Publications

13 Jan 2014
News

Michael Porter on the Fundamental Problem for Investors

2020
Working Paper

Consumers Punish Firms That Cut Employee Pay in Response to COVID-19

By: Bhavya Mohan, Serena Hagerty and Michael Norton

Two experiments, including one incentive compatible study, examine the impact of cutting pay for executives versus employees in response to COVID-19 on consumer behavior. Study 1 explores the effect of announcing cuts or no cuts to CEO and employee pay, and shows that... View Details

Keywords: Employee Furloughs; CEO Pay Cuts; Pay Ratios; Purchase Intention; Health Pandemics; Employees; Wages; Executive Compensation; Consumer Behavior

SSRN

May 2019
Article

Who Consumes Firm Disclosures? Evidence from Earnings Conference Calls

By: Anne Heinrichs, Jihwon Park and Eugene F. Soltes

Using a set of proprietary records, we examine who consumes quarterly earnings conference calls and under which circumstances the calls are consumed. While there is significant interest in calls by institutional investors and sell-side analysts, we find that investors... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; Conference Calls; Firm News; Corporate Disclosure; Business Earnings; Situation or Environment

June 2013
Article

Signals across Multiple Networks: How Venture Capital and Alliance Networks Affect Interorganizational Collaboration

By: Umit Ozmel, Jeffrey J. Reuer and Ranjay Gulati

In this paper, we examine the contingent effects of signals generated by different types of networks on new ventures' formation of future strategic alliances. We argue that the signaling value of a given tie in reducing adverse selection is more pronounced when another... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Venture Capital; Alliances

18 Jan 2019
Blog Post

Exploring the Tech World Through WesTrek

post-HBS. The tech industry changes quickly, and we heard over and over how the case method - which forces us to take a firm position and make decisions with incomplete information - has contributed to alums’ success. The Connections... View Details

08 Aug 2016
Blog Post

CS50 for MBAs: Coding at HBS

cross-registering and taking regular CS50 with the undergrads at the College, but hesitated knowing it required a ton of effort to acquire a level of technical sophistication that I wasn't sure I actually needed. I never aspired to write lots of code, but knew it was... View Details

Article

When Being a Model Minority Is Good...and Bad: Realistic Threat Explains Negativity Toward Asian Americans.

By: W.W. Maddux, A. Galinsky, A.J.C. Cuddy and M. Polifroni

The current research explores the hypothesis that realistic threat is one psychological mechanism that can explain how individuals can hold positive stereotypical beliefs toward Asian Americans yet also express negative attitudes and emotions toward them. Study 1... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Prejudice and Bias; Ethnicity; Groups and Teams; Attitudes; Emotions

Video

Hani Berzi

Hani Berzi, founder and CEO of Egypt-based Edita Food Industries, explains the positioning of Edita’s packed croissants ‘Molto’ as a mass product in the Egyptian market. View Details

June 2022 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Larry Miller

By: Francesca Gino, Frances X. Frei, Hise Gibson and Alicia Dadlani

Under the leadership of Larry Miller, chairman and former president of Nike’s Air Jordan brand, annual revenues for the Jordan brand soared from $150 million to over $4 billion. But for over 40 years, Miller guarded a secret. When he was younger, he spent nearly a... View Details

Keywords: Race; Ethnicity; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Job Offer; Employment; Social Issues; Perspective; Personal Development and Career; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; Pennsylvania; Philadelphia; Portland; Oregon

Hise Gibson graduated from West Point, where he was a member of the Division-1A Army football team. Following graduation, he commissioned in the US Army as an Aviation Officer in the UH60 Blackhawk Helicopter. He served with distinction in various command and staff... View Details

October 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Farallon Capital Management: Risk Arbitrage (A)

By: Andre F. Perold and Robert Howard

Farallon Capital Management, an investment firm that specializes in risk arbitrage, has taken significant long and short positions in MCI Communications and British Telecommunications, respectively, in the belief that the proposed merger of these firms will be... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital; Capital Markets; Investment; Management; Risk Management; Strategy; Financial Services Industry

March 2010 (Revised July 2010)
Case

The Economist

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Bharat N. Anand and Lizzie Gomez

In 2009 the Economist continued to experience impressive growth and operating margins while many of its peers reeled from both a cyclical downturn and structural threats to print publishing. The case describes the history, organization, and business model of the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Journals and Magazines; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Online Technology; Publishing Industry; United Kingdom

June 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

Membership Rewards® from American Express

By: Shelle Santana, Frances X. Frei and Lauren G. Pickle

Credit and charge card issuer American Express (Amex) had developed a strong reputation among consumers due in part to its Membership Rewards (MR) loyalty program, first established in 1991. Through MR, all Amex cardholders could accumulate and redeem “points” based on... View Details

Keywords: Financial Services; Customer Loyalty; Credit Cards; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Brands and Branding; Customer Value and Value Chain; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; North America; United States

May 2010
Supplement

Tremblant Capital Group Exhibits (CW)

By: Robin Greenwood

Brett Barakett, CEO and founder of Tremblant Capital Group, a New York-based hedge fund, must decide what to do with his fund's position in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which has dropped in value by more than 40 percent in recent months. Tremblant is a hedge fund... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Stocks; Investment Funds; Consumer Behavior; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; New York (state, US)

December 2016
Case

HBS in 2016

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Kerry Herman

The case explores opportunities and challenges confronting the Harvard Business School as it seeks to maintain its differentiated strategic positioning in the face of a rapidly evolving management education landscape. View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Engineering; Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Change Management; Education Industry; United States

2017
Article

The Energizing Nature of Work Engagement: Toward a New Need-Based Theory of Work Motivation

By: Paul Green, Eli Finkel, Grainne Fitzsimons and Francesca Gino

We present theory suggesting that experiences at work that meet employees’ expectations of need fulfillment drive work engagement. Employees have needs (e.g., a desire to be authentic) and they also have expectations for how their job or their organization will fulfill... View Details

Keywords: Needs; Motivation; Work Engagement; Disengagement; Authenticity; Self-Expression; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Human Needs

15 Jan 2020
Video

Suresh Krishna

Suresh Krishna, founder of the largest manufacturer of industrial fasteners for the auto industry in India, explains how his company has maintained positive industrial relations by cultivating open... View Details

March 2016
Article

Trade Credit and Taxes

By: Mihir Desai, C. Fritz Foley and James R. Hines Jr.

This paper analyzes the extent to which firms use trade credit to reallocate capital in response to tax incentives. Tax-induced differences in pretax returns encourage the use of trade credit to reallocate capital from firms facing low tax rates to those facing high... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Trade; Credit; Capital

October 2014
Article

Sovereigns, Upstream Capital Flows and Global Imbalances

By: Laura Alfaro, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan and Vadym Volosovych

We construct measures of net private and public capital flows for a large cross-section of developing countries considering both creditor and debtor side of the international debt transactions. Using these measures, we demonstrate that sovereign-to-sovereign... View Details

Keywords: Current Account; Aid/government Debt; Reserves; Puzzles; Productivity; Sovereign Finance; Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics