Publications

23 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 23, 2018

Geradin Abstract—Many of the largest and most successful businesses today rely on providing services at no charge to at least a portion of their users. For consumers, it is easy to celebrate free service. At least in the short term, free... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

11 Mar 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Finding Missing Markets (and a disturbing epilogue): Evidence from an Export Crop Adoption and Marketing Intervention in Kenya

Keywords: by Nava Ashraf, Xavier Giné & Dean Karlan; Food & Beverage

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Six Steps for Making Your Threat Credible

threat lack credibility, but you also have no way of changing course if the situation becomes dire. 3. Visibly incur sunk costs Suppose you are negotiating with a consulting firm to renew its contract to provide information technology (IT) View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra

07 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

4+2 = Sustained Business Success

services that consistently meet customers' expectations. Put decision-making authority close to the front lines so employees can react quickly to changing market conditions. Constantly strive to eliminate all forms of excess and waste;... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria, William Joyce & Bruce Roberson

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

she could contribute a valuable innovation. So why was there resistance from the people she was trying to serve? Hallquist was a well-known civic leader and a former corporate executive at Hallmark in Kansas City, Missouri, where, among... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 2016
Case

The Quiet Ascension of LA Fitness

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In 2016, LA Fitness was the largest chain of non-franchised fitness clubs in North America, operating 676 clubs, serving 4.9 million members, and generating revenues of over $1.9 billion. Founded by Chinyol Yi, Louis Welch, and Paul Norris in 1984, the privately held... View Details

Keywords: LA Fitness; Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Exercise; Personal Training; Retention; Bally Total Fitness; 24 Hour Fitness; Planet Fitness; Buildings and Facilities; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Demographics; Age; Gender; Income; Residency; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; Capital Structure; Cash; Cash Flow; Cost; Private Equity; Financial Condition; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Return; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Employees; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Contracts; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Operations; Service Operations; Leasing; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Situation or Environment; Opportunities; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Mobile Technology; Technology Platform; Health Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles

22 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Does Spirituality Drive Success?

in America, and Work in Progress (co-authored with Michael Eisner, chairman of the Walt Disney Company). Schwartz is now president of LGE Performance Systems and co-created its Corporate Athlete training program, which aims to apply the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace, Sean Silverthorne & Wendy Guild

Research Summary

Overview

By: Mark L. Egan

When considering how households make investment decisions, Professor Egan became intrigued by the question, “What makes a bank ‘special’ when compared to other lending institutions?” Focusing on empirical industrial organization with applications to finance and... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Financial Advisors; Consumer Finance; Personal Finance; Corporate Finance

06 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, March 6, 2018

their businesses to shareholders through stock buybacks and dividends rather than invest for the long term, undermining job growth and putting the country’s economic future at risk, often pointing to the high ratio of shareholder payouts to net income. These claims are... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

MOD Pizza: A Winning Recipe?

By: Boris Groysberg, John D. Vaughan and Matthew Preble

Scott and Ally Svenson, the founders of MOD Pizza, had to make a number of decisions in planning how to scale their small company. They wanted to grow MOD from 45 stores as of May 2015 to 200 stores by the end of 2016, and while the two believed that MOD could manage... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Service Industry; United States

17 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 17

http://papers.nber.org/papers/w16922 Historical Trajectories and Corporate Competences in Wind Energy Authors:Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane Abstract This working paper surveys the business history of the global wind energy turbine... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2014
Chapter

Payout Policy

By: Joan Farre-Mensa, Roni Michaely and Martin Schmalz

We survey the literature on payout policy, with a particular emphasis on developments in the last two decades. Of the traditional motives of why firms pay out (agency, signaling, and taxes), the cross-sectional empirical evidence is most persuasive in favor of agency... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Investment; Financial Services Industry

SSRN

Find at Harvard

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Organizing the Family-Run Business

way to organize and provide a voice for the shareholders. Shareholder meetings I believe should be annual, brief and rather formal, focusing on the election of board members and auditors and updating corporate by-laws. While these... View Details

15 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 15

system of expense allocation, and anti-inversion legislation—reflect the intuition that building "strong fences" around the United States advances American interests. This paper examines the interaction of a strong fences policy with the increasingly... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: December 21

American corporations manage the racial composition of their elite leadership groups in response to these norms. What Can We Learn from 'Great Negotiations'? Author:James K. Sebenius Publication:Negotiation Journal (forthcoming) Abstract... View Details

14 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Measuring Social Impact

the same time," Ebrahim notes. "Delivering emergency relief and basic services in sanitation, water, and housing is easier to measure than impacts on public policy or on good governance, freedoms, and rights. Societal transformations—such... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

June 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Two Key Decisions for China's Sovereign Fund

By: Robert C. Pozen and Xiaoyu Gu

The China Investment Corporation (CIC) was China's sovereign wealth fund (SWF), established with $200 billion of registered capital in September 2007 to diversify China's foreign exchange holdings and increase risk-adjusted returns on those assets. CIC was unusual in... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Growth and Maturation; Decisions; Capital; Investment Banking; Investment Funds; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Ownership; Business and Shareholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Wealth; Expansion; Financial Services Industry; China; United States

April 2023
Case

Strive Asset Management

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Lynn S. Paine and Aldo Sesia

Strive Asset Management, which launched in 2022, was actively targeting several leading U.S. companies in the upcoming 2023 proxy voting season to stop acquiescing to those large asset managers and other institutional shareholders who were pressing those companies to... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Shareholder Activism; Asset Management; Investment Funds; Corporate Governance; Risk Management; Climate Change; Diversity; Equity; Financial Services Industry; United States