Publications

Research Summary

Governance and Accountability in Social Sector Organizations

This research examines governance in two types of organizations: international NGOs and socioeconomic hybrids.

First, over the past decade, many of the world's most prominent international nongovernmental organizations and networks (INGOs) ... View Details

28 Nov 2023
Book

Economic Growth Draws Companies to Asia. Can They Handle Its Authoritarian Regimes?

world of rational actors destroying their own firms’ balance sheets in late Suharto-era Indonesia and in contemporary China was fascinating and surprising. Once I understood the phenomenon, I saw it everywhere. You Might Also Like: Will... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

September 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Supplement

Enman Oil, Inc. (E)

By: David F. Hawkins

Company pursues ways to reduce its debt to equity ratio by resorting to off balance sheet debt transactions. View Details

Keywords: Energy Sources; Capital Structure; Financial Statements; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United States

September 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Supplement

Enman Oil, Inc. (C)

By: David F. Hawkins

Company pursues ways to reduce its debt to equity ratio by resorting to off balance sheet debt transactions. View Details

Keywords: Energy Sources; Capital Structure; Financial Statements; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United States

May 2015
Teaching Note

The United Kingdom and the Means to Prosperity

By: Laura Alfaro, Lakshmi Iyer and Hilary White

After struggling through the country's longest recession since 2008, the U.K. was expected to grow faster than any other G7 nation in 2014. Analysts wondered whether the return to growth was because, or in spite of, Prime Minister David Cameron's controversial £113... View Details

July 1990 (Revised August 1995)
Case

Symantec--1982-90

By: Nitin Nohria

As Symantec grew from a small, upstart software development company to a major player in the software development industry, the channels of information flow and the internal communication needs of the company became more complex. The geographically-dispersed structure... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Communication Technology; Communication; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Employee Relationship Management; Growth and Development; Knowledge Dissemination; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Management; Information Technology Industry; United States

April 2025
Case

Japan Industrial Partners Powers the Leveraged Buyout of Toshiba

By: Brian K. Baik, Joseph Pacelli and James Barnett

The case explores Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) $14 billion takeover of Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba). JIP was a private equity firm that took over the troubled electronics corporation in late 2023. The deal, which had been labeled one of the largest leveraged... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions

By: Alexander MacKay

The optimal duration of a supply contract balances the costs of reselecting a supplier against the costs of being matched to an inefficient supplier when the contract lasts too long. I develop a structural model of contract duration that captures this tradeoff and... View Details

Keywords: Vertical Relationships; Transaction Costs; Contract Duration; Identification; Supply Chain; Cost; Contracts; Auctions; Mathematical Methods

SSRN

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January 2019 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Ribbon Home: iBacking for Real Estate

By: Marco Di Maggio and Sarah Gulick

In November 2018, Shaival Shah, the founder and CEO of Ribbon Home had to decide on the next steps for the company. Ribbon had introduced a program that backs consumers with cash offers without creating a loan structure in order to help them compete with iBuyers, such... View Details

Keywords: Consumers; Real Estate; Property; Finance; Digital Platforms; Business Model; Decision Making; Real Estate Industry; Technology Industry

April 1992 (Revised September 1993)
Case

Poland--1989

By: Debora L. Spar

Describes the political and economic situation in Poland in 1989, following the country's first democratic elections and the subsequent establishment of a Solidarity-led government. After examining the legacies left by 40 years of Communist rule, the case lays out the... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Economic Systems; Government and Politics; Poland

Find at Harvard

02 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Mapping Your Corporate Strategy

Since the 1990s, the Balanced Scorecard system has cut a path in business as a more rigorous way to measure performance by quantifying what had been considered intangible assets, such as human capital, information, and culture. The system... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

June 2002
Case

Oxfam America in 2002

Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America,a major international relief and development nongovernmental organization (NGO), is working with his staff to undertake a major strategic shift in the organization. The organization is placing a growing emphasis on... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Non-Governmental Organizations

Find at Harvard

09 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

The Challenge of the Multi-site Nonprofit

some possible solutions—at the Faculty Research Symposium held at HBS on May 20. Whether a particular nonprofit organizational structure favors central or local control, inevitable tensions develop between national headquarters and local... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

June 2010
Article

A Gap-Filling Theory of Corporate Debt Maturity Choice

By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson and Jeremy C. Stein

We argue that time-series variation in the maturity of aggregate corporate debt issues arises because firms behave as macro liquidity providers, absorbing the large supply shocks associated with changes in the maturity structure of government debt. We document that... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Liquidity; Investment Return; Government and Politics