Publications

October 2000 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Harvard Management Company and Inflation-Protected Bonds, The

By: Luis M. Viceira

In March 2000, the board of The Harvard Management Co. (HMC) approved significant changes in the policy portfolio determining the long-run allocation policy of the Harvard University endowment. These changes included a sharp reduction of the allocation to U.S. equities... View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Investment Portfolio; Investment Funds; Asset Management; Corporate Governance; Capital Markets; Financial Services Industry; United States

24 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

What Do Development Banks Do? Evidence from Brazil, 2002-2009

Keywords: by Sergio G. Lazzarini, Aldo Musacchio, Rodrigo Bandeira-de-Mello & Rosilene Marcon; Banking

29 Apr 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Use Personal Experience to Pick Winning Stocks

Let's face it: in most cases, the stock market knows what it's doing. With millions of people performing their homework and investing money in stocks they hope will pay off, it's hard for any one person to beat the market in a big way.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

28 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

While Waiting for Japan’s Recovery, Let’s Enhance Supplier Competitiveness at Home

earthquake damage. They can take action now to ensure that America invests in growing our domestic stock of world-class suppliers. A national campaign to enhance supply-chain partnerships could also accelerate job creation. America needs... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

November 2012
Case

CSIRO: The Light Metals Flagship Decision

By: Willy Shih, Margaret P. Pierson and Dawn Lau

This case explores the challenge of investing in basic research as a public good. CSIRO was Australia's leading science and research agency, and it was chartered to enhance national prosperity through R&D. Its Flagships program was designed to align research interests... View Details

18 Oct 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Venture Capital’s Disconnect with Clean Tech

MBA students often fall into one of two categories—those hungry to rush into careers as venture capitalists, and those eager to found a venture-funded start-up. For all of them, Harvard Business School professor Joseph Lassiter has some intriguing advice: Spend a few... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities; Financial Services

2020
Working Paper

Private Equity and COVID-19

By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov

We survey more than 200 private equity (PE) managers from firms with $1.9 trillion of assets under management (AUM) about their portfolio performance, decisionmaking and activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Given that PE managers have significant incentives to... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Private Equity; Management; Investment Portfolio; Performance; Decision Making; Value Creation

Read Now

January 2007 (Revised December 2007)
Case

PSI: Social Marketing Clean Water

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Nava Ashraf and Marie Bell

Senior management at PSI, arguably the world's largest and most successful social marketer with impressive achievements in the field of family planning, HIV/AIDS, and malaria prevention must determine what to do about their slow-to-take-off clean water initiative.... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Health Care and Treatment; Social Marketing; Natural Environment; Social Enterprise; Business Strategy

September 2024
Case

InfraCredit and the Project Inception Facility

By: John Macomber, Namrata Arora and Maagatha Kalavadakken

Around the world, large infrastructure projects are frequently stymied by the high cost and high uncertainty of the project inception phase: the research and engineering and planning prior to financial close and start of construction. Could there be a new kind of... View Details

June 2009 (Revised June 2009)
Case

VidaGas: VillageReach - The Mozambican Foundation for Community Development Joint Venture

This case describes the evolution of a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) distributor start-up, incubated by two not-for-profit NGOs to help improve the vaccine cold chain in Northern Mozambique. These NGOs must face the decision whether and how to sell their participation in... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Supply Chain; Health Care and Treatment; Investment; Non-Governmental Organizations; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; Health Industry; Mozambique

14 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The High Cost of the Slow COVID Vaccine Rollout

officials took steps to speed vaccine development last year, the United States and other countries could have paid to build manufacturing infrastructure and shore up the supply chain needed to produce vaccines at higher capacity. That extra View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

March 2003 (Revised November 2009)
Case

Hudson Manufacturing Company

By: Paul A. Gompers and Vanessa del Valle Broussard

Concerns the decision by Brett Keith and Owen Colligan to purchase Hudson Manufacturing, a maker of heaters and air filtration units for the military. Keith and Colligan have organized a search fund and identified Hudson as a potential buyout. The decline in the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment; Pollutants; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry

July 2019
Case

Instabeat—One More Lap?

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar

This case follows Lebanese entrepreneur, Hind Hobeika, an engineer and competitive swimmer who spends seven years trying to launch a wearable heartrate monitor and motion sensor to help swimmers track their performance while swimming. While the Beirut-based... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Manufacturing; Prototyping; Female Protagonist; Business Startups; Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Design; Organizational Culture; United States; Lebanon

Research Summary

International Competitiveness in High Technology and Science Based Sectors

By: Gary P. Pisano

This research project examines shifts in competitive capabilities of companies and countries in high technology and science based businesses. It is particularly concerned with the potential loss of such capabilities in various industrial sectors in the... View Details

April 2025
Case

Kleiner Perkins (2019)

By: Jo Tango and Srimayi Mylavarapu

Kleiner Perkins, founded in 1972, quickly rose to prominence as one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital firms, earning a reputation for early investments in industry giants like Google, Amazon, and Citrix. However, a bold, strategic pivot to cleantech investing... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurial Finance

March 2006 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Putnam Investments: Rebuilding the Culture

By: Nitin Nohria and Charles Nichols

Charles "Ed" Haldeman Jr. is promoted CEO of Putnam Investments after the firm was badly damaged by a series of improper trading practices. He is charged with the task of managing the crisis, repairing the company culture, and putting the firm back into a pattern of... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Ethics; Investment Funds; Investment; Leading Change; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry; United States

18 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 18

https://hbr.org/product/indus-towers-from-infancy-to-maturity/415005-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 814-031 Homestrings, Inc.: Diaspora-Based Financing and the Crowd Funding of Development Homestrings is an online View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2005 (Revised November 2005)
Case

SAIF: May 2004

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

The Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund (SAIF) team has just learned that the price at which its portfolio company, the Chinese gaming firm Shanda, was planning to go public must be reduced. As a result, the partners think through the entire genesis of the deal and the... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Initial Public Offering; Price; China; United States