Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(386)
- Faculty Publications (65)
- November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
- Module Note
Strategy Execution Module 7: Designing Asset Allocation Systems
By: Robert Simons
This module reading provides tools and analyses for acquiring and allocating resources. The module begins by reviewing the importance of setting strategic boundaries as a basis for asset acquisitions. Next, a distinction is made between new assets acquired to meet... View Details
- Article
Risk Management—The Revealing Hand
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes
Many believe that the recent emphasis on enterprise risk management function is misguided, especially after the failure of sophisticated quantitative risk models during the global financial crisis. The concern is that top-down risk management will inhibit innovation... View Details
Keywords: Risk Management
- Spring 2016
- Article
Risk Neglect in Equity Markets
By: Malcolm Baker
The link between measures of risk and return within the equity market has been very weak over the past 47 years: in the United States, returns on high-risk stocks have cumulatively fallen short of the returns on low-risk stocks, during a period when the equity market... View Details
- 2017
- Working Paper
Optimal Tilts: Combining Persistent Characteristic Portfolios
By: Malcolm Baker, Ryan Taliaferro and Terry Burnham
We examine the optimal weighting of four tilts in US equity markets from 1968 through 2014. We define a “tilt” as a characteristic-based portfolio strategy that requires relatively low annual turnover. This is a continuum, with small size, a very persistent... View Details
- April 2015 (Revised April 2015)
- Case
Yale University Investments Office: February 2015
By: Josh Lerner
David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, real estate—given the impact of the recent market turmoil. The case explores the risks... View Details
- February 2015 (Revised December 2016)
- Case
Poseidon Carlsbad: Desalination and the San Diego County Water Authority
By: John Macomber
Extreme drought conditions in California have significant impacts on the ability of the San Diego County Water Authority to provide adequate water for current users. Water shortfalls also could curtail the economic development of one of the fastest growing regions in... View Details
- May 2013 (Revised September 2013)
- Case
The Kashagan Production Sharing Agreement (PSA)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Florian Bitsch
When discovered in the 1990s, the Kashagan oil field was the second largest oil field in the world. The project sponsors (equity investors) signed a 40-year production sharing agreement (PSA) with the Kazakh government in 1997, with the expectation the field would... View Details
Keywords: Contracts; Oil ＆ Gas; Project Finance; Kazakhstan; Asia; ENI; Risk Management; Economic Development; Project Management; Expropriation; Product Sharing Agreement; Negotiation; Agreements and Arrangements; Development Economics; Energy Sources; Capital Budgeting; International Finance; Valuation; Joint Ventures; Energy Industry; Asia; Kazakhstan; Italy
- January 2013
- Case
Brannigan Foods: Strategic Marketing Planning
By: John A. Quelch and James T. Kindley
The soup division at Brannigan Foods contributes over 40% of the firm's revenue. The general manager is concerned that the soup industry is declining and that the soup division shows declining profits and market share, especially among the important baby boomer... View Details
Keywords: United States; Consumer Marketing; Acquisitions; Forecasting; Quantitative Analysis; Risk Management; Decision Making; Budgeting; Supermarkets; Strategic Planning; Demand and Consumers; Marketing Strategy; Food; Resource Allocation; Acquisition; Product Development; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry
- October 2012
- Article
The Preference for Potential
By: Zakary L. Tormala, Jayson Jia and Michael I. Norton
When people seek to impress others, they often do so by highlighting individual achievements. Despite the intuitive appeal of this strategy, we demonstrate that people often prefer potential rather than achievement when evaluating others. Indeed, compared with... View Details
- October 2011 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Yale University Investments Office: February 2011
By: Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon
David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, real estate—given the impact of the recent market turmoil. The case explores the risks... View Details
- November 2010 (Revised October 2012)
- Background Note
Farmland Investing: A Technical Note
By: Ray Goldberg, Arthur I Segel, Gustavo Herrero and Andrew Terris
This note seeks to provide an overview of farmland investing, the investment thesis behind investing in agriculture, how and why investors would choose farmland, and the general risks and return characteristics of this asset class. In recent years, a growing number of... View Details
- May 2010
- Column
Block-by-Blockbuster Innovation
Executives often find themselves debating the merits of incremental innovations versus game-changers, but that's a false dichotomy, says HBR columnist Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Even if a company is lucky enough to come up with the next Kindle, Swiffer, or smartphone,... View Details
- January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
- Case
Cisco Business Councils (2007): Unifying a Functional Enterprise with an Internal Governance System
By: Ranjay Gulati
In response to the 2001 market downturn, Cisco Systems implemented a major restructuring that transformed the company from a decentralized to centralized organization. While recognizing that a centralized, functional structure was necessary to avoid product and... View Details
- October 2008 (Revised December 2010)
- Case
Intel NBI: Intel Corporation's New Business Initiatives (A)
By: Willy C. Shih and Thomas Thurston
For Intel Corporation, the processes and priorities that have made it so successful are difficult to overcome as the company tries to diversify away from its core. The case examines the history and evolution of the New Business Initiatives (NBI) group, as the leader... View Details
- July 2008
- Article
Fairness in Extended Dictator-Game Experiments
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Reiner Eichenberger
We test the robustness of behavior in dictator games by offering allocators the choice to play an unattractive lottery. With this lottery option, mean transfers from allocators to recipients substantially decline, partly because many allocators now keep the entire... View Details
- November 2007
- Background Note
Asset Allocation I
By: Joshua D. Coval, Erik Stafford, Rodrigo Osmo, John Jernigan, Zack Page and Paulo Passoni
The goal of these simulations is to understand the mathematics of mean-variance optimization and the equilibrium pricing of risk if all investors use this rule with common information sets. Simulation A focuses on five to 10 years of monthly sector returns that are... View Details
- January 2007 (Revised March 2011)
- Case
Yale University Investments Office: August 2006
By: Josh Lerner
The Yale Investments Office must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments--hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and so forth. Considers the risks and benefits of a different asset allocation strategy.... View Details
- June 2005 (Revised January 2006)
- Case
Investment Policy at the Hewlett Foundation (2005)
By: Luis M. Viceira
In early January 2005, Laurance Hoagland Jr., VP and CIO of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (HF), and his investment team met to finish their recommendations to the HF Investment Committee for a new asset allocation policy for the foundation's investment... View Details