Publications

01 Jun 2024
News

Again and Again

I’m realizing that we have a lot of these mini rituals in conversation, and they become very specific to individuals. There are things I would say to my wife or my kids that I would not say to you, but by the same token, things I would... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

October 2021
Article

Overcoming the Cold Start Problem of CRM Using a Probabilistic Machine Learning Approach

By: Nicolas Padilla and Eva Ascarza

The success of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs ultimately depends on the firm's ability to understand consumers' preferences and precisely capture how these preferences may differ across customers. Only by understanding customer heterogeneity, firms can... View Details

Keywords: Customer Management; Targeting; Deep Exponential Families; Probabilistic Machine Learning; Cold Start Problem; Customer Relationship Management; Programs; Consumer Behavior; Analysis

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February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Blue Haven Initiative: The PEGAfrica Investment

By: Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Amram Migdal

This case examines Blue Haven Initiative (BHI), an impact investing fund and family office, and one of its investments, PEGAfrica (PEG). BHI founder Liesel Pritzker Simmons’ motivations for using her family wealth to start a family office focused on impact investing,... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Family Office; Development; International Development; International Development Investing; Development Fund; Sustainability; Solar Energy; Solar; Pay As You Go; PAYG; MFI; Social Venture; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Economics; Development Economics; Energy; Energy Conservation; Energy Sources; Renewable Energy; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Assets; Asset Pricing; Capital; Capital Budgeting; Capital Structure; Venture Capital; Cash; Cash Flow; Currency; Currency Exchange Rate; Equity; Private Equity; Financial Instruments; Debt Securities; Stock Shares; Financing and Loans; Microfinance; International Finance; Investment; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Price; Geography; Geographic Location; Emerging Markets; Ownership; Ownership Stake; Private Ownership; Social Enterprise; Value; Valuation; Value Creation; Energy Industry; Financial Services Industry; Green Technology Industry; Africa; United States

10 May 2013
News

Women and Work: A Harvard Prof’s Take

18 Mar 2022
News

Russia-Ukraine Conflict Blurs Distinction between Memory and Myth

October 19, 2021
Article

The Facebook Trap

By: Andy Wu

Facebook has a clear mission: Connect everyone in the world. Clarity is good, but in Facebook’s case, it has also put the company in a bind because the mission—and the company’s vision for creating value through network effects—has also become the source of its biggest... View Details

Keywords: Business And Society; Mission and Purpose; Network Effects; Value Creation; Corporate Accountability; Strategy

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2022
Case

Polarizing Government Work: McKinsey & Co. and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

When Donald Trump announced his run for president in 2015, he placed immigration front and center in his campaign. He promised to drastically expand U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and build a border... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Immigration; Public Opinion; Ethics

August 2013
Article

Corporate Ownership Structure and the Choice Between Bank Debt and Public Debt

By: Chen Lin, Yue Ma, Paul Malatesta and Yuhai Xuan

This paper examines the relation between a borrowing firm's ownership structure and its choice of debt source using a novel, hand-collected data set on corporate ownership, control, and debt structures for 9,831 firms in 20 countries from 2001 to 2010. We find that the... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Ownership; Borrowing and Debt; Corporate Finance

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July 2012 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Lyric Dinner Theater (A)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Jim Sharpe

Looking back at five years of losses, Rivka Belzer, a newly minted MBA, steps into her family owned business with their mandate to turn it around or close it. In her first six months, she has made a number of changes, with mixed results, but is beginning to show a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurial Management; Crisis Management; Family Business; Turnarounds; Financial Crisis; Boards Of Directors; Operations Management; Strategy Implementation; Career Planning; Entrepreneurship; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

01 Jun 2024
News

Firm Foundation

Courtesy Tracy Britt Cool Courtesy Tracy Britt Cool Tracy Britt Cool (MBA 2009) has been playing the long game as long as she can remember. The former Berkshire Hathaway executive grew up in a family business: Her father was a... View Details

Keywords: Janelle Nanos; private equity; Warren Buffett; career path; investment strategy; family business; Finance

Program

Private Equity and Venture Capital

families and institutions raising a first fund, and others new to the private equity and venture capital industry are encouraged to explore our... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Finance

Research Summary

Risk, Trust and Escalation Behavior of Owner Managers

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery

Professor Montgomery and Professor Deepak Malhotra (HBS), together with scientists from Harvard's Program on Evolutionary Dynamics, are studying risk-related decision making of owner managers in newly-founded and established companies. This experimental... View Details

June 2016 (Revised December 2017)
Case

The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation

By: Rafael Di Tella and Christine Snively

Israel enjoyed the highest concentration of technology start-ups in the world per capita. Despite regional instability, the country maintained strong economic growth and was considered a high-tech powerhouse. But not all Israelis benefited. Between the 1980s and 2010s,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Business Conglomerates; Business Startups; Israel

Article

Job Loss, Credit and Crime in Colombia

By: Gaurav Khanna, Carlos Medina, Anant Nyshadham, Christian Posso and Jorge Tamayo

We investigate the effects of job displacement, as a result of mass layoffs, on criminal arrests using a matched employer-employee-crime dataset from Medellín, Colombia. Job displacement leads to immediate and persistent earnings losses and higher probability of arrest... View Details

Keywords: Job Displacements; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Crime and Corruption; Credit; Colombia; Medellín

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2020
Working Paper

Job Loss, Credit and Crime in Colombia

By: Gaurav Khanna, Carlos Medina, Anant Nyshadham, Christian Posso and Jorge Tamayo

We investigate the effects of job displacement, as a result of mass layoffs, on criminal arrests using a matched employer-employee-crime dataset from Medellín, Colombia. Job displacement leads to immediate and persistent earnings losses and higher probability of arrest... View Details

Keywords: Job Displacements; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Crime and Corruption; Credit; Colombia; Medellín

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December 2007 (Revised February 2012)
Case

John and Andrea Rice: Entrepreneurship and Life

By: Howard H. Stevenson, Janet Kraus and Shirley Spence

The case follows the professional and personal lives of John and Andrea Rice, illustrating the challenge of "juggling" the multiple aspects of life (career, family, community, self) in the pursuit of a personal vision of success. Particular attention is paid to the... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Entrepreneurship; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Nonprofit Organizations

February 2016 (Revised April 2020)
Case

In the Name of Democracy? The Rise and Decline of India's Congress Party

By: Akshay Mangla and Jonathan Schlefer

In 1950 it looked highly doubtful that Indian democracy would hold—typical family income was $6 a month, only about 15% of the population was literate, there were deep religious and ethnic differences, and more than a dozen national languages were spoken. But after a... View Details

Keywords: Congress Party; Economic Development; Democratization; Economic Reform; Economic Systems; Government and Politics; Developing Countries and Economies; Development Economics; India

Feb 2014
Case

A Long, Bumpy and Unfinished Road: Education Reform in Memphis, Tennessee

Pitt Hyde, a Memphis business leader and the founder of the Hyde Family Foundation, works to ensure the success of the merger between the Memphis City School district and the... View Details

February 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Creating and Measuring Purpose at Viega

By: Ethan Rouen, Suraj Srinivasan and James Barnett

At its headquarters in Attendorn, Germany, Viega’s chairwoman Anna Viegener gathered the company’s leadership team to discuss their progress on formalizing purpose-driven leadership as a strategic driver within the organization. Viega manufactured and distributed... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Employee Relationship Management; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Expansion; Measurement and Metrics; Germany