Publications

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07 Feb 2005
What Do You Think?

If You Blink, Will You Miss?

premise that there is a time and place for "thin slicing" that leads to quick decision making based on sense borne of experience. As Kathryn Aiken said, "I believe that those who can 'thin... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

February 2011 (Revised November 2012)
Case

PatientsLikeMe: An Online Community of Patients

By: Sunil Gupta and Jason Riis

PatientsLikeMe (PLM) is an online community where patients share their personal experiences with a disease, find other patients like them, and learn from each other. The company was founded by Jamie and Ben Heywood when their 29-year-old brother was diagnosed with ALS... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Health Disorders; Knowledge Sharing; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Launch; Digital Platforms; Social and Collaborative Networks; Health Industry

08 Sep 2020
Blog Post

2+2 Where Are They Now Spotlight: Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes (MBA 2017)

from a thesis of “everything has a battery – how can we make money off of that” to owning nickel mines in Western Australia and having a core... View Details

01 Nov 2019
News

Cracking the Code of Sustained Collaboration

August 2012 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Hub and Spoke, HealthCare Global and Additional Focused Factory Models for Cancer Care

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Amit Ghorawat, Meera Krishnan and Naiyya Saggi

This case compares and contrasts four different models for delivering cancer care in India and the US. Students are asked to select the best model in its alignment with the Six Forces in those two countries and Africa, to which one of the models is considering... View Details

Keywords: Cancer Care Services; Focused Factories For Cancer Care; Hub And Spoke Cancer Care; Cancer Care In The U.S.; Cancer Care In Africa; Cancer Care In India; Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Six Sigma; Health Disorders; Health Industry; United States; India; Africa

28 Sep 2021
News

Boston University Plans to Divest $2.4 Billion Endowment from Fossil Fuels

2013
Working Paper

From Green Users to Green Voters

By: Diego Comin and Johannes Rode

We estimate the effect of the diffusion of photovoltaic (PV) systems on the fraction of votes obtained by the German Green Party. The logistic diffusion of PV systems offers a new identification strategy. We take first differences and instrument adoption rates (i.e.... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Political Elections; Technology Adoption; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology Industry; Public Administration Industry; Germany

2014
Working Paper

Waste, Recycling and Entrepreneurship in Central and Northern Europe, 1870–1940

By: Geoffrey Jones and Andrew Spadafora

This working paper examines the role of entrepreneurs in the municipal solid waste industry in industrialized central and northern Europe from the late nineteenth century to the 1940s. It explores the emergence of numerous German, Danish, and other European... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Entrepreneurship; Business History; Entrepreneurship; Health; History; Green Technology Industry; Germany; Denmark; Hungary; United Kingdom

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December 2017 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Tesla Motors (B): Merging with SolarCity

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2016, electric car manufacturer Tesla announced that it was making an offer to acquire solar panel manufacturer SolarCity in an all-stock offer worth $2.6 billion in Tesla stock. Tesla’s co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, believed that the merger would generate... View Details

Keywords: M＆A; M＆A Valuation; Investing; Equities; Equity; Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Auto Industry; Energy Industry; United States

March 2022
Article

Gender Gaps in Venture Capital Performance

By: Paul A. Gompers, Vladimir Muhkarlyamov, Emily Weisburst and Yuhai Xuan

We explore gender differences in performance in a comprehensive sample of venture capital investments in the United States. Investments by female venture capital investors have significantly lower success rates than investments by their male colleagues when controlling... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment; Performance; Gender

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2024
Working Paper

What Do Impact Investors Do Differently?

By: Shawn Cole, Leslie Jeng, Josh Lerner, Natalia Rigol and Benjamin N. Roth

In recent years, impact investors – private investors who seek to generate simultaneously financial and social returns – have attracted intense interest and controversy. We analyze a novel, comprehensive data set of impact and traditional investors to assess how the... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Socially Responsible Investing; Investment Decisions; Public Goods; Impact Investment; Investment; Private Equity; Venture Capital

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May 2017
Article

Experimental Evidence of Pooling Outcomes Under Information Asymmetry

By: William Schmidt and Ryan W. Buell

Operational decisions under information asymmetry can signal a firm's prospects to less-informed parties, such as investors, customers, competitors, and regulators. Consequently, managers in these settings often face a tradeoff between making an optimal decision and... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Decision Research; Information Asymmetry; Signaling; Decision Choices and Conditions; Alignment

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June 2001 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Sampa Video, Inc.

A video rental store is considering offering home delivery service. Management must value the project under different financing strategies and methods, specifically adjusted present value (APV) and weighted average cost of capital (WACC). View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Cost of Capital; Entertainment; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Strategy; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

25 Jul 2022
News

Online pricing algorithms are gaming the system, and could mean you pay more

Jun 23 2017
Testimonial

Doing Good—in Business and Beyond

Research Summary

Competitive Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter

Porter is engaged in a major new body of work on the theoretical foundations of competitive positioning and the underpinnings of sustainable competitive advantage. This research highlights the distinction between positioning and operational effectiveness; the... View Details

February 1996 (Revised April 2003)
Case

WPP--Integrating Icons to Leverage Knowledge

By: Joseph L. Bower

Martin Sorrell has used WPP to acquire a large portfolio of marketing service firms including J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather. How did he make this minnow-swallows-many-whales trick work, and can he make the whole into something bigger than the parts? View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Marketing; Networks; Diversification

Peter Tufano is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and Senior Advisor to the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. From 2011 to 2021, he served as the Peter Moores Dean at View Details

September 1987 (Revised November 1992)
Background Note

Note on Operating Exposure to Exchange-Rate Changes

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Describes the effects on operating cash flows of a real change in exchange rates. Describes different elements of operating exposure and includes illustrative examples. View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Fluctuation