Publications

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17 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Why We Don’t Study Corporate Responsibility

researchers might be able to address such issues as "how corporate practices contribute to or detract from stable societal institutions or democratic processes, or how might companies advance individual learning and growth, or the... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

12 PM – 1 PM EDT, 07 May 2015
Webinars: Trending@HBS

The Low Risk Anomaly: Implications for Investment, Asset Allocation, and Corporate Finance

One of the basic principles of finance is that, in competitive and efficient markets, investors earn higher average returns only by taking greater risks. Asset classes follow this pattern: Stocks have returned more than bonds, and bonds have returned more than cash.... View Details

December 1996
Background Note

Financial Engineering and Tax Risk: The Case of Times Mirror PEPS

By: Peter Tufano

Provides general background on the taxation of corporate securities, and shows how the inconsistent taxation of functionally-similar securities can permit financial engineers to bear tax risk to earn positive returns. Designed to be used with Times Mirror Co. PEPS... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Taxation; Corporate Finance

01 Feb 1997
News

Ban the Butterfly Rule for Corporate Directors

Corporate Director's Guidebook, the basic attributes for board service eligibility are common sense, practical wisdom, and informed judgment. Add to these baseline qualities the skills and experience... View Details

Keywords: Joseph Hinsey IV

24 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Boards and Corporate Governance: A Balanced Scorecard Approach

time, managers and corporations seek capital for their ideas, but in doing so they have an inherent conflict of interest about what information to disclose. Therefore, for this complex system to work... View Details

Keywords: Re: Robert S. Kaplan & Krishna G. Palepu

December 2005
Article

Up to Code: Does Your Company's Conduct Meet World-Class Standards?

By: Lynn Paine, Rohit Deshpandé, Joshua D. Margolis and Kim Eric Bettcher

Codes of conduct have long been a feature of corporate life. Today, they are arguably a legal necessity—at least for public companies with a presence in the United States. But the issue goes beyond U.S. legal and regulatory requirements. Sparked by corruption and... View Details

Keywords: Business Ethics; Standards Of Conduct; Globalized Firms and Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

Greed, Fear, and The System Hinder Corporate Reform

Rakesh Khurana. Here are some of the challenges: Basic greed. Wayne M. Carlin, northeast regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who clarified that he was... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Jun 2003
News

New Course on Leadership, Values, and Corporate Accountability

and the addition of new content to an existing course, as well as some streamlining of other offerings. The new course, which will be offered in 25-30 sessions, will focus on leader-ship, values, and View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

December 2017
Response

Reply: Do Powerful Politicians Really Cause Corporate Downsizing?

By: Lauren Cohen, Joshua D. Coval and Christopher J. Malloy

While we commend the initiative of Snyder and Welch (2017), we lay out in this short reply why we remain highly confident in our results and our interpretation thereof. We welcome authors to continue to explore the data for themselves and look forward to the new... View Details

Keywords: Spending; Private Sector; Taxation; Interest Rates; Business and Government Relations; Investment; Employment; Power and Influence

February 2001
Case

PlanetFeedback: The Voice of One ... The Power of Many (A)

By: James L. Heskett

The management of PlanetFeedback in proposes a merger with Intelliseek. Their goal is to create a comprehensive C2B and B2B business focused on the generation and analysis for business clients of consumer feedback data via the Internet, Planet Feedback's board of... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decisions; Information Management; Analytics and Data Science; Business Strategy; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry

2020
Working Paper

Cutting the Gordian Knot of Employee Health Care Benefits and Costs: A Corporate Model Built on Employee Choice

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman

The U.S. employer-based health insurance tax exclusion created a system of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) with limited insurance choices and transparency that may lock employed households into health plans that are costlier or different from those they prefer to... View Details

Keywords: After-tax Income; Consumer-driven Health Care; Health Care Costs; Health Insurance; Income Inequality; Tax Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Insurance; Employees; Income; Taxation; Policy; United States

SSRN

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March 2018
Teaching Note

Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity (A) and (B)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Victor Wu

Through the challenges facing Target, the case examines the ways in which corporations can become involved in political and legislative debates and processes, ranging from campaign contributions to lobbying. In 2016, Target CEO Brian Cornell must determine how to... View Details

16 Feb 2016
Video

The Amazing Life of one of America’s Earliest Black, Female Entrepreneurs

18 Nov 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Payout Taxes and the Allocation of Investment

Keywords: by Bo Becker, Marcus Jacob & Martin Jacob

Web

Women on Boards: How Lara Druyan and Ann Lucena Are Shaping the Future of Corporate Leadership - Blog: RGE Report

Ann Lucena Are Shaping the Future of Corporate Leadership Lex Schroeder Author tag Board Diversity As active members of Harvard Business School’s Board Diversity Network, Lara... View Details

March 2008 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Corning: 156 Years of Innovation

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

The executive team at Corning has committed to double the rate of new business creation per decade, while at the same time growing the company's current businesses, including glass substrates for LCD displays. Their strategy, built on more than 150 years of successful... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Resource Allocation; Product Development; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Industrial Products Industry

November 2012
Article

Does Management Really Work?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

HBR's 90th anniversary is a sensible time to revisit a basic question: Are organizations more likely to succeed if they adopt good management practices? The answer may seem obvious to most HBR readers, but these three economists cast their net much wider than that. In... View Details

Keywords: Best Practices; Consulting Firms; Corporations; Cost Control; Employee Training; Executive Ability (Management); Executives—training Of; Hospitals—administration; Industrial Management—research; Productivity Incentives; School Management Teams; Work Environment; Management; Research

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June 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Eric Hawkins Leading Agile Teams @ Digitally-Born AppFolio (A)

By: Tsedal Neeley, Paul Leonardi and Michael Norris

Eric Hawkins, director of engineering at AppFolio—a digital technology firm that offered cloud-based business software to small and medium sized companies—was shocked by an unusual request from his senior leadership team. Could Hawkins and one of his agile teams build... View Details

Keywords: Values; Agile; Vision; Corporate Culture; Leadership; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Culture; Decision Choices and Conditions; Digital Transformation; Technology Industry; United States; California

2024
Book

Deals: The Economic Structure of Business Transactions

By: Guhan Subramanian and Michael Klausner

Drawing on real-life cases from a wide range of industries, two acclaimed experts offer a sophisticated but accessible guide to business deals, designed to maximize value for your side.

Business transactions take widely varying forms—from multibillion-dollar... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Contracts