Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(8,266)
- Faculty Publications (1,700)
- September–October 2017
- Article
The Surprising Power of Online Experiments: Getting the Most Out of A/B and Other Controlled Tests
By: Ron Kohavi and Stefan Thomke
In the fast-moving digital world, even experts have a hard time assessing new ideas. Case in point: At Bing, a small headline change an employee proposed was deemed a low priority and shelved for months until one engineer decided to do a quick online controlled... View Details
- September–October 2017
- Article
Why Do We Undervalue Competent Management?: Neither Great Leadership Nor Brilliant Strategy Matters Without Operational Excellence
By: Raffaella Sadun, Nicholas Bloom and John Van Reenen
A recurring message in business education is that you can’t compete on the basis of management processes because they’re easily copied. Operational effectiveness is table stakes in the competitive universe, it is often assumed, and thus cannot serve as a sustainable... View Details
- August 2017 (Revised April 2024)
- Case
Ardian: Portfolio Company Governance
By: Lynn S. Paine, Emer Moloney and Tonia Labruyere
Leaders of the mid-cap buyout group at Ardian, the Paris-based private equity firm led by Dominique Senequier, have been asked to review and assess the governance model the firm uses for majority-owned companies in its portfolio. The case describes the governance model... View Details
- August 2017 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Berkshire Partners: Party City
By: Victoria Ivashina and Jeffrey Boyar
In 2005, Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm specializing in growth equity, was one year into their ownership of Amscan, the market leader of designed, manufactured, and distributed decorated party goods and accessories. However, Amscan's primary... View Details
- August 2017 (Revised December 2018)
- Case
Tamarin App: Natural Language Processing
By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler
In this case, students explore the challenges of using sentiment analysis to monitor and understand public perception around a software application, Tamarin SEO App. Technical topics include building a filtering classifier using naive Bayes and sentiment analysis This... View Details
- August 2017 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
Busbud: Building a Data Company
By: Srikant M. Datar, Alistair Croll and Caitlin N. Bowler
The case features the work of LP Maurice (HBS '08) as he decides to take on the fragmented bus travel industry and launch an online business that aggregates and shares bus schedules for routes around the world. His first challenge: finding that the data he needs is... View Details
- August 2017 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
Veracity Worldwide: Evaluating FCPA-Related Risks in West Africa
By: Aldo Musacchio and Sophus A. Reinert
- August 2017 (Revised September 2023)
- Case
Altoona State Investment Board & Bain Capital Fund XI
By: Josh Lerner and Ted Berk
Considers the decision faced by state pension fund manager Rod Calhoun as he decides whether to invest $200 million in Bain Capital's eleventh global buyout fund: Bain Capital Fund XI. For the fund, Bain was offering its limited partners a choice among three different... View Details
- August 2017 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
The Oakland Athletics: Strategy & Metrics for a Budget
By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler
This case considers Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane’s data driven and, in baseball circles unconventional, approach to winning games over the duration of the long Major League Baseball season. Beane’s critical approach to crafting strategy within his... View Details
- July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
'Clarín Lies!': Bias, Post-Truth, and Populism in Argentina's Media War
By: Rafael Di Tella, Jose Liberti and Sarah McAra
In 2012, Argentine media conglomerate Grupo Clarín and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner were embroiled in what some called “the mother of all battles.” Grupo Clarín was one of the preeminent media companies in Argentina, with leading newspapers, cable... View Details
- July 2017 (Revised September 2017)
- Case
GM's Capital Allocation Framework
By: C. Fritz Foley, F. Katelynn Boland and Michael Lemm
In March of 2015, General Motors announced the details of a newly established capital allocation framework. This framework provided a target for return on invested capital, guidelines for capital structure choices, and policies related to payouts. Senior managers face... View Details
- July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
Media Markets Down South: Goldman Sachs' Investment in Grupo Clarín
By: Rafael Di Tella, Jose Liberti and Sarah McAra
Founded in 1945, Grupo Clarín expanded over several decades to become Argentina’s largest media conglomerate. With leading positions in newspapers, broadcast television, broadcast radio, cable television, and Internet services, Grupo Clarín caught the attention of... View Details
- July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
Propel
By: Mitchell Weiss and Sarah McAra
In 2014, Jimmy Chen, a former product manager at Facebook, founded the start-up Propel to build software for low-income Americans. After conducting in-depth behavioral research, Chen and his small team in New York City began to develop technology to address the... View Details
Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Govtech; Food Stamps; EBT; Mobile App; User Research; Financial Services Referrals; Grocery Marketing; Customer Discovery; Social Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Business Model; Research; Social Enterprise; Poverty; Welfare; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; United States
- July 2017
- Case
Centerbridge Partners and Great Wolf Resorts: Buying from a Highly Regarded Competitor
By: Josh Lerner, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal
The case examines the March 2015 Centerbridge Partners investment decision regarding whether to acquire Great Wolf Resorts, a North American family-oriented indoor water parks and hotel operator, from a private equity (PE) competitor, Apollo Global Management. The case... View Details
Keywords: Private Equity Financing; Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities; CMBS; Secondary Buyouts; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Cost; Cost of Capital; Equity; Private Equity; Financial Instruments; Debt Securities; Accommodations Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States
- June 2017
- Case
AKB48: Going Global? (A)
By: Juan Alcácer, Kotaro Sasamoto, Tee Chayakul and Mayuka Yamazaki
After a remarkable success in Japan, the producer of the Japanese female singing group AKB48 evaluates market opportunities overseas for his artistic creation. This case introduces the business model behind the AKB48 concept and allows students to identify what... View Details
Keywords: Brand Building; Brand Extension; Culture-based Products; Global Products; Differentiation; Intellectual Property; International Business; Local Products; Strategy; Value Capture; Market Entry and Exit; Music Entertainment; Business Model; Global Strategy; Global Range; Brands and Branding; Value Creation; Expansion; Music Industry; Japan; China; Indonesia; Taiwan; Philippines; Thailand; South Korea
- June 2017 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
Goodbye IMF Conditions, Hello Chinese Capital: Zambia's Copper Industry and Africa's Break with Its Colonial Past
By: Rafael Di Tella, Vincent Pons, Sarah Mehta and David Lane
Over the past several decades, rapid growth in Chinese investment and trade has created for Africa a new development partner. China represents an alternative to U.S. and European nations whose past imperialism, resource avarice, and economic dictates—through the... View Details
- June 2017
- Teaching Note
The U-Turns of National Truck Stops
By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Alexander W. Schultz
Raj Makam had spent months trying to restructure a 2006 investment he had made in National Truck Stops, Inc. (“NTS”) as a senior member of Oaktree Capital Management’s (“Oaktree”) Mezzanine finance business within their Corporate Debt platform. It was the first time... View Details
- August 2017
- Article
Is the SEC Captured? Evidence from Comment-Letter Reviews
By: Jonas Heese, Mozaffar Khan and Karthik Ramanna
SEC oversight of publicly listed firms ranges from comment letter (CL) reviews of firms’ reporting compliance to pursuing enforcement actions against violators. Prior literature finds that firm political connections (PC) negatively predict enforcement actions,... View Details
- 2019
- Chapter
Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
Return on invested capital (ROIC) is a financial measure of the profitability of a firm or business unit. If it is greater than the business's cost of capital, then reinvestment of earnings increases shareholder VALUE. The ROIC also determines a maximum self-sustaining... View Details
- May 2017
- Teaching Note
The Container Store
By: Tatiana Sandino and Kyle Thomas
“The Container Store” teaching note describes how the case can be taught to MBA or executive education students who are interested in developing a strong culture, implementing strategy, and managing growth. The authors wrote the case for teaching MBA courses such as... View Details