Publications

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January 1975 (Revised April 1983)
Supplement

First National City Bank Operating Group (A1)

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Banking Industry

Fast Answer

REITs (real estate investment trusts)

REITs, and publicly-traded real estate companies. S&P NetAdvantage: S&P's REIT Industry Survey provides a good overview of real estate investment trusts. Also available under Markets >... View Details

March 1982
Background Note

Discounting Concept and Industrial Disinvestment

By: Robert H. Hayes and David A. Garvin

Keywords: Investment

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October 2024 (Revised November 2024)
Case

SWEN Blue Ocean: Impact Investing Goes to Sea

By: Vikram S Gandhi and David Allen

In August 2023, SWEN Blue Ocean, a €170 million impact fund that invested in startups contributing to ocean sustainability, faced a critical investment decision. Part of SWEN Capital Partners, an €8 billion, Paris-based private equity fund, Blue Ocean was co-founded in... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Investment Funds; Science-Based Business; Technological Innovation; Financial Services Industry; France; Paris; Italy

13 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Global Investments Are Still a Good Bet

Photo by iStock Investors in global equity markets have traditionally hedged their bets, casting their investments far and wide across the world. That way, if the market in one country or region stagnated (think Japan in the 1990s or... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

June 2004
Case

TechnoServe and the Tanzanian Specialty Coffee Industry

In 2003, TechnoServe, a U.S.-based, international, nonprofit organization, was deciding how to structure the capital investments required for Tanzanian business groups to acquire coffee bean central pulperies. This case explores the challenges of capital budgeting and... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Nonprofit Organizations; Cash Flow; Emerging Markets; Financing and Loans; Capital Budgeting; Tanzania

August 2022 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Boston Impact Initiative: Investing in Local Change

By: Emily R. McComb, Amy Klopfenstein and Mel Martin

In fall 2021, Aliana Piñeiro, impact director at Boston Impact Initiative (BII) discovered that an entrepreneur the organization was considering for an investment had failed to disclose pre-existing debt with another lender. Although the business scored highly on BII’s... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Investment; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Society; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Wealth; Poverty; Risk Management; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States; Massachusetts; Boston

2016
Working Paper

The Attenuating Effect of Banking Relationships on Credit Market Disruption

By: Stefan Dimitriadis and Mike Horia Teodorescu

This article examines how the relationship between banks and corporations moderates the effect of credit market disruptions. The 2008-09 financial crisis led to a dramatic restriction in the supply of credit to corporations via the syndicated loan market... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Relationships; Financial Markets; System Shocks; Banking Industry; United States

24 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

How Kayak Users Built a New Industry

and the sport of rodeo kayaking quickly emerged from the rapids. Harvard Business School professor Carliss Baldwin and her colleagues Christoph Hienerth and Eric von Hippel were drawn to the sport as well, but not to get their feet wet. Instead, they realized that both... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation

1993
Chapter

Foreign Direct Investment in Semiconductors

By: D. B. Yoffie

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Technology; Semiconductor Industry

March 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Tribal Councils Investment Group of Manitoba Ltd.

By: David L. Ager

In the Fall of 2014, Heather Berthelette, the recently appointed COO of Tribal Councils Investment Group of Manitoba Ltd. (TCIG), was preparing a recommendation to the Board of Directors about whether to dissolve the company and return any remaining funds to the seven... View Details

Keywords: Indigenous Communities; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Social Enterprise; Economic Growth; Investment Banking; Canada

September 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Supplement

Acumen Fund: Measurement in Impact Investing (B)

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

As Acumen Fund, a global venture philanthropy firm, moves forward with an investment portfolio exceeding $22 million, it runs into two critical measurement problems. First, how should it track the performance of each investment when its interest is not just the bottom... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Evaluation; Social Enterprise; Competition; Financial Services Industry; Kenya

June 2012 (Revised August 2014)
Supplement

Foreign Direct Investment and South Africa (B)

By: Eric Werker and Ian McKown Cornell

Incoming and outgoing foreign direct investment in an environment of politics, geography, globalization, and history. Updates the 2006 case to 2012. The subsequent six years only reinforce the message of the original case. Since the end of apartheid, South Africa had... View Details

Keywords: Global Business; Developing Countries; Business Government Relations; Economic Growth; Foreign Direct Investment; Globalized Markets and Industries; Developing Countries and Economies; Business and Government Relations; South Africa

May 2010 (Revised June 2012)
Case

From Imitation to Innovation: Zongshen Industrial Group

By: Willy Shih and Nancy Hua Dai

As Zuo Zongshen drove the transformation of the Zongshen Industrial Group from an early imitator in the motorcycle business to a company that increasingly focused on innovation as a way to get out of the hyper-competitive commodity business, he continually faced new... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Investment; Disruptive Innovation; Knowledge Acquisition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; China

September 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Acumen Fund: Measurement in Impact Investing (A)

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

Acumen Fund is a global venture capital firm with a dual purpose: it looks for a return on its investments, and it also seeks entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty. This case examines Acumen's new projects in Kenya. The organization's investment committee and its... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Venture Capital; Investment Return; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry; Kenya

01 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

A Bank That Takes Parmesan as Collateral: The Cheese Stands a Loan

necessitating a value downgrade, compared with an industry average of 10 percent, according to the case. And because the cheese is aging under the bank's own roof, the bank is constantly aware of what the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Banking

February 1984 (Revised January 1994)
Teaching Note

Golden Gate Bank Retirement Fund, Teaching Note

By: David E. Bell

Keywords: Investment Funds

2010
Working Paper

Venture Capital Investment in the Clean Energy Sector

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Ramana Nanda

We examine the extent to which venture capital is adequately positioned for the rapid commercialization of clean energy technologies in the United States. While there are several startups in clean energy that are well-suited to the traditional venture capital... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Energy Generation; Venture Capital; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Technological Innovation; Competition; Energy Industry; Energy Industry; United States

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2013
Working Paper

These Are the Good Old Days: Foreign Entry and the Mexican Banking System

By: Stephen Haber and Aldo Musacchio

In 1997, the Mexican government reversed long-standing policies and allowed foreign banks to purchase Mexico's largest commercial banks and relaxed restrictions on the founding of new, foreign-owned banks. The result has been a dramatic shift in the ownership structure... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Balance and Stability; Foreign Direct Investment; Banks and Banking; Society; Economics; Banking Industry; Mexico