Publications

October 2012 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Kleiner-Perkins and Genentech: When Venture Capital Met Science

By: Felda Hardymon and Tom Nicholas

Genentech is a rare success story in the biotechnology industry. Hundreds of billions of dollars of venture capital have been invested without the expected transformational effects. Established in 1976, Genentech was to develop the new science of recombinant DNA into... View Details

Keywords: Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Innovation and Invention; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Science; Biotechnology Industry; United States

July 2006
Article

Bringing History (Back) into International Business

By: G. Jones and Tarun Khanna

We argue that the field of international business should evolve its rhetoric from the relatively uncontroversial idea that 'history matters' to exploring how it matters. We discuss four conceptual channels through which history matters, illustrating each with a major... View Details

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2009
Working Paper

Gray Markets and Multinational Transfer Pricing

By: Romana L. Autrey and Francesco Bova

Gray markets arise when a manufacturer's products are sold outside of its authorized channels, for instance when goods designated for a foreign market are resold domestically. One method multinationals use to combat gray markets is to increase internal transfer prices... View Details

Keywords: Price; Multinational Firms and Management; Demand and Consumers; Distribution Channels; Business and Government Relations; Sales; Competitive Strategy

April 2012 (Revised June 2014)
Case

Capitalizing for the Future: HSBC in 2010

By: Anette Mikes and Dominique Hamel

Following the financial crisis of 2007/2008, HSBC CEO Michael Geoghegan saw a fundamental change in global opportunities and risks. With increasing regulation and fierce competition between banks, the Western hemisphere was going to be a tougher place to do business.... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Competitive Strategy; Control Systems; Finance; Financial Crisis; Banks and Banking; Emerging Markets; Risk Management; Business Strategy; Banking Industry

September 1993 (Revised June 2009)
Case

Mary Kay Cosmetics: Asian Market Entry (A)

By: John A. Quelch

In February 1993, Curran Dandurand, senior vice president of Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc.'s global marketing group, was reflecting on the company's international operations. Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc. products had been sold outside the United States for over 15 years, but by... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Market Entry and Exit; Operations; Sales; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Asia

01 Mar 2015
News

Research Brief: Political Capital

It’s no secret that politicians are trying to buy your vote—in the 2012 presidential campaign, Republicans and Democrats shelled out nearly $2 billion in their fight for the White House. But what’s the most effective way to spend that money? In a new working paper, HBS... View Details

Keywords: Janelle Nanos; Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support; Government; Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services; Professional Services

15 May 2019
Research Event

The Unconventional Capitalism That Shapes Business History

Lalocracio In thinking about the current contested state of global capitalism, and what to do about it, much can be learned from the debates I heard at the recent Harvard Business School conference, Seeking the Unconventional in Forging Histories of Capitalism, which... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey G. Jones; Education

Article

Do Strict Capital Requirements Raise the Cost of Capital? Bank Regulation, Capital Structure and the Low Risk Anomaly

By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler

Traditional capital structure theory predicts that reducing banks' leverage reduces the risk and cost of equity but does not change the weighted average cost of capital, and thus the rates for borrowers. We confirm that the equity of better-capitalized banks has lower... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

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25 Aug 2022
News

Open Market

first focusing on scaling operations and then becoming a partner at Google Capital (now CapitalG), investing in late-stage tech companies and helping founders grow their businesses. The experience at Google was revelatory, with Howard... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; illustration by Keith Negley; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance

2012
Working Paper

Can Implicit Regulation Change Financial Market Behavior? Evidence from Spitzer's Attack on Market Timers

By: Charles C.Y. Wang

This paper explores a natural experiment setup from the 2003-2004 mutual fund scandals to evaluate the effectiveness of implicit regulation on financial markets behavior. On average, buy-and-hold investors lost 218 basis points annually from 1998 to 2002 to market... View Details

Keywords: Financial Markets; Market Timing; United States

01 Dec 2019
News

Capitalizing the Corner Shop

engineering consulting company, and his mother started four businesses, ranging from a video game store to a bakery—Kehinde was exposed early on to the pains of capital constraints. “I grew up seeing how difficult it is,” he says. Working... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

January 2011
Supplement

Matrix Capital Management (C)

By: Malcolm P. Baker and David Lane

Ben Balbale, a partner at hedge fund Matrix Capital, must decide whether to exit their investment in Rovi Corporation, a company with a diverse portfolio of patents used primarily for digital interactive guides. Rovi's shares are up over 50% from the time Balbale... View Details

Keywords: Public Ownership; Cash Flow; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Valuation; Partners and Partnerships; Markets; Performance Efficiency; Patents; Stock Shares; Decisions; Financial Services Industry

February 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Mohamed Azab and Seha Capital

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Sarah McAra

In January 2011, Mohamed Azab, founder and CEO of health care investment firm Seha Capital, made his first health care investment in Hassab Labs, a diagnostic lab in Alexandria, Egypt. Weeks later, a revolution erupted across the country as the Arab Spring swept... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health; Pan-Africa; Health Care Investment; Financing; Developing World; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Investment; Financing and Loans; Developing Countries and Economies; Egypt; Africa

September 1995
Case

Richina Capital Partners Limited

By: William A. Sahlman and Jason Green

Richard Yan and Suzanne Foels raise a $52.5 million fund to invest in Chinese companies in concert with major multinational companies. They face all the challenges of starting a business from scratch in addition to the challenges of operating in a cross-cultural... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Problems and Challenges; Emerging Markets; Multinational Firms and Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Governance Compliance; Business Strategy; Expansion; Investment Return; China

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Research Summary

Public Policy and Markets

By: Willis M. Emmons

William (Willis) M. Emmons III is investigating the interaction of public policy, markets, business strategy, and performance at the levels of firm, industry, and society. Emmons' approach draws heavily on economic theories of industrial organization, market failure,... View Details

2014
Working Paper

Institutional Strategies in Emerging Markets

By: Christopher Marquis and Mia Raynard

We review and integrate a wide range of literature that has examined the strategies by which organizations navigate institutionally diverse settings and capture rents outside of the marketplace. We synthesize this body of research under the umbrella term... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Organizations; Emerging Markets

SSRN

May 2007 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Maria Sharapova: Marketing a Champion (A)

By: Anita Elberse and Margarita Golod

In July 2004, a then 17-year-old Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon, arguably the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. Max Eisenbud, Sharapova's agent at International Management Group (IMG), knew the championship would lead to a flood of new opportunities. What... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Advertising; Gender; Product Marketing; Sports Industry