Publications

June 2023
Case

Accounting for Loan Losses at JPMorgan Chase: Predicting Credit Costs

By: Jonas Heese, Jung Koo Kang and James Weber

The case examines the accounting for loan losses at a large bank, how a bank sets its Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL) on its financial statements. ALLL, and the rules that set them, determine when banks would and would not extend loans, which significantly... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Standards; Accrual Accounting; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Banking Industry; United States

June 2020 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Vanguard Retail Operations (A)

By: Willy C. Shih and Antonio Moreno

The first two cases in this series are set in the financial services industry, and explore whether it is better for back-office workers to be generalists who provide the flexibility of being able to handle the complete range of transactions that the company faces or... View Details

Keywords: Pooling; Generalist Model; Specialist Model; Operations; Service Operations; Management; Job Design and Levels; Financial Services Industry; United States

October 2018
Supplement

African Bank Investments Limited (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Less than a year after joining the board of African Bank Investments Limited (ABIL), the newest director finds himself in difficult discussions with other directors about removing the struggling company’s CEO. The case is set in South Africa in mid-2014 as shares in... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Personal Finance; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Insurance; Leadership; Management; Risk Management; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; Africa; South Africa

September 2016 (Revised July 2017)
Case

Transferring Knowledge Between Projects at NASA JPL (A)

By: Dorothy Leonard and Christopher Myers

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a federally funded research institution within NASA, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has played a large role in many space and planetary explorations, particularly to the planet Mars. As a project-based... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Management; Employees; Experience and Expertise; Aerospace Industry; United States

01 May 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 1, 2018

extensive (turnover) margin as opposed to asymmetric effort responses on the intensive margin. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54422 Harvard Business School Case 718-039 Lisbon Revisited No abstract... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Corporate Control and Valuation

By: Richard S. Ruback

Richard S. Ruback's research and course development focus on applied corporate finance-in particular, corporate control transactions and valuation. His research on corporate control has yielded case studies on major transactions, such as the View Details

February 2023 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Doing Business in Accra, Ghana

By: Hakeem Belo-Osagie, Leonard Schlesinger and Namrata Arora

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Ghana. It highlights Ghana economic transformation in the decades leading up to 2024 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. The case gives an overview of some of the main obstacles... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Agribusiness; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Ghana

January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Ureed.com: The Marketplace for Language

By: Ashley V. Whillans

This case explores the growth of Ureed, an online marketplace for translation services that is powered by a workforce consisting of remote freelancers who are based in the United Arab Emirates. Nour Al Hassan, the founder and CEO faced the challenge of how best to... View Details

Keywords: Language Translation; Freelancers; Remote Work; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Management; Motivation and Incentives; Job Design and Levels

September 2019
Case

Alicia Keys

By: Boris Groysberg, Annelena Lobb and Sarah Mehta

This case explores the life and career of Alicia Keys, the 15-time Grammy winning singer-songwriter and producer. Set in 2019, it covers the evolution of Keys’s 18-year musical career and additional passions, including acting, entrepreneurship, social justice activism,... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Fine Arts Industry; Music Industry; United States

January 2019
Case

AIME High: A Social Entrepreneur's Moon Shot

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the entrepreneurial leadership of Jack Manning Bancroft (JMB), a young Indigenous Australian university student who created the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), a nonprofit organization he formed to respond to the problem of Indigenous high... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Mission; Organization Culture; Non-profit; NGO; Social Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Global Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Secondary Education; Organizational Culture; Education Industry; Service Industry; Australia; United States

October 2015
Teaching Note

Clef Company: Turnover

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Clef Company sells keys and other products to retail outlets, which then sell these products to consumers. The case concerns turnover in Clef's sales force in the context of company strategy, financial performance, and a day in the life of a Clef salesperson. Among... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Marketing; Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

June 2013 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Estonia: Transition, EU Membership, and the Euro

By: Michael E. Porter, Christian Ketels and Örjan Sölvell

The case discusses the economic development of Estonia, covering specifically the period from regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 until 2015. It tracks the process from the initial transition towards a market economy to becoming an EU member country,... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Macroeconomics; Microeconomics; Policy; Government and Politics; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Estonia

2008
Case

Thomas Green:Power, Office Politics and a Career in Crisis

By: W. Earl Sasser

The case describes the dilemma of a marketing manager, Thomas Green, who, after being rapidly promoted, is harshly criticized by his boss, Frank Davis. Green and Davis disagree on work styles and market projections. Green believes the sales goals set by Davis are based... View Details

Keywords: Relationships; Personal Development and Career; Conflict and Resolution; Failure; Accounting; Creativity

January 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Fixed Income Arbitrage in a Financial Crisis (A): US Treasuries in November 2008

Investment manager James Franey confronts an apparent arbitrage opportunity during the global financial crisis of 2008 when he notices a wide yield spread between two U.S. Treasury bonds that mature on the same date. Franey must decide if there is an opportunity, how... View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Valuation; Interest Rates; Financial Crisis; Financial Services Industry; United States

May 2009
Case

Global Health Partner: Obesity Care

By: Michael E. Porter, Zayed Muhammed Yasin and Jennifer F Baron

Global Health Partner (GHP) was founded in 2006 as a privately owned health care provider in Sweden serving both public and private paying patients. In contrast to most providers in the country, GHP organized around specific service lines where it saw the potential to... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Outcome or Result; Quality; Competitive Advantage; Integration; Health Industry; Sweden

January 2002 (Revised April 2015)
Background Note

A Note on Maneuvering in War and Negotiation

By: Michael Wheeler and Gillian Morris

Military metaphors are commonplace in business writing about strategy, but they are rarely used in the negotiation literature. This case takes the Marine Corps philosophy of warfighting and compares it with the tactics and techniques of effective negotiators. Some of... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Tactics; Situation or Environment; Conflict and Resolution; War; Adaptation