Publications

Educators

May 2023
Article

Where Sales Technology (Really) Helps

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Interest in Sales Enablement (SE), the catch-all term for attempts to increase sales productivity with AI and other technologies, is driven by multiple factors. One is the declining costs of the tools. Also, selling is now data-hungry work and not just in tech sectors.... View Details

December 2022
Article

Conflicting Interests and the Effect of Fiduciary Duty: Evidence from Variable Annuities

By: Mark Egan, Shan Ge and Johnny Tang

We examine the variable annuity market to study conflicts of interest and the effect of fiduciary duty in brokerage markets. Insurers typically pay brokers higher commissions for selling more expensive annuities. Our results indicate that sales are four times as... View Details

Keywords: Variable Annuity; Brokers; Fiduciary Duty; Finance; Investment; Insurance; Conflict of Interests; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; United States

SSRN

December 2018
Teaching Note

The Campbell Home (A), (B), and (C)

By: Leslie John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 918-017, 918-018, and 918-019. Campbell siblings Thomas and Sally are faced with selling their childhood home. They need to make several... View Details

Keywords: Agents; Bidding Process; Negotiation; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Preparation; Negotiation Participants; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; United States

2016
Working Paper

Junior Achievement: Training Teenagers for Business Careers after World War II

By: Walter A. Friedman

This article traces the growing popularity of Junior Achievement's "Company Program" in the two decades after World War II. The program provided high school students with the opportunity to form teams and start mini-corporations that would last for most of the school... View Details

Keywords: Management; Human Capital; Age; Training; United States

May 2013
Article

Guidance from ARIN on Legal Aspects of the Transfer of Internet Protocol Numbers

By: Benjamin Edelman and Stephen Ryan

Every device connected to the global Internet needs a numeric identifier, an "Internet Protocol" address ("IP address"). The Internet's continued growth presents a challenge: most IP addresses have already been assigned to networks and organizations, leaving few left... View Details

Keywords: IP Addresses; Regulation; Market Design; Market Transactions; Rights; Contracts; Internet; Technology Adoption; Technology Networks

Read Now

March 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Brazos Partners and the Tri-Northern Exit

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Nathaniel Burbank

Randall Fojtasek, a partner at the Dallas-based Brazos Private Equity Partners, must decide whether now is the time to sell his firm's investment in Tri-Northern Distribution. Brazos, a middle-market leveraged buyout group, created the company two years earlier through... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; LBO; Leveraged Buyout Transaction; Texas; Security; Brazos; Tri-Northern; Tri-Ed; Northern Video; Private Equity; Partners and Partnerships; Distribution; Leveraged Buyouts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry; Distribution Industry; Texas

Educators

February 2004
Case

Czech Mate: CME and Vladimir Zelezny (A)

By: Mihir A. Desai, Alberto Moel and Kathleen Luchs

This case examines how insiders can expropriate value from shareholders in emerging markets when property rights are ill-defined. As such, it provides a platform for considering how institutions and legal rules impact financing patterns and economic outcomes. CME,... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Fairness; Financial Institutions; Corporate Governance; Rights; Ownership Stake

Educators

April 1996
Case

Silver Lane Apartments

By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.

Scott Johnson is a successful developer of single-family and multi-family housing who specializes in renovating and turning around poorly performing apartments in good locations. He plans to sell a 506-unit property for portfolio and estate planning purposes. This case... View Details

Keywords: Housing; Mortgages; Property; Negotiation Tactics; Real Estate Industry

July 2002
Article

The Sale of Ideas: Strategic Disclosure, Property Rights, and Contracting

By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao

Ideas are difficult to sell when buyers cannot assess an idea's value before it is revealed and sellers cannot protect a revealed idea. These problems exist in a variety of intellectual property sales ranging from pure ideas to poorly protected inventions and reflect... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Contracts; Strategy; Valuation

26 Mar 2014
News

Revisiting how Christensen’s “disruption innovation” in healthcare means decentralization

01 Aug 2018
News

Inside the Emerging Economy With Millions of High-Paying Jobs

Research Summary

Fixed NAVs and Costly Puts: US Money Market Mutual Funds (with Peter Tufano)

US money market mutual fund investors have been granted an implicit put option that allows them to sell or redeem their shares at a fixed price of $1.00, regardless of the market value of the portfolio. We describe the institutional features that give rise... View Details

Research Summary

Retail and the Internet

By: Rajiv Lal

The emergence of new technology, increasing number of new retail formats and the emphasis on store brands are contributing factors to enormous changes taking place in retailing. Rajiv Lal's work on the use of the Internet by retailers calls into question the... View Details

July 2017 (Revised July 2024)
Course Overview Note

Public Entrepreneurship

By: Mitchell Weiss

This course is rooted in the belief that there is a large opportunity for creating value and solving large public problems if there are more inventors and builders inside government and more inventors and builders outside government, building for it. The course was... View Details

Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Public Sector; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Government Administration; Business and Government Relations

May 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Teaching Note

The Road to Kolkata: NH-34 and PPP in India

By: Sid Yog and Ben Eppler

It is May 2014 and construction of road NH-34 has been fraught with difficulties, but HCON CEO Arjun Dhawan can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Land acquisition is finally nearing completion throughout the entire stretch, and one parcel is almost ready to begin... View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; Partners and Partnerships; Construction; Emerging Markets; Infrastructure; Public Ownership; Construction Industry; India

October 2014
Article

Putting Sales at the Center of Strategy

By: Frank Cespedes

Research indicates that relatively few firms execute their strategies effectively, and, on average, companies deliver just 50% to 60% of the financial performance that their strategies promise. One reason is a disconnect between strategic goals and field implementation... View Details

June 2008
Case

Kidney Matchmakers

By: Brian J. Hall and Nicole Bennett

In this case we look at the design and development of an unconventional market, where neither money nor traditional "goods" are exchanged. Kidney exchange is an idea pioneered by HBS professor and market designer Alvin Roth and a small group of innovative doctors. This... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Disruptive Innovation; Market Design; Market Transactions; Value Creation; Health Industry