Publications

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

$15 Billion in Five Years: What Data Tells Us About MacKenzie Scott’s Philanthropy

handful of umbrella organizations each year. During 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, she made large donations to organizations serving vulnerable populations, such as Meals on Wheels, Easterseals, the YMCA, and the YWCA. In 2021, amid reports that the... View Details

Keywords: by Matthew Lee, Brian Trelstad, and Ethan Tran

August 6, 2020
Article

Companies Must Go Beyond Random Acts of Humanitarianism

By: Frank Cooper and Ranjay Gulati

Any organization can write a check or mobilize resources when confronted with a crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic or a social movement such as Black Lives Matter. But corporate crisis response becomes much more meaningful when stakeholders know that the organization... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

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30 Mar 2021
News

Remote Work Isn’t Going Anywhere. Here’s How You Can Still Succeed

What Makes a Building Healthy?

The pandemic spawned by the novel coronavirus has forced a global reckoning with the awesome power of infectious diseases to grind economies to a halt. The forced lockdowns and retreat into home isolation has also given us a heightened awareness of the role our... View Details

2021
Working Paper

The Great Unequalizer: Initial Health Effects of COVID-19 in the United States

By: Marcella Alsan, Amitabh Chandra and Kosali I. Simon

We measure inequities from the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality and hospitalizations in the United States during the early months of the outbreak. We discuss challenges in measuring health outcomes and health inequality, some of which are specific to COVID-19 and others... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Inequality; Health Pandemics; Demographics; Equality and Inequality

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June 2024
Case

Alignvest Student Housing: Keep Building or Time to Sell?

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Patrick Sanguineti

Sanjil Shah, Managing Partner of Alignvest Student Housing REIT (ASH), faces the most significant decision thus far in his career: is it the right time to sell the company? Together with his partner Reza Satchu, Shah had developed ASH into the largest student housing... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Exit Strategy; Real Estate; Founder; Equity Valuation; Decisions; Entrepreneurial Finance; Interest Rates; Health Pandemics; Housing; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Canada

2024
Chapter

The Private Economy Under Party-State Capitalism

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

This chapter addresses the evolution of China’s approach to the private sector from the early reform era until the beginning of Xi Jinping’s third term. It argues that China has evolved from a familiar form of state capitalism, in which economic growth is the primary... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; International Relations; Economic Growth; Economic Sectors; Economic Systems; China

31 Jan 2022
News

Who Pays Tolls at Work, and Who Cruises on an Open Highway?

March 2023
Case

Moderna

By: Marco Iansiti, Karim R. Lakhani, Hannah Mayer, Kerry Herman, Allison J. Wigen and Dave Habeeb

This multimedia case follows the story of Moderna and its entry into vaccine development in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In summer 2020, Stephane Bancel, CEO of biotech firm Moderna, faces several challenges as his company races to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Research and Development; Digital Transformation; Health Testing and Trials; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

Web

Live from Klarman Hall - Alumni

Your Business Card Speaker: Christina Wallace , Senior Lecturer of Business Administration If there's one thing that the pandemic and the resulting economic volatility has made painfully clear, it's that most people need—and want—a... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Private Equity and COVID-19

By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov

We survey more than 200 private equity (PE) managers from firms with $1.9 trillion of assets under management (AUM) about their portfolio performance, decisionmaking and activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Given that PE managers have significant incentives to... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Private Equity; Management; Investment Portfolio; Performance; Decision Making; Value Creation

21 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

Employee Negativity Is Like Wildfire. Manage It Before It Spreads.

Knowing how to turn down the volume on negative group emotions when they become counterproductive is a critical skill for today’s business leaders, Goldenberg says. The COVID-19 pandemic showed just how consequential this type of... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

July 2020
Teaching Note

COVID-19: The Global Shutdown

By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong

In the first months of 2020, a pandemic overwhelmed the world. COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus, spread from China and created a severe public health emergency across countries. While an immediate fear of the disease’s impact on human life permeaacted... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Trade; Microeconomics; Macroeconomics; Financial Crisis; Economy; Policy; Governance; Economic Systems; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Economic Sectors

2022
Article

Leadership & Overconfidence

By: Don A Moore and Max H. Bazerman

Expressions of confidence can give leaders credibility. In the political realm, they can earn votes and public approval for decisions made in office. Such support is justified when the confidence displayed is truly a sign that a leader (whether a candidate or an... View Details

Keywords: Personal Characteristics; Leadership; Government Legislation; Political Elections

06 May 2024
Research & Ideas

The Critical Minutes After a Virtual Meeting That Can Build Up or Tear Down Teams

May Boost Connection and Curb Loneliness Silos That Work: How the Pandemic Changed the Way We Collaborate Feedback or ideas to share? Email the Working Knowledge team at hbswk@hbs.edu. Image: Illustration created by HBSWK using an image... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

May 11, 2020
Article

Steer Your Family Businesses Through an Unplanned Transition

By: Josh Baron and Nick Di Loreto

In a perfect world, family businesses will transition leadership from one generation to the next along a predictable and well-planned process — whether that’s determined within the business, the ownership group, or the family itself — passing the baton after years of... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Planning; Family Business; Management Succession

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September 2024
Case

Ming Min Hui at Boston Ballet

By: Edward H. Chang, David Allen and Annelena Lobb

This case asks how Ming Min Hui, the newly appointed executive director of Boston Ballet, should ensure that the company stays true to its art form yet relevant to its times. Hui stood out among ballet leaders as a young, Asian American woman with a Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Change; Diversity; Gender; Race; Entertainment; Theater Entertainment; Leadership; Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Music Industry; United States; Massachusetts; Boston

January 31, 2022
Article

Who Pays Tolls at Work and Who Cruises on an Open Highway?

By: Siri Chilazi, D. Kolb, Kathleen L. McGinn and Jessica L. Porter

As organizations continue to navigate a changed world amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and the reverberations of the Black Lives Matter movement, many of the issues that affect underrepresented groups in organizations, including women of all different races and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Opportunities; Equality and Inequality; Social Issues

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November 2020
Supplement

Valuing Celgene's CVR

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

When Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) acquired Celgene Corporation in November 2019, Celgene shareholders received cash, BMS stock, and a contingent value right (CVRs) that would pay $9 if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved three of Celgene’s late stage... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Value; Valuation; Judgments; Decision Making; Cash Flow; Financial Instruments; Cognition and Thinking; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States