Publications

November 2000 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Loewen Group Inc., The

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jose Camacho

A publiclytraded funeral home and cemetery consolidator faces imminent financial distress. The company has aggressively grown through use of debt. Restructuring the debt is potentially very costly to creditors, shareholders, suppliers, and other corporate stakeholders.... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Cost of Capital; Debt Securities; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Crisis Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Service Industry

October 1986 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Pinnacle Mutual Life Insurance Company

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Pinnacle Mutual is one of the largest mutual life insurance companies in the world. Offering a full range of financial services, it competes with a broad group of financial service providers. In an effort to compete more effectively, Pinnacle adopted GAAP accounting... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

September 1991 (Revised October 1991)
Background Note

LIFO or FIFO? That Is the Question

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Excerpts from annual reports of Blount, Inc., Penn Central Corp., and Quaker Oats. Shows changes in inventory valuation from FIFO to LIFO and LIFO to FIFO. Intended to promote a discussion of assumed cost flows through inventory accounts, accounting method changes, the... View Details

Keywords: Accounting

Professor Narayanan is the Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration, and Senior Associate Dean of Executive Education and HBS Online. His research focuses on management accounting with an interest in performance evaluation and incentives... View Details

Keywords: accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry

February 1992 (Revised October 1996)
Case

CUC International, Inc. (A)

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Paul M. Healy

The case series examines the role of financial reporting and corporate finance policies as vehicles for communication between managers and outside investors. This case describes management's concern that the company's stock is undervalued because analysts viewed the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Stocks; Financial Management; Decisions; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Management Style; Management Practices and Processes; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value; Financial Services Industry

Inconsistencies in accounting treatment across countries are a major obstacle for global equity investment. Founded in 1985, HOLT is an equity valuation service provider that offers its clients (e.g., global equity investors) a consistent performance metrics from... View Details

24 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 24

Canadian regulators' decision to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The Canadian decision in 2005 to adopt IFRS is particularly interesting because... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Charlotte L. Robertson

Charlotte Robertson is an Assistant Professor in the Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches BGIE in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Robertson conducts research on the history of financial... View Details

Video

What Is Return on Investment (ROI)?

January 2013 (Revised March 2016)
Case

The Private Company Council

By: Karthik Ramanna and Luis M. Viceira

Financial Accounting Foundation chairman Jack Brennan is under pressure from private-company interests to set up a new body—the Private Company Council—to determine separate GAAP for private companies. PCC advocates—including the US Chamber of Commerce—argue that... View Details

Keywords: FASB; Lobbying; Political Economy; Accounting; Government and Politics; Leadership; Financial Markets; Accounting Industry; Accounting Industry; Accounting Industry

Srikant M. Datar became the eleventh dean of Harvard Business School on 1 January 2021. During his tenure as a faculty member, he served as Senior Associate Dean for University Affairs (including Faculty Chair of the Harvard Innovation Lab), for Research, for... View Details

Keywords: accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry

December 1993 (Revised April 1994)
Case

Polaroid: Managing Environmental Responsibilities and Their Costs

Costs relating to companies' impact on the environment are increasing at a dramatic rate. Thus, managing, measuring, and reporting of these costs has become an important issue for managers. Accounting for environmental responsibilities is one of the largest and most... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Accounting; Environmental Sustainability

January 1994 (Revised July 1994)
Case

Dell Computer Corporation

By: Peter Tufano

Tina Chen, chief investment officer of a large insurance company, hears accusations by a Kidder Peabody equity research analyst that Dell Computer Corp. might be improperly accounting for what he suspects are large foreign exchange losses resulting from speculation.... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Financial Instruments; Ethics; Financial Statements; Computer Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

07 Oct 2014
HBS Seminar

Dylan Minor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

2017
Working Paper

Salience through Information Technology: The Effect of Balance Availability on the Smoothing of SNAP Benefits

By: Andrew Hillis

Recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) run out of most benefits before halfway through a benefit deposit cycle. I study the introduction of a mobile software application, Fresh EBT, that enables beneficiaries to check their available balance... View Details

Keywords: Mobile Technology; Welfare or Wellbeing; Technology Adoption; Behavior

Read Now

04 Apr 2016
HBS Seminar

Ariel Stern, Harvard Business School

December 2010 (Revised June 2018)
Case

The Pecora Hearings

By: David Moss, Cole Bolton and Eugene Kintgen

In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, the Senate Banking Committee began a much-publicized investigation of the nation's financial sector. The hearings, which came to be known as the Pecora hearings after the Banking Committee's lead counsel Ferdinand Pecora,... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Fairness; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Institutions; Debt Securities; Stocks; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Legislation; History; Financial Services Industry; United States

January 2024
Case

Post-Wirecard: BaFin under Mark Branson

By: Jonas Heese, Carlota Moniz and Daniela Beyersdorfer

In November 2023, Mark Branson, the head of Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), reflected on the efficacy of the reforms initiated since the Wirecard scandal. BaFin had been discredited after Wirecard’s downfall in 2020. The press had derided it... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Administration; Failure; Trust; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Germany

November 2009 (Revised August 2013)
Case

IFRS in China

By: Karthik Ramanna, G.A. Donovan and Nancy Dai

In 2005, China announced plans to "converge with," but not completely adopt, IFRS. China also began to lobby for changes to specific IFRS provisions, such as for related party disclosures by state-owned firms, to bring them more into line with Chinese interests.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Corporate Disclosure; Standards; State Ownership; Business and Government Relations; China