Publications

October 2019
Case

Regtech at HSBC

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and James Weber

Mark Cooke, Global Head of Operational Risk, needed to decide between a traditional regulatory control system and a new regtech system to manage non-financial risks. Non-financial risks failures such as money laundering and tax evasion had cost HSBC billions of... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Banks and Banking; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry; Information Technology Industry; United Kingdom; United States

October 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Supplement

The What Works Centre: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Social Worker Well-being (B)

By: Ashley V. Whillans and Shibeal O'Flaherty

This case describes the experiences of Michael Sanders—the Chief Executive of the What Works Center for Children’s Social Care—as he led the design and implementation of a program of research aimed at improving the social care system in the United Kingdom (UK) at the... View Details

Keywords: Non-cash Compensation; Behavioral Science; Employees; Well-being; Compensation and Benefits; United Kingdom

October 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Case

The What Works Centre: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Social Worker Well-being (A)

By: Ashley V. Whillans and Shibeal O'Flaherty

This case describes the experiences of Michael Sanders—the Chief Executive of the What Works Center for Children’s Social Care—as he led the design and implementation of a program of research aimed at improving the social care system in the United Kingdom (UK) at the... View Details

Keywords: Non-cash Compensation; Behavioral Science; Employees; Welfare; Compensation and Benefits; Well-being; United Kingdom

November 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Haier Hefei Electronics Co. (A)

By: Lynn Sharp Paine

The Haier Group, the first mainland Chinese company to make the Financial Times list of Asia's "most admired companies," attributes its success in large measure to the new value system it has sought to instill throughout the organization. However, when Haier takes over... View Details

Keywords: Public Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Organizational Culture; Transformation; Ethics; Labor and Management Relations; Business or Company Management; Contracts; Electronics Industry; China

Professor Narayanan is the Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration, and Senior Associate Dean of Executive Education and HBS Online. His research focuses on management accounting with an interest in performance evaluation and incentives... View Details

Keywords: accounting industry; banking; service industry; telecommunications; health care

Article

The Economic Consequences of Bankruptcy Reform

By: Tal Gross, Raymond Kluender, Feng Liu, Matthew J. Notowidigdo and Jialan Wang

A more generous consumer bankruptcy system provides greater insurance against financial risks but may also raise the cost of credit. We study this trade-off using the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), which increased the costs of... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention And Consumer Protection Act; Borrowing and Debt; Credit

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20 Jan 2015
News

J.P. Morgan’s Witness and the Holes in Corporate Criminal Law

Long-run Returns to Impact Investing in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies

There is growing interest in impact investing, the idea of deploying capital to obtain both financial and social or environmental returns. Examination of every equity investment made by the International Finance Corporation, one of the largest and... View Details

January 1999
Case

State Street Corporation: Leading with Information Technology (B)

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter

With Multi-currency HORIZON, a real-time multi-currency accounting system that replaced the traditional batch-oriented single-currency accounting system, successfully launched, State Street Corp. (State Street) began to focus on growing the scope of its business... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Trends; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry

January 2009
Case

The Federal Reserve and the Banking Crisis of 1931

By: David A. Moss and Cole Bolton

In early October 1931, in the midst of a global economic depression, the U.S. banking system was in crisis—with bank suspensions running at near record levels. At the same time, the broader economy was sputtering, and U.S. gold reserves had come under severe pressure... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Central Banking; Business History; Crisis Management; Banking Industry; United States

Mihir A. Desai is the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He received his Ph.D. in political economy from Harvard... View Details

August 2009 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Shenzhen Development Bank

By: Li Jin, Yuhai Xuan and Xiaobing Bai

Weijian Shan, Managing Partner of Newbridge Capital, faces a tough call in regard to his firm's investment in Shenzhen Development Bank, China's fifteenth-largest commercial bank listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Due to the aggressive lobby of the existing... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Commercial Banking; Investment; Emerging Markets; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry; China

2009
Working Paper

Operational Failures and Problem Solving: An Empirical Study of Incident Reporting

By: Julia Rose Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer and Michael W. Toffel

Operational failures occur in all industries with consequences that range from minor inconveniences to major catastrophes. Many organizations have implemented incident reporting systems to highlight actual and potential operational failures in order to encourage... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Legal Liability; Management Practices and Processes; Service Operations; Failure; Health Industry

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January 2014 (Revised May 2014)
Case

Tech Mahindra and the Acquisition of Satyam Computers (A)

By: Srikant M. Datar, Anjali Raina and Namrata Arora

Set in 2008, the case details Tech Mahindra, an information technology (IT) company within the Mahindra Group, an Indian multi-industry company with a diverse stable of businesses including automotives, farm equipment, and financial services, and its decision to... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Corporate Governance; Computer Industry; India

Professor Rabetti is a financial economist from São Paulo, Brazil, with a Ph.D. in Business from Tel Aviv University. He joined the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School in 2023 as the S. Dhanabalan Chair in Quantitative Studies and an Assistant... View Details

April 2023 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Fermenting Accounting Problems at Vermont Kombucha Corp.

By: Tatiana Sandino and Marshal Herrmann

Founded in 2005, Vermont Kombucha Corp. (V-Ko) was an early mover in the fledgling U.S. market for kombucha, a drink brewed for its health benefits. Early on, the company captured more than 90% of market share. Under the leadership of its founder and CEO, Joe Williams,... View Details

Keywords: Going Public; Business Model; Financial Reporting; Ethics; Corporate Governance; Stock Shares; Food and Beverage Industry

September 2011
Article

Global Capitalism at Risk: What Are You Doing About It?

By: Joseph L. Bower, Herman B. Leonard and Lynn S. Paine

Market capitalism, a system that has proven to be a remarkable engine of wealth creation, is poised for a breakdown. That sounds dire, and it is. Increasing income inequality, migration, weaknesses in the global financial system, environmental degradation, and... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Economic Systems; Globalization; Corporate Governance; Markets; Risk and Uncertainty

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September 2011
Case

China Development Bank

By: Li Jin, Matthew Preble and Aldo Sesia

In May 2011, Chairman Chen Yuan of the China Development Bank (CDB) was thinking back on CDB's financing of a major project between Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras), Brazil's state-owned oil and gas producer and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), one... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Emerging Markets; Energy Sources; Banks and Banking; Energy Industry; Brazil; China