Publications

January 1994 (Revised November 1997)
Case

Aberlyn Capital Management: July 1993

By: Josh Lerner and Peter Tufano

Aberlyn Capital Management, a venture leasing firm specializing in providing capital to biotechnology firms, proposes to introduce a new product. Aberlyn will base a lease on an intangible product: the patent of a biotechnology firm. This poses a series of short and... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Valuation; Product Launch; Problems and Challenges; Patents; Financial Instruments; Financial Services Industry; Biotechnology Industry

17 Apr 2012
News

Apple, Google, Amazon Pay Corporate Income Tax Well Below Official Rate

April 2002
Case

Contingent Workforce Planning at Motorola, Inc.

Details the rationale for and design of a unique organizational response by Motorola to the challenges of contingent staffing at its semiconductor facility in Austin, Texas. The new outsourcing strategy is built on principles of supply chain management and business... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Semiconductor Industry; Texas

March 2016
Article

To Groupon or Not to Groupon: The Profitability of Deep Discounts

By: Benjamin Edelman, Sonia Jaffe and Scott Duke Kominers

We examine the profitability and implications of online discount vouchers, a relatively new marketing tool that offers consumers large discounts when they prepay for participating firms' goods and services. Within a model of repeat experience good purchase, we examine... View Details

Keywords: Voucher Discounts; Groupon; Experience Goods; Repeat Purchase; Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications

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2014
Working Paper

~To Groupon or Not to Groupon: The Profitability of Deep Discounts

By: Benjamin G. Edelman

We examine the profitability and implications of online discount vouchers, a relatively new marketing tool that offers consumers large discounts when they prepay for participating firms' goods and services. Within a model of repeat experience good purchase, we examine... View Details

Keywords: Voucher Discounts; Groupon; Experience Goods; Repeat Purchase; Online Advertising; Price; Profit; Marketing Strategy; Retail Industry

SSRN

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August 2001 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Maria Hernandez & Associates

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

This case presents the situation of an unemployed web page designer who starts a new consulting firm with personal savings and a family loan. Two months later, she is to report on operations to her father, using financial reports she must design and construct. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Accounting; Business Startups; Design; Borrowing and Debt; Service Industry

17 May 2012
News

How To Stop Sleeping With Your Smartphone

May 2011
Case

Oriental Fortune Capital: Building a Better Stock Exchange

By: Josh Lerner and Keith Chi-ho Wong

When ChiNext opened in October 2009 as the second tier market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), it aimed to provide Chinese entrepreneurs with equity capital and to facilitate the exits of venture capital firms and other investors which had previously relied on... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Stocks; Financial Markets; Venture Capital; Private Equity; International Finance; Financial Services Industry; China

17 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 17

proprietary platform such as Microsoft has chosen to contribute to the development of Linux. Download working paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2102669 Playing Favorites: How Firms Prevent the Revelation of Bad View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Code of Change

overhead, and it was planning an additional layoff of 8,300 employees at the time Dunlap took over. At the same time it invested in new paper machines and attempted to consolidate its global position by acquiring several foreign... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Nitin Nohria

22 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Business Model Innovation and Competitive Imitation

Keywords: by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell & Feng Zhu

18 Nov 2022
HBS Case

What Does It Take to Safeguard a Legacy in Asset Management?

professionals with an existing track record.” New employees relocate to Baltimore, where the firm is based. Investment teams are composed of generalists, not specialists, which maximizes knowledge sharing.... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

May 2003
Module Note

Managing Development Networks

By: Stefan H. Thomke

Describes the concepts and pedagogy for a module on understanding and managing product development networks between firms and within firms and among products themselves. Introduces students to the increasingly important role of networks in the development of new... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Resource Allocation; Research and Development; Networks; Design; Groups and Teams

November 1989 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Automation Consulting Services

By: Robert Simons and Hilary Weston

Illustrates the management control challenges that are associated with rapid growth and geographic expansion. Situated at an offsite Executive Committee Retreat. The three founding partners of a specialized consulting firm are grappling with several difficult questions... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Policy; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Expansion; Consulting Industry

In industry after industry, data, analytics, and AI-driven processes are transforming the nature of work. While we often still treat AI as the domain of a specific skill, business function, or sector, we have entered a new era in which AI is challenging the very... View Details

2022
White Paper

The American Opportunity Index: A Corporate Scorecard of Worker Advancement

By: Matt Sigelman, Joseph Fuller, Nik Dawson and Gad Levanon

The American Opportunity Index: A Corporate Scorecard of Worker Advancement is a new effort to give companies and other stakeholders a set of robust tools that measure how well major employers are doing in fostering economic mobility for workers and how they could do... View Details

Keywords: Upward Mobility; Career Advancement; Personal Development and Career; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Wages; Human Capital; Recruitment

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October 2005 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Sales Force Integration at FedEx (A)

By: David B. Godes

Federal Express' (FedEx) recent acquisition of RPS--a ground delivery firm--gave the firm the potential to offer a single source for a client's delivery needs. However, to deliver on this potential, the firm needed to deliver the integrated solution through a single... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Salesforce Management; Transportation; Compensation and Benefits; Transportation Industry

2010
Chapter

The Financing of R&D and Innovation

By: Bronwyn H. Hall and Josh Lerner

Evidence on the “funding gap” for investment innovation is surveyed. The focus is on financial market reasons for underinvestment that exist even when externality-induced underinvestment is absent. We conclude that while small and new innovative firms experience high... View Details

Keywords: Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Venture Capital; Corporate Finance