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17 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

seat at board meetings. “This stuff doesn’t cost a lot but requires people to get into a room and talk about how to meaningfully recognize performance and commitment, so even the process of creating non-monetary rewards is good for the... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

30 Jul 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Fluid Teams and Fluid Tasks: The Impact of Team Familiarity and Variation in Experience

Keywords: by Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats; Video Game; Web Services

2013
Working Paper

Do Display Ads Influence Search?: Attribution and Dynamics in Online Advertising

By: Sunil Gupta

As firms increasingly rely on online media to acquire consumers, marketing managers feel comfortable justifying higher online marketing spend by referring to online metrics such as click-through rate (CTR) and cost per acquisition (CPA). However, these standard online... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing

October 2024
Case

Southern California Industrial: Freezer Drive

By: Arthur I. Segel, W. Matt Kelly and Dwight Angelini

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Boston based real estate private equity firm was seeking to make their very first West Coast investments in hopes of establishing their presence in the strategic region. An exciting property suddenly became available on the... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate Development; Acquisition; Health Pandemics; Risk and Uncertainty; Expansion; Cost vs Benefits; Investment Return; Real Estate Industry

February 1991
Case

Burlington Northern: The ARES Decision (B)

By: Julie H. Hertenstein and Robert S. Kaplan

The ARES team formally proposes that Burlington Northern implement the ARES system. The project meets resistance. In light of financial restructuring and high level of debt, executives wonder whether the company can afford ARES. Weak links during the ARES development... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Restructuring; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Budgeting; Projects; Technology Adoption; Service Industry

15 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 15, 2018

help senior leaders achieve their goals. Too often, they’re done for short-term gain, but the cost savings are overshadowed by bad publicity, loss of knowledge, weakened engagement, higher voluntary turnover, and lower innovation, which... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

February 2023 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

In July 2019, Graphic Packaging CEO Michael Doss was proposing a $600 million investment in a new machine to produce coated recycled board (CRB), a type of paper packaging used for consumer products (cups, cereal boxes, beverage boxes, etc.) that utilized recycled... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

05 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

In Praise of Marketing

latent or explicit. It involves branding these products and services, communicating their benefits to intermediaries and end consumers, and distributing them. All of these activities involve value creation. In return, producers extract... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Advertising

January 2025
Case

Duolingo: On a "Streak"

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Nicole Tempest Keller and Nicole Luo

In December 2024, Severin Hacker, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Duolingo, reflected on the remarkable evolution of the language-learning app he helped launch in 2011. As the #1 most downloaded education app in the world, Duolingo had over 100 million... View Details

Keywords: Education; Learning; Technology Industry; Education Industry; United States

June 2008 (Revised August 2008)
Case

The Suzlon Edge

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Juliana Seminerio

With prices of oil, coal and gas at historically high levels, the wind industry had installed more than 20,000 MW of wind energy, representing a $37 billion investment in 2007. Besides high prices, wind energy represented a solution for consumers seeking an energy... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Cost vs Benefits; Renewable Energy; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Integration; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; India

February 1992 (Revised April 1993)
Case

Acid Rain: The Southern Co. (A)

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

The Southern Co., an electric utility, is planning its compliance with the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. The Act established a system of tradeable permits for sulfur dioxide emissions. The company must decide whether to install pollution control equipment and... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Business Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Cost vs Benefits; Financial Management; Strategic Planning; Investment Return; Government Legislation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; United States

14 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 14

high-status position exacerbates the penalty for having an eclipsed or confounded identity. These findings highlight the previously neglected identity costs that high-status firms impose on their partners. In status-based market... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Lincoln Financial Meets the Financial Crisis

By: Robert C. Pozen and Peter Goodspeed Spring

In March of 2009, Lincoln Financial Group's CEO Dennis Glass was facing a difficult decision as to how he would replenish his company's capital, which could quickly fall to dangerously low levels as a result of the financial crisis. Though the cost of raising capital... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Financial Crisis; Capital; Private Equity; Crisis Management; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Insurance Industry

Research Summary

Corporate Lobbying Strategy and Foreign MNEs

“U.S. Defense Contracts and the Lobbying Strategies of Foreign MNEs: The Liability of Foreignness and Make-or-Buy Decisions about Political Goods”

Many firms engage in lobbying with the expectation that their lobbying efforts will... View Details

Keywords: Non-market Strategy; Political Strategy; Lobbying; Make V. Buy; Multinational Enterprise; Global Strategy; United States

June 2017
Teaching Note

The U-Turns of National Truck Stops

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Alexander W. Schultz

Raj Makam had spent months trying to restructure a 2006 investment he had made in National Truck Stops, Inc. (“NTS”) as a senior member of Oaktree Capital Management’s (“Oaktree”) Mezzanine finance business within their Corporate Debt platform. It was the first time... View Details

Keywords: Mezzanine Financing; Corporate Debt; Bankruptcy; Real Assets; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Restructuring; Private Equity; Cost vs Benefits; Atlanta; New York (city, NY)

16 Mar 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Running Out of Numbers: Scarcity of IP Addresses and What To Do About It

Keywords: by Benjamin Edelman; Computer; Communications; Telecommunications

April 2017 (Revised August 2020)
Case

The U-Turns of National Truck Stops

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Alexander W. Schultz

Raj Makam had spent months trying to restructure a 2006 investment he had made in National Truck Stops, Inc. (NTS) as a senior member of Oaktree Capital Management’s (Oaktree) Mezzanine finance business within their Corporate Debt platform. It was the first time they... View Details

Keywords: Mezzanine Financing; Corporate Debt; Bankruptcy; Real Assets; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Restructuring; Private Equity; Cost vs Benefits; Atlanta; New York (city, NY)

December 2001 (Revised April 2003)
Case

Poland's A2 Motorway

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Michael Kane

Autostrada Wielkopolska S.A. (AWSA) is a consortium of 18 firms that won a concession to build and operate Poland's first private toll road. In June 2000, AWSA's chief financial officer, Wojciech Gebicki, is preparing for a meeting with the projects' lead bankers to... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Cost vs Benefits; Project Finance; Projects; Construction Industry; Transportation Industry; Poland