Personal Finance - Publications - Faculty & Research

28 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

Keep or Cut Workers? How Companies Reacted to the COVID-19 Crisis

“There was not a single person or car,” he recalls. The eerily quiet scene was a jarring reminder that the pandemic was taking a huge toll on many businesses that saw sales and revenue figures abruptly plummet. Rouen and two fellow... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

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Business & Environment - Faculty & Research

substantially, meaning insurance markets may shrink even as losses from natural disasters rise. Keywords: Climate Change ; Risk and Uncertainty ; Insurance ; Personal Finance ; Consumer Behavior ; Mortgages... View Details

June 2011
Article

Segmenting the Base of the Pyramid

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Michael Chu and Djorjiji Petkoski

The bottom of the economic pyramid is a risky place for business, but decent profits can be made there if companies link their financial success with their constituencies' well-being. To do that effectively, you must understand the nuances of people's daily lives, say... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Risk and Uncertainty; Value Creation; Human Needs; Income; Poverty; Profit; Relationships; Economics; Segmentation

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Cold Calling - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

anxiety-provoking and inspiring. Regardless of the strategy used for selecting the opener, instructors should position the call as a challenging but fair opportunity for students to experience personal development and contribute to the... View Details

01 Sep 2003
News

Dwight Raiford

years, but only recently have they truly come together. “My life is finally aligned,” says Raiford with a warm smile and easy laugh. After a successful career in finance — including twenty years at Citibank — he is now using his business... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Finance

October 2008 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Lawrence Trinh: Venturing to Vietnam

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Rachel Gordon

Should Lawrence Trinh pursue his aspiration of working in Vietnam—and if so, what set of principles and practices should he adopt if he encounters corruption? These are questions that reverberate for many students who wish to work in emerging markets and other contexts... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Ethics; Investment; Leadership Development; Emerging Markets; Personal Development and Career; Welfare; Financial Services Industry

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16 May 2024
News

On the Job

inventory was because it was just stuffed in all kinds of closets. So it was an amazing experience, but I probably wouldn’t have done that if HBS hadn’t had funds to support me so that I could earn money. I couldn’t have predicted that summer job that HBS helped me... View Details

Keywords: first job; leadership; life experience; career lessons; Finance; Finance; Finance; Finance

14 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 14

Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/11-054.pdf Diversification Create Value in the Presence of External Financing Constraints? Evidence from the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis Authors:Venkat Kuppuswamy and Belén Villalonga... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2024
News

Game On

their paddle and walks off the court tomorrow, the real estate itself is a great counterbalance and risk mitigator. “That, to a finance guy, was the pixie dust,” Gordon says. Not that the numbers are headed in that direction yet. In fact,... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; photographed by Edward Linsmier; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Arts, Entertainment

March 2011 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Vestas' World of Wind

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Elena Corsi

The wind turbine manufacturer Vestas launched the industry's first highly localized and customized new product launch campaigns which used also new tools such as web 2.0 platforms. Used to operate in a market where demand exceeded supply, Vestas had lost contact with... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Marketing Channels; Internet and the Web; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Advertising Campaigns; Global Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Finance; Product Marketing; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry

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Curriculum - Business & Environment

systems to measure, track, and influence climate friendly changes to reduce CO2 emissions across the world's fourth largest dairy cooperative. Finance I Project Helios: Harvesting the Sun Key concepts: Return on Investment, Financial... View Details

September 2017
Case

Blackstone's Julia Kahr at the Summit

By: Paul A. Gompers, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal

In 2009, Blackstone, the New York-based alternative asset and financial services firm, committed to invest up to $750 million into Summit Materials, a new company in the aggregates sector (i.e., construction materials, such as crushed stone, sand, gravel, cement,... View Details

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March 2018 (Revised March 2018)
Teaching Note

OpenInvest

By: Boris Vallee and Caitlin Reimers Brumme

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolio to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapon manufacturers stocks or overweighting LGBTQ... View Details

Keywords: Socially Responsible Investing; Investing For Impact; Robo-advisors; Investment; Values and Beliefs; Customization and Personalization; Technology; Financial Services Industry

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25 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Fintech Borrowing

you're using the fintech personal loan for the right reason,” Di Maggio says. “This type of loan needs to be used as a consolidation tool or as a bridge loan to meet a specific, temporary need.” The loans should not be used to View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services; Banking

01 Mar 2023
News

Step Change

and kindness, to instill dignity and confidence. It’s not just writing a check. And as much as people say ‘Don’t take it personally,’ of course it’s personal. There’s so much at stake. For a founder, this is it: This is their life.” It’s View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographed by Abdelrahman Gabr – Koree; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

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Careers Blog

corporate career with his entrepreneurial venture and a deep commitment to family life. [...] Read more 11 Jun 2025 Alumni Career Video | Nicole Ledoux (MBA 2008) tag Alumni Career Videos Nicole Ledoux (MBA 2008) shares how a personal... View Details

November 2020
Case

Truebird—An AlleyCorp Venture

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In December 2018, Kevin Ryan and Wendy Tsu faced an important decision – to finalize the CEO candidate for Truebird, an innovative, automated coffee café concept. Like many of AlleyCorp and Ryan’s companies, Truebird started with the observation of an unmet need – an... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Hiring; Staffing; Recruiting; Business Startups; Finance; Leadership; Management Skills; Management Teams; Jobs and Positions; Job Interviews; Human Resources; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Technology Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

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August 2022
Article

The Bulletproof Glass Effect: Unintended Consequences of Privacy Notices

By: Aaron R. Brough, David A. Norton, Shannon L. Sciarappa and Leslie K. John

Drawing from a content analysis of publicly traded companies’ privacy notices, a survey of managers, a field study, and five online experiments, this research investigates how consumers respond to privacy notices. A privacy notice, by placing legally enforceable limits... View Details

Keywords: Choice; Purchase Intent; Privacy; Privacy Notices; Warnings; Assurances; Information Disclosure; Trust; Consumer Behavior; Spending; Decisions; Information; Communication

16 Feb 2023
HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services

June 2024
Case

Alignvest Student Housing: Keep Building or Time to Sell?

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Patrick Sanguineti

Sanjil Shah, Managing Partner of Alignvest Student Housing REIT (ASH), faces the most significant decision thus far in his career: is it the right time to sell the company? Together with his partner Reza Satchu, Shah had developed ASH into the largest student housing... View Details