Publications

October 2000 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Software Associates

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The president of a small consulting firm has just seen his second-quarter profit and loss statement, showing an increase in revenues but a substantial decline in profits. He asks his chief financial officer to explain the results. The CFO works hard to accumulate... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Cost; Financial Statements; Production; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

October 2019
Supplement

Impax Laboratories: Executing Accretive Acquisitions (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Explores events after Impax announced the acquisition of a portfolio of generic pharmaceutical products from Teva in June 2016. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Financial Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

April 1996 (Revised March 2008)
Exercise

Exercises on Tradeoffs and Conflicting Objectives

Presents two methodologies for making decisions in the face of conflicting objectives, pricing out, and additive scoring systems. This material is followed by four exercises designed to develop and test understanding of the basic methodology. The exercises include an... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions

June 2008
Case

From xiaonei to hainei: The Quest for the Social Networking Service Market in China

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Michael Shih-Ta Chen and Keith Chi-ho Wong

Wang Xing, the founder of Hainei.com, one of the fastest growing social networking service (SNS) providers in China, was preparing to raise funds from venture capitalists. Since late 2003, Wang had established several Internet startups in China. Xiaonei.com, which he... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Internet; China

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October 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Accounting Red Flags or Red Herrings at Catalent? (A)

By: Joseph Pacelli, ZeSean Ali and Tom Quinn

Fund manager Janet Curie asked for a recommendation about the pharmaceutical company Catalent. The company seemed like a solid investment. However, a pair of research reports issued over the previous two months complicated this narrative. GlassHouse Research, a short... View Details

10 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon Web Services Changed the Way VCs Fund Startups

out if this new strategy has paid off for investors and their portfolio companies. Nanda and colleagues present their findings in a paper scheduled to appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Banking; Financial Services; Information Technology

February 2011 (Revised October 2018)
Case

ALAC International

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

ALAC was a small importer of specialty industrial chemicals. The case explores the different financing alternatives to facilitate the company's explosive growth in working capital. At the end of 2009, the company was awarded the United States distributorship for the... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Growth Management; Financing and Loans; Chemical Industry

24 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

Do National Security Secrets Hold Back National Innovation?

of intellectual property theft by foreign competitors grows and secrecy becomes a more attractive strategy for firms to protect and capitalize on their innovations, this question is becoming increasingly... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

09 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 9, 2015

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49214 Working Papers Lifting the Veil: The Benefits of Cost Transparency By: Mohan, Bhavya, Ryan W. Buell, and Leslie K. John Abstract— A firm's View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 May 2014
News

Crowdsourcing the Capitalist's Dilemma

The next time Professor Clay Christensen (MBA 1979) has a dilemma, he knows where he'll go for a solution: to HBS alumni. Christensen, Senior Lecturer Derek van Bever (MBA 1988), and alumni of the Building and Sustaining a Successful... View Details

Keywords: April White; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises

December 2004 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Intel Research: Exploring the Future

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

It is 2004 and David Tennenhouse, the director of Intel Research, is reviewing the organization he has built since 2000. Intel Research was charged with exploring new and disruptive technologies that lay off the "silicon roadmap" that drove most of Intel's R&D efforts.... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Research and Development; Performance Evaluation; Venture Capital; Technology Networks; Semiconductor Industry; United States

24 Apr 2014
News

Corporate venture funds invested wisely can propel a company forward

In researching R&D funding at large corporations, Josh Lerner (PhD/PMD 62, 1991), the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, noted a recent trend toward decentralizing research functions and slashing research budgets. The... View Details

01 Mar 2006
News

Second Acts

grew rapidly during the ’90s and managed to weather the dot-com bust. Eager for new challenges, Meakem sold the company last year for nearly $500 million and has embarked on a career in venture capital and politics. Committed to helping... View Details

Keywords: e-commerce; B2B; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

March 2003
Background Note

Customer Migration and Customer Types

By: Das Narayandas

Describes the evolution of customer relationships using the price vs. cost-to-serve matrix. View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Cost; Price; Service Operations

November 2010
Article

Beyond the Deal: Wage a 'Negotiation Campaign'

By: James K. Sebenius

While negotiation scholars primarily take the individual transaction as the "unit of analysis," this article characterizes the (new) concept of a "negotiation campaign" in which a number of individual deals must be put together, often on multiple "fronts," to realize a... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Deal; Management Practices and Processes; Value; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Sales; Partners and Partnerships; Venture Capital

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December 2019
Case

WeWork Files for an IPO

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

For the board of The We Company—better known as WeWork—August 14, 2019, promised to be a pivotal day. It was then that WeWork’s IPO prospectus, known as an S-1 filing, would be made public, giving potential investors, the media, and the general public a window into the... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Leadership; Management; Private Equity; Valuation; Venture Capital; Real Estate Industry; Technology Industry; United States

December 2014 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Bhutan: Governing for Happiness

By: Sophus A. Reinert, Thomas Humphrey and Benjamin Safran

Unique among the world’s countries, the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan had abandoned the traditional policy goal of increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in favor of pursuing Gross National Happiness (GNH). Famously, Bhutan ranked highly on lists of the happiest... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Economic Growth; Governance; Cost vs Benefits; Bhutan