Publications

fall 1993
Article

Theory of Risk Capital in Financial Firms

By: Robert C. Merton and André Perold

Keywords: Theory; Risk and Uncertainty; Capital; Business Ventures; Financial Services Industry

03 Nov 2009 - 04 Nov 2009
Lecture

Risk Management and Oversight." Panel Moderator. "Colloquium on the Governance of Financial Institutions

By: Lynn S. Paine

Keywords: Risk Management; Governance

May 2000
Article

Maxmin Expected Utility over Savage Acts with a Set of Priors

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Peter Klibanoff and Emre Ozdenoren

This paper provides an axiomatic foundation for a maxmin expected utility over a set of priors (MMEU) decision rule in an environment where the elements of choice are Savage acts. This characterization complements the original axiomatizations of MMEU developed in a... View Details

Keywords: Uncertainty Aversion; Ambiguity; Expected Utility; Set Of Priors; Knightian Uncertainty; Decision Making; Game Theory; Risk and Uncertainty; Mathematical Methods

March 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Background Note

Winning Legally: Using the Law to Create Value, Marshal Resources, and Manage Risk

Describes the four components of legal astuteness: the attitudes, proactive approach, judgment, and knowledge necessary to manage the legal aspects of business effectively. Identifies a number of legal tools legally astute managers can use during different phases of... View Details

Keywords: Management; Law; Business Strategy

Educators

October 1992 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Edward Prewitt

Allied-Signal, Inc., one of the world's oldest chemical companies and today a diversified conglomerate, is liable for clean-up costs of old hazardous waste sites. These costs are substantial: reserves grew to nearly $500 million in 1991. Attempting to avoid further... View Details

Keywords: Wastes and Waste Processing; Environmental Sustainability; Programs; Cost Management; Policy; Government Legislation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Governance Compliance; Legal Liability; Chemical Industry; United States; Europe

Educators

16 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

Crowdsourcing Is Helping Hollywood Reduce the Risk of Movie-Making

industries like biotech, you can test things along the way to see if they are feasible, but for creative ideas like a film, you can’t experiment. You have huge uncertainty and you have to think about how to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Motion Pictures & Video

22 Jan 2007
Working Paper Summaries

“Don’ts" and "Do’s”: Insights from Experience in Mitigating Risks of Western Investors in Post-Communist Countries

Keywords: by Charalambos A. Vlachoutsicos & Paul R. Lawrence

November 2013
Article

Investment Cycles and Startup Innovation

By: Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

We find that VC-backed firms receiving their initial investment in hot markets are more likely to go bankrupt, but conditional on going public are valued higher on the day of their IPO, have more patents, and have more citations to their patents. Our results suggest... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Market Cycles; Financing Risk; Risk and Uncertainty; Venture Capital; Investment; Innovation and Invention

June 2005
Teaching Note

The Equator Principles: An Industry Approach to Managing Environmental and Social Risks (TN)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Aldo Sesia

Keywords: Risk Management; Environmental Sustainability

17 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

The Reputation Risks of Sharing Fake News

Harvard Business School. “Even in this politicized, polarized environment that our country finds itself in, people value accuracy.” Ultimately, Jordan’s research casts doubt on the idea that reputational motivations, and in particular the... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

Article

Do Strict Capital Requirements Raise the Cost of Capital? Bank Regulation, Capital Structure and the Low Risk Anomaly

By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler

Traditional capital structure theory predicts that reducing banks' leverage reduces the risk and cost of equity but does not change the weighted average cost of capital, and thus the rates for borrowers. We confirm that the equity of better-capitalized banks has lower... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

Other Article

Accepting Risk and Rejecting the Status Quo: Fostering an Innovative Higher Ed Culture

By: David J. Collis

Corporations across the globe have been focused on the question of innovation for decades and longer. The desire to become leaner, better, and more efficient has driven innovative leaders for years. In higher education, however, this innovative mindset is a relatively... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Innovation Leadership

1993
Chapter

Management of Risk Capital in Financial Firms

By: Robert C. Merton and André Perold

Keywords: Risk Management; Capital; Financial Institutions; Financial Services Industry

July 2021 (Revised February 2022)
Technical Note

RegTech: A New Way to Manage Risks

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and James Barnett

A note on regulatory technology (RegTech) describing its evolution, use cases, and the competitive environment in 2021. View Details

Keywords: Regulatory Technology; Change; Financial Management; Governance Compliance; Governance Controls; Technology; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

Educators

April 2023
Article

The Subjective Expected Utility Approach and a Framework for Defining Project Risk in Terms of Novelty and Feasibility—A Response to Franzoni and Stephan (2023), ‘Uncertainty and Risk-Taking in Science’

By: Jacqueline N. Lane

In their Discussion Paper, Franzoni and Stephan (F&S, 2023) discuss the shortcomings of existing peer review models in shaping the funding of risky science. Their discussion offers a conceptual framework for incorporating risk into peer review models of research... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Research; Resource Allocation; Perception

25 Jan 2021
News

When Every Employee Is a Risk Manager

03 Jun 2021
News

Insurance to Mitigate the Risk of AI Systems Coming into View

November 1994
Case

Kraft General Foods - Risk Management Philosophy

By: Ray A. Goldberg

Keywords: Risk Management; Food and Beverage Industry