Publications

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August 2017 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Accounting for Nuclear Power Provisions at RWE

By: Paul Healy and Jonas Heese

In early 2016, RWE, a utility that operates nuclear power plants in Germany, came under scrutiny from regulators and the media over the adequacy of its provisions for costs of decommissioning and dismantling (D&D) its nuclear power plants. Accounting standards required... View Details

Keywords: Liabilities; Provisions For Long-term Obligations; Discounting; Accounting; Energy Generation; Energy Industry; Germany

November 2021
Article

Ratings, Reviews, and the Marketing of New Products

By: Itay P. Fainmesser, Dominique Olié Lauga and Elie Ofek

We study how user-generated content (UGC) about new products impacts a firm's advertising and pricing decisions and the effect on profits and market dynamics. We construct a two-period model where consumers value quality and are heterogeneous in their taste for the new... View Details

Keywords: Online Reviews; Product Ratings; Social Networks; Word Of Mouth; Pricing; User-generated Content; Advertising; Product Marketing; Price; Consumer Behavior; Product Positioning; Social Media

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January 2019
Case

AIME High: A Social Entrepreneur's Moon Shot

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the entrepreneurial leadership of Jack Manning Bancroft (JMB), a young Indigenous Australian university student who created the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), a nonprofit organization he formed to respond to the problem of Indigenous high... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Mission; Organization Culture; Non-profit; NGO; Social Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Global Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Secondary Education; Organizational Culture; Education Industry; Service Industry; Australia; United States

Article

The Cross Section of Expected Holding Period Returns and Their Dynamics: A Present Value Approach

By: Matthew R. Lyle and Charles C.Y. Wang

We provide a tractable model of firm-level expected holding period returns using two firm fundamentals—book-to-market ratio and ROE—and study the cross-sectional properties of the model-implied expected returns. We find that 1) firm-level expected returns and expected... View Details

Keywords: Expected Returns; Discount Rates; Holding Period Returns; Fundamental Valuation; Present Value; Valuation; Investment Return

1990
Article

Social Influences on Creativity: Evaluation, Coaction, and Surveillance

By: T. M. Amabile, P. Goldfarb and S. C. Brackfield

Two experiments examined the effects of evaluation expectation and the presence of others on creativity. In both experiments, some subjects expected that their work would be evaluated by experts, and others expected no evaluation. Evaluation expectation was crossed, in... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Social Psychology; Situation or Environment; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Evaluation

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Web

Case Studies - Social Impact Collaboratory

Courses & Case Studies Case Studies Middlebury College: Energy2028 (320029) by Brian Trelstad , Michael Norris and John McKinley APRIL 2020 (REVISED MAY 2021) Not all social change happens with new organizations. Middlebury College is one... View Details

Fast Answer

Bloomberg: environmental social and governance (ESG)

What are some of the ESG commands and information available in Bloomberg? Type ESG <GO> to find ESG ratings by company. Type a ticker into the amber box to start your search. You can export the results to Excel. Type... View Details

September 2012
Teaching Note

Stryker Corporation: Capital Budgeting (TN)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

This case examines some parts of Stryker Corporation's systems and procedures for approving and authorizing capital spending of many different types, including buildings, machinery, and working capital for existing businesses, as well as transactions with third parties... View Details

Keywords: Capital Expenditures-equipment; Capital Expenditures-machinery; Internal Rate Of Return; Discounted Cash Flows; Net Present Value; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Cash Flow; System; Organizational Culture; Policy; Business Processes; Capital Budgeting

2005
Article

Early Decisions: A Regulatory Framework

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

We describe a regulatory framework that helps consumers who have difficulty sticking to their own long-run plans. Early Decision regulations help long-run preferences prevail by allowing consumers to partially commit to their long-run goals, making it harder for a... View Details

Keywords: Hyperbolic Discounting; Self-control; Commitment; Consumer Behavior; Taxation; Attitudes

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January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

PortageBay and ESG Analytics

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Radhika Kak

In 2023, sustainable investors faced several challenges. The first was the lack of access to standardized and vetted environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data, and equally, the interpretation of this data into investment-useful insights. Reducing reliance on... View Details

Keywords: ESG Ratings; Investment Funds; Governance; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

10 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Hard Numbers on Social Investments

a willingness to accept a social discount to financial returns. However, some in the social investing community believe that this is simply untrue. Because of the increased... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

01 Feb 2018
News

Ignore environmental, social and governance risks at your peril

April 2010
Case

Groupe Ariel S.A.: Parity Conditions and Cross-Border Valuation

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and James Quinn

Groupe Ariel evaluates a proposal from its Mexican subsidiary to purchase and install cost-saving equipment at a manufacturing facility in Monterrey. The improvements will allow the plant to automate recycling and remanufacturing of toner and printer cartridges, an... View Details

Keywords: Exchange Rates; Securities Analysis; Project Evaluation; International Finance; Debt Securities; Currency Exchange Rate; Cash Flow; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Capital Budgeting; Europe; Mexico