Publications

October 2001
Case

Healthcare Brands Corporation

By: David F. Hawkins

A U.K. and a U.S. firm are entering into a merger agreement. Management must decide whether the merged companies should be domiciled in the United Kingdom and account for the merger as a pooling of interests or the United States and account for the merger as a... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Mergers and Acquisitions; Contracts; Health Industry; United Kingdom; United States

March 2015
Case

Clifford Chance: Women at Work

By: Boris Groysberg, Katherine Connolly and Stephanie Marton

It was October 2013, and global law firm Clifford Chance was coming under fire for the second time in less than a year for reputedly failing to provide a supportive work environment for its female associates. A memo entitled "Speaking Effectively" was just issued to... View Details

Keywords: Women; Law; Fairness; Employee Relationship Management; Retention; Human Capital; Organizational Culture; Performance Expectations; Work-Life Balance; Public Opinion; Problems and Challenges; Legal Services Industry; United States

2008
Working Paper

Laws vs. Contracts: Legal Origins, Shareholder Protections, and Ownership Concentration in Brazil, 1890–1950

By: Aldo Musacchio

The early development of large multidivisional corporations in Latin America required much more than capable managers, new technologies, and large markets. Behind such corporations was a market for capital in which entrepreneurs had to attract investors to buy either... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Governance Controls; Contracts; Laws and Statutes; Ownership Stake; Brazil

2010
Working Paper

Lawful but Corrupt: Gaming and the Problem of Institutional Corruption in the Private Sector

By: Malcolm S. Salter

This paper describes how the gaming of society's rules by corporations contributes to the problem of institutional corruption in the world of business. "Gaming" in its various forms involves the use of technically legal means to subvert the intent of society's rules in... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Civil Society or Community; Competitive Advantage; Earnings Management; Trust; Law; Performance; Investment Funds; Private Sector; Behavior; Relationships; Goals and Objectives

September 2015
Supplement

Hexion/Apollo's Courtship of Huntsman Corporation (B)

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Danielle V. Holland

To be used with “Hexion/Apollo's Courtship of Huntsman Corporation (A)” HBS No. 316-028. View Details

Keywords: Fiduciary Outs; Topping Rights; Revlon Duties; Solvency Opinions; Reverse Termination Fees; Litigation Strategy; Lawsuits and Litigation; Mergers and Acquisitions

02 Feb 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Lawful but Corrupt: Gaming and the Problem of Institutional Corruption in the Private Sector

Keywords: by Malcolm S. Salter; Financial Services

September 1992 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Martin Marietta: Managing Corporate Ethics (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Senior managers at Martin Marietta are considering two questions: how to assess the company's seven-year-old ethics program; and how to deal with employees' fear of retribution--real or imagined--for alerting the corporate ethics office to potential problems. The case... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Resignation and Termination; Employees; Law; Business or Company Management; Programs

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

Greed, Fear, and The System Hinder Corporate Reform

Enforcers of regulatory laws are making some headway, particularly since the passage last summer of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but their work as a whole needs more teeth, according to panelists at the session on regulation and enforcement.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

23 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It’s Effective

Editor's note: Please see related story, Leading and Lagging Countries in Contributing to a Sustainable Society. Although companies are increasingly reporting on their corporate sustainability responsibility (CSR) performance, there has... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

17 May 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Consequences of Mandatory Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Keywords: by Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim

23 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

How Corporate Responsibility is Changing in Asia

To what extent do multinational corporations have an institutional obligation to the Asian countries in which they serve, and does that obligation include holding higher standards than Asian law requires?... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

16 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

The Inner Workings of Corporate Headquarters

Physicists tell us entropy is the natural state of the world, and that law seems especially true in today's multidivisional company. "When you create organizational subunits of any form, they'll have a tendency to focus internally on... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September – October 2011
Article

The Rise and Consequences of Corporate Sustainability Reporting

By: Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

For many decades the cornerstone of corporate reporting has been financial information that is presented in a company's annual, semi-annual, and quarterly reports. These comprehensive financial reports—required by law for public companies in most countries... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; ESG Reporting; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Annual Reports; Operations; Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Performance; Business Model; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Disclosure

Research Summary

Corporate Restructuring and Business Insolvency: Economic Impact and Best Practices

By: Stuart C. Gilson

Stuart C. Gilson is studying how severe financial distress impacts corporate policies and economic resource allocation. He is also studying how managers can best respond to financial distress in order to preserve and grow value. He is undertaking this research... View Details

November 1993 (Revised January 2006)
Supplement

Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Officials of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must decide whether to refer the Beech-Nut apple juice case to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, and if so, whether to recommend prosecution of individual executives or of the company only. View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Decisions; Cases; Law; Management; Food and Beverage Industry

December 1993 (Revised September 2003)
Supplement

Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation (D)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Prosecutors in the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Consumer Litigation reflect on their case against the Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp. View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Family Ownership; Cognition and Thinking; Food and Beverage Industry

April 2012
Article

Corporate Ownership Structure and Bank Loan Syndicate Structure

By: Chen Lin, Yue Ma, Paul Malatesta and Yuhai Xuan

Using a novel data set on corporate ownership and control, we show that the divergence between the control rights and cash-flow rights of a borrowing firm's largest ultimate owner has a significant impact on the concentration and composition of the firm's loan... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Financing and Loans; Cash Flow; Borrowing and Debt; Accounting; Crisis Management; Relationships; Law; Contracts; Banking Industry

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Article

Laws versus Contracts: Legal Origins, Shareholder Protections, and Ownership Concentration in Brazil, 1890–1950

By: Aldo Musacchio

This article examines some of the institutional conditions that facilitated the development of equity markets in Brazil. A critical factor was the addition of protections for investors to corporate bylaws, which enabled relatively large corporations in Brazil to... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Equity; Financial Markets; Investment; Governance Controls; Business History; Ownership Stake; Brazil

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