Publications

December 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Machinery International (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

A U.S. company must decide how to translate its German subsidiary's DM financial statements into U.S. dollars for public and internal reporting purposes. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Currency; Money; Accounting; Valuation; Manufacturing Industry; Accounting Industry; United States

February 2006 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Grove International Partners

By: Robert F. Higgins, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Suzanne Petrela

Grove International Partners, one of the world's largest international real estate private equity funds, is actively seeking new investment opportunities in the seniors housing industry. The firm has identified two potential opportunities--one located in Japan and one... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Investment; Opportunities; Financial Services Industry; Health Industry; Japan; United Kingdom

January 2025
Case

Untapped Global: Financing Africa's Missing Middle

By: Raymond Kluender and Emanuele Colonnelli

In November 2024, Jim Chu, founder and CEO of Untapped Global, faced mounting internal tensions over the company’s strategic direction. Untapped had developed a data-driven revenue-based financing (RBF) model to address the “missing middle” problem—the $5.2 trillion... View Details

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 14 Aug 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Leading with Finance

Gain a deep understanding of the principles of finance - a toolkit for making smart financial decisions and the confidence to communicate those decisions to key stakeholders. Program Dates: August 14, 2019 - September 25, 2019 View Details

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 05 Jun 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Leading with Finance

Gain a deep understanding of the principles of finance - a toolkit for making smart financial decisions and the confidence to communicate those decisions to key stakeholders. Program Dates: June 5, 2019 - July 17, 2019 View Details

9 AM – 10 AM EST, 16 Jan 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Leading with Finance

Gain a deep understanding of the principles of finance - a toolkit for making smart financial decisions and the confidence to communicate those decisions to key stakeholders. Program Dates: January 16, 2019 - February 27, 2019 View Details

February 2007 (Revised February 2007)
Module Note

The International Financial Architecture

By: Rawi E. Abdelal

The International Financial Architecture is one of the core modules of Managing International Trade and Investment, an elective course at Harvard Business School. Provides instructors with an overview of the module, the cases and readings, and the teaching notes. View Details

Keywords: International Finance

Teaching Interest

Executive Education: Finance for Senior Executives

By: Malcolm P. Baker

Finance for Senior Executives provides the frameworks to strategically use financial resources and position your company for future success. By examining corporate finance from both internal and external perspectives, this HBS Executive Education View Details

Teaching Interest

Finance Reporting and Control

Financial Reporting and Control (FRC) is a course about how leaders can design and use performance measurement systems to build more effective organizations. Throughout their careers, business leaders are required to... View Details

2025
Working Paper

Bank Financing of Global Supply Chains

By: Laura Alfaro, Mariya Brussevich, Camelia Minoiu and Andrea Presbitero

Finding new international suppliers is costly, so most importers source inputs from a single country. We examine the role of banks in mitigating trade search costs during the 2018–2019 U.S.-China trade tensions. We match data on shipments to U.S. ports with the U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; International Finance; Trade; Credit; United States; Asia

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July 2003
Background Note

Expropriation in International Business

By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Meghan Gallagher-Kernstine

Covers several important expropriation cases in international business from the 20th century and highlights the legal and political difficulties these companies faced. Serves to explain expropriation, to stress the vulnerability of foreign direct investments to... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Global Strategy; Government and Politics; Common Law; Risk Management; Property; Risk and Uncertainty

March 2007 (Revised May 2012)
Case

PRG-Schultz International

By: Paul W. Marshall and James Weber

PRG-Schultz will run out of cash within a couple of months unless the new CEO can reduce costs and restructure the company's debt. PRG was the dominant market leader in the audit recovery industry. The industry consisted of firms which employed accounting professionals... View Details

Keywords: History; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Restructuring; Cost Management; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Borrowing and Debt; Accounting Audits; Accounting Industry

1991
Book

Multinational and International Banking

By: G. Jones

The essays in this volume explore the historical evolution of multinational and international banking. Contemporary studies, and most writers on the theory of multinational banking, focus on US data, yet historically European financial institutions were the leaders in... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Multinational Firms and Management; Analytics and Data Science; Opportunities; Theory; Banking Industry; Europe; United States

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November 1994
Case

Navistar International

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jeremy Cott

As a consequence of laying off half its workforce in a massive downsizing program, the company--a large manufacturer of medium and heavy trucks--struggles with a huge ($2.6 billion) liability for retiree medical costs. Although the company has promised its retirees... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Process; Wages; Labor Unions; Legal Liability; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Restructuring

Web

Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

Bubbles for Fama By: Robin Greenwood , Andrei Shleifer & Yang You FEB 2017 Authors Greenwood, Shleifer, and You evaluate Eugene Fama's claim that stock markets do not exhibit price bubbles using US and international stock return data.... View Details

03 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

The Competitive Advantage of Global Finance

common mistakes made by international managers, and the development of his book for readers interested in "the opportunities of managing in a global setting." Sean Silverthorne: International View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

2020
Working Paper

Internal Models, Make Believe Prices, and Bond Market Cornering

By: Ishita Sen and Varun Sharma

Exploiting position-level heterogeneity in regulatory incentives to misreport and novel data on regulators, we document that U.S. life insurers inflate the values of corporate bonds using internal models. We estimate an additional $9-$18 billion decline in regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Life Insurers; Capital Regulation; Internal Models; Corporate Bonds; Regulatory Supervision; Concentrated Ownership; Bonds; Capital; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Insurance; Investment Portfolio

SSRN

December 1980 (Revised January 1994)
Case

International Foodstuffs

By: David E. Bell

Describes three fairly routine instances in which considerations of risk exposure in foreign exchange are necessary. The three are a delayed payment for a grain shipment, a foreign subsidiary facing devaluation of its domestic currency, and a foreign acquisition. The... View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Risk and Uncertainty; International Relations; Mergers and Acquisitions; Money; International Finance; Financial Services Industry

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October 2003
Case

Financing Biodiversity Conservation by the Global Conservation Fund

By: Mihir A. Desai and Julia Stevens

The Global Conservation Fund is an international nonprofit organization with a $100 million endowment and an exclusive focus on land preservation. The fund and its director must decide which projects to fund over the next year and what financing mechanism to use.... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Protection; Project Evaluation; Environmental Sustainability; Projects; Finance; Decision Making; Financial Instruments; Nonprofit Organizations