Publications

September 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

SOHO China: Transformation in Progress

By: Charles F. Wu

In 2016, against the backdrop of a challenging Chinese macroeconomic environment, SOHO China, the largest owner and developer of Class-A real estate in Beijing and Shanghai, was struggling to convince analysts of the merits of its new “build-to-hold” strategy. Founded... View Details

Keywords: China; REIT; Real Estate; Shared Office; Coworking; Public Company; NAV; Macroeconomics; Going Public; Transition; Growth and Development Strategy; Real Estate Industry; China

29 Nov 2021
Research & Ideas

How Bonuses Get Employees to Choose Work Over Family

perks like bonuses, commissions, or stock options tied to hitting certain goals. But managers may not realize that these incentives could contribute to employee dissatisfaction, burnout, and personal View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Kim Raczka

June 10, 2021
Article

How to Be a Purpose-Driven Leader in a Capitalist World

By: Celia Bravard, John Pontillo and Andrew J. Hoffman

Today’s business school education isn’t suited to the big challenges facing the world — climate change, economic inequality and racial injustice — that the leaders of tomorrow will be expected to solve. So, how can students and young professionals succeed in a system... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Mission and Purpose; Social Issues; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Opportunities

July 2025
Case

ICARE: Frontline Leadership at Michelin

By: Hubert Joly and Emilie Billaud

In 2025, Michelin CEO Florent Menegaux reflected on the company’s transformation since taking the helm in 2019. Amid a volatile global landscape marked by inflation, rising competition, and geopolitical and sustainability pressures, Michelin had achieved strong... View Details

09 Sep 2013
Working Paper Summaries

The Disintermediation of Financial Markets: Direct Investing in Private Equity

Keywords: by Lily Fang, Victoria Ivashina & Josh Lerner

February 2007 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Bancaja: Developing Customer Intelligence (A)

In 1996, CEO Fernando Garcia Checa wanted to make customer analytics a part of Bancaja's new strategy. Bancaja, a savings bank based in Valencia, Spain, was expanding and wanted to exploit customer information to increase commercial effectiveness. At the same time, it... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Banking Industry; Spain

07 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Supervisor of Sandwiches? More Companies Inflate Titles to Avoid Extra Pay

the study estimates. Cohen’s study emerges as record inflation and chronic staffing shortages collide making compensation a top challenge in human resources. While the trend is most heavily concentrated in... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

Article

Reliable Post hoc Explanations: Modeling Uncertainty in Explainability

By: Dylan Slack, Sophie Hilgard, Sameer Singh and Himabindu Lakkaraju

As black box explanations are increasingly being employed to establish model credibility in high stakes settings, it is important to ensure that these explanations are accurate and reliable. However, prior work demonstrates that explanations generated by... View Details

Keywords: Black Box Explanations; Bayesian Modeling; Decision Making; Risk and Uncertainty; Information Technology

25 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Fintech Borrowing

Consumers turning to fintech lenders are more likely to spend beyond their means, sink further into debt, and ultimately default more often than people with similar credit profiles borrowing from traditional banks, according to recent... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services; Banking

March 2007 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Micro Insurance Agency: Helping the Poor Manage Risk

By: Michael Chu and Jean Hazell

The notable success of insurance products for low-income clients of its microfinance network leads Opportunity International to launch the first global specialized microinsurance company, the Micro Insurance Agency (MIA). Building on the experience in 10 countries... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Cost Management; Microfinance; Globalization; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk Management; Infrastructure; Nonprofit Organizations; Competition; Financial Services Industry; Africa; Asia; Latin America

16 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

When the Internet Runs Out of IP Addresses

using combinations of four integers, about 4 billion possible combinations. The problem: Internet growth is so dramatic that potential IPv4 addresses are running short on supply. A new standard called IPv6 will solve the problem with... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Telecommunications

Article

No Unique Effect of Intergroup Competition on Cooperation: Non-competitive Thresholds Are as Effective as Competitions between Groups for Increasing Human Cooperative Behavior

By: Matthew R. Jordan, Jillian J. Jordan and David G. Rand

Explaining cooperation remains a central topic for evolutionary theorists. Many have argued that group selection provides such an explanation: theoretical models show that intergroup competition could have given rise to cooperation that is costly for the individual.... View Details

Keywords: Intergroup Competition; Threshold Public Goods Game; Multi-level Selection; Cooperation; Groups and Teams; Competition

November 2024
Case

AlphaGo (A): Birth of a New Intelligence

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

This case, the first of a three-part series, traces DeepMind's evolution from its 2010 founding through its acquisition by Google in 2014. Often referred to as the "Apollo project" of artificial intelligence, DeepMind used games as a testing ground to develop AI... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Technological Innovation; Creativity; Technology Industry; South Korea; China; United States

June 2008
Article

'Thar' She Blows: Can Bubbles Be Rekindled with Experienced Subjects?

By: Reshmaan Hussam, David Porter and Vernon Smith

We report 28 new experiment sessions consisting of up to three experience levels to examine the robustness of learning and “error” elimination among participants in a laboratory asset market and its effect on price bubbles. Our answer to the title question is: “yes.”... View Details

Keywords: Experimental Economics; Asset Markets; Bubbles; Price Bubble; Financial Markets

December 2010
Article

The Case for Professional Boards

By: Robert C. Pozen

When the world's largest financial institutions had to be rescued from insolvency in 2008, many experts laid the blame at the feet of corporate boards. But insufficient board oversight is a problem that had supposedly been solved in 2002. As the United States... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governing and Advisory Boards; Failure; Accounting Audits; Quality; Behavior; Legal Liability; Experience and Expertise; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Performance Effectiveness; United States

25 Jun 2020
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Class of 2021 Student Profiles

world and the business problems they were solving.” After the Chamber, she accepted a consulting position with Deloitte in Washington DC where she “worked in the strategy and... View Details

2006
Working Paper

The Value of a 'Free' Customer

By: Sunil Gupta, Carl F. Mela and Jose M. Vidal-Sanz

Central to a firm's growth and marketing policy is the revenus and profit potential of its customer assets. As a result, there has been a recent proliferation of work regarding customer lifetime value. However, extant research in this area is silent regarding how to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Auctions; Network Effects; Business Strategy

April 2007
Case

Leadership Forum: Building Great Careers - Video

By: D. Quinn Mills and Carole Winkler

Leadership: Can I learn it, how do I do it, and how can I use it to advance my career? How is today's world different from the one our teachers entered years ago, and how does that affect me? The two videos on this DVD address these and other questions typically asked... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Work-Life Balance; Leadership Development; Talent and Talent Management; Leadership Style; Knowledge Dissemination; Teaching; Executive Education; Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Style; Education Industry