Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(236)
- Faculty Publications (64)
- January 2006 (Revised October 2009)
- Case
Negotiating Star Compensation at the USAWBL (A-1): Confidential Instructions for Jesse J.
By: Ian Larkin, James K. Sebenius and Guhan Subramanian
In this three-party negotiation exercise, Jesse J, star center in the U.S.A. Women's Basketball League, with her agent, is negotiating a possible compensation package with the Boston Sharks involving a base salary, a possible share of team merchandising profits, and a... View Details
- Article
Trust and Incentives in Agency
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F Spulber
Contracts between a principal and an agent are not formed in a vacuum. Although formal contracts between a principal and an agent contain explicit incentives for performance, the relationship between a principal and an agent also involves implicit incentives. Three... View Details
- April 2005 (Revised October 2007)
- Case
Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey
By: Nancy F. Koehn and Erica Helms
Explores the life, work, and achievements of Milton S. Hershey. Analyzes his entrepreneurial achievements, including the creation of the Hershey bar, the founding of the business, and the development of the mass market for chocolate. Also investigates the broader... View Details
- March 2005 (Revised August 2007)
- Case
Aguas Argentinas: Settling a Dispute
By: Louis T. Wells Jr. and Alexandra de Royere
The French-owned Aguas Argentinas faces a demand from the Argentine government that it renegotiate its concession to operate the Buenos Aires water and sewage services. The company must decide whether to continue with efforts to settle on a new contract or to exercise... View Details
- Article
Organizational Beliefs and Managerial Vision
Can managers have an impact on their firm that goes beyond their direct actions and decisions? This article shows that a manager with strong beliefs about the right course of action will attract, through sorting in the labor market, employees with similar beliefs. This... View Details
- September 2004
- Article
Trust in Agency
Existing models of the principal-agent relationship assume the agent works only under extrinsic incentives. However, many observed agency contracts take the form of a fixed payment. For such contracts to succeed, the principal must trust the agent to work in the... View Details
- September 2002
- Article
The Effects of Contracts on Interpersonal Trust
By: Deepak Malhotra and J. Keith Murnighan
- March 2002 (Revised May 2003)
- Case
Supply Chain Close-Up: The Video Vault
By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem
The owners of the Video Vault struggle to determine the optimal stocking levels of home videos in an industry fraught with new technology, new pricing paradigms, and stiff competitive pressure from large national chains. Teaching Purpose: To demonstrate the role of... View Details
- February 2002 (Revised May 2002)
- Background Note
That's a Wrap: The Dynamics of the Video Rental Industry
By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem
The history, current dynamics, and future trends of the $10 billion home video rental industry provides a platform to discuss revenue-sharing contracts between suppliers of home videocassettes and retailers. View Details
- October 2001 (Revised December 2001)
- Case
EU Takeover Directive
By: Guhan Subramanian and Michelle Kalka
The draft 13th Company Law Directive, originally written in the 1980s and first formally proposed in 1990, was intended to harmonize the takeover laws of the member states of the European Union (EU). From its inception, though, this bill was controversial. Nations... View Details
- September 2001
- Background Note
Financial Reporting Environment, The
Provides a framework for understanding the role of financial reporting and various intermediaries as mechanisms for reducing both adverse selection and moral hazard problems in capital markets. Financial reports reduce adverse selection by providing basic information... View Details
- April 2000
- Article
The Fable of Fisher Body
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F. Spulber
General Motors' (GM) acquisition of Fisher Body is the classic example of market failure in the literature on contracts and the theory of the firm. According to the standard account, GM merged vertically with Fisher Body in 1926, a maker of auto bodies, because of... View Details
- June 1999 (Revised November 2006)
- Case
Basil "Buzz" Hargrove and de Havilland, Inc. (A)
By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Angela Keros
Buzz Hargrove, national president of the Canadian Auto Workers, needs to find a way to secure an agreement from a negotiated contract with de Havilland, Inc. Local union leaders feel the deal is not good enough, but Hargrove is convinced management will close the plant... View Details
- February 1998
- Background Note
Contracting and Control in Venture Capital
By: Paul A. Gompers
Discusses the control mechanisms and contracts utilized by venture capitalists. The emphasis is on understanding potential conflicts of interest and how the contracts mitigate those conflicts. View Details
- February 1997
- Case
Enron Development Corp.: The Dabhol Power Project in Maharashtra, India (B) (Abridged)
A new administration takes power in a state in India and cancels a power project agreed upon by the previous state government and a U.S.-based energy company. The project cancellation is based on allegations of irregularities, exorbitant costs, and political pressures. View Details
- February 1997
- Case
Enron Development Corp.: The Dabhol Power Project in Maharashtra, India (C) (Abridged)
Discusses the resolution of the canceled power project in Maharashtra. The contract between the American gas giant and Indian state government is renegotiated. View Details
- May 1996
- Background Note
The GM's Operational Challenge: Managing Through People
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda
Highlights and explores how a general manager adds value to the firm at the operational level by managing through people. Discusses how assumptions about human motivation influence the employment contract that the general manager implicitly enters into with the workers... View Details
- July 1993 (Revised September 1995)
- Case
Block 16: Conoco's "Green" Oil Strategy (A)
By: Malcolm S. Salter and Susan E.A. Hall
Conoco's attempted to win an oil development contract in Ecuador's tropical rain forest. The case discusses government perspectives, environmental perspectives, and indigenous people's perspectives. Allows role playing in a "negotiating forum" set up by Conoco to get... View Details