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- All HBS Web (302)
- Faculty Publications (117)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web (302)
- Faculty Publications (117)
- Article
The Error at the Heart of Corporate Leadership
By: Joseph L. Bower and Lynn S. Paine
Agency theory, a new model of governance promulgated by academic economists in the 1970s, is behind the idea that corporate managers should make shareholder value their primary concern and that boards should ensure they do. The theory regards shareholders as owners of... View Details
Bower, Joseph L., and Lynn S. Paine. "The Error at the Heart of Corporate Leadership." Harvard Business Review 95, no. 3 (May–June 2017): 50–60. (Reprinted in HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Definitive Management Ideas of the Year from Harvard Business Review 2019, Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Review Press, 2019, pp. 165-192.)
- 2011
- Other Unpublished Work
Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 1
By: Michael C. Jensen and Ralph A. Walkling
This interview is first of a two-part series in which Professor Ralph Walkling, the Stratakis Chair in Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Center for Corporate Governance at Drexel University, interviews Professor Michael C. Jensen, Jesse Isidor Straus... View Details
- 2025
- Working Paper
The Invention of Corporate Governance
By: Yueran Ma and Andrei Shleifer
The analysis of corporate governance begins with a central feature of modern capitalism—the separation of ownership and control in large corporations—first empirically documented by Berle and Means (1932). Such separation entails several agency problems reflecting... View Details
Ma, Yueran, and Andrei Shleifer. "The Invention of Corporate Governance." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 33710, April 2025.
- 2007
- Working Paper
Evidence from Goodwill Non-impairments on the Effects of Unverifiable Fair-Value Accounting
By: Karthik Ramanna and Ross L. Watts
SFAS 142 requires firms to use unverifiable fair-value estimates to determine goodwill impairments. Standard setters suggest managers will use the discretion given by such estimates to convey private information on future cash flows, while agency theory predicts... View Details
Ramanna, Karthik, and Ross L. Watts. "Evidence from Goodwill Non-impairments on the Effects of Unverifiable Fair-Value Accounting." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 08-014, August 2007.
- Article
Strategies and Tactics in NGO-Government Relations: Insights from Slum Housing in Mumbai
By: Ramya Ramanath and Alnoor Ebrahim
Relationships between nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and government agencies have been variously described in the nonprofit literature as cooperative, complementary, adversarial, confrontational, or even co-optive. But how do NGO-government relationships emerge... View Details
Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; Housing; Corporate Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Change Management; Business Strategy; Growth and Development; Non-Governmental Organizations; Accommodations Industry; Mumbai
Ramanath, Ramya, and Alnoor Ebrahim. "Strategies and Tactics in NGO-Government Relations: Insights from Slum Housing in Mumbai." Nonprofit Management & Leadership 21, no. 1 (Fall 2010): 21–42.
- Article
Landing the First Job: The Value of Intermediaries in Online Hiring
By: Christopher Stanton and Catherine Thomas
Online markets for remote labor services allow workers and firms to contract with each other directly. Despite this, intermediaries—called outsourcing agencies—have emerged in these markets. This paper shows that agencies signal to employers that inexperienced workers... View Details
Stanton, Christopher, and Catherine Thomas. "Landing the First Job: The Value of Intermediaries in Online Hiring." Review of Economic Studies 83, no. 2 (April 2016): 810–854.
- 2017
- Chapter
Corporate Moral Agency, Positive Duties, and Purpose
By: Nien-hê Hsieh
A long-standing question in business ethics is whether business enterprises are themselves moral agents with distinct moral responsibilities. To date, the debate about corporate moral agency has focused on responsibility for past wrongdoing that involves violating... View Details
Hsieh, Nien-hê. "Corporate Moral Agency, Positive Duties, and Purpose." In The Moral Responsibility of Firms, edited by Eric Orts and N. Craig Smith. Oxford University Press, 2017.
- 27 Apr 2016
- Research & Ideas
How the FBI Reinvented Itself After 9/11
President George W. Bush expanded the FBI’s mission with a single question for Mueller: What was the FBI doing to prevent the next terrorist attack? And just like that, the brand-new director of the FBI had to figure out how to transform the organization from a law... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel
- Research Summary
Financing Payouts
Despite the obvious interest in payout policy, no paper to date has systematically analyzed how payouts are funded, perhaps because the answer might have appeared just too obvious: payouts are funded with free cash flow — at least over long enough time periods.... View Details
- December 2012
- Article
Evidence on the Use of Unverifiable Estimates in Required Goodwill Impairment
By: Karthik Ramanna and Ross L. Watts
SFAS 142 requires managers to estimate the current fair value of goodwill to determine goodwill write-offs. In promulgating the standard, the FASB predicted managers will, on average, use the fair value estimates to convey private information on future cash flows. The... View Details
Keywords: Goodwill Impairment; Fair-value Accounting; FASB; SFAS 142; Fair Value Accounting; Standards; Cash Flow; Agency Theory; Motivation and Incentives; Forecasting and Prediction; Goodwill Accounting
Ramanna, Karthik, and Ross L. Watts. "Evidence on the Use of Unverifiable Estimates in Required Goodwill Impairment." Review of Accounting Studies 17, no. 4 (December 2012): 749–780.
- 2011
- Working Paper
Top Executive Background and Financial Reporting Choice
By: Francois Brochet and Kyle Travis Welch
We study the role of executive functional background in explaining management discretion in financial reporting. Taking goodwill impairment as our reporting setting, we focus on top executives (CEOs and CFOs) whose employment history includes experience in investment... View Details
Keywords: Financial Reporting; Goodwill Accounting; Experience and Expertise; Decision Choices and Conditions; Managerial Roles; Agency Theory
Brochet, Francois, and Kyle Travis Welch. "Top Executive Background and Financial Reporting Choice." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-088, February 2011. (Revised November 2011.)
- 2011
- Other Unpublished Work
Do Public and Private Firms Behave Differently? An Examination of Investment in the Chemical Industry
By: Albert W. Sheen
I compare the capacity expansion decisions of U.S. public and private producers of seven commodity chemicals from 1989-2006. I find that private firms invest differently, and more efficiently, than public firms. Specifically, private firms are more likely than public... View Details
Keywords: Private Ownership; Chemicals; Investment; Public Ownership; Chemical Industry; United States
Sheen, Albert W. "Do Public and Private Firms Behave Differently? An Examination of Investment in the Chemical Industry." July 2011.
- 17 Mar 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard
Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan
- Article
Toward Resource Independence—Why State-Owned Entities Become Multinationals: An Empirical Study of India's Public R&D Laboratories
By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Tarun Khanna
In this paper, we build on the standard resource dependence theory and its departure suggested by Vernon to offer a novel explanation for why state-owned entities (SOEs) might seek a global footprint and global cash flows: to achieve resource independence from... View Details
Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Resource Allocation; Supply Chain; State Ownership; Growth and Development Strategy; India
Choudhury, Prithwiraj, and Tarun Khanna. "Toward Resource Independence—Why State-Owned Entities Become Multinationals: An Empirical Study of India's Public R&D Laboratories." Special Issue on Governments as Owners: Globalizing State-Owned Enterprises edited by Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra, Andrew Inkpen, Aldo Musacchio and Kannan Ramaswamy. Journal of International Business Studies 45, no. 8 (October–November 2014): 943–960.
- fall 2008
- Article
The Intermediation of Financial Risks: Evolution in the Catastrophe Reinsurance Market
By: Kenneth A. Froot
In this paper, I provide evidence concerning the imperfections in the reinsurance market. I try to get at some of the root causes of these imperfections, e.g., the behavior of ratings firms and the agency problems associated with the corporate form of ownership. I also... View Details
Keywords: Catastrophe Risk; Corporate Finance; Banking And Insurance; Hedging; Banking; Financial Markets; Insurance; Policy; Risk Management; Natural Disasters; Cost of Capital; Asset Pricing; Insurance Industry
Froot, Kenneth A. "The Intermediation of Financial Risks: Evolution in the Catastrophe Reinsurance Market." Risk Management and Insurance Review 11, no. 2 (fall 2008): 281–294.
- 16 May 2017
- First Look
First Look at New Ideas and Research, May 16
promulgated by academic economists in the 1970s, is behind the idea that corporate managers should make shareholder value their primary concern and that boards should ensure they do. The theory regards shareholders as owners of the... View Details
Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty
- 2018
- Working Paper
Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 5 Complementarity
The purpose of this chapter is to relate the theory of task networks and technology set forth in previous chapters to theories of firm boundaries from economics and management. Complementary goods have more value when used together than separately. Complementarity may... View Details
Keywords: Complementarity
Baldwin, Carliss Y. "Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 5 Complementarity." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-036, October 2018.
- 2013
- Working Paper
Delegation in Multi-Establishment Firms: Evidence from I.T. Purchasing
By: Kristina McElheran
Recent contributions to a growing theory literature have focused on the tradeoff between adaptation and coordination in determining delegation within firms. Empirical evidence, however, is limited. Using establishment-level data on decision rights over information... View Details
Keywords: Business Units; Business Headquarters; Decision Choices and Conditions; Operations; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Power and Influence; Adaptation; Cooperation
McElheran, Kristina. "Delegation in Multi-Establishment Firms: Evidence from I.T. Purchasing." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-101, April 2011. (Revised April 2012, July 2012, January 2013.)
- Summer 2014
- Article
Delegation in Multi-Establishment Firms: Evidence from I.T. Purchasing
By: Kristina Steffenson McElheran
Recent contributions to a growing theory literature have focused on the tradeoff between adaptation and coordination in determining delegation within firms. Empirical evidence, however, is limited. Using establishment-level data on decision rights over information... View Details
McElheran, Kristina Steffenson. "Delegation in Multi-Establishment Firms: Evidence from I.T. Purchasing." Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 23, no. 2 (Summer 2014): 225–258. (Lead Article.)
- March 2010
- Background Note
Airline Travel in the U.S.
By: Sunil Gupta and Kavita Shukla
How should airlines respond to the rising share of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) as consumers increasingly search the web to buy tickets? View Details
Keywords: Management; Marketing Channels; Consumer Behavior; Market Participation; Agency Theory; Online Technology; Aerospace Industry; United States
Gupta, Sunil, and Kavita Shukla. "Airline Travel in the U.S." Harvard Business School Background Note 510-096, March 2010.