Publications

May 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

AirFox (A): Embracing the Blockchain and an ICO

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Edward B. Berk and Nate Schwalb

In summer 2017, Victor Santos, CEO of AirFox, considered whether to pivot his startup towards a new product built with blockchain—a quickly growing technology at the time. AirFox was an early stage startup that sold Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to small telecom... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Initial Coin Offering; ICO; Business Startups; Finance; Currency; Strategy; Decision Making; United States

01 Feb 2013
News

Growth Strategy Has Double Bottom Line

Hoffer and Hourdequin: Managing Directors at the Lyme Timber Company in Hanover, New Hampshire. Photo courtesy of the Lyme Timber Company LP It can be difficult to craft a business model that enables both investors and society as a whole... View Details

Keywords: Louisa Rigali; Finance; Finance; Finance; Finance

01 Dec 2016
News

@Soldiers Field

director Jodi Goldstein (MBA 1996), and a full agenda of class dinners and social events. HBX is expanding its online offerings: Professor Mihir Desai’s six-week Leading with Finance for business leaders... View Details

January 1998 (Revised September 2001)
Case

Genset: 1989

By: Paul A. Gompers and Amy Burroughs

Discusses the start-up strategy at Genset, a French biotech firm. Pascal Brandys, a venture capitalist, and Marc Vasseur, a leading French scientist, must decide how to proceed. Future real options are central to the strategy. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Biotechnology Industry; France

June 1996
Case

Pathfinder Capital

By: William A. Sahlman and Andrew S. Janower

Two former consultants have raised a search fund and are looking for a company to buy and run. After eight months of looking at deals, they have just signed a letter of intent to buy the second largest book retail chain in Canada in a turnaround situation. They must... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Leveraged Buyouts; Financing and Loans; Venture Capital; Change; Decisions

2014
Working Paper

Return on Political Investment in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004

By: Hui Chen, Katherine Gunny and Karthik Ramanna

Prior literature raises a "puzzle" of high rates of return on corporate political investment, but evidence for this puzzle is largely descriptive in nature. We exploit the setting of the American Jobs Creation Act's passage in 2004 to provide more robust estimates of... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Finance; United States

SSRN

01 Sep 2010
News

Five Honored for Missions Accomplished

complete profile. As Yahoo! president, entrepreneur Sue Decker led the company’s global business operations, including sales, product, product marketing, and distribution. Since leaving Yahoo! in April 2009, she spent the past academic... View Details

Keywords: awards; Finance; Finance; Finance; Finance; Finance; Finance; Finance; Finance; Finance

September 1998 (Revised November 1998)
Case

Walnut Venture Associates (D): RBS Deal Terms

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Plan; Research; Software; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry

01 Jun 2018
News

Up by the Roots

billion in equity financing in 2017, while their Silicon Alley cousins raised $1.5 billion, or 15 percent more. (CB Insights was in the first FIL graduating class.) The total number of equity financings was... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; illustrations by Dan Page

October 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Provident Life and Accident Insurance: The Acquisition of Paul Revere

By: Mihir A. Desai, Frank Williamson, Mark Veblen and Yuming Zou

Provident Life & Accident Insurance Co. has made an initial bid to acquire a primary competitor, Paul Revere, from conglomerate, Textron. The due diligence process uncovers a significant block of problematic disability insurance policies. Provident is forced to assess... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Financial Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Policy; Investment; Business Strategy; Cash Flow; Price; Bids and Bidding; Financial Reporting; Business Conglomerates; Insurance Industry; Service Industry

01 Oct 1999
News

Four Promoted to Full Professor

Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, won the Global Business Book Award for the best business book published that year. Christensen is currently head of the required General... View Details

15 Nov 2013
News

Helping Bright Ideas Shine Again

Côme Laguë by Robert S. Benchley Côme Laguë (MBA 1993) has no respect for firms he calls "patent trolls"—holding companies that buy up and bank the intellectual property of closed businesses solely for the purpose of generating income... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley

August 2018
Case

Tapping Growth at Lord Hobo Brewing Company

By: Ethan Rouen and Susanna Gallani

Lord Hobo Brewing Company accounts for its inventory process as it prepares to create its first set of professional financial statements for investors. View Details

Keywords: Inventory; Start-ups; Craft Brewing; Investing; GAAP; Brand Management; Accounting; Working Capital; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Business Startups; Business and Shareholder Relations; Food and Beverage Industry; Boston; New England; United States

22 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Reading the Financial Crisis Warning Signs: Credit Markets and the 'Red-Zone'

credit market dynamics—and investor behavior. HBS Working Knowledge spoke with Robin Greenwood, the George Gund Professor of Finance and Banking at Harvard Business School, about the role markets may play in... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Banking

12 Mar 2007
Research & Ideas

The New Real Estate

diversification and reduce risk. This is the new world of real estate finance which, as my friend Harvard Business School professor Andre Perold will argue, is just catching up with everyone else.... View Details

Keywords: by Arthur I. Segel; Construction; Real Estate

30 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Vanguard, Trian And The Problem With 'Passive' Index Funds

M. Viceira, the George E. Bates Professor and senior associate dean for International Development at Harvard Business School. “That raises the question, who is exercising control in these corporations?” In traditional mutual funds,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

08 May 2019
Blog Post

Top-Notch Talent Begets Top-Notch Talent

grindstone building out Prokanga’s finance practice. “The power of the HBS network when you’re building a business cannot be underestimated,” says Cheney. “It is unbelievable.” The Gig Economy Meets Wall... View Details

April 1993
Teaching Note

Grupo Industrial Alfa, S.A.,1982 (TN)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Teaching Note for (9-292-008). View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Borrowing and Debt; Restructuring; Rights; Business Strategy; Negotiation; System; Business Conglomerates; Currency Exchange Rate; Energy Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Mexico