Publications

Find at Harvard

January 2025
Supplement

Hippo: Weathering the Storm of the Home Insurance Crisis (B)

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Sophia Pan

Rick McCathron, CEO of Hippo, was optimistic about the InsurTech's path to profitability after navigating the financial uncertainties of 2022. By bundling their home insurance services with third-parties and established insurance incumbents, Hippo was adopting a... View Details

April 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Willy Jacobsohn and Beiersdorf: Managing Expropriation and Anti-Semitism

By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Christina Lubinski

This case examines the management of home and host country risk by Beiersdorf during the interwar years. It can be used both in business history courses and more generally to teach political risk management by multinational corporations. Beiersdorf, a German personal... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; War; Business History; Multinational Firms and Management; Global Strategy; Ownership; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Consumer Products Industry; Germany

Research Summary

Overview

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Kaplan introduced time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) to provide the cost component in Michael Porter's Value Based Health Care framework of delivering superior patient outcomes at lower societal cost. TDABC is becoming the global standard for health care... View Details

12 Feb 2025
Blog Post

How Risk Can Be the Key to a Sustainable Future with Sophie Levin (MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences 2022

describe startups tackling some of the most pressing and complex challenges of our time. Many of these companies face technical hurdles or market risks that require significant time View Details

June 2023
Supplement

Roche: ESG and Access to Healthcare

By: George Serafeim

In May 2022, Roche Group, one of the largest healthcare companies in the world, hosted its first ESG investor event focused exclusively on its efforts to impact access to healthcare. While Roche had recently set an ambitious goal to double the number of patients that... View Details

October 2014
Supplement

Quiet Logistics (B)

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This two-part case focuses on how to identify and manage strategic uncertainties in an innovative, entrepreneurial start-up company. In the (A) case, students learn about Quiet Logistics, an e-commerce fulfillment company working with high-end apparel retailers such as... View Details

28 Feb 2014
News

Doing Business in Afghanistan

Keywords: terrorism; risk; entrepreneurship; Telecommunications; Telecommunications; Information

November 2018
Case

Attijariwafa Bank: Egypt Expansion

By: Victoria Ivashina and Alpana Thapar

This case follows Attijariwafa Bank, a leading Morocco-based commercial bank, giving insight into its risk management practices and its international expansion over time. In particular, the case focuses on its planned acquisition of Barclays Bank Egypt in 2017. At this... View Details

Keywords: Commercial Banking; Risk Management; Small And Medium Enterprises; Acquisitions; International Expansion; Emerging Markets; Africa; SMEs

August 2006
Article

Confidence Intervals for Probabilities of Default

By: Samuel G. Hanson and Til Schuermann

In this paper we conduct a systematic comparison of confidence intervals around estimated probabilities of default (PD) using several analytical approaches as well as parametric and nonparametric bootstrap methods. We do so for two different PD estimation... View Details

Keywords: Credit Risk; Bootstrap; Mathematical Methods; Credit; Risk Management

Find at Harvard

January 2025
Supplement

Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Young Minister Confronts the Challenges of Montgomery (B)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Derek C. M. van Bever

Recounts a pivotal moment in Martin Luther King Jr.'s life during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, where a profound prayer amidst threats to his life renewed his faith and resolve to lead the movement. This transformative experience marked the beginning of his lifelong... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Spirituality; Civil Rights; Decision Making; Manging Uncertainty

29 Jan 2021
Op-Ed

How Influencers, Celebrities, and FOMO Can Win Over Vaccine Skeptics

be classified into five segments: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Each of the five segments has its own behavioral and demographic characteristics, with varying... View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim

August 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Background Note

Oil: History, Present and Future

By: Jurgen Weiss

This background note is intended to provide context for a discussion of the strategies for big integrated oil companies in light of both oil’s current role in the global energy system and the uncertainty about changes going forward. View Details

Keywords: Oil; Energy Markets; Oil Prices; Oil Companies; Decarbonization; Non-Renewable Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries

July 2018
Article

Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review of Recent Literature

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Tina Xu

We review the extensive literature since 2000 on the personality traits of entrepreneurs. We first consider baseline personality traits like the Big-5 model, self-efficacy and innovativeness, locus of control, and the need for achievement. We then consider risk... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurs; Venturing; Personality Traits; Characteristics; Big-5; Risk Attitudes; Goals; Skills; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Goals and Objectives; Competency and Skills; Success; Demographics; Research

2010
Working Paper

Crashes and Collateralized Lending

By: Jakub W. Jurek and Erik Stafford

This paper develops a parsimonious static model for characterizing financing terms in collateralized lending markets. We characterize the systematic risk exposures for a variety of securities and develop a simple indifference-pricing framework to value the systematic... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Cost of Capital; Credit; Financing and Loans; Interest Rates; Investment; Framework; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Services Industry

Human factors like trust are a major question of interest in cybersecurity. Uma Karmarkar's talk at the 2017 Enigma conference explores how the neuroscience and psychology of uncertainty can offer insights into how people handle security issues in digital spaces. View Details

November 2012 (Revised June 2013)
Case

The Facebook IPO Litigation

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Annelena Loeb

Despite its success in the social-networking space, Facebook Inc.'s May 2012 IPO was largely considered a failure. Facebook faced multiple lawsuits and its share price had dropped significantly. Adversaries contended that Facebook had misled investors and violated... View Details

Keywords: Social Networking; IPO; Litigation Risk; Initial Public Offering; Ethics; Lawsuits and Litigation; Failure; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

16 Jan 2025
Blog Post

Alumni Career Journey: Sophie Levin (MS/MBA 2022) - How Risk Can Be the Key to a Sustainable Future

describe startups tackling some of the most pressing and complex challenges of our time. Many of these companies face technical hurdles or market risks that require significant time View Details

April 2002
Article

Limited Arbitrage in Mergers and Acquisitions

By: Malcolm Baker and Serkan Savasoglu

A diversified portfolio of risk arbitrage positions produces an abnormal return of 0.6-0.9% per month over the period from 1981 to 1996. We trace these profits to practical limits on risk arbitrage. In our model of risk arbitrage, arbitrageurs' risk-bearing capacity... View Details

Keywords: Arbitrage; Market Efficiency; Mergers and Acquisitions; Profit; Risk and Uncertainty; Corporate Strategy; Capital; Banking Industry

Find at Harvard

December 2006 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs

By: Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, founders of Microsoft and Apple respectively, have revolutionized the relationship between the individual and computer technology. Once the exclusive domain of academia and research facilities, computers can now be found in every area of... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business History; Technological Innovation; Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Technology Industry