Publications

04 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 4

Colorblindness: Emergence, Practice, and Implications Authors:Evan P. Apfelbaum, Michael I. Norton, and Samuel R. Sommers Publication:Current Directions in Psychological Science (forthcoming) Abstract We examine the pervasive endorsement... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

September 1992 (Revised March 1993)
Case

Empresas ICA and the Mexican Road Privatization Program

By: Willis M. Emmons III and Monica Brand

Mexico's largest construction company, Empresas ICA, makes an initial public offering to international equity investors in April 1992 to help fund its participation in an ambitious new private-sector approach to highway development. Under the new program, launched by... View Details

Keywords: Construction; Transportation Networks; Infrastructure; Privatization; Private Equity; Investment; Initial Public Offering; Private Sector; Government and Politics; Policy; Construction Industry; Mexico

August 2019
Case

The Allstate Corporation, 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In July 2019, Allstate, the United States’ number-three property and casualty (P/C) insurer, released its second-quarter earnings, which reported first-half revenues of $22.1 billion, up 11.4% year-over-year. Shareholders cheered the top-line growth, but P/C premiums... View Details

Keywords: Insurance Companies; Strategic Analysis; Strategic Change; Insurance; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Insurance Industry; North America

Educators

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06 Jan 2010
What Do You Think?

Is a Stringent Climate Change Agreement a Pot of Gold?

Summing Up Do we even need a stringent climate change agreement? Judging from this month's comments, a question can be raised about the necessity of a climate change agreement, stringent or not, as a catalyst to foster innovation and the venture capital View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Energy; Utilities

01 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

How Politics Drives Business Decisions in a Polarized Nation

executive suites, start-up firms, and even entire professions and industries. Within finance, in particular, decisionmakers’ political views influence investment returns, credit ratings, asset allocations, loan terms, and bond yields,... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

2010
Working Paper

Medium Term Business Cycles in Developing Countries

By: Diego A. Comin, Norman Loayza, Farooq Pasha and Luis Serven

We build a two-country asymmetric DSGE model with two features: (i) endogenous and slow diffusion of technologies from the developed to the developing country, and (ii) adjustment costs to investment flows. We calibrate the model to match the Mexico-U.S. trade and FDI... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Developing Countries and Economies; Trade; International Finance; Foreign Direct Investment; Mathematical Methods; Mexico; United States

March – April 2009
Article

Market Research and Innovation Strategy in a Duopoly

By: Dominique Lauga and Elie Ofek

We model a duopoly in which ex-ante identical firms must decide where to direct their innovation efforts. The firms face market uncertainty about consumers' preferences for innovation on two product attributes and technology uncertainty about the success of their R&D... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Innovation and Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Research and Development; Competitive Strategy

03 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 3

listed and unlisted firms from across a wide spectrum of manufacturing and services industries and ownership structures such as state-owned firms, business groups, and private and foreign firms. Detailed balance sheet and ownership... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

spring 2004
Article

Multinationals and Linkages: An Empirical Investigation

By: Laura Alfaro and Andres Rodriguez-Clare

Several recent papers have used plant-level data and panel econometric techniques to carefully explore the existence FDI externalities. One conclusion that emerges from this literature is that it is difficult to find evidence of positive externalities from... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Relationships; Multinational Firms and Management; Brazil; Chile; Venezuela; Mexico

2009
Working Paper

Capitalizing On Innovation: The Case of Japan

By: Robert Dujarric and Andrei Hagiu

Japan's industrial landscape is characterized by hierarchical forms of industry organization, which are increasingly inadequate in modern sectors, where innovation relies on platforms and horizontal ecosystems of firms producing complementary products. Using three... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Government Legislation; Innovation and Invention; Industry Structures; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

30 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

All Eyes on Slovakia’s Flat Tax

foreign direct investment and for sustainable economic growth? These questions and more are explored in a forthcoming business case coauthored by Alfaro along with HBS... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

15 Jan 2007
Research & Ideas

The Business of Free Software

IT vendors including Oracle, IBM, and Sun that traditionally have built offerings based on proprietary technologies are now investing billions of dollars into open source software—arrangements that are transforming in some ways the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Computer

September 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Bharti Tele-Ventures

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Ingrid Vargas

Following the liberalization of India's telecommunications service industry in the early 1990s, Bharti Tele-Ventures grew from a small entrepreneurial telephone equipment importer and manufacturer to become India's largest private-sector telecommunications service... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Growth and Development; Customers; Foreign Direct Investment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Competition; Public Ownership; Profit; Partners and Partnerships; Rank and Position; Telecommunications Industry; India

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05 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 5

PublicationsTowards an Understanding of the Role of Standard Setters in Standard Setting Authors:Abigail M. Allen and Karthik Ramanna Publication:Journal of Accounting & Economics (forthcoming) Abstract We investigate the effect of standard setters in standard... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2018 (Revised June 2018)
Case

Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry

By: Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Jiahua Xu

Connecting life insurance policyholders with potential investors (called Life Settlement Providers), Ashar Group plays a pivotal role in the industry. Its current position is, however, increasingly being challenged by consumer-direct models, led by major providers... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Investment; Markets; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; Financial Services Industry

Educators

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2001
Chapter

Publicly Funded Science and the Productivity of the Pharmaceutical Industry

By: Rebecca Henderson and Ian Cockburn

U.S. taxpayers funded $14.8 billion of health related research last year, four times the amount that was spent in 1970 in real terms. In this paper we evaluate the impact of these huge expenditures on the technological performance of the pharmaceutical industry. While... View Details

Keywords: Public Sector; Science-Based Business; Research and Development; Sovereign Finance; Pharmaceutical Industry