Publications

20 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

The Acquirers

When it comes to mergers and acquisitions, private equity firms are in high-stakes competition with public companies to identify takeover targets. During some M&A waves, public companies dominate while... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Financial Services

January 1990
Case

Ashland Oil, Inc.: Trouble at Floreffe (A)

This case series involves a crisis in business ethics and management decision making, when one of the company's diesel fuel storage tanks collapses, releasing nearly one million gallons of oil into the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers. Divided into four cases guiding the... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Decision Making; Crisis Management; Energy Sources; Energy Industry

2012
Working Paper

How Short-Termism Invites Corruption—And What to Do About It

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Researchers and business leaders have long decried short-termism: the excessive focus of executives of publicly traded companies-along with fund managers and other investors-on short-term results. The central concern is that short-termism discourages long-term... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Public Ownership; Performance Expectations; Economy; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Trust; Financial Services Industry; United States

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29 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

A Manager’s Moral Obligation to Preserve Capitalism

possible—indeed, Friedman went further to say that any attempt to curb the free market was harmful to the good of society. This is the view Ramanna grapples with in a new working paper, Managers and Market Capitalism, cowritten with... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

03 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Cut Payroll Costs with Transparency, Fairness, and Compassion

many companies is that widespread salary cuts may not be workable because of existing employee agreements. Furloughs A furlough is a mandated unpaid leave of absence, utilized by private (such as General Motors during the 2019 United Auto Workers strike) and View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

30 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Vanguard, Trian And The Problem With 'Passive' Index Funds

need to get shareholders more engaged? What shape should the separation of management and ownership take in the twenty-first century?” “We are now in a situation where index investors are the major shareholders in most of the large- and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

03 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

How Companies Can Increase Market Rewards for Sustainability Efforts

flavijus For the first time, a link has been drawn between public sentiment about a company’s sustainability practices and how that company is valued in the market. The results are important both for investors searching for under-valued, socially responsible companies,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

17 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Quiet Quitters Need More Than Money to Re-Engage

employers and employees as ones of material benefits.” After all, it’s not all about making money, says DeLong, a Baker Foundation Professor of Management Practice at HBS. What employees really crave, the paper argues, is meaning. “You... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

June 2011
Case

Leaders Who Make a Difference: Joel Klein's Transformation of NYC's DOE, Day 1

By: Joseph L. Bower and Sonja Ellingson Hout

Joel Klein takes over NYC's public schools and begins to reform the nation's largest system by depoliticizing, rationalizing management, and confronting the union so that the focus is on the kids. View Details

Keywords: Public Sector; Organizations; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Management

18 Jan 2021
Book

How Thinking Like a Startup Helps Governments Solve More Problems

seeing and learning from what other people are doing. Lagace: Why is this book relevant to business managers and leaders not in government? Weiss: A couple answers. If we are going to move toward possibility, we have to move together. We... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2021
Case

Yale Investments Office: November 2020

By: Josh Lerner, Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, real estate, natural resources—given the impact of the COVID-19... View Details

Keywords: University Endowment; Asset Allocation; Real Estate; Equities; Fixed Income; COVID-19; Asset Management; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Natural Resources; Resource Allocation; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Health Pandemics; Financial Crisis; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Energy Industry; Connecticut

2010
Working Paper

Lawful but Corrupt: Gaming and the Problem of Institutional Corruption in the Private Sector

By: Malcolm S. Salter

This paper describes how the gaming of society's rules by corporations contributes to the problem of institutional corruption in the world of business. "Gaming" in its various forms involves the use of technically legal means to subvert the intent of society's rules in... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Civil Society or Community; Competitive Advantage; Earnings Management; Trust; Law; Performance; Investment Funds; Private Sector; Behavior; Relationships; Goals and Objectives

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23 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 23, 2019

2019 Boston: Harvard Business Review Press Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership By: Hill, Linda A. Abstract—In your career, or anyone's, there is one transition that stands out as the most crucial—going... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

Business Leaders and the Social Sector

By: James E. Austin

This research involed a multifaceted, multi-year study of corporate and business leader involvement in the social sector. This examined: the extent and nature of, and motivation for, Harvard Business School graduates' involvement with nonprofit and social-sector ... View Details

August 2014
Background Note

The Structure and Functioning of Art Markets

By: Mukti Khaire and Eleanor Kenyon

The production, valuation, and consumption of contemporary art are guided by cultural and economic forces that play out in primary and secondary markets. Artists seek the attention of art dealers, who, along with auction houses, play a large role in determining what is... View Details

Keywords: Art Dealer; Art Market; Arts; New York (city, NY)

February 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

The LEGO Group: Publish or Protect?

By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai

Senior managers at the LEGO Group are faced with a quandary: Should they patent inventions coming out of their manufacturing process development work, should they keep them as trade secrets, or should they publish them so that they would go into the public domain and... View Details

December 1999 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Introducing New Coke

On April 23, 1985, the Coca-Cola Co. announced a decision that would rock the world. The old Coke formula would be taken off the market and replaced with a smoother, sweeter taste. The reaction of the American people was immediate and violent, causing three months of... View Details

Keywords: Failure; Product Development; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

January 15, 2019
Article

Is Your Company's Strategy Aligned with Your Ownership Model?

By: Josh Baron

The legacy of Vanguard founder John Bogle has brought attention to the transformative influence of ownership structures within the business world. Bogle's revolutionary insight into the limitations of active fund management led to the widespread adoption of index... View Details

Keywords: Ownership Type; Business Strategy; Organizational Structure; Strength and Weakness; Competitive Advantage

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April 14, 2017
Article

Companies Like United Need to Cultivate Good Judgment, and Free Their Employees to Use It

By: John A. Deighton

United Airlines has pledged to improve its training programs and empower its employees to put customers first in the wake of a video showing a passenger being dragged from a plane. Of all the U.S. air carriers, United should have known the power of social media and... View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Training; Air Transportation Industry