Publications

June 1983
Article

A Comparison of Tournaments and Contracts

By: Jerry R. Green and Nancy Stokey

Tournaments, reward structures based on rank order, are compared with individual contracts in a model with one risk-neutral principal and many risk-averse agents. Each agent's output is a stochastic function of his effort level plus an additive shock term that is... View Details

Keywords: Tournaments; Contracts

June 1993
Case

General Dynamics and Computer Sciences Corporation: Outsourcing the IS Function (A) and (B) (Abridged)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Katherine N. Seger

Describes the largest information systems outsourcing agreement in the industry from the perspectives of both companies involved in the deal. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Transition; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Business Strategy; Information Technology

09 Sep 2011
News

Ten Years Ago: HBS and 9/11

As the world recalls the events of 9/11 this week, we are reminded of two articles from the Bulletin that offered contemporaneous accounts of that historic moment. Read how the School reacted to the tragedy and memorialized members of the... View Details

Keywords: HBS Alumni Bulletin; 9/11; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services

04 Jun 2014
News

Investing for Real and Permanent Good

Keywords: Carnegie; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises

7 Mar 1991
Lecture

Contractual Governance and Investment Time Horizons

By: W. Carl Kester

Keywords: Governance; Contracts; Investment

September 2004 (Revised April 2005)
Background Note

Note on Individual and Corporate Liability

By: Lynn S. Paine

Answers some of the most common questions managers ask about potential corporate and individual liability for corporate misconduct under U.S. law. Describes a few general principles of liability that managers should be aware of. A rewritten version of an earlier note. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Accountability; Legal Liability

09 Apr 2024
News

To Serve and Protect the Markets

Every day, in her role as the director of the Atlanta Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nekia Hackworth Jones (MBA 2004) stands in the breach between the $100 trillion in securities traded on U.S. equity... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

January 1988 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Howard Head and Prince Manufacturing, Inc.

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Deals with the issue of an entrepreneur in a very successful company deciding whether to stay through a period of great growth or to sell. What are the entrepreneur's responsibilities to the organization, to his employees, to the public? As subtopics, the issues of... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Patents; Law; Markets; Production; Sales

July 1984 (Revised June 1985)
Background Note

Legal and Ethical Aspects of Marketing

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Keywords: Marketing; Ethics; Law

May 1992
Teaching Note

Ann Hopkins (A) and (B), Teaching Note

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

Teaching Note for (9-391-155) and (9-391-170). View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Rights

January 1976 (Revised November 1987)
Case

Contract and Consensus at General Motors--1900-1984

By: George C. Lodge

Keywords: Contracts; Labor Unions; Auto Industry

03 Oct 2023
Research Event

Build the Life You Want: Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey Share Happiness Tips

for young girls, one of them is here today who's now grown in law school and starting work in New York City, [INAUDIBLE]. But I opened that school for girls who were like me. I grew up in rural Mississippi,... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Staff

Article

Renegotiation and the Form of Efficient Contracts

By: Jerry R. Green and J. J. Laffont

Two parties may agree to a mutually binding contract that will govern their behavior after an uncertain event becomes known. As there is no agent who can both observe this uncertain outcome and enforce the contract, contingent agreements are precluded. However, the... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Contracts

Read Now

07 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Negotiation and All That Jazz

directly to negotiations," says Wheeler, whose own background is in law and policy analysis. "I'm not speaking metaphorically. By emulating what jazz masters do, we all can become better negotiators."... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September 2007 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Syndexa and Technology Transfer at Harvard University

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and David Kiron

Gokhan Hotamisligil is a star researcher at Harvard School of Public Health who has made groundbreaking discoveries linking fat cells, inflammation, and diabetes. He now wants to form a company to commercialize these discoveries. At the same time, Isaac Kohlberg, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Rights; Agreements and Arrangements; Science-Based Business; Commercialization; Biotechnology Industry; Health Industry

10 Jul 2020
News

Economy and Government from Harvard ManageMentor

March 2009
Background Note

Evaluating M&A Deals: Floors, Caps, and Collars

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

As equity consideration has become more popular in acquisitions, so has the use of the "pricing-protection" mechanisms, such as floors, caps, and collars. These contractual devices provide insurance to the shareholders of the target and may protect the buyer as well.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Equity; Price; Contracts; Business and Shareholder Relations