Publications

January 2008 (Revised July 2008)
Case

Opportunity Partners

By: Robin Greenwood and James Quinn

Philip Goldstein, the principal in a growing hedge fund and prominent activist investor, has taken a position in a Mexico-based closed-end fund. Following a hard-fought proxy contest in which he advocated for management to eliminate the fund's substantial discount,... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value; Financial Services Industry; Mexico

Luis M. Viceira is the George E. Bates Professor in the Finance Unit and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research, course development, and teaching focus on the areas of investment management... View Details

Keywords: banking; education industry; financial services; nonprofit industry; retail financial services

July 2020 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Board Diversity at Amazon (A)

By: Aiyesha Dey and Anu Atluru

The case revolves around the decisions that the board of directors of ecommerce giant Amazon would need to make in response to the controversial letter that activist shareholder CtW investment group sent to Amazon’s shareholders, urging them to vote in favor of a... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Boards; Governing and Advisory Boards; Diversity; Gender; Race; United States

November 2019
Supplement

United Technologies Corp.: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune Magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Valuation; Investment Activism; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

November 2006 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Kerr-McGee

By: Robin Greenwood and André Perold

Activist investors Carl Icahn and Barry Rosenstein acquire a stake in Oklahoma-based company Kerr-McGee. They demand two board seats and ask the company to make several operational and financial changes, including the repurchase of equity and divestiture of their... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism; Restructuring; Equity; Investment; Management; Governance Controls; Corporate Strategy; Chemical Industry; Energy Industry; United States

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

13 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 13

ignores the implications of past successes when valuing future innovation. We show that two firms that invest the exact same in research and development (R&D) can have quite divergent, but predictably divergent, future paths. Our... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2016
Supplement

FANUC Corporation: Reassessing the Firm's Governance and Financial Policies Spreadsheet Supplement

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Akiko Kanno

In February 2015, Daniel Loeb (a US-based activist investor) announced his firm had a large investment in FANUC Corporation, a leading producer of industrial robots and software for machine tools. Loeb was demanding that the Japanese firm change its financial and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Valuation; Investment Funds; Policy; Corporate Governance; Macroeconomics; Investment Activism; Change Management; Financial Strategy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Japan; United States

October 2021 (Revised October 2022)
Case

The Opioid Settlement and Controversy Over CEO Pay at AmerisourceBergen

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

In 2020, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, a Fortune 50 company in the drug distribution industry, agreed to settle thousands of lawsuits filed nationwide against the company for its opioid distribution practices that critics alleged had contributed to the nationwide... View Details

February 2018
Case

Whole Foods and JANA Partners

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

In 2017, JANA Partners decided to launch an activist campaign at struggling supermarket chain Whole Foods Market. The company had struggled for the past several years, and JANA thought the presence of new directors could help turn around its operations, while Whole... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Information Technology; Institutional Investing; Investment Activism; United States

June 2006 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Creditor Activism in Sovereign Debt: 'Vulture' Tactics or Market Backbone

By: Laura Alfaro and Ingrid Vogel

The role of distressed debt funds, also known as "vulture funds," in sovereign debt restructuring was a hotly debated topic, especially after the success of Elliot Associates in converting an $11 million investment in Peruvian bonds worth $21 million into a $58 million... View Details

Keywords: Vulture Funds; Borrowing and Debt; Bonds; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Sovereign Finance; Government and Politics; Contracts; Business and Government Relations; Peru

20 Sep 2017
News

Japan Is Counting on Shareholder Activism to Improve Its Economy

April 2018
Case

Miami's Tech Future (Abridged): Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Leadership Challenges

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

By the middle of the 1990s, Miami’s reputation was changing. An influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants and major investments in the airport and seaport had changed the image of a sleepy southern city to the de facto business center of Latin America, a center for... View Details

Keywords: Change; Leadership; Business and Community Relations; Strategic Planning; Technology Industry; Miami; Florida

09 Aug 2017
News

Non-Executive Directors Need To Align With Managers -- Without Losing Their Independence

09 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Could Clean Hydrogen Become Affordable at Scale by 2030?

Hydrogen is poised to move from the sidelines of global clean energy as the industry learns to produce it more efficiently and at lower cost, according to newly published research led by Gunther Glenk, a climate fellow with Harvard Business School's Institute for the... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Green Technology

June 2009 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Target Corporation: Ackman versus the Board

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Suraj Srinivasan and James Weber

After 15 years of great performance, Target's faltering performance during an economic downturn led an activist shareholder to initiate a proxy fight. Target Corporation, the second largest discount store retailer in the U.S., had competed successfully against industry... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Investment Activism; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Value; Retail Industry

25 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 25

and $12 billion, which equates to between 1.3% and 8.7% of the stock of prepackaged software in private fixed investment in the United States and a very high rate of return to the original federal investment... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2009 (Revised September 2010)
Case

HOYA Corporation (A)

By: W. Carl Kester and Masako Egawa

In 2007, HOYA of Japan must decide whether to change its friendly exchange offer for Pentax into a hostile cash tender offer. A surprising sequence of events had caused a friendly merger agreement to fall apart, resulting in a boardroom coup at Pentax and the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Investment Activism; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Governing and Advisory Boards; Negotiation Tactics; Business and Shareholder Relations; Valuation; Japan