Publications

25 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 25

scale and influence in the technology industries that fall under the incidence of their assets. We also discuss some efficiency issues raised by the growing prominence of patent merchants. Download the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Why We Blab Our Intimate Secrets on Facebook

each one, they rated the behavior on a scale of "not at all unethical" to "extremely unethical" and answered questions about whether they themselves had ever engaged in that behavior. “We basically sat down... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

17 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 17

benefits of incremental (operational) planning, and decreases the benefits of comprehensive (strategic) planning. The Growth Opportunity That Lies Next Door Author:Geoffrey Jones Publication:Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 19

major lawsuits and actions by NGOs. The case describes those challenges and raises questions about what is the optimal response on the part of the company in order to ensure future View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 1990 (Revised November 1994)
Case

Kao Corp.

By: John A. Quelch

As the Japanese diaper market expands, Kao management must determine its response to new product introductions by its two major competitors. Options include launching a new premium priced brand or a new low priced brand, or increasing advertising and promotion... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Marketing Strategy; Industry Growth; Product Launch; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; Japan

19 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 19

challenges of servicing both internal and external Aladdin clients during a period of rapid growth within BlackRock and significant change in the global financial landscape.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 7

poorer Latin American countries. Traditional exports—coal, coffee, oil—still comprised more than half the total, while manufactured exports comprised only a fifth. Public investment in transport and other infrastructure—a perpetual... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2018 (Revised June 2018)
Case

City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and James Weber

In 2018, City Year was a 30-year-old nonprofit that recruited and organized teams of young-adult “volunteers” (corps teams) to provide a year of citizen service. It had 3,100 corps members serving in 327 schools located in 28 U.S. cities. In its early decades, City... View Details

Keywords: Education; Service Operations; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Efficiency; Resource Allocation; Change Management; Social Entrepreneurship; Middle School Education; Secondary Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Human Capital; Growth Management; Service Delivery; Organizational Design; Social Enterprise; Poverty; United States

Profile

Philipp Schäelli

to become more important in the management and investing process. After my summer experience in growth equity in Nigeria I knew that I wanted to focus on private equity for my fulltime recruitment. I also... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital / Private Equity; Financial Services

January 2017
Teaching Note

SOHO China: Transformation in Progress

By: Charles F. Wu and Alexander W. Schultz

In 2016 against the backdrop of a challenging Chinese macroeconomic environment, SOHO China, the largest owner and developer of Class-A real estate in Beijing and Shanghai, was struggling to convince analysts of the merits of their new “build-to-hold” strategy. Founded... View Details

Keywords: Merchant Builder; Real Estate Development; Public Markets; China; Shared Office Space; Growth and Development Strategy; Property; Construction; Stocks; Financial Markets; Marketing Strategy; Real Estate Industry; Construction Industry; China

Profile

Luc Sirois

and growth to build new organizations.” Equally life-changing were the guest lectures taught by the likes of Jeff Bezos, who, at the time, was merely the founder of an online used bookstore. “To have those... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Technology; Nonprofit / Government

2013
Working Paper

FIN Around the World: The Contribution of Financing Activity to Profitability

By: Russell Lundholm, George Serafeim and Gwen Yu

We study how the availability of domestic credit influences the contribution that financing activities make to a firm's return on equity (ROE). Using a sample of 51,866 firms from 69 countries, we find that financing activities contribute more to a firm's ROE in... View Details

Keywords: Domestic Credit; Return Of Equity; Corporate Performance; Financial Statement Analysis; Financial Statements; Valuation; Cost of Capital; Asset Pricing; Economic Growth

SSRN

July 2018 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Hidrovias do Brasil: Navigating Unchartered Waters

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Since its founding eight years earlier, Hidrovias do Brasil (“Hidrovias”), an integrated logistics provider serving corporate customers exporting products from South America via the Atlantic Ocean, had grown to 900 employees and $253 million in annual revenues.... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Private Equity; Brazil; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Operation Management; General Management; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Growth and Development; Leadership; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Transportation; Human Capital; Strategy; Emerging Markets; Brazil

April 1984 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Waltham Motors Division

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Loss of a major contract has reduced production volume below the level expected when budget and standard costs were determined. Apparently favorable results for monthly operations result from reduced volume rather than operating efficiency. Rewritten version of a case... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Cost Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Activity Based Costing and Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Accounting Industry; Industrial Products Industry