Publications

March 2005
Case

Windhoek Nature Reserve: Financing a Sustainable Conservation Model in Namibia

In 2003, a Namibian entrepreneur was deciding how to finance and manage the risks of an ecotourism, nature reserve, venture project. Explores the challenges facing an entrepreneur operating in an emerging market with imperfect local financial and legal institutions. View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship

12 Feb 2019
HBS Seminar

Gary Loveman, Harvard Business School

October 1987 (Revised September 1992)
Case

Hurricane Island Outward Bound School

Hurricane Island Outward Bound, a small, nonprofit school that helped pioneer experiential education in the United States, has recently recovered from a financial crisis. Students take the role of the school's new marketing manager, who is preparing his first marketing... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Nonprofit Organizations; Marketing Strategy; Education; Education Industry; United States

November 2010 (Revised May 2014)
Case

Dow's Bid for Rohm and Haas

By: Benjamin C. Esty and David Lane

This case analyzes Dow Chemical Company's proposed acquisition of Rohm and Haas in 2008. The $18.8 billion acquisition was part of Dow's strategic transformation from a slow-growth, low-margin, and cyclical producer of basic chemicals into a higher-growth,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Crisis; Capital Structure; Financial Condition; Financial Management; Contracts; Lawsuits and Litigation; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Chemical Industry

July 2007 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Leasing Computers at Persistent Learning

Newly public Persistent Learning is acquiring vital computer assets. They need to determine how the lease or purchase decision will impact their financial statements, and how the market will react given previously forecast earnings and competitor's accounting. View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Financial Statements; Leasing

24 Mar 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Economic Uncertainty and Earnings Management

Keywords: by Luke C.D. Stein and Charles C.Y. Wang; Financial Services

11 Aug 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Structural GARCH: The Volatility-Leverage Connection

Keywords: by Robert F. Engle & Emil N. Siriwardane

27 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 27

likely to perceive CSR strategies favorably. Our results show how CSR strategies can affect value creation in public equity markets through analyst recommendations. Institutional Stock Trading on Loan Market... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Innovation at the Treasury: Treasury Inflation-Protection Securities (A)

By: Kenneth A. Froot, Peter A. Hecht and Christopher Edward James Payton

In 1997, the U.S. Treasury was deciding whether to proceed with a proposal to issue inflation-indexed bonds. This case explores the challenges facing innovation in the financial markets as the Treasury tries to determine whether to introduce Treasury... View Details

Keywords: Inflation; Innovation; Federal Government; Securities; Debt Securities; Risk Management; Bonds; Investment Portfolio; Capital Markets; Inflation and Deflation; Government and Politics; Innovation and Invention; United States

February 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Mattermark

By: Jeffrey Bussgang and Annelena Lobb

Mattermark, a software-as-a-service company that sold software allowing companies to access financial information about privately-held companies and startups, was at a turning point. CEO Danielle Morrill had to allocate investment funding from a Series A round. She... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Marketing; Strategy; Technology Industry; United States

December 2001 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Borealis

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Bjorn N. Jorgensen

When Borealis, a European producer of plastics, used a traditional, time-consuming budgeting process, the budget was quickly out of date in a competitive environment characterized by continually changing input and output prices and dynamic market conditions. This case... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment; Governance Controls; Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Manufacturing Industry; Europe

April–May 2017
Article

Career Concerns of Banking Analysts

By: Joanne Horton, George Serafeim and Shan Wu

We study how career concerns influence banking analysts' forecasts and how their forecasting behavior benefits both them and bank managers. We show that banking analysts issue early in the year relatively more optimistic and later in the year more pessimistic forecasts... View Details

Keywords: Sell-side Analysts; Analyst Forecasts; Analysts; Investment Recommendations; Career Advancement; Career Management; Labor Mobility; Labor Market; Prejudice and Bias; Personal Development and Career; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment Banking

SSRN

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October 2014 (Revised November 2016)
Technical Note

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) vs. Customer Lifetime Return on Investment (CLROI)

By: Elie Ofek

This note presents two related measures for assessing the financial value of a customer to the firm. The first is the well-known measure of Customer Lifetime Value, or CLV for short. The second, which has received much less attention, treats the acquisition of a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Lifetime Value; Return On Investment; Segmentation; Social Networks; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Investment Return; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Media