Publications

SSRN

Read Now

December 1987 (Revised September 1995)
Case

IDS Financial Services

Scarce managerial talent, sales force turnover, and client attrition were potential problems underlying IDS' disappointing performance at mid-year 1987. The marketing vice president had three potential "fixes": 1) increasing or decreasing the $35 million budget for... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Salesforce Management; Performance Improvement; Financial Services Industry

Educators

19 Apr 2012
Conference Presentation

Risk Management, Accounting and the Aftermath of a Control Debacle

By: Anette Mikes

March 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Supplement

Ant Financial (D)

By: Feng Zhu, Krishna G. Palepu, Kerry Herman and Susie Ma

The (D) case updates the case series from the time of Ant’s planned IPO, and the Chinese government’s regulatory shifts. View Details

Keywords: Finance; Information Technology; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; China; Beijing

Research Summary

Managing Financial Reporting and the Effect on Firms' Costs of Capital

Amy P. Hutton's research investigates the impact of capital market forces and firm contracts on financial reporting and disclosure policies. Specifically, her research examines how managers use financial reporting to convey a firm's strategy, and the effect of... View Details

2013
Working Paper

Financial vs. Strategic Buyers

By: Marc Martos-Vila, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Jarrad Harford

This paper introduces the impact of debt misvaluation on merger and acquisition activity. Debt misvaluation helps explain the shifting dominance of financial acquirers (private equity firms) relative to strategic acquirers (operating companies). The effects of... View Details

Keywords: Misvaluation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity

Read Now

This HBS working paper focuses on the relationship between business strategy, organization structure, and diagnostic control systems. The project analyzes data from 75 field studies to illustrate how managers adjust span of accountability and span of control to... View Details

19 May 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Mandatory IFRS Adoption and Financial Statement Comparability

Keywords: by Francois Brochet, Alan Jagolinzer & Edward J. Riedl

Article

Better Accounting Transforms Health Care Delivery

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Mary L. Witkowski

The paper describes the theory and preliminary results for an action research program that explores the implications from better measurements of health care outcomes and costs. After summarizing Porter's outcome taxonomy (Porter 2010), we illustrate how to use process... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Research; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

1999
Book

Reading Financial Reports

By: W. J. Bruns Jr., J. H. Hertenstein and S. M. McKinnon

Keywords: Financial Reporting

May 1985 (Revised January 1986)
Background Note

Basic Financial Statements

By: David F. Hawkins

Keywords: Financial Statements

18 Nov 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Financial Development and Technology Diffusion

Keywords: by Diego Comin & Ramana Nanda

December 1996 (Revised December 2006)
Background Note

Introduction to Corporate Financial Engineering

By: Peter Tufano

Describes the content of the Corporate Financial Engineering (CFE) course at HBS. Used on the first day of class to let students know what the course will cover and the main ideas to be developed in CFE. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance

Educators

May 2022
Article

Can Gambling Increase Savings? Empirical Evidence on Prize-Linked Savings Accounts

By: Shawn A. Cole, Benjamin Iverson and Peter Tufano

This paper studies the adoption and impact of prize-linked savings (PLS) accounts, which offer lottery-like payouts to individual account holders in lieu of interest. Using microlevel data from a bank in South Africa, we show that PLS is attractive to a broad group of... View Details

Keywords: Household Finance; Banking; Savings; Prize-linked Savings; Lottery; Household; Personal Finance; Saving; Banks and Banking

23 Mar 2023
Video

BiGS Idea: Accounting for Climate

01 Oct 2023
Blog Post

Myth Busting: Financial Aid for 2+2 Students

While HBS Admissions is merit-based, HBS Financial Aid is need-based, made possible by the generous support of our alumni. Because our process is a bit unique, there are often some misperceptions when it... View Details

26 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Podcast: Preventing Future Financial Failures

Podcast with: David Moss Interviewer: Jim Aisner Running Time: 21 min., 03 sec. To listen to this interview with professor David Moss, click on the triangular Play button below. The Macromedia Flash plug-in is required to play this video. If you install the Flash... View Details

Keywords: Re: David A. Moss; Banking

August 2017 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Accounting for Nuclear Power Provisions at RWE

By: Paul Healy and Jonas Heese

In early 2016, RWE, a utility that operates nuclear power plants in Germany, came under scrutiny from regulators and the media over the adequacy of its provisions for costs of decommissioning and dismantling (D&D) its nuclear power plants. Accounting standards required... View Details

Keywords: Liabilities; Provisions For Long-term Obligations; Discounting; Accounting; Energy Generation; Energy Industry; Germany

Educators