Publications

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Teledesic (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Describes plans for a failed project that proposed the use of 288 satellites to deliver high-speed data communications services anywhere in the world. View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Network Effects; Failure; Information Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry

Research Summary

Precautionary Bidding in Auctions

Joint work with Peter Esö, MEDS Department, Kellogg School of Management

We analyze bidding behavior in auctions when risk-averse bidders bid for an object whose value is risky. We show... View Details

07 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

Election 2024: Why Demographics Won't Predict the Next President

voting data appeal to forecasters precisely because the available numbers are broad and accurate. Predicting long-term trends influenced by aging, migration, fertility, and mortality is possible. Even projections View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

Shawn A. Cole

Shawn Cole is the John G. McLean Professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches and conducts research on financial services, impact investing, and Social Enterprise. He serves as faculty chair of the Social Enterprise... View Details

Keywords: banking; financial services; microfinance

August 2001 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Votia Empowerment AB (A)

The founder of a Swedish company specializing in e-democracy examines the economics of her business and the value proposition it delivers to customers, including municipalities, unions, and companies. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Communication; Entrepreneurship; Government and Politics; Sweden

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16 Jun 2023
Video

MBA Program Overview

November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the Third Place Ideal

By: Francesca Gino, Katherine B. Coffman and Jeff Huizinga

On April 12, 2018, two African American entrepreneurs had scheduled a business meeting at a Starbucks in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. They sat without ordering, waiting for a local businessman to show up for the meeting. The store manager called 911... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Prejudice and Bias; Crisis Management; Employees; Training

November 1998
Case

Holts (A), The

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Focuses on the decision of whether to sell a business or to continue it. Issues regarding the family's roles, the replacement of the business's earning power, and the owner's future roles are discussed. Among the issues raised are the values being transmitted. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Family Business; Financial Management; Business or Company Management; Value

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July 2008
Case

eHarmony

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Hanna Halaburda and Troy Smith

eHarmony's CEO needs to decide how to react to imitations of its business model, encroachment by competing models, and ascendance of free substitutes. The case provides four options to address these threats and asks students to choose one after they analyzed the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Service Industry

February 2018 (Revised August 2019)
Case

The Rise Fund: TPG Bets Big on Impact

By: Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Sarah Mehta

It is March 2017, and TPG, a global alternative investment firm with $74 billion assets under management, has recently launched its inaugural impact-investing fund—the $2 billion Rise Fund. In an effort to “take the religion out of impact investing,” Maya Chorengel,... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Impact Measurement; Equity; Investment; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Services Industry; California; San Francisco

Article

Quantifying the Benefits from a Care Coordination Program for Tracheostomy Placement in Neonates

By: Christen Caloway, Alisa Yamasaki, Kevin M. Callans, Mahek Shah, Robert S. Kaplan and Christopher Hartnick

Value-based care models are becoming instrumental in structuring clinical care delivery in our healthcare climate. Our objective was to determine the value associated with implementation of a Family-Centered Care Coordination (FCCC) program for neonates undergoing... View Details

Keywords: Family-centered Care; Value-based Healthcare; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Health Care and Treatment; Value; Activity Based Costing and Management

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January 2015 (Revised January 2018)
Technical Note

Note on Comparative Capitalism

By: Clayton S. Rose and Rebecca Henderson

This note draws on academic work, as well as social and economic data across several countries, to provide a basic understanding of some of the differences among capitalist systems. It begins with a description of the system of capitalism, and characteristics that to a... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Global; Economic Systems; Global Range; Japan; Germany; China; United States; Sweden

September 2010 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Citigroup 2007: Financial Reporting and Regulatory Capital

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Edward J. Riedl and Sharon Katz

This case introduces 1) financial statements for banks, 2) basic regulatory capital calculations, and 3) actions Citigroup must consider under a scenario of continued losses/fair value declines in 2008 (leading to potential violation of regulatory capital). View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Financial Crisis; Capital; Financial Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Banking Industry; United States

February 2003 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Internet Customer Acquisition Strategy at Bankinter

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

Bankinter, a relatively small Spanish bank, has a large presence as an Internet financial services provider. Leading the way to profitability through the Internet will give Bankinter a major competitive advantage over the larger, more established Spanish banks. Ann... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Activity Based Costing and Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Spain

May 2008 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Palm (A): The Debate on Licensing Palm's OS (1997)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Kevin Boudreau and Jordan Mitchell

This case series looks at three important inflection points in Palm's history that relate to decisions about its platform: when the company was debating whether to open its operating system (OS) for licensing to third-party hardware manufacturers; 2001, when the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Debates; Decisions; Innovation and Invention; Product Launch; Production; Competition; Value Creation; Information Technology Industry

July 2011
Article

Mixed Source

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gaston Llanes

We study competitive interaction between a profit-maximizing firm that sells software and complementary services and a free open source competitor. We examine the firm's choice of business model between the proprietary model (where all software modules are... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Open Source Distribution; Profit; Sales; Applications and Software; Service Operations; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Quality; Value Creation

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December 2015
Case

An Intern's Dilemma (A)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Matthew Preble

An HBS student is asked to misrepresent himself during the course of his summer internship by his employer in order to obtain data from industry competitors. View Details

Keywords: Conflict; Leadership; Conflict Management; Competition; Ethics; Knowledge Acquisition; Organizational Culture; Employees; Power and Influence