Publications

19 Mar 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Carry Trade and Exchange-Rate Regimes

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Fabio Kanczuk

Program

Behavioral Economics—Virtual

world that is now centered around virtual connection, our programs reflect the input and experience of tens of thousands of participants. When you participate in a virtual HBS Executive Education program, you benefit from a powerful... View Details

Research Summary

The Talent at the Table: Business Expertise and Share Ownership in Fortune 500 Boardrooms

This paper examines the relationship between corporate value and "vestige" directors, defined as directors who own sizeable shareholdings but lack salient business experience relative to their peers on Fortune 500 boards. These people come to serve on... View Details

09 May 2014
News

American dynamism dimmed

2021
Working Paper

The Demand for Executive Skills

By: Stephen Hansen, Tejas Ramdas, Raffaella Sadun and Joseph B. Fuller

We use a unique corpus of job descriptions for C-suite positions to document skills requirements in top managerial occupations across a large sample of firms. A novel algorithm maps the text of each executive search into six separate skill clusters reflecting... View Details

Keywords: Executives; Management Skills; Competency and Skills

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February 2025 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Accounting for Bitcoin at Block

By: Charles C.Y. Wang, Seil Kim and Sa-Pyung Sean Shin

Abstract: This case explores Block Inc.'s accounting practices for Bitcoin transactions and their impact on financial reporting. Following a 10% stock price drop after missing revenue estimates in Q3 2024, Block faced scrutiny over its Bitcoin-driven revenue model.... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Bitcoin; Fair Value Accounting; Revenue Recognition; Business Model; Fluctuation; Volatility; Revenue; Standards; Valuation

July 2019
Article

Which of These Things Are Not Like the Others? Comparing the Rational, Emotional, and Moral Aspects of Reputation, Status, Celebrity, and Stigma

By: Timothy G. Pollock, Kisha Lashley, Violina P. Rindova and Jung-Hoon Han

In this review of the literature on reputation, status, celebrity, and stigma we develop an overarching theoretical framework based on the rational, emotional, and moral aspects of each construct’s unique sociocognitive content and the mechanisms through which it... View Details

Keywords: Celebrity; Stigma; Reputation; Status and Position; Emotions; Moral Sensibility

Register to Read

August 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

General Dennis L. Via: People First, Mission Always

By: Boris Groysberg, Susan Seligson, Katherine Connolly Baden and Robin Abrahams

Dennis L. Via, was a retired four-star U.S. Army general and one of the world’s foremost experts on logistics, crisis management, supply chains, and maintaining a state of readiness at all times. As he reflected back on his career and leadership experience during the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Crisis Management; Planning; Health Pandemics; United States

August 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Sustainable Investing at J.P. Morgan Private Bank

By: Sara Fleiss and Luis Viceira

This case features Monica Issar, then Global Head of J.P. Morgan Endowments & Foundations Group in the Private Bank. In just five years, she and J.P. Morgan have grown the Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) business from $5 billion in AUM from primarily family... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Investment; Management; Strategy; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Banking Industry

February 2016
Article

Do Measures of Financial Constraints Measure Financial Constraints?

By: Joan Farre-Mensa and Alexander Ljungqvist

Financial constraints are fundamental to empirical research in finance and economics. We propose two tests to evaluate how well measures of financial constraints actually capture constraints. We find that firms typically classified as constrained do not in fact behave... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance

SSRN

June 2014 (Revised April 2015)
Background Note

Affordable Housing and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits in the United States

By: Arthur I Segel and Nicolas P. Retsinas

This background note explores the basic themes surrounding the government's approach to providing housing: namely its shift from a supplier and builder of affordable housing to an approach that focuses on demand-side solutions and indirect subsidies to private... View Details

Keywords: Housing; Welfare; Government and Politics

September 2012 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Entrepreneurial Finance in Finland?

By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Alexis Brownell

This case describes a new venture attempting to bring early-stage entrepreneurial financing to Finland and other Nordic countries. Entrepreneurship is taking off in Finland, an area that historically has had little venture capital or high-growth start-up activity, but... View Details

Keywords: Angels; Angel Investors; VC; Micro-VC; Accelerator; Incubator; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Business Startups; Financial Services Industry; Finland; Scandinavia; Europe

June 2008 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Patient Flow at Brigham and Women's Hospital (A)

By: Anita L. Tucker and Jillian Alexandra Berry

Brigham and Women's Hospital challenged a team of physicians to improve patient flow from the Emergency Department to Intensive Care Units (ICUs). One of the team members, Selwyn Rogers, Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at Brigham and Women's... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Health Care and Treatment; Service Operations; Business Processes; Performance Productivity; Conflict and Resolution; Health Industry; Massachusetts

October 2002
Article

Differences of Opinion and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns

By: Karl B. Diether, Christopher J. Malloy and Anna Scherbina

We provide evidence that stocks with higher dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts earn lower future returns than otherwise similar stocks. This effect is most pronounced in small stocks, and stocks that have performed poorly over the past year. Interpreting... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Forecasting and Prediction; Price; Valuation; Investment Return

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May 1997
Teaching Note

Product Development Performance, Instructor's Note

By: Marco Iansiti

Focuses on what constitutes product development performance and how it is assessed. Performance, as explained in both the note and in the materials for this three-session module, refers to the performance of both the product and the organizational process producing it.... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Infrastructure; Product Development; Production; Performance Evaluation

Video

HBS Women of 1964

Program

Senior Executive Program—Africa

participant's experience, scope of current responsibilities, and type of organization. HBS seeks candidates who reflect a broad range of industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds. We review applications monthly and will contact... View Details

Article

Can Analysts Assess Fundamental Risk and Valuation Uncertainty? An Empirical Analysis of Scenario-Based Value Estimates

By: Peter R. Joos, Joseph D. Piotroski and Suraj Srinivasan

We use a dataset of sell-side analysts' scenario-based valuation estimates to examine whether analysts reliably assess the risk surrounding a firm's fundamental value. We find that the spread in analysts' state-side contingent valuations captures the riskiness of... View Details

Keywords: Analyst Forecasts; Scenarios; Uncertainty; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Forecasting and Prediction

SSRN

2011
Other Unpublished Work

Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 2

By: Michael C. Jensen and Ralph A. Walkling

This interview is Part 2 of a two-part series in which Professor Ralph Walkling, the Stratakis Chair in Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Center for Corporate Governance at Drexel University, interviews Professor Michael C. Jensen, Jesse Isidor Straus... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Ethics; Research; Markets; Leadership