Publications

Read Now

June 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Background Note

The Decline of the British Cotton Industry (Abridged)

Supplements the general argument concerning the decline of the British economy by showing how vertical specialization, horizontal competition, and entrenched job control combined to create incentives for management to adapt to changing international conditions by... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Business Cycles; Organizational Structure; Consumer Products Industry; Great Britain

Find at Harvard

Aliya Korganbekova is an assistant professor in the Accounting and Management Unit. She teaches the Financial Reporting and Control course in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Korganbekova's research focuses on... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Avoiding Idiosyncratic Volatility: Flow Sensitivity to Individual Stock Returns

By: Marco Di Maggio, Francesco Franzoni, Shimon Kogan and Ran Xing

Despite positive and significant earnings announcement premia, we find that institutional investors reduce their exposure to stocks before earnings announcements. A novel result on the sensitivity of flows to individual stock returns provides a potential explanation.... View Details

Keywords: New Trading; Mutual Funds; Fund Flows; Limits To Arbitrage; Financial Constraints; Earnings Announcements; Institutional Investing; Stocks

SSRN

Read Now

March 2023
Teaching Note

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-069. On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth... View Details

April 1991 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Southland Corp. (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback

Examines the Thompson's $4.9 billion leveraged buyout of the Southland Corp. in 1987. As the original founders of Southland, the Thompsons were concerned about losing control over the company upon learning of the Belzberg family's acquiring interest. The teaching... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Governance Controls; Corporate Governance; Bids and Bidding; Valuation; Forecasting and Prediction; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Strategy; Cash Flow

March 1998 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Tyco International

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery, Robert E. Kennedy, Lisa J. Chadderdon and Hal Hogan

Tyco, a diversified U.S. conglomerate, has grown rapidly for more than 20 years. This case examines Tyco's acquisition strategy as well as its internal control systems. View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Corporate Strategy; Business or Company Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; United States

22 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

Business leaders can't develop and execute effective strategy without first gathering the right information, says Harvard Business School professor Robert Simons. In his new book, Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution, Simons explains how... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

November 1993 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Rudi Gassner and the Executive Committee of BMG International (A)

By: Linda Hill and Katherine Seger Weber

Explores the roles of CEO Rudi Gassner and the 9-person executive committee in leading BMG International. BMG International is the international music subsidiary of Bertlesmann, a German company that is the second-largest media conglomerate in the world. Describes a... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Decision Making; Business Plan; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Business Subsidiaries; Business Conglomerates; Cost Management; Change Management; Music Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Germany

January 2011
Case

A Slice of the Pie: Ruby Collins and Tenants in Common

By: John D. Macomber and Kristian Peterson

A securitized small real estate investment vehicle fails and the many individual owners have to decide how to manage or dispose of the asset. This case follows Ruby Collins, a small investor, through the logic of Section 1031 Like Kind Exchanges as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Investment; Risk Management; Ownership Stake; Partners and Partnerships; Valuation; Real Estate Industry

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

control that particular day. Several explanations compete: human error, weather, all the dangers inherent in human beings pitting themselves against the world's most forbidding peak. A single cause of the 1996 tragedy may never be known,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

Robert S. Kaplan

Robert S. Kaplan is Senior Fellow and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. He joined the HBS faculty in 1984 after spending 16 years on the faculty of the business school at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he... View Details

Keywords: health care; nonprofit industry

April 1997
Case

Peoria Engine Plant (A): (Abridged)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Amy P. Hutton

Describes the cost control system used at an automobile engine plant for labor and overhead costs. The finance staff prepares daily, weekly, and monthly variance reports against budgets. Department supervisors, finance staff, and the plant manager discuss the use and... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Cost Management; Financial Reporting; Performance Improvement; Budgets and Budgeting; Auto Industry

04 Apr 2023
What Do You Think?

How Does Remote Work Affect Innovation?

here”? Would the result have been the same? We can at least hypothesize several notions based on early research regarding remote work. Many talented people love it. Some of the reasons they love it, such as the ability to gain more View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Sep 2006
What Do You Think?

Are We Ready for Self-Management?

decision that invites initiative and not followership." But John Inman's comments suggested a concern that was more strongly voiced by others, when he commented that "if you are a command and control View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2000
Other Unpublished Work

Do Executive Stock Options Encourage Risk-Taking?

By: Randolph B. Cohen, Brian J. Hall and Luis M. Viceira

Executive stock options create incentives for executives to manage firms in ways that maximize firm market value. Since options increase in value with the volatility of the underlying stock, executive stock options provide managers with incentives to take actions that... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Motivation and Incentives; Stock Options; Executive Compensation

Read Now

December 2019
Case

Steemit: A New Social Media?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Alexander White and Karen Elterman

This case discusses the alternative social media site Steemit, including the principles it was founded on in 2016 and the challenges it faced in 2019. Steemit was a blockchain-based platform that aimed to differentiate itself from other social media companies by... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Culture as a Signal: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment

By: Wei Cai, Dennis Campbell and Jiehang Yu

The importance of culture as an informal management control system is increasingly acknowledged in academia. While prior research mainly focuses on the value of culture on internal stakeholders (e.g., employees), we examine whether culture serves as a credible signal... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Groups and Teams; Customer Focus and Relationships

SSRN

September 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Case

RailTex, Inc. (A)

By: Norman A. Berg and James Weber

By 1992, RailTex, Inc., had acquired and was operating 23 geographically separate short-line railroads (feeder lines for larger railroads) in Mexico, Canada, and primarily in the United States. Founded in 1977 with $500,000 of capital as a railcar leasing company, the... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Business Divisions; Cost Management; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Systems; Product Marketing; Logistics; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation