Publications

2022
Working Paper

High-Yield Debt Covenants and Their Real Effects

By: Falk Bräuning, Victoria Ivashina and Ali Ozdagli

High-yield debt including leveraged loans is characterized by incurrence financial covenants, or “cov-lite” provisions. A traditional loan agreement includes maintenance covenants, which require continuous compliance with the covenant threshold, and their violation... View Details

Keywords: Debt Covenants; Incurrence Covenants; Borrowing and Debt; Banks and Banking

October 2013 (Revised September 2014)
Case

The TELUS Share Conversion Proposal

By: Lucy White, Benjamin C. Esty and Lisa Mazzanti

On February 21, 2013, TELUS announced a proposal to convert the firm's non-voting shares into voting shares on a one-to-one basis, thereby eliminating the firm's dual class structure. Shareholders were scheduled to vote on the proposal at the firm's annual general... View Details

28 Feb 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Colonial Land Tenure, Electoral Competition and Public Goods in India

Keywords: by Abhijit Banerjee & Lakshmi Iyer

August 2013
Article

Corporate Ownership Structure and the Choice Between Bank Debt and Public Debt

By: Chen Lin, Yue Ma, Paul Malatesta and Yuhai Xuan

This paper examines the relation between a borrowing firm's ownership structure and its choice of debt source using a novel, hand-collected data set on corporate ownership, control, and debt structures for 9,831 firms in 20 countries from 2001 to 2010. We find that the... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Ownership; Borrowing and Debt; Corporate Finance

March 2014 (Revised May 2014)
Teaching Note

The TELUS Share Conversion Proposal

By: Lucy White and Benjamin C. Esty

On February 21, 2013, TELUS announced a proposal to convert the firm's non-voting shares into voting shares on a one-to-one basis, thereby eliminating the firm's dual class structure. Shareholders were scheduled to vote on the proposal at the firm's annual general... View Details

22 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

are tracking the right performance goals and controlling strategic risk, it's time to turn to the fifth implementation imperative: spurring innovation. This imperative is woven into the fabric of every... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

October 2007 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Adelphia Communications Corp.'s Bankruptcy

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Belen Villalonga

In 2002, a massive accounting fraud and corporate looting scandal involving the founding Rigas family made Adelphia the 11th largest bankruptcy case in history, and the third-after WorldCom and Enron-among those triggered by fraud. Set in 2005, when Adelphia is... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Restructuring; Crime and Corruption; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Family Ownership

February 2012
Case

First Quantum Minerals vs. Eurasian Natural Resources

By: George Serafeim

The case describes the battle between First Quantum Mineral (FQM) and Eurasian Resources over mines in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). After FQM's license to operate was revoked by the government of the DRC, Eurasian bought the rights over the mines that were... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Governance; Natural Environment; Risk and Uncertainty; Government and Politics; Mining Industry; Congo, Democratic Republic of the

16 Jun 2011
News

Why Bono didn't save Spider-Man

2023
Book

Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier

By: Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey

In Build the Life You Want, Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey invite you to begin a journey toward greater happiness no matter how challenging your circumstances. Drawing on cutting-edge science and their years of helping people translate ideas into action,... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Personal Development and Career; Emotions

19 Sep 2023
HBS Case

How Will the Tech Titans Behind ChatGPT, Bard, and LLaMA Make Money?

best position right now? Wu: A real standout right now is Meta, in terms of fighting hard for a prominent position on the open-source side with their LLaMA model. Prior to last year, many would have assumed... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Technology; Information Technology

August 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

DexAI

By: Jo Tango and Christina Wallace

During a challenging fundraising environment, the DexAI founders received two term sheets with nearly identical economic terms but very different legal ones. The entrepreneurs had to navigate: representations and warranties (their personal guarantees that the company's... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital Term Sheet; Term Sheet; Term Sheets; Founders; Legal Aspects Of Business; Seed Financing; Founders' Agreements; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Intellectual Property; Entrepreneurial Finance; Contracts; Business Startups; Agreements and Arrangements

18 Jun 2020
News

What CEOs Still Haven’t Said About Race and Policing

2008
Working Paper

Laws vs. Contracts: Legal Origins, Shareholder Protections, and Ownership Concentration in Brazil, 1890–1950

By: Aldo Musacchio

The early development of large multidivisional corporations in Latin America required much more than capable managers, new technologies, and large markets. Behind such corporations was a market for capital in which entrepreneurs had to attract investors to buy either... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Governance Controls; Contracts; Laws and Statutes; Ownership Stake; Brazil

Article

Czech Mate: Expropriation and Investor Protection in a Converging World

By: Mihir A. Desai and Alberto Moel

This paper examines the expropriation of a foreign investor by a local partner and the subsequent resolution of that case through international arbitration in favor of the investor. Despite the investor's 99% interest in joint venture, the local partner managed to... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Capital Markets; Foreign Direct Investment; Geographic Location; Multinational Firms and Management; Governance Controls; Courts and Trials; Rights; Czech Republic; United States

SSRN

Research Summary

Land in China's Political Economy

By: Meg Rithmire

Land Bargains and Chinese Capitalism: The Politics of Property Rights under Reform

Published October 2015

China since the 1980s has been the scene of unprecedented efforts at urban construction and growth, even in the absence of privatization... View Details

The Surprising Power of Online Experiments

In the fast-moving digital world, even experts have a hard time assessing new ideas. Case in point: At Bing a small headline change an employee proposed was deemed a low priority and shelved for months until one engineer decided to do a quick online controlled... View Details

19 Jul 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Government 'Nudges' Motivate Good Citizen Behavior

governments to make their citizens do the right thing. In cases like enforcing pollution regulations, for example, fines are likely more effective, in part because the decisions that go into building a factory are slow and deliberative,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

April 2012
Article

Corporate Ownership Structure and Bank Loan Syndicate Structure

By: Chen Lin, Yue Ma, Paul Malatesta and Yuhai Xuan

Using a novel data set on corporate ownership and control, we show that the divergence between the control rights and cash-flow rights of a borrowing firm's largest ultimate owner has a significant impact on the concentration and composition of the firm's loan... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Financing and Loans; Cash Flow; Borrowing and Debt; Accounting; Crisis Management; Relationships; Law; Contracts; Banking Industry