Publications

February 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Labor, Capital, and Government: The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902

By: David Moss and Marc Campasano

In late October 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt felt relieved after months of anxiety and uncertainty. Workers in Pennsylvania's anthracite coal industry had been on strike for five months, threatening to leave eastern cities in the cold without enough heating fuel... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Government Relations; Labor; Law; Policy; Mining; History; Mining Industry; Pennsylvania

February 2009 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Shanghai Diligence Law Firm (A)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Catherine Zhang

Shanghai Diligence Law Firm, started in January 2006, is a rapidly growing law firm in China's burgeoning legal services market. In addition to the usual challenges facing all professional service firms (picking and retaining talent and building a desired client... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Motivation and Incentives; Legal Services Industry; China

2014
Article

Framework for China's Novel Sustainable Evaluation System Strategy

By: Robert G. Eccles and Peijun Duan

China’s sustainable development faces three challenges: first, the follow-up momentum of sustainable economic growth and economic transformation is insufficient; second, some resources and environment loads have reached their limits; third, some products affecting the... View Details

Keywords: Sustainable Development; Integrated Report; New Evaluation System; China

2022
Book

Corporate Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions

By: Leo R. Tsao, Daniel S. Kahn and Eugene F. Soltes

Over the past two decades, corporate criminal liability has developed into one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic areas of legal practice. The growth of corporate criminal enforcement has correlated with a broad shift in how the government investigates and... View Details

Keywords: Criminal Investigations; Crime and Corruption; Legal Liability

16 Jun 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Paying Up for Fair Pay: Consumers Prefer Firms with Lower CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratios

Keywords: by Bhavya Mohan, Michael I. Norton & Rohit Deshpandé

March 2010 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Sheila Mason & Craig Shepherd (Abridged)

The case describes two individuals who have met and are in the process of starting a company together. Each is still at his/her former employer, and each has signed a different employment agreement that, on paper, may prohibit some of the contemplated acts—i.e.,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Resignation and Termination; Intellectual Property; Law; Agreements and Arrangements

September 2009
Article

Is There a Better Commitment Mechanism than Cross-Listings for Emerging Economy Firms? Evidence from Mexico

By: Jordan I. Siegel

The last decade of work in corporate governance has shown that weak legal institutions at the country level hinder firms in emerging economies from accessing finance and technology affordably. To attract outside resources, these firms must often use external... View Details

Keywords: Commitment; Inter-organizational Relationships; Emerging Markets; Economics; International Political Economy; Economy; Business Ventures; Information; Mexico

TeachingInterests

Making Corporate Boards More Effective

By: Guhan Subramanian

While your corporate board may have broadly defined legal duties, its role in evaluating management, providing strategic oversight, and dealing with the complexity of today's regulatory environment has never been more tested—or more... View Details

June 2014
Article

Pitfalls and Fraud in Online Advertising Metrics: What Makes Advertisers Vulnerable to Cheaters, and How They Can Protect Themselves

By: Benjamin Edelman

How does online advertising become less effective than advertisers expect and less effective than measurements indicate? The current research explores problems that result, in part, from malfeasance by outside perpetrators who overstate their efforts to increase their... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Measurement; Mismeasurement; Fraud; Invisible; Digital Marketing; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Marketing Strategy

November 2003 (Revised December 2003)
Background Note

Note on School Choice in U.S. Public Education

This note surveys school choice in the United States. School choice characterizes the school assignment of approximately 56% of U.S. school-aged children and, in order of popularity, can be categorized into seven types: residential choice, private schools, intra- and... View Details

Keywords: Education; United States

November 2024
Background Note

Nonprofit Governance: Some Basics

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

This background note discusses basics about the prevalence, purpose, and unique legal, governance and regulatory dynamics of nonprofits and their boards of directors. The note describes both similarities and differences between for-profit and non-profit governance,... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Nonprofit Organizations; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; United States

Article

Learning Models for Actionable Recourse

By: Alexis Ross, Himabindu Lakkaraju and Osbert Bastani

As machine learning models are increasingly deployed in high-stakes domains such as legal and financial decision-making, there has been growing interest in post-hoc methods for generating counterfactual explanations. Such explanations provide individuals adversely... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning Models; Recourse; Algorithm; Mathematical Methods

Article

Investing in Distressed Situations: A Market Survey

By: S. C. Gilson

The risks of investing in distressed companies—a practice popularly known as "vulture" investing—are highly firm specific and idiosyncratic. Investors who are adept at managing these risks, who understand the legal rules that must be followed in corporate bankruptcy,... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Markets

March 2017 (Revised April 2021)
Module Note

Responsibilities to Society

By: Nien-hê Hsieh

This module note for students outlines an approach to help managers deliver on their responsibilities in relation to society. The approach frames these responsibilities in terms of potential harms to third parties beyond investors, customers, and employees. The... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Political Activity; Corporate Social Responsibility; Human Rights; Role Of Business In Society; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Ethics; Business and Community Relations; Rights; Society

August 1989 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Fan Pier

By: William J. Poorvu and Katherine Sweetman

The owner of the Fan Pier site in South Boston has been found legally responsible for blocking the efforts of his development partner in attaining the approval necessary to build the $800 million megaproject they had planned together. It was believed that the owner... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Law; Projects; Design; Organizational Design; Marketing Strategy; Government and Politics; Property; Real Estate Industry; Boston