Publications

April 2010
Article

Executive Pay and 'Independent' Compensation Consultants

By: K. J. Murphy and Tatiana Sandino

Executive compensation consultants face potential conflicts of interest that can lead to higher recommended levels of CEO pay, including the desires to "cross-sell" services and to secure "repeat business." We find evidence in both the US and Canada that CEO pay is... View Details

Keywords: Compensation Consultants; Conflicts Of Interest; CEO Pay; Board Of Directors; Director Pay; Disclosure; Conflict of Interests; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Disclosure; Executive Compensation; Corporate Governance; Consulting Industry; Canada; United States

SSRN

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03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping

mail carrier to supplement the family's income. Even so, when young Malcolm graduated from high school in 1931, the country was in the midst of the Depression and further schooling was simply not an option. Pumping gas at a service... View Details

Keywords: by Anthony J. Mayo & Nitin Nohria; Manufacturing; Transportation; Aerospace

April 2019
Case

Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma

By: Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe and George Gonzalez

In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online purchases through four interest-free... View Details

August 2021
Supplement

Aligning Mission and Margin at Southern Bancorp

By: Brian Trelstad

Video Supplement for HBS Case No. 321-099. In October 2020, after spending almost a decade to turnaround Southern Bancorp, an Arkansan bank founded with the mission to provide financial services to rural, underserved communities, CEO Darrin Williams is wondering how... View Details

Keywords: Racial Wealth Gap; Banks and Banking; Growth and Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Going Public; Investment Return; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; Arkansas

July 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Private Communications Corporation (A)

Ann Meceda is a soon-to-be MBA graduate. She has been working as the director of marketing in an Internet start-up, and now the founder wants her to become CEO. She must weigh the personal and business risks and assess her own objectives and tolerance for risks. View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Internet and the Web; Management Succession; Marketing; Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Service Industry

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November 2014
Case

BRAC in 2014

By: Tarun Khanna, Rachna Tahilyani, Reeti Roy and Aldo Sesia

In the early 1970s BRAC was a startup nongovernmental organization (NGO) working in Bangladesh. By 2014, it was the world's largest NGO. It had a strong presence in Bangladesh and had begun to deliver social development programs in nine other countries. Its founder and... View Details

Keywords: BRAC; Bangladesh; NGO; Strategy; Business Model; Business Organization; Social Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Enterprise; Social Issues; Poverty; Bangladesh

August 2014
Case

Netflix in 2011

By: Willy Shih and Stephen Kaufman

Reed Hastings founded Netflix to provide a home movie service that would do a better job satisfying customers than the traditional retail rental model. But as it encountered challenges it underwent several major strategy shifts, ultimately developing a business model... View Details

07 Aug 2017
News

China's Spicy Hotpot Billionaire Is Ready to Take on the World

12 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

‘Let the Buyer Beware’ Doesn’t Protect Investors

leading investment banker during the bubble. About him Forbes wrote: "...in Quattrone's shop research was expected to serve the bankers' interests. The Internet craze had led analysts at every investment bank to issue glowing reports... View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

December 2012
Case

Delwarca Software Remote Support Unit

By: Roy D. Shapiro and Paul E. Morrison

Delwarca Software provides business software to large corporate clients around the world. The firm serves customers who prefer to assemble corporate solutions using a combination of software programs from various suppliers rather than implementing a single enterprise... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Service Delivery; Mathematical Methods; Applications and Software; Problems and Challenges; Customer Satisfaction; Information Technology Industry

13 Jun 2011
HBS Case

Mobile Banking for the Unbanked

we need.” The Harvard Business School case study Mobile Banking for the Unbanked explores two very different examples of mobile financial service models: WIZZIT, a third-party startup that teamed with a major bank to View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Communications; Telecommunications

15 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Americans Voted for an Income Tax

from our economic system, earning little income and having even less to spend. Is it fair to ask them to contribute to the pool of taxes nevertheless, or should we focus on providing them with the opportunity to share the benefits most of... View Details

Keywords: by Matthew C. Weinzierl

November 1990 (Revised June 1991)
Case

American Airlines (A): Strategy in the 1990s

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Gary W. Loveman

American Airlines is pursuing a growth strategy through international and domestic route expansion. At the same time, the airline is working hard to cut costs while trying to provide the best customer service possible. Is this strategy achievable given the recent surge... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Air Transportation; Cost Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Growth and Development Strategy; Air Transportation Industry; United States

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February 2011 (Revised September 2016)
Case

Investcorp and the Moneybookers Bid

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Nori Gerardo Lietz

In January 2007, Hazem Ben-Gacem, managing director and co-head of Investcorp Technology Partners (ITP), needs to decide what to bid at an auction for Moneybookers Limited, one of the top three e-payment solution providers in Europe. However, approximately 70% of... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Private Equity; Investment; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Valuation; Europe; United States

June 2007 (Revised December 2008)
Case

Marie Trellu-Kane at Unis-Cite

By: Michel Anteby, Julie Battilana and Anne-Claire Pache

Marie Trellu-Kane is trying to decide how Unis-Cite should respond to French President Jacques Chirac's announcement in 2005 of a new national voluntary civil service program. Since 1994, Trellu-Kane and her co-founders had been creating and overseeing a civil service... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Design; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Social Enterprise; Paris

Alexandra (Allie) Feldberg is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School.

Professor Feldberg uses qualitative and quantitative methods to examine intersections between gender,... View Details

28 Jul 2020
Video

Sizwe Nxasana

Sizwe Nxasana, the founding partner of SizweNtsalubaGobodo, the largest Black accounting firm in South Africa, as well as the former CEO of Telkom and FirstRand Group, recounts how the... View Details

December 2018 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Fluidity: The Tokenization of Real Estate Assets

By: Marco Di Maggio, David Lane and Susie Ma

In December 2018, the blockchain startup Fluidity was about to participate in its first tokenization deal, which would create digital access to property rights in a 12-unit Manhattan condominium complex. The deal was proof-of-concept for Fluidity, which hoped to... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Tokenization; Data Security; Revenue Model; Finance; Technological Innovation; Strategy