Publications

September 2005 (Revised July 2006)
Case

Accounting for Pensions and Employee Benefits at Ford and Toyota

Uses Ford's and Toyota's financial statements to familiarize students with the information provided in pension footnotes. Allows students to combine that information with other financial statement information to create a greater understanding of the costs of each... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Compensation and Benefits; Auto Industry

03 Feb 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Accountability and Control as Catalysts for Strategic Exploration and Exploitation: Field Study Results

Keywords: by Robert L. Simons

24 Nov 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Accounting for Product Impact in the Consumer Finance Industry

Keywords: by George Serafeim and Katie Trinh; Financial Services

1 Nov 2013
Conference Presentation

The Entrepreneurial Gap: How Managers Adjust Span of Accountability and Span of Control to Implement Business Strategy

By: Robert L. Simons

September 3, 2020
Article

How to Measure a Company’s Real Impact

By: Ronald Cohen and George Serafeim

Impact transparency will reshape capitalism. By shifting the pursuit of profit away from negligently creating problems to purposefully creating valuable solutions for the world, it will redefine success, so that its measure is not just money, but the positive impact we... View Details

Keywords: Impact; Impact Investing; Impact Measurement; Impact Investment; Impact Investment Funds; Accountability; Accounting Information; Corporate Performance; Sustainability; Social Impact; Capitalism; Accounting; Corporate Accountability; Performance; Measurement and Metrics; Social Enterprise; Society

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February 2011 (Revised August 2011)
Supplement

Accounting for Catastrophes: BP PLC and Union Carbide Corporation (B)

By: David F. Hawkins and Aldo Sesia

The BP Mexican Gulf Oil spill requires BP to recognize or at least disclose investor-relevant information. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Accounting; Natural Disasters; Pollutants; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; North America

14 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Building a Culture of Awareness and Accountability in your Organization

Management, today Manso-Brown is a speaker, educator, and activist artist. Her art and educational workshops challenge and encourage people to have meaningful conversations about social justice. She has partnered with many offices... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

Web

Introduction - The Human Factor – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

HBS Home HBS Index Contact Us Harvard Business School Baker Library Historical Collections The Human Factor Introducing the Industrial Life Photograph Collection at the Baker Library Introduction The Exhibition Bibliography View Details

06 Feb 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Does Public Ownership and Accountability Increase Diversity? Evidence from IPOs

Keywords: by Rembrand Koning and John-Paul Ferguson

2012
Article

A Field Study on the Acceptance and Use of a New Accounting System

By: V.G. Narayanan, Ranjani Krishnan and Jamshed J. Mistry

This study examines the attitudes, use, and acceptance of a new accounting system in a pharmaceutical corporation that switched from an Activity Based Costing System to the Theory of Constraints System (TOC). Using structuration theory as a framework, we posit that... View Details

Keywords: Theory Of Constraints; Structuration; Field Study; Accounting; Innovation and Invention

July 2011 (Revised July 2011)
Teaching Note

Leaders Who Make a Difference: Joel Klein Brings Accountability to NYC DOE: TN Day 1 and Day 2

By: Joseph L. Bower

Teaching Note for 311032 and 311033. View Details

Keywords: Leadership

June 1998
Article

Using Delegation and Control Systems to Mitigate the Trade-off between the Performance-Evaluation and Belief-Revision Uses of Accounting Standards

By: V.G. Narayanan and A. Davila

Keywords: System; Performance Evaluation; Accounting

January 2011 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Accounting for Catastrophes: BP PLC and Union Carbide Corporation (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

The IASB and FASB propose new contingency loss recognition, measurement, and disclosure rules (A case). The B and C cases apply these proposals to British Petroleum's Mexican Gulf oil spill and Union Carbide's Bhophal gas discharge. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Trade; International Finance; Standards; Strength and Weakness; Natural Disasters; Crisis Management; Governance Controls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Energy Industry; India

2012
Working Paper

School Accountability and Principal Mobility: How No Child Left Behind Affects the Allocation of School Leaders

By: Danielle Li

The move toward increased school accountability may substantially affect the career risks that school leaders face without providing commensurate changes in pay. Since effective school leaders likely have significant scope in choosing where to work, these uncompensated... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Corporate Accountability; Education; North Carolina

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March 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Wirecard: The Downfall of a German Fintech Star

By: Jonas Heese, Charles C.Y. Wang and Tonia Labruyere

Wirecard was a German fintech company, member of the DAX30, that provided payment processing and related services. Wirecard had enjoyed large growth rates over the years and most investors and analysts were enthusiastic about the company's prospects. Wirecard's... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Fraud; Scandal; Accounting Audits; Accounting; Financial Reporting; Financial Institutions; Financial Markets; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Corporate Accountability; Governance Controls; Financial Services Industry; Germany; Singapore; Dubai

24 Jun 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Accounting Data, Market Values, and the Cross Section of Expected Returns World

Keywords: by Charles C.Y. Wang; Accounting

Winter 2011
Article

Developing Good Measures to Advance Management Accounting and Control Research: A Discussion of 'Corporate Frugality: Theory, Measurement and Practice'

By: Tatiana Sandino

December 2002
Article

Something Old, Something New: A Longitudinal Study of Search Behavior and New Product Introduction

By: Riitta Katila and Gautam Ahuja

We examine how firms search, or solve problems, to create new products. According to organizational learning research, firms position themselves in a unidimensional search space that spans a spectrum from local to distant search. Our findings in the global robotics... View Details

Keywords: Problem Solving; New Products; Organizational Learning; Uncertainty; Organizational Research; Knowledge Management; Robotics; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Effectiveness; Innovation Adoption; Strategy; Product Design; Business Processes; Product Development

2007
Working Paper

Evidence from Goodwill Non-impairments on the Effects of Unverifiable Fair-Value Accounting

By: Karthik Ramanna and Ross L. Watts

SFAS 142 requires firms to use unverifiable fair-value estimates to determine goodwill impairments. Standard setters suggest managers will use the discretion given by such estimates to convey private information on future cash flows, while agency theory predicts... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Goodwill Accounting; Standards; Agency Theory