Publications

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2007
Working Paper

Interpersonal Authority in a Theory of the Firm

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper develops a theory of the firm in which a firm's centralized asset ownership and low-powered incentives give a manager 'interpersonal authority' over employees (in a world with differing priors). The paper derives such interpersonal authority as... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Employee Relationship Management; Managerial Roles; Motivation and Incentives; Boundaries; Theory

SSRN

January 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

GLOBALGAP: Food Safety and Private Standards

By: David E. Bell and Mary Louise Shelman

In response to new laws governing liability and several food safety scares in the 1990s, European retailers drove the creation of a universal production standard based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for fresh fruit and vegetables and a third-party certification... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Food; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Safety; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe

December 8, 2022
Article

The New China Shock: How Beijing’s Party-State Capitalism Is Changing the Global Economy

By: Margaret M. Pearson, Meg Rithmire and Kellee S. Tsai

In the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008, China began to move away from the market-based approach that had shaped its economic policies for three decades, and toward something that might be termed “party-state capitalism,” which involves a high degree of... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Globalized Economies and Regions; Economic Systems; Trade; China

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Article

The Learning Effects of Monitoring

By: Dennis Campbell, Marc Epstein and F. Asis Martinez-Jerez

This paper investigates the relationship between monitoring, decision making, and learning among lower-level employees. We exploit a field-research setting in which business units vary in the "tightness" with which they monitor employee decisions. We find that tighter... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Business or Company Management; Decision Making; Employees; Research; Resignation and Termination; Rights; Business Units; Governance Controls; Performance; Motivation and Incentives

Find at Harvard

February 2015
Case

CLP: Powering Asia

By: George Serafeim, Rebecca Henderson and Dawn Lau

Richard Lancaster, taking over from Andrew Brandler, was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CLP Holdings Ltd., one of the leading power companies in Asia, with operations in China, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Australia, and India, and an energy portfolio spanning coal,... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Environmental Sustainability; Goals and Objectives; Values and Beliefs; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategic Planning; Energy Industry; Asia; India

02 Mar 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is the Government’s Role in US Health Care?

various free market mechanisms for addressing these issues. Where to start? Paul Jackson suggests that "The only thing the government should be involved with is controlling the drug, insurance, and medical... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

14 Feb 2023
HBS Case

Is Sweden Still 'Sweden'? A Liberal Utopia Grapples with an Identity Crisis

policy: An active national government with a desire to achieve an equitable distribution of income and wealth; a generous social welfare system financed by taxes; and a shared structure of corporate control... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

26 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 26, 2017

worked are positively correlated with firm performance, and differences between family and non-family CEOs account for approximately 18% of the performance gap between family and non-family firms. We investigate the sources of the differences in CEO labor supply across... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Accounting & Management - Faculty & Research

segment largely overlooked by other platforms. As the company grew, it expanded into the mass market and developed a network of subsidiaries to support its core focus on food delivery. The most prominent of these was Logi, its in-house logistics arm, which gave Jahez... View Details

February 2009 (Revised September 2010)
Case

JWT China: Advertising for the New Chinese Consumer

By: Elisabeth Koll

This case analyzes the business strategy and expansion of JWT China from the late 1990s to 2008. As part of the world's fourth largest marketing communications network, JWT China grew into one of the largest integrated communications companies in China operating from... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Business and Government Relations; Business Strategy; Expansion; Advertising Industry; China

October 1997 (Revised November 1997)
Case

NAACP, The

By: James E. Austin, Paul Barese, Stephanie L. Woerner and Elaine V. Backman

In February 1995, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the largest civil rights organization in the United States, was in the midst of a crisis. The executive director had been fired due to financial improprieties amid charges of... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Capital; Governance Controls; Resignation and Termination; Selection and Staffing; Rights; Leadership; Management; United States

February 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Spiegel-Verlag Rudolf Augstein GmbH & Co. KG

By: Belen Villalonga, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Vincent Dessain

Der Spiegel is Germany's most influential political news magazine. In the 1970s, its founder Rudolf Augstein gave a 50% ownership stake to his employees and sold another 25% to rival publisher Gruner+Jahr, but retained significant control during his lifetime by... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Governance Controls; Employee Ownership; Family Ownership; Business and Shareholder Relations; Journalism and News Industry; Publishing Industry; Germany

12 Jun 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The Triumph of the Humble Chief Risk Officer

Keywords: by Anette Mikes

14 Mar 2023
In Practice

What Does the Failure of Silicon Valley Bank Say About the State of Finance?

on SVB, and the subsequent run on other regional banks. Many observers postulate that the vulnerability was hiding in plain sight (an unsettling thought), a result of a combination of COVID government stimulus followed by a series of... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

17 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

The Investment Strategies of Sovereign Wealth Funds

Keywords: by Shai Bernstein, Josh Lerner & Antoinette Schoar; Financial Services

09 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Could Clean Hydrogen Become Affordable at Scale by 2030?

Hydrogen is poised to move from the sidelines of global clean energy as the industry learns to produce it more efficiently and at lower cost, according to newly published research led by Gunther Glenk, a climate fellow with Harvard Business School's Institute for the... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Green Technology

03 Jan 2007
First Look

First Look: January 3, 2007

its ability to make key business decisions? If the company were to build its own plant, the question was: Would the cost of starting from scratch be more than sufficiently compensated by the total control the company would enjoy? Purchase... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2010
Article

Managed Globalization: Doctrine, Practice, and Promise

By: Rawi Abdelal and Sophie Meunier

Two alternate visions for shaping and explaining the governance of economic globalization have been in competition for the past 20 years: an ad hoc, laissez-faire vision promoted by the United States versus a managed vision relying on multilateral rules and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Trade; Globalized Economies and Regions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; European Union; United States

July 2001 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Policy Management Systems Corp.: The Financial Reporting Crisis

Tim Williams, the new CFO of a publicly-traded enterprise software company, attempts to rebuild his company's reputation for reliable financial reporting following a highly visible financial reporting crisis. The crisis begins with an earnings shortfall warning, which... View Details

Keywords: Accrual Accounting; Revenue Recognition; Capital Markets; Policy; Corporate Governance; Accounting Audits; Technology Industry