Publications

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February 2025
Supplement

Align Partners and SM Entertainment: Korean Shareholder Activism Meets K-Pop (B)

By: Charles CY Wang and Billy Chan

For years, institutional investors had experienced very limited success in influencing the management of listed companies through shareholder activist campaigns in Korea. The common practice of circular ownership and public resentment toward foreign shareholder... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Public Equity; Stocks; Investment Activism; Music Entertainment; Corporate Governance; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; South Korea

July – August 2009
Article

Restoring American Competitiveness

By: Gary P. Pisano and Willy C. Shih

For decades, U.S. companies have been outsourcing manufacturing in the belief that it held no competitive advantage. That's been a disaster, maintain Harvard professors Pisano and Shih, because today's low-value manufacturing operations hold the seeds of tomorrow's... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Value; Production; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Government and Politics; Social Issues; Management Practices and Processes; Investment; Research and Development; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Competency and Skills; Service Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

18 Dec 2019
Book

6 Skills That Wise Companies Harness for World-Changing Innovation

founder took on the government, says Takeuchi. “He basically disobeyed a government mandate and said we’re entering anyway He always had a fighting spirit with others, and with the government.” 6. Encourage the development of practical... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

February 2023 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Doing Business in Accra, Ghana

By: Hakeem Belo-Osagie, Leonard Schlesinger and Namrata Arora

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Ghana. It highlights Ghana economic transformation in the decades leading up to 2024 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. The case gives an overview of some of the main obstacles... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Agribusiness; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Ghana

Michael Porter is an economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker and teacher. Throughout his career at Harvard Business School, he has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies... View Details

Keywords: state government; state government; state government; state government; state government; state government; state government; state government; state government

18 Nov 2015
HBS Seminar

Martin Kanz, Economist, Development Economics Research Group, Finance and Private Sector Research, The World Bank

February 2004 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Brazil 2003: Inflation Targeting and Debt Dynamics

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

In October 2002, Brazilians elected a left-wing president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, for the first time in that country's history. As markets faltered in response, Lula sought to reaffirm his commitment to fiscal discipline, a floating exchange rate, and inflation... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Inflation and Deflation; Money; Borrowing and Debt; Policy; Emerging Markets; Brazil

Person Page

Course Development

By: Debora L. Spar

Managing International Trade and Investment

Despite the ease with which it is often conducted, doing business across borders is not the same as doing it at home. Rather, it entails a whole new set of managerial challenges: re-assessing competitive... View Details

02 Jan 2019
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: Do We Need an Artificial Intelligence Czar?

iStock How Should We Organize AI Oversight? There is little question about the growing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) and the need for some kind of oversight. But the debate seems to center around whether, and to what extent, View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

2009
Working Paper

Why Do Countries Adopt International Financial Reporting Standards?

By: Karthik Ramanna and Ewa Sletten

In a sample of 102 non-European Union countries, we study variations in the decision to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). There is evidence that more powerful countries are less likely to adopt IFRS, consistent with more powerful countries being... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Globalized Economies and Regions; Network Effects; Standards; Adoption

SSRN

Read Now

2020
Book

China and Europe on the New Silk Road: Connecting Universities Across Eurasia

By: Marijk C. van der Wende, William C. Kirby, Nian Cai Liu and Simon Marginson

The global order, based on international governance and multilateral trade mechanisms in the aftermath of the Second World War, is changing rapidly and creating waves of uncertainty. This is especially true in higher education, a field increasingly built on... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Globalization; Cooperation; China; Europe

February 2017 (Revised June 2017)
Case

ExxonMobil: Business as Usual? (A)

By: George Serafeim, Shiva Rajgopal and David Freiberg

Climate change was becoming an important societal and business issue as more governments were introducing climate change related regulations and investors became increasibly worried about stranded assets within oil and gas firms. In September 2016, the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Oil ＆ Gas; Oil Prices; Oil Companies; Asset Impairment; Predictive Analytics; Sustainability; Environmental Impact; Innovation; Disclosure; Accounting; Valuation; Climate Change; Renewable Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Reporting; Energy Industry

February 2025 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Align Partners and SM Entertainment: Korean Shareholder Activism Meets K-Pop (A)

By: Charles CY Wang and Billy Chan

For years, institutional investors had experienced very limited success in influencing the management of listed companies through shareholder activist campaigns in Korea. The common practice of circular ownership and public resentment toward foreign shareholder... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Public Equity; Stocks; Investment Activism; Music Entertainment; Corporate Governance; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; South Korea

December 1998 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Korea Stock Exchange, 1998

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and James Chang

Following a major financial crisis, the South Korean government attempted to revive the Korea Stock Exchange to spur equity investment in Korean companies. This case describes the reforms undertaken so far and the challenges that lay ahead. View Details

Keywords: Equity; Stocks; Restructuring; Emerging Markets; Corporate Governance; Business and Government Relations; Accounting Industry; Financial Services Industry; South Korea

February 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Saudi Arabia: A Vision in Progress

By: Kristin Fabbe, Adel Hamaizia and Tom Quinn

In 2016, when Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced a long-range economic and social transformation plan called Vision 2030, he faced Western skepticism about how the oil-rich and religiously conservative country would accomplish its ambitious goals.... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Economies and Regions; Government Administration; International Relations; Leading Change; Privatization; Religion; Public Opinion; Saudi Arabia

19 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

Business Research that Makes for Smarter Public Policy

went to Washington, I saw a tremendous need for fact-based analysis to inform policymaking” Last spring, Toffel sought to change that by taking the unusual step of convening academics and government... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

August 2015 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Shareholder Activists and Corporate Strategy

By: David Collis and Ashley Hartman

By 2015, there had been an upsurge in activist shareholders arguing for radical changes in companies' corporate strategies. Personalities like Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman, and Daniel Loeb were feared and loathed in some quarters, celebrated in others. With nearly $120... View Details

Keywords: Scope; Activist Investors; Spin-offs; Synergy; Diversification; Consolidation; Hedge Fund; Corporate Strategy