Publications

Business History - Faculty & Research

Management ; Business Earnings ; Financial Statements ; Change Management ; Disruption ; Volatility ; Transition ; Crime and Corruption ; Cost vs Benefits ; Decision Making ;... View Details

October 2007 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Adelphia Communications Corp.'s Bankruptcy

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Belen Villalonga

In 2002, a massive accounting fraud and corporate looting scandal involving the founding Rigas family made Adelphia the 11th largest bankruptcy case in history, and the third-after WorldCom and Enron-among those triggered by fraud. Set in 2005, when Adelphia is... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Restructuring; Crime and Corruption; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Family Ownership

November 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Scott Tucker (A): Race to the Top

By: Aiyesha Dey and Amram Migdal

The case tells the story of the rise and fall of Scott Tucker, an entrepreneur, businessman, passionate race car driver, competitor, and owner of a professional racing team. From 1997 to 2012, Tucker built a nationwide network of payday lending businesses, becoming a... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Fairness; Financing and Loans; Personal Finance; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Governance Controls; Financial Services Industry; United States

05 Mar 2009
What Do You Think?

How Frank or Deceptive Should Leaders Be?

the authors, "how the economy really works" as opposed to the way that classical economics views it. They cite the importance of economists understanding the impact of such things as "confidence, fairness, corruption View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

13 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Company Reviews on Glassdoor: Petty Complaints or Signs of Potential Misconduct?

Corporate scandals often follow a pattern: Whether it’s Theranos and its fraudulent blood testing technology, Wells Fargo and its fake financial accounts, or Volkswagen and its... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

September 2020
Case

An Introduction to Money Laundering: 'The Hunter'

By: Eugene Soltes, Guilhem Ros and Grace Liu

Money laundering schemes disguise the criminal origins of an estimated 2% to 5% of the world’s gross domestic product. Money laundering not only enables criminals to escape detection, but may also be used to finance further criminal operations including terrorism. This... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Accounting Audits; Financial Reporting; Financial Institutions; Banks and Banking; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Governance Controls; International Relations; National Security; Ethics; Accounting Industry; Banking Industry; United States; Europe

Arthur I Segel

View Details

Keywords: federal government; real estate

October 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

The 2001 Crisis in Argentina: An IMF-Sponsored Default? (A)

By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

At the end of 2001, Argentina's economy and society both appeared on the verge of collapse. Furious about controls imposed on the convertibility of their bank deposits into cash (the "corralito") and huge proposed government spending cuts amidst high unemployment and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Banks and Banking; Problems and Challenges; Decision Choices and Conditions; Currency Exchange Rate; Economy; Government Administration; Crime and Corruption; Argentina

22 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Companies Can Expand Their Talent Pool by Giving Ex-Convicts a Second Chance

hire workers with a criminal history, especially if crime and safety insurance is available, or if the worker can provide past work performance reviews. The findings were included in a working paper,... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

01 Nov 2022
What Do You Think?

Why Aren’t Business Leaders More Vocal About Immigration Policy?

potential source of disease, drugs, gangs, crime, you name it. The crimes they do commit are given extra publicity. And yet common sense and the data that we have don’t support... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

17 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes: Visionary, Criminal, or Both?

simple case. However, when it gets down to how white-collar crimes are prosecuted, it’s quite challenging. We don’t prosecute people based on our intuitive notions of is this fraud or not fraud? Or is this lying or not lying? Instead, we... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Biotechnology; Technology; Medical Devices & Supplies

13 Feb 2020
Book

Open Your Organization to Honest Conversations

power will corrupt and that absolute power will corrupt absolutely? It’s certainly the most likely outcome if leaders cannot overcome the organizational silence created by the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Louis T. Wells

Professor Louis T. Wells is the Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at the Harvard Business School. He has served as consultant to governments of a number of developing countries, as well as to international organizations and private firms. His... View Details

Keywords: mining; telecommunications; utilities

12 May 2023
News

Alabama's Yella Fella

transformed Great Southern Wood Preserving into a $2 billion company with a recognizable brand in one of the most commodified industries. The story is told in a recent Forbes article, "How a Crime Fighting Cowboy Became Alabama's Only... View Details

Keywords: Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods; Wholesale Trade

March 2011 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Wealth Management Crisis at UBS (A)

By: Paul M. Healy

The case describes the challenges that UBS faced as a result of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation for tax fraud, that claimed that UBS had helped some 52,000 U.S. residents hide billions of dollars in untaxed assets in secret Swiss accounts between... View Details