Publications

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

What It Takes to Restore Trust in Business

According to Mills, these conflicts of interest include the well-publicized conflicts between chief executives and their shareholders; banks and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

Research Summary

War & Peace

By: Deepak Malhotra

A second stream of research looks at issues related to conflict resolution in the context of international and ethno-political conflict, and in particular, at the role of negotiation in ending armed conflicts. I launched a new course at HBS entitled "War & Peace:... View Details

July 2002 (Revised August 2003)
Case

EXP Systems

By: Malcolm S. Salter and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Discusses selecting investors and avoiding board-level conflicts of interest in start-ups. Using the "term sheet" in third-round financing as a negotiation over future governance and control rights. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Governance Controls; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Startups; Management Teams

March 2011
Article

Talking Past Each Other?: Cultural Framing of Skeptical and Convinced Logics in the Climate Change Debate

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

This article analyzes the extent to which two institutional logics around climate change—the climate change “convinced” and the climate change “skeptical” logics—are truly competing or talking past each other in a way that can be described as a logic schism. Drawing on... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Values and Beliefs; Cognition and Thinking; News; Conflict and Resolution

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August 2007
Case

The Battle Of Union Square

Union Square Ventures, a Private Equity firm founded in 2003, filed a trademark infringement suit against Union Square Partners, another private equity firm founded in November 2006. Examines the possible impact that public litigation will have on the two firms. The... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment; Trademarks; Lawsuits and Litigation; Conflict Management; Reputation; Financial Services Industry

01 Apr 2001
News

New Ventures New Gains

Entrepreneurship is nothing new at HBS. The first course in entrepreneurship was taught over fifty years ago, and the list of alumni who have founded profoundly influential companies — from Continental Cablevision to Staples to Bloomberg... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna and Susan Young; Martin Dubilier (MBA 1952); Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

01 Apr 1996
News

Stewards of the Seventh Generation

businesses from focusing on environmental work since then." Progress has also been hampered, he notes, by conflicting values between rich and poor nations that repeatedly surface in the international... View Details

Keywords: Marguerite Rigoglioso, Garry Emmons, Linda Goodspeed, and Elaine Gottlieb

August 1995
Case

Slade Plating Department, The

By: Linda A. Hill

Describes a conflict between the values and norms of a segment of an internal social system and those of management and the wider culture. Includes decision opportunity. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Conflict and Resolution; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Culture; Decision Making

24 Feb 2014
News

Fighting co-founders doom startups

Web

Preface - Coin and Conscience – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

changes in the economic and social structure of the Netherlands, evidenced by an emerging middle class whose money and influence was considerable. Standing in direct conflict... View Details

08 Jun 2018
News

My First Job: Selling Shoes, Surviving Black Monday, and Shaped by Chicken Lenses

grown up in the business all of my career, and when I finished college and came back I was a full-time employee for the first time. After a year or so I was promoted to work under my dad as one of the... View Details

December 2001
Case

Cybersettle

By: Michael A. Wheeler and Gillian Morris

Cybersettle's management faced a dilemma: How could they turn their company, which provided confidential online settlement services for insurance claims, into a profitable enterprise? Having started during the heady days of Internet "dot-com fever," the company now had... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Process; Conflict and Resolution; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Internet; Insurance Industry

March 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Eliot Spitzer: Pushing Wall Street to Reform

By: Rawi Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella and Jonathan Schlefer

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer faced a decision about how to stop wrongdoing committed by major Wall Street firms during the Internet boom. The equities analysts of Merrill Lynch and other Wall Street firms were charged with objectively advising retail... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Decisions; Financial Institutions; Stocks; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Conflict of Interests; Internet; Financial Services Industry; United States

September 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

BMW's Project Switch (A): Importers vs. National Sales Companies

By: Das Narayandas and Kerry Herman

BMW is faced with potential channel conflicts across several EU country markets. The case highlights BMW's approach to redesigning its channel in Greece. The case provides details on both headquarter and country head perspective on BMW's channel strategy. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Conflict and Resolution; Auto Industry; European Union; Greece

November 2005 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Commercialization at the Garvan Institute for Medical Research (A)

A large and successful not-for-profit medical research institute must decide strategy to commercialize its discoveries. In the process, it must balance multiple conflicting demands from its stakeholders. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Public Sector; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Conflict and Resolution; Commercialization; Balance and Stability; Health Industry

December 1985 (Revised July 1993)
Case

Scovill, Inc.: NuTone Housing Group

Describes a conflict between the corporate controller and a division president about labor standards, which the division purposefully overstates to protect its margins. Illustrates the multiple roles of standards, and the roles of controllers and line management in... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Standards; Management Teams; Conflict and Resolution

September 1991 (Revised December 1991)
Case

Apple Computer (D): Epilogue

By: Michael Beer and Michael J. Gibbs

Brings students up to date on events at Apple Computer as of August 1991. Outlines resolutions of, or attempts to deal with, problems outlined. Illustrates what Apple had done to address problems, shows progress to date, and alludes to further issues to be addressed.... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Corporate Strategy; Computer Industry

August 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Mike Mayo Takes on Citigroup (A)

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Kaser

The case details the conflict between Mike Mayo, an influential banking analyst and Citigroup about what Mayo considers aggressive accounting policies. Mike Mayo questions Citigroup's lack of a valuation allowance against their Deferred Tax Assets despite Citi's recent... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Taxation; Capital; Financial Reporting; Corporate Disclosure; Valuation; Banks and Banking; Financial Strategy; Money; Conflict Management; Capital Budgeting; Asset Management; Banking Industry