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- 2024
- Working Paper
Patent Hunters
By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun, Katie Moon and Paula Suh
Analyzing millions of patents granted by the USPTO between 1976 and 2020, we find a pattern where specific patents only rise to prominence after considerable time has passed. Amongst these late-blooming influential patents, we show that there are key players (patent... View Details
- September 2024
- Article
Standing on the Shoulders of Science
By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Monika Schnitzer and Martin Watzinger
Today’s innovations rely on scientific discoveries of the past, yet only some corporate
R&D builds directly on scientific output. In this paper, we analyze U.S. patents to
investigate how firms generate value by building on prior art “closer” to science. We
show... View Details
- September–October 2024
- Article
Working Around the Clock: Temporal Distance, Intrafirm Communication, and Time Shifting of the Employee Workday
By: Jasmina Chauvin, Prithwiraj Choudhury and Tommy Pan Fang
This paper examines the effects of temporal distance generated by time zone separation on communication in geographically distributed organizations. We build on prior research, which highlights time zone separation as a significant challenge, but argue that employees... View Details
- 2024
- Working Paper
Determinants of Top-Down Sabotage
By: Hashim Zaman and Karim R. Lakhani
We investigate the conditions that motivate managers to impede the growth of talented subordinates due to fears of future competition for their own positions. Our research expands on existing tournament and contest theory literature that considers peer-to-peer sabotage... View Details
- August 2024 (Revised August 2024)
- Case
Novo Nordisk Foundation
By: Debora L. Spar and Julia Comeau
In 2024, Novo Nordisk A/S was one of the most profitable firms in the world, thanks largely to just two GLP-1-based drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy. Unusually, this incredibly profitable firm was controlled not by individual private shareholders, but by a non-profit... View Details
Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Diabetes; Obesity; Foundation; Non-profit Management; Profit; Corporate Governance; Business or Company Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Expansion; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Nonprofit Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Denmark; Europe
- 2024
- Working Paper
The Financial Anatomy of Climate Solutions: A Large Language Model Approach to Company Classification and Analysis
By: Shirley Lu and George Serafeim
Leveraging advancements in large language models (LLM), we study the financial characteristics of firms offering climate solutions-products and services aimed at fostering a transition to a low-carbon economy. We use a new measure that applies LLM to 10-K Item 1... View Details
- August 2024
- Technical Note
Measuring Concentrated Ownership
By: Christina R. Wing, Everett Alexander and Justin Huang
Firms with strong governance practices exhibit lower control premiums due to reduced risks and more efficient operations. Conversely, poorly governed firms may exhibit higher control premiums as new owners anticipate the need for substantial governance improvements.... View Details
- August 2024 (Revised October 2024)
- Case
Discerene Group: Long-Term Public-Markets Investing
By: Luis M. Viceira and Brent Schwarz
This case discusses active investing based on fundamental valuations and price distortions created by market events, and whether contractual terms between investment managers and their investors can help align incentives between long-term investors and active managers.... View Details
- August, 2024
- Article
Absenteeism, Productivity, and Relational Contracts Inside the Firm
By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Jean-François Gauthier, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo
We study relational contracts among managers using a unique dataset that tracks transfers of workers across teams in Indian ready-made garment factories. We focus on how relational contracts help managers cope with worker absenteeism shocks, which are frequent, often... View Details
- August 2024
- Module Note
Mastering the Complete Strategy Landscape
By: David J. Collis
As CEO, whether of a large established firm or an entrepreneurial startup, you have the responsibility to craft a strategy capable of creating, capturing, and realizing value. And yet, too often, the holistic perspective required to integrate those discrete tasks gets... View Details
- 2024
- Working Paper
Primary Capital Market Transactions and Index Funds
By: Marco Sammon and Chris Murray
We document the effects of mechanical buying by CRSP-index-tracking funds on post-IPO returns and IPO deal structure. Leveraging a difference-in-differences-style design built on a 2017 CRSP rule change, we find that expected index fund demand leads fast track IPOs to... View Details
- Winter 2024
- Article
Return to Office Decisions: A Culture Question?
By: Yo-Jud Cheng and Boris Groysberg
Company culture is an important source of competitive advantage and differentiation. Even in times of
crisis, leaders must attend to their company’s culture, designing it in alignment with their strategy and
priorities. One of the most consequential decisions
that... View Details
- 2024
- Working Paper
Smaller than We Thought? The Effect of Automatic Savings Policies
By: James J. Choi, David Laibson, Jordan Cammarota, Richard Lombardo and John Beshears
Medium- and long-run dynamics undermine the effect of automatic enrollment and default savings-rate auto-escalation on retirement savings. Our analysis of 401(k) plans incorporates the facts that employees frequently leave firms (often before matching contributions... View Details
- 2024
- Working Paper
The Consequences of Export Controls in Target Countries
By: Xueyue Liu, Yu Liu and Jaya Y. Wen
Export controls are a common instrument of national security, but their economic consequences
are not well understood. This paper evaluates how these controls affect firm performance
and adaptation in targeted countries. We use variation in a 2007 US policy,... View Details
- August 2024
- Article
The Labor Market Effects of Loan Guarantee Programs
By: Jean-Noël Barrot, Thorsten Martin, Julien Sauvagnat and Boris Vallée
We investigate the labor market effects of a loan guarantee program targeting French SMEs during the financial crisis. Exploiting differences in regional treatment intensity in a border discontinuity design, we uncover a central trade-off for such interventions. While... View Details
- Working Paper
The Returns to Skills During the Pandemic: Experimental Evidence from Uganda
By: Livia Alfonsi, Vittorio Bassi, Imran Rasul and Elena Spadini
The Covid-19 pandemic represents one of the most significant labor market shocks to the world economy in recent times. We present evidence from a field experiment to understand whether and why skilled and unskilled workers were differentially impacted by the shock, in... View Details
- 2024
- Working Paper
Who Clears the Market When Passive Investors Trade?
By: Marco Sammon and John J. Shim
We find that firms are the primary sellers of shares when index funds are net buyers, providing shares at a nearly one-for-one rate. Rather than provide liquidity, most demand-side institutions trade in the same direction as index funds, especially over long horizons.... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
RMZ 4.0: 'How Fast Do We Want to Run?'
By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott
In 2023, RMZ Corporation (“RMZ”) a large family-owned real estate firm based in Bengaluru, India, announced plans to transform from a commercial real estate developer to a diversified alternative asset owner. Over the next 5 years, RMZ looked to grow its real estate... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
Roja Garimella: Developing a Founder's Judgment
By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti
Roja Garimella’s path to becoming a founder was anything but straight. Setting her sights on a career in medicine since childhood, she committed to medical school with her acceptance to college. And yet, throughout her studies, she continually explored alternative... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
Freelancer, Ltd.
By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes
Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500... View Details