Publications

2014
Chapter

Better Timing of Cyber Conflict

By: Elisabeth Paulson and Christopher Griffin

In this paper, we construct a model of cyber-weapon deployment and attempt to determine an optimal deployment time for cyberweapons using this model. We compare and contrast our approach to that in Axelrod and Iliev (R. Axelrod and R. Iliev. Timing of cyber conflict.... View Details

Keywords: Cyber-weapons; Cyberwarfare; Cybersecurity; National Security

2009
Working Paper

Stretching the Inelastic Rubber: Taxation, Welfare and Lobbies in Amazonia, 1870-1910

By: Felipe Tamega Fernandes

This paper examines the effect of government intervention via taxation on domestic welfare. A case-study of Brazilian market power on rubber markets during the boom years of 1870-1910 shows that the government generated 1.3% of GDP through an export tax on rubber but... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Taxation; Business and Government Relations; Welfare or Wellbeing; Rubber Industry; Brazil

October 1990
Case

Three in the Middle: The Experience of Making Change at Micro Switch

Describes three middle managers acting in the role of change agents. Highlights their personal roles and their "moods" at two points in the course of introducing major cultural change. While their comments are only six months apart, they have reached a more pessimistic... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Organizational Culture

winter 1989
Article

Split-Awards Procurement and Innovation

By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao

In many procurement settings, it is possible for a buyer to split a production award between suppliers. In this article, we develop a model of split-award procurement auctions in which the split choice is endogenous. We characterize the set of equilibrium bids and... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Cost; Supply Chain; Investment; Balance and Stability

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2024
Working Paper

Transforming the Federal Bureau of Investigation: Outcome and Process Framing

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati and Jan Rivkin

This twelve-year qualitative study examines how Director Robert Mueller and his senior team profoundly transformed the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Drawing on 138 interviews within the FBI and Mueller’s... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Transformation; Government and Politics; Organizational Change and Adaptation

09 Apr 2025
Video

Schneider Electric | How digital solutions are accelerating sustainability in buildings

April 1980 (Revised September 1985)
Background Note

The Disposable Diaper Industry in 1974

By: Michael E. Porter

Describes the rapidly growing disposable diaper industry in 1974, a period in which Procter and Gamble's industry leadership faced strong challenges from Kimberly Clark, Johnson and Johnson, and Union Carbide. The latter two firms were in the process of entry into the... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Competition; Consumer Products Industry

July 2017
Case

Centerbridge Partners and Great Wolf Resorts: Buying from a Highly Regarded Competitor

By: Josh Lerner, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal

The case examines the March 2015 Centerbridge Partners investment decision regarding whether to acquire Great Wolf Resorts, a North American family-oriented indoor water parks and hotel operator, from a private equity (PE) competitor, Apollo Global Management. The case... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Financing; Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities; CMBS; Secondary Buyouts; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Cost; Cost of Capital; Equity; Private Equity; Financial Instruments; Debt Securities; Accommodations Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States

July 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Pershing Square's Pandemic Trade (A)

By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Luis M. Viceira, Dean Xu and Lucas Baker

This case explores the decision that Bill Ackman, CEO and founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital, was considering in late February 2020 about hedging the exposure of the fund’s portfolio from the potential financial fallout ensuing from an extreme event like... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Financial Liquidity; Cost Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Risk Management

Robert Simons is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School. For over 35 years, Simons has taught accounting, management control, and strategy execution courses in both the Harvard MBA and Executive Education Programs. For 2024/25, he is teaching a... View Details

November 2023
Article

Algorithmic Mechanism Design with Investment

By: Mohammad Akbarpour, Scott Duke Kominers, Kevin Michael Li, Shengwu Li and Paul Milgrom

We study the investment incentives created by truthful mechanisms that allocate resources using approximation algorithms. Some approximation algorithms guarantee nearly 100% of the optimal welfare, but have only a zero guarantee when one bidder can invest before... View Details

Keywords: Mechanism Design; Market Design; Auctions

In today's economic climate, corporate leaders in multidivisional and multinational companies face a uniquely broad set of challenges. While putting in place the systems, relationships, and strategies that foster business unit success, you also must lead the business... View Details

Program

Competing in the Age of AI—Virtual

optimize the learning experience and maximize the exchange of ideas, our Admissions Committee makes selections that balance each participant's experience, scope of current responsibilities, and type of organization. HBS seeks candidates... View Details

Research Summary

Investment Management

Professor Chacko's research looks into the portfolio choice decisions of individuals and institutions. He is particularly concerned with optimal portfolio choice and consumption decisions in a dynamic framework. His work looks at how economic agents make these... View Details

2016
Book

The Three Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovation

By: Vijay Govindarajan

How to Innovate and Execute. Leaders already know that innovation calls for a different set of activities, skills, methods, metrics, mind-sets, and leadership approaches. And it is well understood that creating a new business and optimizing an already existing one are... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Innovation Leadership

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December 2023
Article

When Should the Off-Grid Sun Shine at Night? Optimum Renewable Generation and Energy Storage Investments

By: Christian Kaps, Simone Marinesi and Serguei Netessine

Globally, 1.5 billion people live off the grid, their only access to electricity often limited to operationally-expensive fossil fuel generators. Solar power has risen as a sustainable and less costly option, but its generation is variable during the day and... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Renewable Energy

19 Mar 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Carry Trade and Exchange-Rate Regimes

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Fabio Kanczuk

Oct 2020
Conference Presentation

Optimal, Truthful, and Private Securities Lending

By: Emily Diana, Michael J. Kearns, Seth Neel and Aaron Leon Roth

We consider a fundamental dynamic allocation problem motivated by the problem of securities lending in financial markets, the mechanism underlying the short selling of stocks. A lender would like to distribute a finite number of identical copies of some scarce resource... View Details

Keywords: Differential Privacy; Mechanism Design; Finance; Mathematical Methods

March 2008
Article

Testing a Purportedly More Learnable Auction Mechanism

We describe an auction mechanism in the class of Groves mechanisms that has received attention in the computer science literature because of its theoretical property of being more "learnable" than the standard second price auction mechanism. We bring this mechanism,... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Auctions; Learning; Economics