Publications

18 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

WeWork—The IPO That Shouldn’t?

not to frame a public offering." To ameliorate some of the criticism, and to salvage its IPO, WeWork recently pivoted. It proposed its IPO valuation of $47 billion be slashed, added a woman to its board of directors, and, this past week, indicated it would modify... View Details

Keywords: by Nori Gerardo Lietz; Financial Services; Real Estate

16 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Gray Markets and Multinational Transfer Pricing

Keywords: by Romana L. Autrey & Francesco Bova

Web

Buy Now, Pay Later: Home Finance

decentralized nature of building and financing homes posed obstacles to private organizations who tried to do the same. Anecdotal accounts, like this feature in the Ladies Home Journal in 1903, suggest that most home-buyers cobbled together financing from a variety of... View Details

Web

Debora L. Spar | About

the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Bentley University. She has also served on the boards of Goldman Sachs and the Wallace and Markle Foundations. Spar earned her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and her B.S. from... View Details

September 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Chai Point: Disrupting Chai

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Ramana Nanda and Rachna Tahilyani

Chai Point is India’s largest organized chai retailer. It has missed its target for retail store openings by approximately 25%, goals that are very important to its investors who are also board members. However, it has developed an exciting new internet-based tea... View Details

April 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Nghe An Tate & Lyle Sugar Company (Vietnam)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Frank J. Lysy and Carrie Ferman

In September 1998, Paul Cooper, Tate & Lyle's finance director for international investments, asked the International Finance Corp. (IFC) to consider lending up to $45 million to finance a $90 million sugar mill in northern Vietnam. Ewen Cobban, an IFC agricultural... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Food and Beverage Industry; Viet Nam

Article

We Need Better Carbon Accounting. Here's How to Get There.

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

Any effective system of greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting needs to measure each company’s supply-chain carbon impacts accurately. Such information would provide visibility and incentives for the company to make more climate-friendly product-specification and purchasing... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; GHG; Carbon Accounting; Environmental Accounting; Environmental Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Supply Chain

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February 2003 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Singapore Inc.

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Emily Thompson

In early 2003, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong is assessing Singapore's development strategy--tax cutting combined with an industrial policy focused on six "clusters," including biomedical sciences. After 36 years of stupendous growth, Singapore has slowed down and faces... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Economic Growth; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Clusters; Business and Government Relations; Competition; China; Singapore

Web

Published Materials - Creating Emerging Markets

2019 Article Enterprise & Society Oral History and Writing the Business History of Emerging Markets By: Geoffrey Jones and Rachael Comunale NOV 2018 Article Australian Economic History Review Business, Governments and Political Risk in... View Details

2024
Chapter

Corporations as the Central Institutions of Society

By: Joseph L. Badaracco

Mark Twain observed that, “Prediction is very difficult—particularly when it involves the future,” and he was right. One way to reduce the risk of becoming an infamous forecaster—like the experts who told us the Internet would quickly collapse, that Apple would never... View Details

Keywords: Trends; Business and Government Relations; Organizations; Power and Influence; Society

Web

HBS - Financials | Supplemental Financial Information

percent of total revenue. Three factors govern the change in the endowment distribution: a specified rate increase set by the University, which in fiscal 2023 was 4.5 percent; new gifts to the endowment, which comprises more than 1,000... View Details

September–October 2020
Article

The Air War Versus the Ground Game: An Analysis of Multi-Channel Marketing in U.S. Presidential Elections

By: Lingling Zhang and Doug J. Chung

This study jointly examines the effects of television advertising and field operations in U.S. presidential elections, with the former referred to as the “air war” and the latter as the “ground game.” Specifically, the study focuses on how different campaign... View Details

Keywords: Multi-channel Marketing; Ground Campaigning; Political Campaigns; Discrete-choice Model; Instrumental Variables; Political Elections; Marketing Channels; Advertising; United States

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January 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Dick's Sporting Goods: Getting Out Of The Gun Business (A)

By: George A. Riedel

Dick's Sporting Goods was one of the top five retailers of a range of firearms in the US. Over the last several years and specifically following the Parkland shooting of 2018, Ed Stack, the CEO and chairman, had wrestled with the question of their role as a leading... View Details

Keywords: Gun Policy; Gun Violence; Sporting Goods; Sport; Human Behavior; Violence; Ethics; Decision Making; Social Issues; Corporate Accountability; Sports Industry; Retail Industry; United States

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

15 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Remembering Alfred Chandler

America the "visible hand" was so powerful that it controlled not only the corporate landscape, but the political scene and the regulatory environment. My own work ended up being heavily influenced by Al Chandler as I tried to recreate corporate View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

July 1997 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Depreciation at Delta Air Lines and Singapore Airlines (A)

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Jeremy Cott

Depreciation policies at Delta Air Lines and Singapore Airlines are compared and contrasted against a summary of operating data from each airline. Questions focus attention on differing depreciation policies. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Policy; Financial Statements; Air Transportation Industry

14 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

When the Rubber Meets the Road, Most Commuters Text and Email While Driving

to government estimates. And, in 2020, 3,142 people were killed in car crashes involving distracted drivers. With automation gaining more momentum, Sadun hopes car designers will double down on safety features. After all, commuters may... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

July 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Revenue Recognition at Stride Funding: Making Sense of Revenues for a Fintech Startup

By: Paul M. Healy and Jung Koo Kang

The case explores the challenges of revenue recognition and financial reporting for Stride Funding (Stride), a fintech startup that has disrupted the student loan market. Stride leveraged proprietary machine learning and financial models to underwrite alternative... View Details

Keywords: Revenue Recognition; Financial Reporting; Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Governance Compliance; Accrual Accounting; Financial Services Industry; United States