Publications

May 2011
Article

Consequences and Institutional Determinants of Unregulated Corporate Financial Statements: Evidence from Embedded Value Reporting

By: George Serafeim

I analyze Embedded Value (EV) reporting by firms with life insurance operations to assess the impact of unregulated financial reporting on transparency and to examine the institutional characteristics that promote unregulated reporting. Under EV accounting the present... View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Reporting; Cash Flow; Contracts; Equity; Profit; Value; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Earnings

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25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why IT Does Matter

stifling differentiation, provide a stable platform to build on and offer new ways of differentiating, either by cost, structure, product, or service. Just as literacy stimulated innovation, so do open systems and grids. Outsourcing the commodity infrastructure is a... View Details

Keywords: by F. Warren McFarlan & Richard L. Nolan

13 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

care about that. And if you're going to do it, if you're going to exercise your liberty at my personal expense, then we can't control the pandemic. And the Europeans are looking at that and they're saying, "We don't want you bringing that... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Pharmaceutical

26 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

National Health Costs Could Decrease if Managers Reduce Work Stress

research that shows workplace stress is very bad for health, and we have this other information that says our health costs are way above that of other countries," says Joel Goh, Harvard Business School assistant professor of business administration in the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

01 Oct 1997
News

Donald J. Chiofaro

process, you shouldn't be in this business." Reflecting on his career, Chiofaro says: "I didn't think that real-estate development, which creates hard assets, would have so much volatility. I consider my-self lucky to still be in control... View Details

Keywords: Daniel Penrice

21 May 2024
News

A New Chapter

Joe Wolf (MBA 1999), cofounder and co-CEO of Imagine Worldwide, wants to provide educational opportunity where it is needed most. “In the next 30 years, half of the world’s youth will be sub-Saharan African,” says Wolf. “Right now, the World Bank reports that only one... View Details

Keywords: Catherine O’Neill Grace; photo by Cayce Clifford

08 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 8

tinkerers from across the globe led to a process of cumulative innovation unhindered by rivalry operating through the intellectual property rights system. Yet in 1903, the year the Wright Brothers achieved View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 May 2023
Blog Post

Independent Project: The Rise of Electric Heat Pumps

a traditional gas-fired system due to lower utility bills and greater energy efficiency. Heat pumps can also insulate from the effects of energy price spikes. Next, making the switch will enable homeowners to take control of their climate... View Details

Web

Global Opportunity Fellowship GO: AFRICA - Alumni

GO: AFRICA Fellowships the School is able to grant each year, as well as the size of each fellowship award. While HBS hopes to grant every recipient the maximum award amount for which they qualify, it may not always be possible. *For startups, preference is to fund... View Details

February 2010
Case

Shurgard Self-Storage: Expansion to Europe (Abridged)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Shurgard, a U.S.-based firm that rents storage facilities to consumers and small businesses, is considering financing options for rapid expansion of its European operations. Five years after entering Europe, Shurgard Europe has opened 17 facilities in Belgium, France,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Growth and Maturation; Multinational Firms and Management; Logistics; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Trade; Equity; Corporate Finance; United States; Europe

May 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Mobike and ofo: Dancing with Titans (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Haibo Zhao

This case address pacing issues – how fast does a company need to scale? It also examines the role of investors in determining company strategy and exit.
Mobike and ofo were two dominant players in China’s emerging dockless bike-sharing market, that allowed users... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Competition; Value Creation; Governance; Economics; Business Startups; Strategy; Business Exit or Shutdown; Entrepreneurship; Infrastructure; Transportation; Bicycle Transportation; China

September 2010 (Revised March 2012)
Case

AQR's Momentum Funds (A)

By: Daniel Baird Bergstresser, Lauren H. Cohen, Randolph B. Cohen and Christopher J. Malloy

AQR is a hedge fund based in Greenwich, Connecticut, that is considering offering a wholly new line of product to retail investors, namely the ability to invest in the price phenomenon known as momentum. There is a large body of empirical evidence supporting momentum... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Product Development; Financial Services Industry; Greenwich

2023
Working Paper

Personalized Game Design for Improved User Retention and Monetization in Freemium Games

By: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer and Julian Runge

One of the most crucial aspects and significant levers that gaming companies possess in designing digital games is setting the level of difficulty, which essentially regulates the user’s ability to progress within the game. This aspect is particularly significant in... View Details

Keywords: Freemium; Retention/churn; Field Experiment; Field Experiments; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Mobile App; Mobile App Industry; Monetization; Monetization Strategy; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Customers; Retention; Product Design; Strategy

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06 Sep 2022
Blog Post

Student Spotlight: Summer Internships in Business & Environment

renewables worldwide, GIP is committed to supporting the energy transition for a more sustainable future. Juan's role prior to HBS was an Investment Banking Associate at Goldman Sachs. Andrew Greener (MBA 2023, Section D), Summer Internship: Product Strategy &... View Details

December 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Cann: High Hopes for Cannabis Infused Beverages

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

Founded in 2018 by Jake Bullock and Luke Anderson, Cann sold “social tonics,” or cannabis-infused beverages. By 2022, the company had several notable celebrity investors and talent partners, had sold over 10 million beverages to consumers, was distributing in six... View Details