Publications

December 2006 (Revised October 2016)
Case

eClinicalWorks: The Paths to Growth

By: Robert F. Higgins and Mark Rennella

In January 2006, eClinicalWorks (eCW) had an acquisition opportunity that could fundamentally change the way they had done business since the inception of the company in 1999. eClinicalWorks was a privately run business in the healthcare information technology field... View Details

Keywords: Young Companies; Strategic Revelation; Strategy And Execution; Strategy Development; Strategy And Leadership; Financing Strategy; Financing Risk; Financing; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Culture; Financing and Loans; Customer Focus and Relationships; Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts

28 Apr 2020
News

“I believe that climate change is potentially a catastrophic risk to our entire economy” Harvard Professor

December 2012 (Revised May 2012)
Supplement

Konys, Inc. (CW)

By: Deishin Lee and Tunay Tunca

Keywords: Supply Chain; Option Contract; Uncertainty; Sourcing; Supplier Relationship; Risk and Uncertainty; Contracts; Supply Chain Management

2016
White Paper

The High Risk of High-Fit Extensions: Why Exclusive Brands Need to Explore Beyond the Core

By: Silvia Bellezza and Anat Keinan

2 Mar 2023 - 4 Mar 2023
Conference Presentation

Ethical Risks of Autonomous Products: The Case of Mental Health Crises on AI Companion Applications

By: Julian De Freitas, K. Uguralp and Z. Oguz

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

April 2013
Teaching Note

Konys, Inc. (TN)

By: Deishin Lee and Tunay Tunca

This case describes the sourcing policy for a consumer electronics company. The company must decide how to structure contracts with their supplier—using a purchase contract, an option contract, or combination of the two. The company can also buy from the spot market.... View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Option Contract; Uncertainty; Sourcing; Supplier Relationship; Supply Chain

May 2017
Case

ATH Technologies: Making the Numbers

By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard

An exercise that takes students through five stages of growth in an entrepreneurial start-up in the medical devices industry: 1) founding, 2) growth, 3) push to profitability, 4) relocation process, and 5) takeover by new management. At each stage, students must... View Details

Keywords: Balancing Innovation And Control; Performance Evaluation; Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Risk Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Profit; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Innovation and Invention; Management Succession; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

April 2024
Article

A Machine Learning Algorithm Predicting Risk of Dilating VUR among Infants with Hydronephrosis Using UTD Classification

By: Hsin-Hsiao Scott Wang, Michael Lingzhi Li, Dylan Cahill, John Panagides, Tanya Logvinenko, Jeanne Chow and Caleb Nelson

Backgrounds: Urinary Tract Dilation (UTD) classification has been designed to be a more objective grading system to evaluate antenatal and post-natal UTD. Due to unclear association between UTD classifications to specific anomalies such as vesico-ureteral reflux (VUR),... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Health Testing and Trials; AI and Machine Learning; Health Industry

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

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

Article

The Cost of Capital for Alternative Investments

By: Jakub W. Jurek and Erik Stafford

Traditional risk factor models indicate that hedge funds capture pre-fee alphas of 6% to 10% per annum over the period from 1996 to 2012. At the same time, the hedge fund return series is not reliably distinguishable from the returns of mechanical S&P 500 put-writing... View Details

Keywords: Hedge Funds; Required Returns; Downside Risk; Index Options; Investment Funds; Cost of Capital; Investment Return; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

October 2014 (Revised June 2015)
Case

Quiet Logistics (A)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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