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- December 2000
- Background Note
Intellectual Asset Valuation
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Gavin Clarkson
Discusses the shortcomings of the current "rules of thumb" for intellectual asset valuation in the context of intellectual property licensing transactions. As an alternative to the present scheme, this note proposes quantitative methods for such valuations in order to... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised April 2001)
- Case
Cost of Capital at Ameritrade
By: Mark L. Mitchell and Erik Stafford
Ameritrade Holding Corp. is planning large marketing and technology investments to improve the company's competitive position in deep-discount brokerage by taking advantage of emerging economies of scale. In order to evaluate whether the strategy would generate... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised March 2004)
- Background Note
Variance Analysis and Flexible Budgeting
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Facilitates the teaching of cases on variance analysis and flexible budgeting. Uses algebra, diagrams, and numerical examples to illustrate the calculation of price, quantity, and mix variances for revenues and costs, and a flexible budget for analyzing indirect and... View Details
- October 2000
- Background Note
Sustaining Value
By: Robert J. Dolan
Describes the challenges a firm faces in building and sustaining a value proposition over time. Describes major ways in which the marketing environment changes over time and the methods a firm can use to protect its market position. View Details
- September 2000
- Case
MCI-WorldCom Combination, The (A)
By: Paul M. Healy and Jacob Cohen
Outlines the accounting decision faced by WorldCom in its acquisition of MCI. Two methods are discussed (purchase and pooling) and students are asked to evaluate which would be more suitable for WorldCom. View Details
- August 2000 (Revised July 2001)
- Case
Laura Martin: Real Options and the Cable Industry
By: Mihir A. Desai and Peter Tufano
CSFB equity research analyst Laura Martin publishes a report on valuing Cox Communications that introduces an innovative approach to valuation. She contends that EBITDA multiple analysis, typical for the cable industry, is flawed because it overlooks the value of the... View Details
- August 2000 (Revised September 2000)
- Case
Extraprise
By: Srikant M. Datar, Krishna G. Palepu and Sarah S. Khetani
In the three years since it was founded, the Boston-based Internet strategy consulting firm, Extraprise, has changed its strategy three times. Jennifer Gabler, the CFO, considers what kinds of control systems she can put in place to ensure the company can continue to... View Details
- July 2000
- Case
Aerospace Technologies, Inc.
By: Paul M. Healy and Jacob Cohen
Ben Galil's privately held engineering consulting firm represents aerospace products manufacturers in Israeli government biddings. The company incurs expenses for years before getting paid. This case deals with the alternative methods for booking revenues and expenses... View Details
- May 2000
- Article
Maxmin Expected Utility over Savage Acts with a Set of Priors
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Peter Klibanoff and Emre Ozdenoren
This paper provides an axiomatic foundation for a maxmin expected utility over a set of priors (MMEU) decision rule in an environment where the elements of choice are Savage acts. This characterization complements the original axiomatizations of MMEU developed in a... View Details
- Article
Valuation of Bankrupt Firms
By: S. C. Gilson, E. S. Hotchkiss and R. S. Ruback
This study compares the market value of firms that reorganize in bankruptcy with estimates of value based on management's published cash flow projections. We estimate firm values using models that have been shown in other contexts to generate relatively precise... View Details
- March 2000
- Case
Heartport, Inc.
By: Gary P. Pisano and Shoshana Dobrow
Heartport, an entrepreneurial medical device maker, has introduced several innovative systems for conducting less-invasive cardiac surgery. Despite initially high expectations, the company has struggled to get its technology adopted by cardiac surgeons. The company's... View Details
- January 2000 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network - The Primary Care Unit
By: V.G. Narayanan, Lisa Brem and Ryan Moore
The Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network needed to gain a better understanding of its unit-of-service costs, which had been rising at a rate of 10% per year. The network's step-down costing system gave only aggregate costing information, and there was some... View Details
- January 2000
- Article
Maxmin Expected Utility through Statewise Combinations
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Peter Klibanoff and Emre Ozdenoren
This paper provides an axiomatic foundation for a maxmin expected utility over a set of priors (MMEU) decision rule in an environment where the elements of choice are Savage acts. The key axioms are stated using statewise combinations as in Gul (1992). View Details
- November 1999 (Revised July 2003)
- Case
Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.
By: Paul M. Healy and Jacob Cohen
Pre-Paid Legal Services' business model reveals two key issues--managing the sales force and sales growth and managing claims. Students analyze the economics of the business and consider how to measure firm performance, how to evaluate and reward the sales force, and... View Details
- 1999
- Other Unpublished Work
Estimating Industry Multiples
By: Malcolm Baker and R. S. Ruback
We analyze industry multiples for the S&P 500 in 1995. We use Gibbs sampling to estimate simultaneously the error specification and small sample minimum variance multiples for 22 industries. In addition, we consider the performance of four common multiples: the simple... View Details
- June 1999
- Article
Projections onto Efficient Frontiers: Theoretical and Computational Extensions to DEA
By: F. Frei and P. Harker
- May 1999 (Revised August 1999)
- Case
Victory Supermarkets: Expansion Strategy?
By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon
Jay DiGeronimo, president of a 16-store supermarket chain, is trying to decide the timing and method for expanding his chain. The family-owned company could continue in a maintenance mode, with each family member running one store. It could expand slowly using a new... View Details
- April 1999 (Revised May 2000)
- Case
Compaq Computer: Intel Inside?
By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon
Presents the results of quantitative and qualitative market research on the possible acceptance of a non-Intel processor in Compaq Computer's consumer notebook line. If the low-priced, non-Intel notebook is a success, the company will maintain or increase its 45% share... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised December 2001)
- Background Note
Analyzing Consumer Preferences
By: Robert J. Dolan
Presents a non-traditional description of the conjoint analysis methodology. Discusses the process by which a study is done and cites areas of application. View Details
- Article
Wealth-Making in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Britain: Industry v. Commerce and Finance
By: Tom Nicholas
This paper refutes the hypothesis put forward by W.D. Rubinstein that a disproportionately large share of Britain's wealth makers were active in commercial and financial trades in London. We use a data set of businessmen active in nineteenth- and early... View Details
Keywords: Trade; Finance; Commercialization; Mathematical Methods; Wealth and Poverty; Great Britain; London