Publications

18 Jul 2024
Blog Post

Building the Future: An HBS Alumna’s Journey in Sustainable Infrastructure Investment

joined an investment bank where I gained valuable experience in financial analysis and then transitioned to a pan-African infrastructure fund. I was deeply involved in the investment lifecycle, from due diligence and financial modeling to... View Details

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

and Toby Stuart Abstract The corporate staff is central in theories of the multi-business firm, but empirical evidence on its function is limited. In this paper, we examine the high-level role of two units of a corporate staff through... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Faculty & Advisors | MBA

Robinson has over 25 years of investment banking experience, advising many of the most prominent pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies in the healthcare industry. Mark is a Partner at Centerview Partners, one of the... View Details

06 Oct 2015
First Look

October 6, 2015

business on a broader understanding of politics—and not just policies—should be central to the study of international and comparative political economy. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49065 forthcoming... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Sep 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Information Risk and Fair Value: An Examination of Equity Betas and Bid-Ask Spreads

Keywords: by Edward J. Riedl & George Serafeim; Banking

04 Jun 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance

Keywords: by Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, Elizabeth W. Dunn & Jordi Quoidbach

January 2010 (Revised October 2011)
Case

The Congressional Oversight Panel's Valuation of the TARP Warrants (A)

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The Congressional Oversight Panel wants to value the warrants issued to the government in connection with the TARP investments of 2008, in order to increase the transparency of options repurchases. The case describes the methodology used to value the warrants. Students... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Asset Pricing; Financial Instruments; Investment; Business and Government Relations; Mathematical Methods; Valuation; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; United States

July 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

The Mozilla Foundation: Launching Firefox 1.0 (A)

Explores the Mozilla Foundation's decisions leading up to the launch of Firefox 1.0, including its default browser, managing corporate partnerships, managing product development, and moving toward a revenue-based model. Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Commercialization; Open Source Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology; Social Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Innovation and Invention; Information Technology Industry; United States

26 Mar 2007
Research & Ideas

Learning from Failed Political Leadership

of Illusion: American Leadership in the Media Age. The book weaves together insights from economics, leadership studies, history, geopolitics, and national security to make a case for strategic independence and improved leadership... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2000 (Revised April 2004)
Case

VacationSpot.com & Rent-A-Holiday: Negotiating a Trans-Atlantic Merger of Start-Ups

Describes a potential trans-Atlantic merger between two young companies in the Internet space. VacationSpot.com, based in Seattle, and Rent-A-Holiday, based in Brussels, both offer online listings and reservations for independent leisure lodging (i.e., villas,... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Valuation; Internet and the Web; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Travel Industry; United States; Brussels

July 2011
Case

Teach Plus: Mobilizing a New Generation of Teacher Leaders

By: David A. Thomas and Stephanie J. Creary

This case profiles the evolution of Teach Plus, a non-profit organization founded on the premise that in order for public schools to continuously improve urban student achievement, teaching must become a career that motivates and retains effective early career... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Decision Making; Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Teaching; Cambridge; Boston

January 2020
Case

The Origins of Bell Labs

By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko

In 1947, scientists at Bell Labs invented the transistor—a tiny signal amplifier that would go on to become the fundamental building block of the digital age. But, confounding most traditional economic assumptions, it was not a vigorous startup that made this momentous... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Patents; Monopoly; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Boston; Massachusetts; New York (city, NY)

July 2003 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Branding Citigroup's Consumer Business

By: Rohit Deshpande and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In Spring 1998, Citicorp and Travelers merged to create a financial powerhouse that united the bank with Travelers' consumer finance and brokerage businesses, including Salomon Smith Barney and Primerica. It was the first U.S. financial services company to combine... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Relationship Management; Decisions; Asset Management; Investment Banking; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Relationships; Business and Shareholder Relations; Banking Industry; United States

Article

California Fair Trade: Antitrust and the Politics of 'Fairness' in U.S. Competition Policy

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

In the decades before World War II, U.S. antitrust law was anything but settled. Considerable pressure for antitrust revision came from the states. A perhaps unlikely leader, Edna Gleason, organized California's retail pharmacists and coordinated trade networks to... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Fairness; Laws and Statutes; Policy; United States

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2015
Mimeo

Market Power in Mortgage Lending and the Transmission of Monetary Policy

By: David S. Scharfstein and Adi Sunderam

We present evidence that high concentration in mortgage lending reduces the sensitivity of mortgage rates and refinancing activity to mortgage-backed security (MBS) yields. We isolate the direct effect of concentration and rule out alternative explanations in two ways.... View Details

Keywords: Mortgage Lending; Market Power; Monetary Policy Transmission; Mortgages; Banking Industry; United States

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September 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Forecasting Climate Risks: Aviva’s Climate Calculus

By: Mark Egan and Peter Tufano

In late 2021, Ben Carr, Director of Analytics and Capital Modeling at Aviva Plc (Aviva)—a leading insurer with core operations in the UK, Ireland and Canada,—was preparing for an upcoming presentation before the company's board which included its CEO, Amanda Blanc,... View Details

Keywords: Climate Risk; Climate Finance; Forecasting; Insurance; Risk Measurement; Climate Change; Risk Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Insurance Industry; United States

May 2022
Supplement

Thinking Outside the Wine Box (C): Mekanism and the Franz for Life Campaign

By: Tomomichi Amano, Elie Ofek, Mengjie Cheng and Amy Klopfenstein

This case reveals the events that took place after the conclusion of the cases “Thinking Outside the Wine Box (A-B): Mekanism and the Franz for Life Campaign.” After selecting a creative direction for the Franz for Life 2.0 campaign, independent advertising agency... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Social Marketing; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning; Advertising; Communication Strategy; Advertising Campaigns; Social Media; Food and Beverage Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

Article

Credit Access and Social Welfare: The Rise of Consumer Lending in the United States and France

By: Gunnar Trumbull

Research into the causes of the 2008 financial crisis has drawn attention to a link between growing income inequality in the United States and high household indebtedness. Most accounts trace the U.S. idea of credit-as-welfare to the period of wage stagnation and... View Details

Keywords: Household Finance; Welfare State; Credit; Personal Finance; Welfare; Borrowing and Debt; France; United States

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