Publications

June 2023
Supplement

Social Media Background Screening at Fama Technologies (B)

By: Joseph Pacelli, Jillian Grennan and Alexis Lefort

Fama Technologies is an online screening company that uses AI to analyze job applicants' publicly available online content for signs of risk and culture fit. The case opens with Ben Mones, founder and CEO, looking to secure funding from venture firms. He is running... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Organizational Culture; Talent and Talent Management; United States

30 Jan 2018
First Look

January 30, 2018

service. They each provided alternative visions of the world. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/317100-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 218-022 Altoona State Investment Board & Bain Capital View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2007 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

In an activist role, the hedge fund Third Point LLC has three board seats and an ownership stake of 9.5% in Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company. Third Point believed that Ligand had a strong drug portfolio and pipeline but that it was... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Governing and Advisory Boards; Bids and Bidding; Ownership Stake; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

June 1991
Case

Continental Carriers, Inc.

By: W. Carl Kester

A U.S. trucking company is considering using debt for the first time to acquire another company. The directors of the company are divided in their opinion of the likely impact of leverage on Continental Carriers' performance. Their differences must be reconciled and a... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Financing and Loans; Acquisition; Borrowing and Debt; Equity; Transportation Industry; United States

Web

Giving - Alumni

Fund Help support student financial aid, faculty research, and other HBS priorities. Learn More Advancing the HBS Mission Learn how giving to HBS makes an impact through stories about two alumni who are improving literacy in India, a... View Details

June 2015
Article

The Capital Purchase Program and Subsequent Bank SEOs

By: Mozaffar N. Khan and Dushyantkumar Vyas

We find that in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis banks replenished only 12% of crisis-related losses through SEOs in 2009 and 2010. However, SEOs are disproportionately conducted by Capital Purchase Program (CPP) recipients, and this is not explained by CPP... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Capital; Equity; Financial Crisis; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

December 2017
Case

Charity or Bribery?

By: Eugene Soltes and Brian Tilley

Filip Kowalski, a senior manager at the pharmaceutical company Healthgen, leads sales for the firm’s Polish division. While pitching Healthgen’s products, he develops a relationship with a director of a regional health fund who also runs a private foundation. After a... View Details

Keywords: Bribery; Crime and Corruption; Law; Ethics; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; United States; Europe

November 2002 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Circles: Series D Financing

By: Paul W. Marshall and Kristin Lieb

Circles, a corporate concierge company on the verge of profitability, must make a decision whether to take a D-round venture capital despite ever-changing and ever-worsening terms. A four-year-old company with several major clients, it has met its business plan... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Financing and Loans; Management Teams; Growth and Development Strategy; Negotiation Process; Venture Capital; Governing and Advisory Boards; Entrepreneurship; Service Industry; Consulting Industry; Massachusetts

February 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Honda Innovations: Leveraging External Insights to Accelerate Creation

By: Antonio Davila

Nick Sugimoto, CEO of Honda Innovations—the open innovation organization of Honda, has to decide how to extend his organization’s approach to innovation across the world. Honda Innovations dates back to 2000 when Honda created Honda Research Institute in Silicon... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Radical Innovation; Corporate Venturing; Corporate Innovation; Organization Structure; Management Control; Business Units; Disruption; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Auto Industry; San Francisco; Japan

February 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Korea First Bank (A)

In December 1999, Newbridge Capital, an equity investment fund based in San Francisco, successfully negotiated with the Korean government to acquire a controlling interest in Korea First Bank. It was the first time a foreign financial institution acquired a Korean... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Process; Negotiation Participants; Foreign Direct Investment; Acquisition; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; San Francisco; South Korea

March 2015 (Revised January 2024)
Case

CV Ingenuity (A): How to Evaluate the Commercial Viability of New Health Care Technologies

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Andrew Otazo

Duke Rohlen (HBS MBA ’01) hoped to win over a prominent venture capital investor for Series B financing of his firm CVI that was creating a drug-eluting balloon (DES) to treat peripheral arterial disease. As a second-mover, Duke felt he was more likely to acquire... View Details

12 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Publish or Perish: What the Research Says About Productivity in Academia

Health, claim to be interested in supporting “high-risk, high-reward” research. First off, Myers notes, the goal should be to fund the most rewarding research that has the lowest risks. But, if it is true that high rewards necessitate... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Education

August 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Camera IQ and the Metaverse: Building Augmented Reality Brand Experiences

By: Jill Avery and Rayan Nahas

Camera IQ, a camera marketing software company that empowered brands to create and launch augmented reality experiences (AREs) across social platforms, had just raised an additional $5 million to fund further product development and expand its marketing and sales... View Details

06 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

Kodak: A Parable of American Competitiveness

antibiotics," Shih says. "There was a feeling that if we invest in science and technology, it would lead to jobs and prosperity, and for that, the United States was an unquestioned leader." The government continued to feed... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Manufacturing

Web

Research Community - Doctoral

Research Community Innovative Research, Lasting Relationships Harvard Business School invests more than $140 million in research annually—more than any other school. These funds give researchers at the School the freedom, flexibility, and... View Details

August 2019 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Baroo (A): Pet Concierge

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Susie L. Ma

Baroo CEO Lindsay Hyde was facing unrest from the board of her pet services startup in August 2017. One board member (and lead investor) was alarmed that Baroo’s growth was slowing while its appetite for funding was accelerating. Hyde wanted to hit the gas and continue... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Outcome or Result; Failure; Business and Shareholder Relations; Venture Capital; Governing and Advisory Boards; Opportunities; Strategy; Service Industry; United States; Massachusetts

July 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

The Millennium Challenge Corporation and Ghana

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

A U.S. government agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), provides aid to developing countries, focusing on poverty reduction through economic growth. It measures results through an economic rate of return based on increases in farmer incomes anticipated... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Investment Return; Measurement and Metrics; Welfare; Ghana; United States

Americans are stuck. We live with travel delays on congested roads, shipping delays on clogged railways, and delays on repairs, project approvals, and funding due to gridlocked leadership. These delays affect us all, whether you are a daily commuter, a frequent... View Details

June 2004 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer

Judah Folkman, professor in the Division of Vascular Biology at Children's Hospital in Boston, is considering how best to advance the research in his lab in an era where biomedical research has gotten more interdisciplinary and collaborative. Specifically, Folkman has... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Leadership; Research; Personal Development and Career; Health Care and Treatment; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Biotechnology Industry; Health Industry; Boston