Publications

22 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 22

PublicationsForward: The Future of Consumer Credit and Mortgage Finance Authors:Nicolas P. Retsinas and Eric Belsky, eds. Publication:Brookings Institution Press and Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, 2011 Abstract... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 15, 2008

Working PapersInvestable Tax Credits: The Case of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Authors:Mihir A. Desai, Dhammika Dharmapala, and Monica Singhal Abstract The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 22

more profitable lending, their power is muted by both deferred compensation and the limited liability typically enjoyed by credit officers. Second, we present direct evidence that incentive contracts distort judgment and beliefs, even... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Dec 2007
First Look

First Look: December 11, 2007

we utilize a natural experiment to show that the effect of relationship bank lending, intensity on takeover probability is not driven by endogeneity issues. Finally, we investigate reasons motivating a bank's role in the market for corporate control, including concerns... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Santander Consumer Finance

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull, Elena Corsi and Andrew Barron

A Spanish company has to decide if they should expand into the fragmented European consumer finance market and has to make important organizational strategy decisions in the midst of the world economic downturn that followed the 2007 U.S. credit crunch. Since 2002, the... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Financial Markets; International Finance; Personal Finance; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Financial Services Industry; European Union; Spain

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

http://hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=809062 JWT China: Advertising for the New Chinese Consumer Harvard Business School Case 809-079 This case analyzes the business strategy and expansion of JWT China from the late... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

29 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 29

considerable heterogeneity in the role of FDI. First, multinationals located in countries that experienced sharper declines in aggregate output, demand, and credit conditions displayed a greater advantage over local firms. Multinationals... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

30 Jun 2022
HBS Case

Peloton Changed the Exercise Game. Can the Company Push Through the Pain?

pace with demand. A child died in a treadmill accident, and dozens of other people were injured. That prompted a product recall. The company was in the midst of a complicated product line expansion to offer two bikes and treadmills at... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Media & Broadcasting; Health; Bicycle

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

the purchase of the toothpaste company Pepsodent in 1944. Expansion into margarine followed with the purchase of a Chicago firm in 1948. The postwar years proved very disappointing for Lever Brothers, for a number of partly related... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

January 2020 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Salary Finance US

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In October 2019, Dan Macklin, the newly-appointed chief executive of Salary Finance Inc., was weighing his options for the future of the business. The company’s value proposition was quite simple: partner with employers to offer employees affordable loans that were... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Credit; Financing and Loans; Wages; Innovation and Invention; Expansion; Growth Management; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry; United States

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

or fail to analyze the utter breakdown in board governance and Enron's internal controls, and the failure of credit rating agencies to blow the whistle," he says. "They also overlook the collusion of investment banks in... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

July 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Salary Finance

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In April 2019, Asesh Sarkar, co-founder and chief executive of Salary Finance Limited, a London-based FinTech, faced tough choices. Sarkar had founded Salary Finance with Dan Cobley and Daniel Shakhani in 2015. The company’s value proposition was quite simple: partner... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Financing and Loans; Wages; Innovation and Invention; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry

24 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Activity-Based Costing

minutes to handle an inquiry, and 50 minutes to perform a credit check. Deriving cost-driver rates. The cost-driver rates can now be calculated by multiplying the two input variables we have just estimated. For our customer service... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & Steven R. Anderson

March 2005 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies at General Motors: Transactional and Translational Exposures

By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen

How should a multinational firm manage foreign exchange exposures? Examines transactional and translational exposures and alternative responses to these exposures by analyzing two specific hedging decisions by General Motors. Describes General Motors' corporate hedging... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Currency Exchange Rate; Expansion; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Financial Management; Investment Funds; Risk and Uncertainty; International Finance; Auto Industry