Publications

October 2003
Case

Financing Biodiversity Conservation by the Global Conservation Fund

By: Mihir A. Desai and Julia Stevens

The Global Conservation Fund is an international nonprofit organization with a $100 million endowment and an exclusive focus on land preservation. The fund and its director must decide which projects to fund over the next year and what financing mechanism to use.... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Protection; Project Evaluation; Environmental Sustainability; Projects; Finance; Decision Making; Financial Instruments; Nonprofit Organizations

July 2003 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Sustainable Conservation--Where Next?

Sustainable Conservation (SusCon) is an environmental nonprofit in San Francisco that works collaboratively with the private and public sectors to achieve positive environmental change. The organization forms partnerships with industry and government agencies to devise... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Cost vs Benefits; Expansion; Environmental Sustainability; San Francisco

September 1989
Background Note

Performance Curves: Costs, Prices, and Value

By: Robert J. Dolan and Benson P. Shapiro

Explains the concept of a family of performance curves. The most well known is the price/performance curve relating the prices of items in a product line to their performance. Also discusses the cost/performance curve and its impact on product positioning, product line... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Price; Product Positioning; Performance; Competition; Value

07 Apr 2010
News

Economizing Corporate Travel

Keywords: Air Transportation; Transportation

01 Apr 1999
News

Q & A: Confronting New Technologies: When Doing Right Is Wrong

technologies seldom make sense to managers, given their corporate perspective. There are two reasons for this. First, customers exert tremendous influence over managers' decisions and the directions they... View Details

01 Sep 2013
News

Faculty Books

Manufacturing Morals: The Values of Silence in Business School Education by Michel Anteby (University of Chicago Press) How does HBS try to ensure that its faculty and students embrace proper business standards? Associate Professor Anteby finds that silence plays a... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

September 2004
Article

Capital Controls: A Political Economy Approach

By: Laura Alfaro

This paper examines the economic consequences of political conflicts that arise when countries implement capital controls. In an overlapping-generations model, agents vote on whether to open or close an economy to capital flows. The young (workers) receive income from... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Voting; Conflict of Interests; Capital; Government and Politics; Wages; Saving; Forecasting and Prediction

April 1991 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Cat Fight in the Pet Food Industry (A)

By: David J. Collis

Describes the pet food industry in the mid-eighties prior to the breakout of a major competitive battle as manufacturers fight for share. Illustrates how when there are benefits to play in multiple markets, competitors will take action in one market to preserve their... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Markets; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Ownership Stake; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

May 2022 (Revised May 2024)
Case

The Freedom Fund (A): Ending Modern Slavery

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

The Freedom Fund founded in 2013 to end modern slavery had raised more than half its intended target (by 2025) of $200 million. In 2021, impressed by its decentralized-partnering style of operations, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott awarded the Fund a gift of $35 million... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Spending; Decisions; India; Thailand; Ethiopia

October 2017
Case

Shift Technologies, Inc.

By: Thomas Eisenmann and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, management at Shift, an online marketplace that uses a “high touch,” concierge approach to buy and sell used cars, was formulating plans for the San Francisco–based startup’s next phase of expansion. One option was to preserve Shift’s current business model... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Multi-Sided Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States

June 2011
Teaching Note

Paul Bremer at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq (TN)

By: Robert Steven Kaplan

Teaching Note for 411010. View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; Power and Influence; Civil Society or Community; War; Decisions; Iraq; District of Columbia

2009
Introduction

Social Dilemmas, Social Values, and Ethical Judgments: Touchpoints and Touchdowns in a Distinguished Scholarly Career

By: R. M. Kramer, A. E. Tenbrunsel and M. H. Bazerman

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Values and Beliefs; Social Issues; Civil Society or Community

January 1988 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Howard Head and Prince Manufacturing, Inc.

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Deals with the issue of an entrepreneur in a very successful company deciding whether to stay through a period of great growth or to sell. What are the entrepreneur's responsibilities to the organization, to his employees, to the public? As subtopics, the issues of... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Patents; Law; Markets; Production; Sales

Web

Financial Management of Smaller Firms - Course Catalog

https://courseware.hbs.edu/video/?v=0_cteitfd6 Course Content and Organization The course first focuses on how to buy a small business. We begin with the case of two HBS MBAs who chose to purchase a small business using a search fund instead of pursuing a more... View Details

01 Dec 2003
News

Inside MBA Admissions

The managing director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid since June 2001, Brit K. Dewey (MBA 1996) and her Admissions team have achieved the seemingly contradictory feat of making the admissions process... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

July – August 2009
Article

Preferential Treatment: The New Face of Protectionism?

Free trade agreements have increased dramatically over the past decade. This forethought considers how they present global executives with thorny strategic and operational decisions, a piece of which has to do with China's entry into the FTA scene. View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Trade; Strategy; Operations; Decisions; Practice; China

Find at Harvard

November 2007
Supplement

Differences at Work: Ben (C)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Rachel Gordon

In Differences at Work: Ben (C) 9-408-044 Ben shares the remark with his bosses who let Ben decide whether to report the incident to Human Resources. He decides not to, but several years later he still regrets his inaction. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Employees; Working Conditions