Publications

March 2014 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Ukraine: On the Border of Europe and Eurasia

By: Rawi Abdelal, Rafael M. Di Tella, Sogomon Tarontsi and Lavinia Teodorescu

In the fall of 2013, the people of Ukraine disagreed passionately whether their country should intensify ties with the European Union or Russia. After President Yanukovych rejected the free trade agreement with the EU in November, thousands of Ukrainians peacefully... View Details

June 2009 (Revised May 2013)
Case

Australia: The Riches and Challenges of Commodities

By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd faced a daunting task that he never imagined he would have to face when he was elected two years ago. Australia at that time was poised to enter its 17th year of uninterrupted growth. Commodity exports were booming, largely driven... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Trade; Foreign Direct Investment; Policy; Crisis Management; China; Australia

July 2024
Case

Wizards of the Coast and Magic: The Rebounding

By: Boris Groysberg and Tom Quinn

This case traces the history and growth of the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. From its development in 1993 by tiny studio Wizards of the Coast, to Wizards’ acquisition by toy giant Hasbro in 1999, to its evolution into a billion-dollar brand in 2023,... View Details

18 Nov 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Dynamics of Firm Lobbying

Keywords: by William R. Kerr, William Lincoln & Prachi Mishra

09 May 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Keywords: by Aaron Chatterji, Edward Glaeser & William Kerr

2024
Working Paper

What Makes Players Pay? An Empirical Investigation of In-Game Lotteries

By: Tomomichi Amano and Andrey Simonov

In 2020, gamers spent more than $15 billion on loot boxes, lotteries of virtual items in video games. Paid loot boxes are contentious. Game producers argue that loot boxes complement the gameplay and expenditures on loot boxes reflect players’ enjoyment of the game.... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Policy; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Product Design; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Video Game Industry

November 2019
Case

Floating the Exchange Rate: In Pursuit of the Chinese Dream

By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong

In the decades following 2005, China faced significant financial challenges. Inflation spiraled upwards and China’s economy stagnated in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. The country’s leaders took an interventionist approach to weather the storm, controlling... View Details

Keywords: Exchange Rate; Inflation; Debt; Currency Exchange Rate; Inflation and Deflation; Borrowing and Debt; China

26 Nov 2012
News

Heavy technology: The process of technological diffusion over time and space

2009
Chapter

Evaluating the Impact of SA8000 Certification

By: Michael J. Hiscox, Claire Schwartz and Michael W. Toffel

SA 8000, along with other types of certification standards and corporate codes of conduct, represents a new form of private governance of working conditions, initiated and implemented by companies, labor unions, and non-governmental activist groups. Whether these codes... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Working Conditions; Standards; Performance Evaluation

Article

Best Practices in Estimating the Cost of Capital: Survey and Synthesis

By: Robert Bruner, Kenneth M. Eades, Robert S. Harris and Robert F. Higgins

This paper presents the results of a cost-of-capital survey of 27 highly regarded corporations, ten leading financial advisers, and seven best selling textbooks and trade books. The results show close alignment among all these groups on the use of common theoretical... View Details

Keywords: Cost of Capital

Find at Harvard

Research Summary

Unintended Consequences of Fundraising Tactics

Charity fundraisers use a variety of methods to increase donations, with three of the most common being matching funds, seed money, and thank you gifts. Field experiments have shown that matching funds (Eckel and Grossman, 2008) and seed money (List and Lucking-Reiley,... View Details

December 2010
Article

Markets, Morals, and Practices of Trade: Jurisdictional Disputes in the U.S. Commerce in Cadavers

By: Michel Anteby

This study examines the U.S. commerce in human cadavers for medical education and research to explore variation in legitimacy in trades involving similar goods. It draws on archival, interview, and observational data mainly from New York state to analyze market... View Details

Keywords: Education; Goods and Commodities; Trade; Lawfulness; Moral Sensibility; Market Participation; Management Practices and Processes; New York (state, US)

July 2003 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Lamoiyan Corporation of the Philippines: Challenging Multinational Giants

A local Philippine toothpaste manufacturer, Lamoiyan Corp., faces the challenge of staying competitive against entrenched multinational giants. The company has managed to capture, at its peak, 20% of the Philippine toothpaste market and has become the number three... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Competitive Strategy; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Consumer Products Industry; Philippines

2014
Working Paper

The Rise and Fall of Demand for Securitizations

By: Sergey Chernenko, Samuel G. Hanson and Adi Sunderam

Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and private-label mortgage-backed securities (MBS) backed by nonprime loans played a central role in the recent financial crisis. Little is known, however, about the underlying forces that drove investor demand for these... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Financial Markets; Financial Crisis

October 2009 (Revised November 2009)
Case

Acciona and the Battle for Control of Endesa

Acciona, S.A. is a global infrastructure and renewable energy conglomerate that is publicly traded in Spain and controlled by the Entrecanales family. In 2006, the company joined the highly politicized cross-border takeover battle for Spain's largest electric utility,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Renewable Energy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Ownership Stake; Business and Government Relations; Business Strategy; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Spain

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

global history as a thriving research field, one in which economic issues play a central role. Flows of capital, labor, and science linked developments across oceans; trade bound national economies to one... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

27 Apr 2017
HBS Seminar

Claudine Gartenberg, NYU Stern School of Business

01 Jun 2006
News

Sleight of Hand

Camirand Photo Courtesy Guy Camirand It turns out that sawing ladies in half or pulling rabbits out of hats doesn’t worry professional magicians nearly as much as a bad case of dry hands. High-performance... View Details

Keywords: Retail Trade; Retail Trade

December 2017 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Globalization Past, 1850–1914 (A)

By: Sophus A. Reinert and Federica Gabrieli

On the evening of 3 August 1914, British Foreign Secretary Lord Edward Grey contemplated whether to advise King and Parliament to declare war on Germany in the wake of the country’s invasion of Belgium or to stay out of what quickly was becoming a world war triggered... View Details

Keywords: The World; The Rise And Fall Of Globalization; World War; Globalization; War; Economics; Trade; Business Cycles; Economic Growth; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Society; History; Values and Beliefs; Macroeconomics