Publications

SSRN

16 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

Crowdsourcing Is Helping Hollywood Reduce the Risk of Movie-Making

Success at the movie box office can be difficult to predict. For every surprise hit film like Crazy Rich Asians, there’s a massive flame-out like Justice League. Unlike television, where a station can test a pilot before committing to a series, studios must spend... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Motion Pictures & Video

Article

Can Analysts Assess Fundamental Risk and Valuation Uncertainty? An Empirical Analysis of Scenario-Based Value Estimates

By: Peter R. Joos, Joseph D. Piotroski and Suraj Srinivasan

We use a dataset of sell-side analysts' scenario-based valuation estimates to examine whether analysts reliably assess the risk surrounding a firm's fundamental value. We find that the spread in analysts' state-side contingent valuations captures the riskiness of... View Details

Keywords: Analyst Forecasts; Scenarios; Uncertainty; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Forecasting and Prediction

SSRN

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September 2010 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Sherritt Goes to Cuba (A): Political Risk in Unchartered Territory

By: Aldo Musacchio and Jonathan Schlefer

Ian Delaney, CEO of Sherritt, a primarily a mining company, visited Cuba in the early 1990s to negotiate a deal to export nickel for their Canadian refineries. The case describes the difficulties of doing business in Cuba and the challenges Delaney overcame to turn... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Joint Ventures; Multinational Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk Management; Emerging Markets; Business and Government Relations; Mining Industry; Canada; Cuba; United States

16 May 2018
Research & Ideas

How Companies Managed Risk (and Even Benefitted) in World War Internment Camps

companies from Germany dealt with the incarceration of thousands of their German national employees in India during World War I and World War II in her recent working paper, Countering Political Risk in Colonial India: German... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Manufacturing

Web

Technology & Operations Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Privacy Risks of Algorithmic Recourse.” Michael Lingzhi Li : Named Edelman Laureate in 2022 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) for “Data-Driven COVID-19 Vaccine... View Details

23 Dec 2019
Blog Post

Taking the Risk to Start a Company at Business School

“For me, attending HBS was about choosing a time to take a risk on myself. It sets you up to take a chance and start a company,” says Julie Johnson, Co-Founder and CEO Armored Things, HBS 2017. When Julie Johnson applied to Harvard... View Details

September 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Forecasting Climate Risks: Aviva’s Climate Calculus

By: Mark Egan and Peter Tufano

In late 2021, Ben Carr, Director of Analytics and Capital Modeling at Aviva Plc (Aviva)—a leading insurer with core operations in the UK, Ireland and Canada,—was preparing for an upcoming presentation before the company's board which included its CEO, Amanda Blanc,... View Details

Keywords: Climate Risk; Climate Finance; Forecasting; Insurance; Risk Measurement; Climate Change; Risk Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Insurance Industry; United States

January 2023
Case

Cleave Therapeutics: Taking a Risk on Oncology Drug Discovery

By: Regina Herzlinger and Brian Walker

What should a successful executive (HBS Baker Scholar) assess as her next move as the CEO of a firm with a promising and yet uncertain new drug? Amy Burroughs’ mandate to successfully commercialize Cleave Therapeutics’ drug for a cancer with no current successful... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Leadership; Health Testing and Trials; Research and Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Condition; Partners and Partnerships; Pharmaceutical Industry

June 2009
Case

Midland Energy Resources, Inc.: Cost of Capital

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Joel L. Heilprin

The senior vice president of project finance for a global oil and gas company must determine the weighted average cost of capital for the company as a whole and each of its divisions as part of the annual capital budgeting process. The case uses comparable companies to... View Details

Keywords: Risk Assessment; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Cost of Capital; Cash Flow; Capital Structure; Valuation; Capital Budgeting; Energy Industry

February 1998 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Burma Pipeline, The

By: Debora L. Spar and Lane LaMure

In 1996, Unocal Corp. joined forces with the French Total company to construct an ambitious natural gas pipeline from the Andaman Sea across the southern tip of Burma and into Thailand. At an estimated cost of $1.2 billion, the pipeline was designed to bring sorely... View Details

Keywords: Political Risk; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Foreign Direct Investment; Energy Industry; Asia

16 Aug 2022
News

As Climate Risk Grows, So Will Costs for Small Businesses

07 Apr 2020
News

Crisis Management for Leaders: Recognizing and Managing Novel Risks in Your Supply Chain

2013
Working Paper

How Does Risk Management Influence Production Decisions? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Shawn Cole, Xavier Gine and James Vickery

Weather is a key source of income risk, particularly in emerging market economies. This paper uses a randomized controlled trial involving a sample of Indian farmers to study how an innovative rainfall insurance product affects production decisions. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Production; Weather; Insurance; Emerging Markets; Agribusiness; Insurance Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

September–October 2020
Article

Global Supply Chains in a Post-Pandemic World: Companies Need to Make Their Networks More Resilient. Here's How.

By: Willy C. Shih

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities in the production strategies and supply chains of firms everywhere. Coupled with a rise in economic nationalism, manufacturers everywhere are going to be under pressure to rethink their sourcing and logistics... View Details

Keywords: Resilience; Pandemic; Operations Management; Health Pandemics; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Manufacturing Industry; United States; Asia; Europe

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13 Nov 2020
News

Make Tax Planning a Part of Your Company’s Risk Management Strategy

21 Mar 2022
News

Are the Risks of Global Supply Chains Starting to Outweigh the Rewards?

March 21, 2022
Article

Are the Risks of Global Supply Chains Starting to Outweigh the Rewards?

By: Willy C. Shih

The conflict in Ukraine is only the latest jolt to global supply chains. Disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, climate-related events, and geopolitical tensions were already undermining their rationale. As companies rethink sourcing, they will have to consider... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Distribution; Globalization; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Asia; Europe

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Article

From Netscape to eHarmony: The High Risks and Big Rewards of Platform Markets

By: Dylan B. Minor

Keywords: Leadership; Service Delivery; Mobile Technology; Economics

2024
Working Paper

Second- versus Third-party Audit Quality: Evidence from Global Supply Chain Monitoring

By: Maria R. Ibanez, Ashley Palmarozzo, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Capitalizing on the superior credibility and flexibility and potential lower cost of external assessments, many global buyers are relying less on their own employee (“second-party”) auditors and more on third-party auditors to monitor and prevent environmental and... View Details

Keywords: Auditing; Audit Quality; Working Conditions; Sustainability; Empirical Operations; Empirical Service Operations; Sustainability Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain Management

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