Publications

Article

The Collapse of First Executive Corporation: Junk Bonds, Adverse Publicity, and the Run on the Bank Phenomenon

By: S. C. Gilson, H. DeAngelo and L. DeAngelo

In April 1991, regulators seized the major subsidiaries of First Executive Corporation (FE), an insurer that invested heavily in junk bonds. During the junk bond market turmoil of 1989–1990, adverse publicity fueled a bank run at FE, forcing a $4 billion portfolio... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Bonds; Banks and Banking

March 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc.

By: Robert G. Eccles and David Lane

This brief document presents the schedule of events for Russell Reynolds Associates 2007 New Associates Program, an opportunity for recent hires to spend time with each other and the firm's senior leadership while learning subtleties of the search process amid bonding... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Learning; Recruitment; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Programs; Consulting Industry; Service Industry

March 2021
Supplement

Making Impact Investing Markets: IFC (B)

By: Shawn A. Cole, John Masko and T. Robert Zochowski

In 2018, Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya (known as Krungsri), was considering whether to participate in the first issue of a new financial instrument from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), known as a gender bond. Building on the success of the Green Bond program... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investment; Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Equity; Bonds; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development; Emerging Markets; Non-Governmental Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Instruments; Gender; Financial Services Industry; Thailand

09 Apr 2024
Book

Why Work Rituals Bring Teams Together and Create More Meaning

philosophy, and we not only have a heck of a good time with it, we work better because of it." Other companies have adopted more intense rituals, organizing treks into the wilderness, paintball competitions, corporate retreats, and group... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

August 2006
Article

Predicting Returns with Managerial Decision Variables: Is There a Small-Sample Bias?

By: Malcolm Baker, Ryan Taliaferro and Jeffrey Wurgler

Many studies find that aggregate managerial decision variables, such as aggregate equity issuance, predict stock or bond market returns. Recent research argues that these findings may be driven by an aggregate time-series version of Schultz's (2003, Journal of Finance... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Fairness; Managerial Roles; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Equity; Bonds; Financial Markets; Investment; Capital Markets; Borrowing and Debt; Investment Return

Forthcoming
Article

Calling All Issuers: The Market for Debt Monitoring

By: Huaizhi Chen, Lauren Cohen and Weiling Liu

95% of long-term municipal bonds have callable features, and yet we find new evidence of a substantial fraction of local governments exercising these valuable options sub-optimally, with significant delays – resulting in sizable losses. Using data from 2001 to 2019, we... View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Financial Institutions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Administration; Financing and Loans

February 2022 (Revised March 2022)
Case

MicroStrategy's Investment in Bitcoin

By: C. Fritz Foley

At the end of the second quarter of 2020, MicroStrategy, a Virginia based provider of analytics software and services, announced plans to acquire and hold bitcoin as a part of the firm’s treasury reserve policy and corporate strategy. Within a year, the firm purchased... View Details

Keywords: Bitcoin; Corporate Strategy; Acquisition; Investment Portfolio; Capital Structure; Equity

21 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The Pandemic Conversations That Leaders Need to Have Now

organizations live-blog or live-tweet their corporate meetings or events to give employees a sense of the back-and-forth in the moment. The virtual platforms that companies are relying on these days offer a similar opportunity to invite... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Robin Abrahams, and Katherine Connolly Baden

29 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

'Green Bonds' May Be Our Best Bet for Environmental Damage Control

Green Bonds, written with Daniel Bergstresser of Brandeis University and Jeffrey Wurgler of NYU’s Stern School of Business. While green bonds have been issued by banks and corporations as well, the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy; Utilities; Construction; Green Technology; Public Administration

January 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Finova Group, Inc. (A), The

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Perry Fagan

Finova Group, a $14 billion commercial finance company, filed for Chapter 11 in early March 2001, in what was one of the largest U.S. bankruptcy filings of all time and the largest corporate bond default since the Great Depression. While in Chapter 11, Finova became... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Business Startups; Borrowing and Debt; Equity; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Debt Securities; Price; Crisis Management; Bids and Bidding; Partners and Partnerships; Strategy; Valuation; Financial Services Industry; United States

22 Aug 2006
First Look

First Look: August 22, 2006

technological development, corporate strategy, and organizational change. Viewing cartels only as a "conspiracy against the public" short-circuits many important questions and obscures the great variations in objectives, type,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2016
Working Paper

Credit Migration and Covered Interest Rate Parity

By: Gordon Y Liao

I document economically large and persistent discrepancies in the pricing of credit risk between corporate bonds denominated in different currencies. The discrepancies amount to 50-100 basis points on trillions of dollars of debt notional. I relate this violation of... View Details

Keywords: Market Segmentation; Debt Issuance; Covered Interest Rate Parity; Cross-currency Basis; Credit Risk; Financial Markets; Credit

February 2018
Article

Financial Repression in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis

By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina

By the end of 2013, the share of government debt held by the domestic banking sectors of Eurozone countries was more than twice its 2007 level. We show that this type of increasing reliance on the domestic banking sector for absorbing government bonds generates a... View Details

Keywords: Credit Cycles; Sovereign Debt; Financial Repression; Sovereign Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Europe

SSRN

2014
Working Paper

Financial Repression in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis

By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina

By the end of 2013, the share of government debt held by the domestic banking sectors of Eurozone countries was more than twice its 2007 level. We show that this type of increasing reliance on the domestic banking sector for absorbing government bonds generates a... View Details

Keywords: Credit Cycles; Sovereign Debt; Financial Repression; Sovereign Finance; Greece

SSRN

2005
Working Paper

Pseudo Market Timing and Predictive Regressions

By: Malcolm Baker, Ryan Taliaferro and Jeffrey Wurgler

A number of studies claim that aggregate managerial decision variables, such as aggregate equity issuance, have power to predict stock or bond market returns. Recent research argues that these results may be driven by an aggregate time-series version of Schultz's... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Equity; Market Timing; Financial Instruments; Investment Return; Mathematical Methods

Article

Making 'Green Giants': Environment Sustainability in the German Chemical Industry, 1950s–1980s

By: Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski

This article examines the evolution of corporate environmentalism in the West German chemical industry between the 1950s and the 1980s. It focuses on two companies, Bayer and Henkel, that have been identified as "green giants," and traces the evolution of their... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Green Business; Regional Strategy; Pollution; Henkel; Bayer; Globalization; History; Chemical Industry; Germany; United States

30 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 30, 2015

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=46138 Forthcoming Accounting Review An Analysis of Self-reported Anticorruption Efforts By: Healy, Paul M., and George Serafeim Abstract—We use Transparency International's ratings of self-reported anticorruption efforts... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

05 Sep 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Global Currency Hedging

Keywords: by John Y. Campbell, Karine Serfaty-de Medeiros & Luis M. Viceira; Financial Services

October 2004 (Revised July 2011)
Case

AT&T 2000-2004

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kerry Herman

Provides an update on CEO Michael Armstrong's "Project Grand Slam" strategy to build the value of AT&T by offering a complete, integrated telecommunications solution to both corporate and residential customers, including wireless and wire line telephone, Internet,... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Customers; Business or Company Management; Failure; Business and Shareholder Relations; Networks; Corporate Strategy; Internet; Wireless Technology; Value Creation; Telecommunications Industry