Risk Taking - Publications - Faculty & Research

20 Jun 2008
News

Risk and Reward

Chimneys resident) sired foals to the ripe old age of 28. Big Brown is only 3 years old. So you do the math. So here’s a real-life business dilemma. If you owned Big Brown, would you ship the colt straight for the stud farm, or keep him on the race circuit for several... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment; Management

Program

Risk Management for Corporate Leaders—Virtual

takes a more comprehensive and strategic view of risk management. It provides frameworks and tools for senior leadership and corporate boards to strengthen your company's approach to managing both internal... View Details

2025
Working Paper

With a Little Help from My Family: Informal Startup Financing

By: Brian K. Baik, Johan Ludvig S. Karlsen and Katja Kisseleva

Using Norwegian administrative data, we identify family equity investments in startups and examine their effects on investor returns and firm behavior. Informal investors earn lower returns than external individuals, and the firms they back are less likely to secure... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage Finance; Informal Investment; Household Finance; Risk Taking; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Personal Finance; Family and Family Relationships; Business Startups; Investment; Norway

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The risk profiles of many real estate markets are rapidly increasing globally. Insurers and mortgage brokers are taking note and adjusting their offering based on widely available climate data and predictive analytics. John Macomber suggests that consumers and... View Details

2015
Working Paper

Risk Preferences and Misconduct: Evidence from Politicians

By: Dylan Minor

When seeking new leaders, business and government organizations alike often need individuals that are less risk averse, or even risk-seeking, in order to improve performance. However, individuals amenable to increased risk-taking may be more likely to engage in... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Behavior; Ethics; Government and Politics; United States

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22 Jan 2020
News

What It Takes

selling me anything." He said, "We'll buy it anyhow. Just continue to tell me how to make my company better." And what happened, over the next year or two, is that kind of request of me started happening with enormous frequency. It would View Details

10 Oct 2017
News

Risk and Rewards

Adebayo Ogunlesi (MBA 1979) is chairman and managing partner of Global Infrastructure Partners. In this interview he talks about the rewards of taking risks on unexpected opportunities. “People often ask me,... View Details

12 Jun 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The Triumph of the Humble Chief Risk Officer

Keywords: by Anette Mikes

Climate Risk is Growing. Is Your Company Prepared?

Most people don’t have a strategy for for how to handle the worsening perils of flooding, wildfires and extreme heat. They should adopt a four step process for protecting their property, whether it be a home or a business. First, they should prioritize how... View Details

20 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

US Competitiveness at Risk

sequencing and a sustained effort, you don't make progress. Our single-issue focus lately works against us. There's also a tremendous mismatch between the time horizons of politics and of competitiveness. Most things that matter for building competitiveness View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael E. Porter & Jan W. Rivkin

June 2009
Case

The Role of the Audit Committee in Risk Oversight

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kaitlyn Simpson

An audit committee chair considers how he can help his committee become more effective given the increasing regulatory demands on audit committees. He also wrestles with the lack of specificity in audit committee duties and whether his committee should take on... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Laws and Statutes; Risk Management

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2014
Working Paper

The Triumph of the Humble Chief Risk Officer

By: Anette Mikes

This paper tracks the evolution of the role of two chief risk officers (CROs), and the tools and processes they have implemented in their respective organizations. While the companies are from very different industries (one is a power company, the other is a toy... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Managerial Roles

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2013
Case

Travelers Insurance: Focusing on Climate Change and Natural Catastrophe Risk

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

The dilemma Evan Blue faces stems from a report by sustainability advocacy group Ceres that calls on companies to take climate change into consideration in their risk models and develop response strategies. The fictional vice president of Traveler's Insurance is tasked... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Business Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Insurance Industry

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24 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

Reducing Risk with Online Advertising

pleased. The idea here is to make everyone better off, except of course the fraudsters. Q: What would it take to eliminate the remaining potential for fraud? A: It's hard. For fraudsters whose profit margin is extreme, I don't have a tool... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Video Game; Web Services

June 2017
Article

Does Aggregated Returns Disclosure Increase Portfolio Risk Taking?

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

Many experiments have found that participants take more investment risk if they see returns less frequently, see portfolio-level returns (rather than each individual asset’s returns), or see long-horizon (rather than one-year) historical return distributions. In... View Details

Keywords: Information; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return

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19 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Doomsday Coming for Catastrophic Risk Insurers?

he's seen improvements in the way reinsurers distribute risk over the last two decades, he still questions whether reinsurers in their current form can survive a major catastrophic event. "Reinsurers assume the View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Financial Services

June 2014
Article

Frictions in Shadow Banking: Evidence from the Lending Behavior of Money Market Funds

By: Sergey Chernenko and Adi Sunderam

We document the consequences of money market fund risk taking during the European sovereign debt crisis. Using a novel data set of security-level holdings of prime money market funds, we show that funds with large exposures to risky Eurozone banks suffered significant... View Details

Keywords: Money Market Mutual Funds; European Sovereign Debt Crisis; Runs; Contagion; Risk Taking; Investment Funds; Financial Crisis; Europe

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June 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Nephila: Innovation in Catastrophe Risk Insurance

By: Kenneth A. Froot and Michael Heinrich

At the cross-section of capital markets and the catastrophe insurance space stands the hedge fund Nephila. Nephila must decide how best to take advantage of the newly presented market opportunities post hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita. Nephila has a plethora of... View Details