Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,731)
- Faculty Publications (202)
- April 2020
- Supplement
Oaktree: Pierre Foods Investment
By: Victoria Ivashina and Terrence Shu
This case is a setting to discuss “loan to own” investment strategy that is often pursued by distressed investors. The aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis left many companies with poor liquidity and limited ability to obtain credit. One of these companies was Pierre... View Details
- April 2020
- Teaching Note
Oaktree: Pierre Foods Investment
By: Victoria Ivashina, Michael Harmon and Terrence Shu
Teaching Note for HBS No. 219-018. This case is a setting to discuss “loan to own” investment strategy that is often pursued by distressed investors. The aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis left many companies with poor liquidity and limited ability to obtain... View Details
- March 2020
- Case
Aereo
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Jacey Taft
Aereo aimed to disrupt television program distribution by providing consumers access to local broadcast TV programming using offsite antennas, cloud-based DVRs, and an Internet connection. With Aereo, consumers could “cut the cord” and avoid the high cost of a cable TV... View Details
- March 2020
- Article
Organizing Knowledge Production Teams Within Firms for Innovation
By: Vikas A. Aggarwal, David H. Hsu and Andy Wu
How should firms organize their pool of inventive human capital for firm-level innovation? While access to diverse knowledge may aid knowledge recombination, which can facilitate innovation, prior literature has focused primarily on one way of achieving that: diversity... View Details
- March 2020
- Article
Voluntary, Self-Regulatory, and Mandatory Disclosure of Oil and Gas Company Payments to Foreign Governments
By: Paul M. Healy and George Serafeim
Concerns about high rates of government corruption in resource-rich countries have led transparency advocates to urge oil and gas firms to disclose payments to host governments for natural resources. Transparency, they argue, can increase government accountability and... View Details
- February 2020 (Revised March 2020)
- Case
Managing Blackout at Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) (A)
By: Joseph B. Fuller, Gamze Yücaoğlu and Youssef Abdel Aal
The case opens in 2017 as Tim Murray, CEO of Aluminum Bahrain (Alba), the largest single-site aluminum smelter in the world outside China and a major contributor to the Bahraini economy, was contemplating the recovery options as the company was facing the most severe... View Details
- February 2020
- Supplement
Managing Blackout at Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) (B)
By: Joseph B. Fuller, Gamze Yücaoğlu and Youssef Abdel Aal
The case opens in 2017 as Tim Murray, CEO of Aluminum Bahrain (Alba), the largest single-site aluminum smelter in the world outside China and a major contributor to the Bahraini economy, was contemplating the recovery options as the company was facing the most severe... View Details
- January 23, 2020
- Article
Sanctions and the End of Trans-Atlanticism: Iran, Russia, and the Unintended Division of the West
By: Rawi Abdelal and Aurélie Bros
Sanctions have become the dominant tool of statecraft in the United States and other Western states, especially the European Union, since the end of the Cold War. But the systematic use of this instrument may produce unintended and somewhat paradoxical geopolitical... View Details
Keywords: Geopolitics; Economic Sanctions; International Relations; United States; Russia; Iran; Europe
- 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
- December 2019
- Article
The Impact of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment
By: Donald Ngwe, Kris J. Ferreira and Thales Teixeira
Many online stores are designed such that shoppers can easily access any available discounted products. We propose that deliberately increasing search frictions by placing small obstacles to locating discounted items can improve online retailers’ margins and even... View Details
- September 2019
- Case
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Shaping the Vaccine Manufacturing Ecosystem
By: Willy C. Shih
Vaccines for children has been a long-standing focus for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and its critical role in public health made its production an important economic and political issue. This case describes the Foundation's investment in a breakthrough vaccine... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Collusion in Brokered Markets
By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers and Richard Lowery
The U.S. residential real estate agency market presents a puzzle for economic theory: commissions on real estate transactions have remained high for decades even though entry is frequent and costs are low. We model the real estate agency market, and other brokered... View Details
- August 2019 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Systems Design West
By: Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
Jenn Braus (HBS 2013) was halfway through the 90-day exclusivity period for her proposed acquisition of Systems Design West (SDW). She had completed her business and accounting due diligence. Just as she was about to ask her lawyer to begin drafting the purchase... View Details
- June–July 2019
- Article
A Methodology for Operationalizing Enterprise IT Architecture and Evaluating Its Modifiability
By: Robert Lagerström, Alan MacCormack, David Dreyfus and Carliss Y. Baldwin
Recent contributions to information systems theory suggest that the primary role of a firm’s information technology (IT) architecture is to facilitate, and therefore ensure the continued alignment of a firm’s IT investments with a constantly changing business... View Details
- June 2019
- Article
Brokers vs. Retail Investors: Conflicting Interests and Dominated Products
By: Mark Egan
I study how brokers distort household investment decisions. Using a novel convertible bond dataset, I find that consumers often purchase dominated bonds—cheap and expensive versions of otherwise identical bonds coexist in the market. The empirical evidence suggests... View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
The Impact of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment
By: Donald Ngwe, Kris J. Ferreira and Thales Teixeira
Many online stores are designed such that shoppers can easily access any available discounted products. We propose that deliberately increasing search frictions by placing small obstacles to locating discounted items can improve online retailers’ margins and even... View Details
- December 2018
- Case
Choosy
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Julia Kelley
Founded in 2017, Choosy is a data-driven fashion startup that uses algorithms to identify styles trending on social media. After manufacturing similar items using a China-based supply chain, Choosy sells them to consumers through its website and social media pages.... View Details
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Algorithms; Machine Learning; Neural Networks; Instagram; Influencer; Fast Fashion; Design; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Innovation and Invention; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Demand and Consumers; Supply Chain; Production; Logistics; Business Model; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Digital Platforms; Social Media; Technology Industry; Fashion Industry; North and Central America; United States; New York (state, US); New York (city, NY)
- December 2018
- Article
Improving Resilience Among Employees High in Depression, Anxiety, and Workplace Distress
By: Allison L. Williams, Acacia C. Parks, Grace Cormier, Julia Stafford and A.V. Whillans
Depression and anxiety are costly for both employees and employers, in terms of direct medical costs as well as costs stemming from lost productive time and missed days at work. Resilience training has been shown to improve workplace functioning for employees, which... View Details
- November 2018 (Revised January 2022)
- Case
JUUL and the Vaping Revolution
By: Michael W. Toffel, John Masko and Sarah Mehta
In late 2019, San Francisco-based electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) maker JUUL Labs (pronounced “jewel”) faced intense pressure. Sales of JUUL products exceeded $1 billion in 2018, dominating the e-cigarette category. While JUUL Labs’ stated goal was to help current... View Details
Keywords: Electronic Cigarettes; E-Cigarettes; Vaping; Nicotine Replacement; JUUL; Juuling; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Customers; Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Ethics; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Information Technology; Technology Industry; San Francisco; California
- August 28, 2018
- Article
How Intermittent Breaks in Interaction Improve Collective Intelligence
By: Ethan Bernstein, Jesse Shore and David Lazer
People influence each other when they interact to solve problems. Such social influence introduces both benefits (higher average solution quality due to exploitation of existing answers through social learning) and costs (lower maximum solution quality due to a... View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Social Influence; Collective Intelligence; Interaction; Problem Solving; Collaboration; Intermittant; Breaks; Always On; Communication Technologies; Communication; Design; Information; Management; Leadership; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information Technology