Publications

March 2020 (Revised June 2022)
Case

GreenLight Fund

By: Brian Trelstad, Julia Kelley and Mel Martin

As Tara Noland, the Executive Director (ED) of GreenLight Cincinnati, reflected on her first few years on the job. Noland had delivered on what she had been hired to do in the city: work with leading philanthropists and nonprofit executives to use data and evidence to... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Venture Philanthropy; Replication; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Venture Capital; Social Issues; Decision Making; Analytics and Data Science; Cincinnati

September 2018 (Revised June 2019)
Case

THE VELUX FOUNDATIONS: Selecting Impact Funds

By: Vikram Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Nathaniel Schwalb

After much internal debate, THE VELUX FOUNDATIONS of Denmark have decided to allocate a small percentage of their investment portfolio to impact investments. Cambridge Associates, one of the leading investment advisory firms in the world, has been engaged to assist... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Mission-Related Investing; Foundations; Investment; Venture Capital; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Strategy; Investment Funds; Decision Making; Consulting Industry; Financial Services Industry; Denmark; Europe

December 2018
Teaching Note

Autonomous Vehicles: The Rubber Hits the Road…but When?

By: William Kerr and James Palano

The autonomous vehicles have enormous implications for business and society. But, despite the headline-laden attention paid to the technology, there remain more questions than answers. Students will learn about the complex industry and have explicit discussions about... View Details

Keywords: Technology Management; Artificial Intelligence; General Management; Robotics; Technological Innovation; Transportation; Disruption; Information Technology; Management; Decision Making; AI and Machine Learning; Auto Industry; Technology Industry

February 1994 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Metallgesellschaft AG

By: David F. Hawkins and Guy J. Weyns

Metallgesellschaft AG is a commodity and engineering conglomerate based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Metallgesellschaft Corp., a New York based subsidiary of the group, has made oil trading and hedging errors that could drive the group into insolvency. The impact of... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Business Conglomerates; Forecasting and Prediction; Trade; Non-Renewable Energy

Article

Valuation Waves and Merger Activity: The Empirical Evidence

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, David Robinson and S. Viswanathan

To test recent theories suggesting that valuation errors affect merger activity, we develop a decomposition that breaks the market-to-book ratio (M/B) into three components: the firm-specific pricing deviation from short-run industry pricing; sector-wide, short-run... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Forecasting and Prediction; Price; Theory; Behavior

January 2000 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Dressen

By: Thomas R. Piper and Jeremy Cott

Divisional management must decide whether to support a leveraged buyout by a private equity group and, if so, what percent of ownership should go to the various partners involved. The appropriateness of the financing structure and the value of the equity depend on the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Capital Structure; Valuation; Ownership Stake; Forecasting and Prediction

December 1995
Supplement

EnClean: Malcolm Waddell, CEO, Video

By: David J. Collis

Presents Malcolm Waddell in a question-and-answer session (the actual questions do not appear on the tape) with HBS MBA students following a class in which the case is discussed. View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Restructuring; Corporate Strategy; Going Public; Decision Making; Acquisition; Interactive Communication

November 1997 (Revised May 1998)
Case

ASIMCO: The Alliance Brewing Group

ASIMCO is a direct investment fund with $350 million invested in 17 Chinese joint ventures in the brewing and auto components industries. The CEO must decide whether to invest in distribution to grow the brewing business or to invest in additional manufacturing joint... View Details

Keywords: Production; Distribution; Joint Ventures; Decision Making; Investment Funds; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; China

August 1993 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Filene's Basement

By: David E. Bell and Dinny Starr

Filene's Basement is in the process of deciding where, and if, to locate two new stores in its new Chicago area of operations. The existing Chicago area stores have been performing well, however, management is concerned with over saturation of the market. At the time... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Business Processes

October 1991 (Revised October 2004)
Case

Hilton Manufacturing Company

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A professional manager is hired by a small manufacturing company after the president discovers he made poor decisions. One product appears to be unprofitable, whereas the product sold in highest volume is under competitive price pressure. A crude cost accounting system... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Asset Pricing; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Governance Controls; Performance Effectiveness; Business Strategy; Two-Sided Platforms; Fair Value Accounting; Manufacturing Industry

September 2010
Supplement

Compass Maritime Services, LLC: Valuing Ships (CW)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Albert W. Sheen

Tom Roberts, a founding partner of Compass Maritime Services, a New Jersey-based shipping research and consulting firm, has been asked by a new potential customer in May 2008 for advice on purchasing a capesize bulk carrier. After identifying a suitable ship with his... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Decisions; Microeconomics; Finance; Price; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Market Transactions; Partners and Partnerships; Mathematical Methods; Valuation; Consulting Industry; New Jersey

February 2005
Case

Bayside Motion Group (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Bradley R. Staats

After purchasing a business and successfully growing it for 18 years, the sole owner is presented with an attractive acquisition offer from a Fortune 500 company. The company's future is bright, but is now the right time to sell? Can he create more value by waiting?... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Cash Flow; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Growth Management; Success; Private Ownership

December 2003
Case

Manville Corporation Fiber Glass Group (C) (Abridged)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Manville Corp.'s senior managers are surprised when Japanese government officials advise them not to go forward with their plan to add a cancer warning label to diatomaceous earth (DE) products sold in Japan. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has ruled... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Moral Sensibility; Safety; Government Administration; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Decision Choices and Conditions; Ethics; Announcements; Industrial Products Industry; Japan

October 1995
Case

DISC (A) (Abridged)

By: Nitin Nohria and Scott A. Snook

Follows the development and implementation of fundamental organizational change in a large government bureaucracy. The case is set in the Defense Industrial Supply Center (DISC) and follows two senior leaders as they grapple with issues of fundamental change in a... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Restructuring; Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; National Security; Leadership Style

01 Jun 2010
News

Faculty Books

Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon (Crown Business) Professor Moon examines what it means for a company to offer something that is fundamentally, comprehensively different. She identifies iconoclastic companies like Apple and Google that have... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Management

1992
Chapter

Exchange Rate Forecasting Techniques, Survey Data, and Implications for the Foreign Exchange Market

By: J. Frankel and K. A. Froot

Keywords: Currencies; Exchange Rates; International Macroeconomics; Monetary Policy; Currency Controls; Fixed Exchange Rates; Floating Exchange Rates; Currency Bands; Currency Zones; Currency Areas; Rational Expectations; International Finance; Currency Exchange Rate; Asset Pricing; Forecasting and Prediction; Policy

May 2025
Case

Wilburn Medical USA

By: David Ager, Lynda M. Applegate and James Barnett

In September 2024, Emily Wilburn Andrews, CEO of Wilburn Medical USA, is five years into her tenure leading the medical equipment supply company since taking over for her father, the company’s founder. She considers approaches to grow the company while maintaining the... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Change Management; Decision Making; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Health; Medical Specialties; Leadership; Health Industry; United States