Saint Paul

02 Oct 2019
News

How Dishonesty Drains You

Personal Relationships and Enforcement of Management Controls: An Analysis of Punishments for Perpetrators of Economic Crimes

To explore how companies enforce management control systems, we examine whether social relationships influence the severity and consistency of punishments for main perpetrators of corporate economic crimes. We find wide variation in rates of dismissal and... View Details

September 2004
Case

Valhalla Partners Due Diligence

By: William A. Sahlman and Dan Heath

The Valhalla Partners venture capitial firm introduced a new approach to the due-diligence process. An internal due-diligence report analyzes Telco Exchange, a startup company in the IT software space. An extended excerpt examines the trade-offs involved in the new... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Risk Management; Venture Capital; Business Plan; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Investment; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Corporate Finance; Financial Services Industry; Telecommunications Industry

November 2017
Teaching Note

Amazon.com, 2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 716-402. On January 28, 2016, Amazon announced record 2015 operating profits of $2.2 billion on $107 billion of sales, and the markets responded with cautious optimism. For years, founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos had prioritized growth and... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Market Platforms; Two-Sided Platforms; Competition; Internet; Corporate Strategy; Online Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Hardware; Information Technology; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Technology Networks; Technology Platform; Web; Web Sites; Price; Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

February 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Institutional Neutrality, Restraint or Convenience?

By: Clayton S. Rose, Nicole Zelazko and Alexis Lefort

In the fall of 2023 and winter of 2024, college campuses across the U.S. experienced protests and encampments in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel by the Islamist militant group Hamas, and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza. These... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Cost vs Benefits; Ethics; Governance; Leadership; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Adaptation; Disruption; Communication Strategy; Higher Education; United States

2014
Working Paper

The Contract Year Phenomenon in the Corner Office: An Analysis of Firm Behavior During CEO Contract Renewals

By: Ping Liu and Yuhai Xuan

This paper investigates how executive employment contracts influence corporate financial policies during the final year of the contract term, using a new, hand-collected data set of CEO employment agreements. On the one hand, the impending expiration of fixed-term... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Contracts; Behavior; Employment

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September 2019 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Accounting Fraud at Tesco Stores (A)

By: Jonas Heese, Suraj Srinivasan and Julia Kelley

This case describes the accounting fraud at Tesco Stores Limited (TSL), which was discovered by a senior accountant in TSL’s finance department. The accountant was concerned about TSL’s handling of commercial income, which, according to the accountant, overstated... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Crime and Corruption; Organizational Culture; Corporate Accountability

March 2011
Article

Restaurant Organizational Forms and Community in the U.S. in 2005

By: Glenn R. Carroll and Magnus Thor Torfason

Recent sociological theory and research highlights food, drink, and restaurants as culturally meaningful and related to social identity. An implication of this view holds that the prevalence of corporate chain restaurants affects the sociological character of... View Details

Keywords: Demographics; Age; Supply Chain Management; Culture; Balance and Stability; Income Characteristics; Research; Civil Society or Community; Identity; Theory; Society; Service Industry; United States

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05 Jul 2016
First Look

July 5, 2016

applications. For example, a scandal covered in a long-form news article leads to a 10% drop in applications the following year. This is roughly the same as the impact on applications of dropping 10 spots in the U.S. News and World Report... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2025
Case

The Changing Climate on Wall Street

By: Clayton S. Rose, Maxim Pike Harrell and Michael Norris

Increasing and conflicting regulatory requirements and political pressures regarding climate change tested the leaders of U.S. financial institutions, as they struggled to determine how best to comply while managing their business and its risks. In October 2024,... View Details

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Internet; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Digital Platforms; Competition; Internet and the Web; Corporate Strategy; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Price; Applications and Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

2013
White Paper

Building and Governing a Democratic Federation: The ActionAid International Story

By: Sherine Jayawickrama and Alnoor Ebrahim

This report examines the governance model and reform process of an international nongovernmental organization (INGO), ActionAid International (AAI). It describes the evolution of AAI's governance model and draws key lessons for peer INGOs. The paper is based on a... View Details

Keywords: Governance; NGO; Accountability; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Non-Governmental Organizations