Publications

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February 2012 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Edward Lundberg and the Rockville Building: Energy Efficiency Finance in Commercial Real Estate

By: John D. Macomber and Frederik Nellemann

A commercial landlord analyzes options for funding and accomplishing energy efficiency retrofit. The situation is complicated by lease terms and uncertain effectiveness of the intervention. Students must grapple with obstacles including changing energy prices,... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Real Estate Industry

05 Feb 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Does Front-Loading Taxation Increase Savings? Evidence from Roth 401(k) Introductions

Keywords: by John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian

November 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Background Note

Capital Projects as Real Options: An Introduction

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Introduces a framework for evaluating corporate investment projects as call options. Presumes readers are familiar with basic option pricing and basic capital budgeting rules. Explains the motivation for viewing projects as options; presents a mapping between a capital... View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Capital Budgeting; Corporate Finance

2022
Working Paper

When Do Individuals Give Up Agency? The Role of Decision Avoidance

By: Holly Dykstra, Christine L. Exley and Muriel Niederle

A common policy problem is that individuals reject recommended options and insist on making their own choices. Via a large-scale experiment, we document and investigate what factors contribute to this preference for agency. Our main results show that individuals’... View Details

Keywords: Choice; Decision Making; Policy; Cognition and Thinking

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July 2017 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Upwork: Creating the Human Cloud

By: Dylan Minor and David Yoffie

Stephane Kasriel, the new CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, needs to decide on how to redesign its business model. While the firm has been growing rapidly since the merger of Odesk and eLance, the newly combined firm continues to face problems of... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Platform; Platform Businesses; Technology; Business Model; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Internet and the Web; Labor

June 2013
Supplement

Jamba Juice (B)

By: J. Bruce Harreld and Christian Karega

James White, the new CEO of Jamba Juice, has successfully averted bankruptcy and must now decide the future path for Jamba Juice, the leader in the smoothie and fresh bar industry. This two-part case presents the various strategic options White is considering. It then... View Details

Keywords: Beverage Industry; Turnarounds; Strategic Change; Strategy Execution; Turnaround; Consumer Marketing; Franchising; Food Retail Franchising; Strategy; Leadership; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

June 2022 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Strategic Innovation at the United Nations: A Network of Ecosystems

By: Frank Nagle, Elizabeth J. Altman and Amy Klopfenstein

In 2021, Gina Lucarelli, leader of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Accelerator Labs, prepared for a meeting with UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. The two planned to discuss the future of the Accelerator Labs, a network of social innovation labs located... View Details

Keywords: Change; Disruption; Transformation; Change Management; Education; Learning; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Geography; Geographic Scope; Global Range; Local Range; Geopolitical Units; Country; Human Resources; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Information Technology; Information Management; Innovation and Invention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Dissemination; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Social Enterprise; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Psychology; Social and Collaborative Networks; Society; Social Issues; Welfare; Strategy; Cooperation; Adaptation; Public Administration Industry; North and Central America

August 2022
Case

SuperRare: Turning an NFT Marketplace into a DAO

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Scott Duke Kominers and Amy Klopfenstein

In June 2021, John Crain and Jonathan Perkins, the founders of SuperRare, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), contemplate whether to transform their company into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Crain and Perkins founded SuperRare in 2018 to... View Details

May 2017
Teaching Note

Promontory, Inc. (Brief Case)

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amy Handlin

Teaching Note for HBS No. 917-535. The Promontory teaching note covers a) how and why buying processes in Promontory’s market generate the array of selling approaches illustrated in the case; b) the impact of incremental sales increases on the firm’s cost structure and... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Salesforce Management; Marketing Strategy

01 Dec 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

How Many U.S. Jobs Are ‘Offshorable’?

debtor in person. In such a scenario, students were told that their rating should reflect whether various parts of a job could be offshored, and if so, how well each part could be performed. Unprecedented Array of Options Results showed... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

March 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Revlon: Surviving Covid-19

By: Kristin Mugford and Sarah Gulick

In October 2020, Revlon faced a crossroads. While it had been struggling with high levels of debt before COVID-19, the pandemic had caused it to go further into debt. Unlike other financial crises, many consumers had stopped buying skincare or cosmetics, and sales of... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Leveraged Buyouts; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Liquidity; Bonds; Corporate Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

May 2007 (Revised July 2007)
Case

JetBlue: Prepare for Financing

The CFO of JetBlue is trying to decide which of two financing proposals to pursue. A straight equity issue will dilute his principal shareholders' ownership, but seems like the safer alternative in an industry that is notorious for its high failure rate. On the other... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Air Transportation Industry; United States

05 Sep 2013
News

Women and Sustainable Investing

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Building Bridges: New Dimensions in Negotiation

rendered the expropriation option quite unattractive since it would hurt diverse parties on whom Chile would rely in the future. At the same time, Kennecott's proposal for a larger mine with majority Chilean ownership addressed Chile's... View Details

Keywords: by Anita M. Harris

December 2018
Case

OTE: Managing in Times of National Crisis (A)

By: Juan Alcacer, Jérôme Lenhardt and Emer Moloney

In late 2010, Michael Tsamaz was appointed CEO and Chairman of Greek telecommunications company OTE. OTE still exhibited many traits of a large incumbent organization, with high personnel costs, crippling bureaucracy, lack of customer-centricity, a dull brand, and... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Transformation; Economy; Crisis Management; Telecommunications Industry; Greece

November 1999 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Debate Over Unbundling General Motors: The Delphi Divestiture and Other Possible Transactions, The

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Ever since General Motors (GM) announced in February 1997 its intention to divest Delphi Automotive Systems--its upstream parts manufacturing operations--Wall Street had called for further unbundling, and various stakeholders competed for their claim of value... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Supply Chain; Vertical Integration; Corporate Strategy; Corporate Governance; Auto Industry; United States

11 Mar 2015
News

How Self-Service Kiosks Are Changing Customer Behavior

28 Jan 2025
Video

Sustainability is innovation

2008
Simulation

Everest Leadership and Team Simulation

By: Michael A. Roberto and Amy C. Edmondson

This item is currently not available for purchase on this site. To order, please contact Customer Service - (800) 545-7685 or (617) 783-7600. **REVISED AUGUST 2009!** This web-based simulation uses the dramatic context of a Mount Everest expedition to reinforce student... View Details

Keywords: Cooperation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Groups and Teams; Knowledge Sharing; Leadership