Publications

August 2012
Case

Messer Griesheim (A) (Abridged)

By: Josh Lerner, Eva Lutz and Kerry Herman

In 2001, Allianz Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs acquired a majority stake in Messer Griesheim, a European industrial gas concern held by Hoechst. The dealmakers faced several challenges, including delicate corporate governance issues due to partial family... View Details

Keywords: Germany; Energy; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; European Union

Research Summary

The Value of Family Ownership, Control, and Management

In collaboration with Professor Raphael Amit of Wharton, Belén Villalonga is investigating how family ownership, control, and management affect firm value. Their forthcoming Journal of Financial... View Details

24 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 24

Working Papers Managing the Family Firm: Evidence from CEOs at Work By: Bandiera, Oriana, Andrea Prat, and Raffaella Sadun Abstract—CEOs affect the performance of the firms they manage, and View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

March 1995
Case

Donald Salter Communications, Inc.

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jeremy Cott

A new CEO is hired to manage the turnaround of a family-owned newspaper publisher. In a departure from previous management, he implements a new compensation scheme that explicitly ties executive pay to market-value-based measures of firm performance. Because the... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Transformation; Asset Management; Wages; Balanced Scorecard; Family Ownership; Motivation and Incentives; Valuation; Journalism and News Industry

08 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 8

http://people.hbs.edu/evandensteen/OnlineDocs/PP10_MS_EVdS_Culture%20Clash.pdf Working PapersThe Role of Institutional Development in the Prevalence and Value of Family Firms Authors:Raphael Amit, Yuan... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Why Business Should Support Employees Who Are Caregivers

framework for balancing a career and life. The linear career paths common at law, accounting, and professional services firms rarely take into account the personal milestones and unexpected challenges that all employees experience. Caring... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Health

2016
Working Paper

Immigrant Entrepreneurs and the Social Safety Net

By: Gareth Olds

This paper explores the role of public health insurance in small business ownership among immigrants, a group with high rates of entrepreneurship. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 created a five-year “waiting period” for legal... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Entrepreneurship; Welfare or Wellbeing; Immigration

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January 2021
Case

Saham Group: It's In the Genes

By: Christina R. Wing and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in August 2020 as Moulay Mhamed Elalamy (Mhamed), CEO of the Saham Group (the Group), a pan-African investment company that operates a variety of businesses out of Morocco, contemplates the Group’s identity, its investment strategy, and how to navigate... View Details

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Family Business; For-Profit Firms; Transformation; Transition; Emerging Markets; Change Management; Private Equity; Investment; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Real Estate Industry; Education Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Morocco; Africa

January 2013 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Mutti S.p.a.

By: Jose B. Alvarez, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Mary Shelman

Francesco Mutti, owner, CEO, and great-grandson of the founder of Mutti Spa, ran the 113-year old Parma, Italy-based tomato-processing company. Mutti sales grew from €11 million in 1995 to €185 million in 2011, without producing for store brands in a market in which... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Strategy; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Family Business; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Retail Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Italy

16 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 16, 2007

Working PapersShamed and Able: How Firms Respond to Information Disclosure Authors:Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel. Abstract We apply institutional theory to explain how firms respond to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Immigrant Entrepreneurs in U.S. Financial History, 1775-1914

Throughout its history, the U.S. has been the beneficiary of a worldwide in-migration of entrepreneurial talent. This article surveys finance, one of the many sectors in which immigrants made a conspicuous impact. Part I demonstrates the dominant role of immigrants in... View Details

Keywords: History; Talent and Talent Management; Groups and Teams; Entrepreneurship; Policy; Immigration; Banks and Banking; United States

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07 Feb 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Attracting Flows by Attracting Big Clients: Conflicts of Interest and Mutual Fund Portfolio Choice

Keywords: by Lauren H. Cohen & Breno Schmidt; Financial Services

November 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

'Care in Every Drop': Ayala Corporation and Manila Water (A)

By: Debora L. Spar, Paul Healy, Tricia Peralta and Julia M. Comeau

Since 1834, eight generations of the Ayala family have used their conglomerate to fund nation-building projects in the Philippines, including investments in tramcars, telecommunications, hospitals, and schools. In 1997, Ayala’s subsidiary, Manila Water, took control of... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Economic Growth; Social Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Natural Resources; Crisis Management; Failure; Privatization; Social Issues; Urban Development; Adaptation; Public Opinion; Mission and Purpose; Utilities Industry; Asia; Philippines

Article

Recent Advances in the Empirics of Organizational Economics

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

We present a survey of recent contributions in empirical organizational economics, focusing on management practices and decentralization. Productivity dispersion between firms and countries has motivated the improved measurement of firm organization across industries... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Productivity; Geographic Location; Motivation and Incentives; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Competition; Human Capital; Markets; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Multinational Firms and Management; India; Brazil; United States

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19 Sep 2023
HBS Case

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

whether we should adopt AI—but rather, when and how to do so,” says Andy Wu, the Arjun and Minoo Melwani Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Wu’s recent case study and background note, AI Wars... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Technology; Information Technology

July 2010 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Werner von Siemens and the Electric Telegraph

By: Geoffrey Jones and Bjoern von Siemens

This case describes the nineteenth century founding by Werner Siemens of the Siemens electrical business in Germany. Werner's dual role as inventor and entrepreneur is explored as he created one of the world's first multinational enterprises, whose growth initially... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Growth and Development Strategy; Electronics Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Germany

February 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Background Note

Note on Measuring Controlling Shareholder's Ownership, Voting, and Control Rights

Founders and their families can raise equity without relinquishing control of their companies through the use of mechanisms such as dual-class stock, pyramidal ownership, voting agreements, and disproportionate board representation. The use of these mechanisms in... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Measurement and Metrics; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations; Valuation

May 1997
Supplement

Francisco de Narvaez at Tia

By: Linda A. Hill and Mara Willard

Harvard Business School students question Francisco de Narvaez about his family store, Tia, from the late 1980s to the present, as he attempts to transform it from a family-owned business into a market-driven, professionally-run global company. View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Family Business; Transformation