Publications

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July 2014 (Revised October 2014)
Case

McKinsey & Co. - Protecting its Reputation (A)

By: Jay Lorsch and Emily McTague

On Tuesday March 15, 2011, all 1,200 global Partners of McKinsey & Co. gathered at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center near Washington, DC for their annual Partners' conference. The atmosphere was tense as Partners, in addition to their normal agenda,... View Details

Keywords: Board; McKinsey; Consulting Firms; Risk; Risk Assessment; Partnerships; Insider Trading; Confidentiality; Personal Investing; Reputation; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Consulting Industry; United States; California

2023
Working Paper

Avoiding Idiosyncratic Volatility: Flow Sensitivity to Individual Stock Returns

By: Marco Di Maggio, Francesco Franzoni, Shimon Kogan and Ran Xing

Despite positive and significant earnings announcement premia, we find that institutional investors reduce their exposure to stocks before earnings announcements. A novel result on the sensitivity of flows to individual stock returns provides a potential explanation.... View Details

Keywords: New Trading; Mutual Funds; Fund Flows; Limits To Arbitrage; Financial Constraints; Earnings Announcements; Institutional Investing; Stocks

SSRN

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01 Jun 2008
News

The Prophet of Start-Ups

Doriot HBS ARCHIVES PHOTOGRAPHS COLLECTION As a young man, Georges Doriot dreamed of running a factory, a rare aspirational failure in his long, storied career. Rather, he ended up teaching thousands of HBS... View Details

Keywords: Spencer E. Ante; George Doriot; Charles F. Kettering; Lawrence Lowell; F. Warren Hellman; Finance; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance

February 2013
Teaching Note

Australia: Commodities and Competitiveness (TN)

By: Laura Alfaro, Richard H.K. Vietor and Hilary White

For the past few decades, Australia has dealt with the benefits and costs of repeated mining booms—inflation, a housing bubble, a current account deficit and growing dependence on China. Between 1996 and 2007, however, Australia had most of these issues under control... View Details

Keywords: Competitiveness; Inflation; Mining; Current Account; Exchange Rates; Trade; Capital Flows; Commodities; Environment; Carbon Tax; Goods and Commodities; Australia

August 2019
Case

Kazakhstan Railways: From the Middle of Nowhere to a Center of Trade?

By: Willy Shih and Esel Çekin

This case describes the evolution of Kazakhstan's rail connectivity strategy post-collapse of the Soviet Union and its now central role in China's Belt and Road Initiative. This meant shifting from a north-south orientation towards an east-west one, as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Geopolitics; China’s Infrastructure Exports: The ‘Belt And Road’ Initiative; Logistics; Trade; Economic Growth; Geopolitical Units; Geography; Rail Transportation; Rail Industry; Transportation Industry; Central Asia; Kazakhstan; China

01 Dec 2016
News

The Future of Books

Above: photo by Brian Doben You’ve had a varied career in book publishing. What are some of the biggest changes you have seen in your 15 years in the industry? Milena Alberti: Like so many media categories, the biggest change for View Details

Keywords: April White; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

01 Jun 2015
News

The End of Cows?

Price is a market barrier for lab-grown beef, with production costs currently exceeding 250,000 euros per burger. (Photo courtesy of Cultured Beef) Price is a market barrier for lab-grown beef, with production costs currently exceeding... View Details

Keywords: Jason Feifer; Retail Trade; Retail Trade; Retail Trade

09 May 2016
Working Paper Summaries

What Do Measures of Real-Time Corporate Sales Tell Us About Earnings Surprises and Post-announcement Returns?

Keywords: by Kenneth A. Froot, Namho Kang, Gideon Ozik, and Ronnie Sadka; Financial Services

13 Mar 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Consequences of Invention Secrecy: Evidence from the USPTO Patent Secrecy Program in World War II

Keywords: by Daniel P. Gross

Research Summary

Capitalism as a System of Governance

My research interest is in further exploration of the analytic utility of an original conception of capitalism as an indirect, three level system of governance for the economic relationships within political entities, and mostly within nation states. This three level... View Details

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

The State of the Markets

(that total half the value of the U.S. market). "On the trading level," says Seifert, " we need a liquidity pool that gives us low-cost, cross-border access. To accomplish this, we are merging... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner

January 2022 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Expanding the Culture of Learning at Kraft Heinz

By: Ashley V. Whillans and Carolyn Watson

The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC) was an American food company formed in 2015 by the merger of Kraft Foods Group, Inc and the H.J. Heinz Company. The company sold food products like Heinz Ketchup, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Kool-Aid, and Philadelphia cream cheese to supermarkets,... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Culture; Work Culture; Workplace Practices; Mergers; Mergers and Acquisitions; Competitive Advantage; Human Capital; Training; Performance Evaluation; Growth and Development; Personal Development and Career; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Food and Beverage Industry

Research Summary

Investment and marketing strategies of American multinationals in Argentina (1890c-1939)

Andrea Lluch is undertaking a major research project on American business expansion in Argentina up to the beginning of World War II. The first part of the project focuses on the American companies investment strategies. The second part analyses of the evolution of... View Details

1994
Book

The Making of Global Enterprises

By: G. Jones

This volume presents new insights on the history of international business. Two main themes are addressed: how and when has global business developed over the last century? and what has been its impact on host economies? The volume includes a pioneering study by Mira... View Details

Keywords: Economic History; Business Subsidiaries; Economy; Trade; Globalized Firms and Management; Information Technology

This paper estimates the effect of presentation of information on financial markets, using quasi-random variation in prominent "front page" positioning of news on the Bloomberg... View Details

January 2006
Case

Negotiating for the Motion Picture Association of America and the Motion Picture Association: Jack Valenti (A)

By: James K. Sebenius, Ellen Knebel and Erin Egan

Summarizes the background and career highlights of Jack Valenti, longtime head of the Motion Picture Association of America and the Motion Picture Association. Sets up three difficult negotiation challenges facing Valenti over a rating system for movies, the financial... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Negotiation; Problems and Challenges; United States