Publications

September 2003
Case

Driving Change at Seagate

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Douglas A Raymond and Lyn Baranowski

A new CEO, Steve Luczo, together with COO Bill Watkins, have led a turnaround of Seagate, raising productivity dramatically and increasing innovation through teamwork, cross-functional collaboration, and other transformations in the culture of this manufacturer of disk... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Transformation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Groups and Teams; Performance Productivity; Initial Public Offering; Going Public; Information Technology Industry

2024
Working Paper

Climate Solutions, Transition Risk, and Stock Returns

By: Shirley Lu, Edward J. Riedl, Simon Xu and George Serafeim

Using large language models to measure firms' climate solution products and services, we find that high-climate solution firms exhibit lower stock returns and higher market valuation multiples. Their stock prices respond positively to events signaling increased demand... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Generative Ai; Large Language Models; Climate Finance; Climate Change; Innovation and Invention; Environmental Sustainability; AI and Machine Learning; Investment; Financial Markets

SSRN

December 2002
Other Article

The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy

By: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer

When it comes to philanthropy, executives increasingly see themselves as caught between critics demanding ever higher levels of "corporate social responsibility" and investors applying pressure to maximize short-term profits. Increasingly, philanthropy is used as a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy

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11 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

The High Risks of Short-Term Management

Assistant Professor George Serafeim, coauthor of the working paper Short-termism, Investor Clientele, and Firm Risk, with HBS doctoral candidate Maria Loumioti and Assistant Professor Francois Brochet. "We tend to make sweeping statements... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

March 2022 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Hometown Foods: Changing Price amid Inflation

By: Julian De Freitas, Jeremy Yang and Das Narayandas

During the early part of the 2021 Covid-19 pandemic, Hometown Foods, a large seller of flour-based products, thrived as consumers hoarded baked goods and took up baking to pass the time and find comfort. Then, amid growing shortages in commodities, a vaccine arrived,... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Consumer Behavior; Supply Chain; Inflation and Deflation; Spending; Price Bubble; Price; Volatility; Food and Beverage Industry

02 May 2022
What Do You Think?

Can the Case Method Survive Another Hundred Years?

good, way to inspire and develop people able to lead in a world demanding more and more social conscience as well as organizational agility and adaptability? Clearly, the case method is not for everyone, students or faculty members. It... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

OpenInvest

By: Shawn Cole, Boris Vallée and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolios to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Impact Investing; Investment Portfolio; Customization and Personalization; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Financial Services Industry

12 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 12

http://www.guilford.com/cgi-bin/cartscript.cgi?page=pr/vazire.htm&dir=pp/sapp&cart_id=525067.3094 Short-Termism: Don't Blame Investors Authors:Francois Brochet, George Serafeim, and Maria Loumioti Publication:Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2019 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Impossible Foods

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

Impossible Foods founder and CEO Pat Brown started the company out of concern over livestock production’s impact on climate change. Impossible’s mission is to end consumption of animals by 2035, and its strategy is to develop and market plant-based foods so similar to... View Details

November 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Background Note

When Investing and Social Objectives Meet

By: Gregory S. Miller, Vincent Marie Dessain and Anders Sjoman

Introduces students to a group of investors and stakeholders who evaluate firms at least partially on factors other than eventual investment payoff. Focuses on investors who evaluate and attempt to impact firms' ethical, corporate governance, or other "societal"... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Investment; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations

January 2024
Article

Investing with the Government: A Field Experiment in China

By: Emanuele Colonnelli, Bo Li and Ernest Liu

We study the demand for government participation in China’s venture capital and private equity market. We conduct a large-scale, non-deceptive field experiment in collaboration with the leading industry service provider, through which we survey both capital investors... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Private Equity; Business and Government Relations; Entrepreneurship; China

Article

The Use of Broker Votes to Reward Brokerage Firms' and Their Analysts' Research Activities

By: David A. Maber, Boris Groysberg and Paul M. Healy

In traditional markets, the price mechanism directs the flow of resources and governs the process through which supply and demand are brought into equilibrium. In the investment-research industry, broker votes perform these functions. Using detailed clinical data from... View Details

23 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Does Public Ownership of Equity Improve Earnings Quality?

Keywords: by Dan Givoly, Carla Hayn & Sharon P. Katz

07 Nov 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Causes and Consequences of Linguistic Complexity in Non-US Firm Conference Calls

Keywords: by Francois Brochet, Patricia Naranjo & Gwen Yu; Accounting

December 2016
Article

Through the Mud or in the Boardroom: Examining Activist Types and Their Strategies in Targeting Firms for Social Change

By: Charles Eesley, K. A. DeCelles and Michael Lenox

We examine the variety of activist groups and their tactics in demanding firms’ social change. While extant work does not usually distinguish among activist types or their variety of tactics, we show that different activists (e.g., social movement organizations vs.... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Tactics; Investment Activism

June 2010 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Classic Knitwear and Guardian: A Perfect Fit?

By: John A. Quelch and Patricia Girardi

Classic Knitwear manufactures and distributes casual apparel, either unbranded or under a private-label brand name. Partly because Classic has no brand recognition with consumers, gross margins are low. To improve margins, the company considers partnering via a... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Forecasting; Consumer Marketing; New Product Marketing; Product Lines; Merchandising; Branding; Demand and Consumers; Partners and Partnerships; Marketing Strategy; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Marketing; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

September 2014
Article

Accounting Standards and International Portfolio Holdings

By: Gwen Yu and Aida Sijamic Wahid

Do differences in countries' accounting standards affect global investment decisions? We explore this question by examining how accounting distance, the difference in the accounting standards used in the investor's and the investee's countries, affects the asset... View Details

Keywords: IFRS; Home Bias; Cross-cultural/cross-border; Information Asymmetry; Mutual Funds; International Relations

SSRN