Publications

November 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Supplement

Scott Tucker (B): The Feds Catch Up

By: Aiyesha Dey and Amram Migdal

The case tells the story of the rise and fall of Scott Tucker, an entrepreneur, businessman, passionate race car driver, competitor, and owner of a professional racing team. From 1997 to 2012, Tucker built a nationwide network of payday lending businesses, becoming a... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Fairness; Financing and Loans; Personal Finance; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Governance Controls; Financial Services Industry; United States

October 1994 (Revised April 1996)
Case

Patricia Ostrander

By: Nancy F. Koehn, Donald J. Edwards and Antonio F. Weiss

Analyzes the career of former money manager Patricia Ostrander. Focuses on Ostrander's purchase of stock warrants issued in connection with the 1985 leveraged buyout of Storer Communications and on her later indictment and conviction for accepting unlawful... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Ethics; Capital Markets; Managerial Roles; Outcome or Result; United States

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February 2016
Case

Banking and Politics in Antebellum New York

By: David Moss and Colin Donovan

After a long period of solid Democratic control, Whigs secured a majority of seats in the New York State Assembly in 1837, the same year that a major financial panic had crippled the banking system and shaken public confidence in the state's governance. The next year,... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Central Banking; Ethics; Laws and Statutes; Business and Government Relations; Government and Politics; History; New York (state, US)

September 2010 (Revised October 2010)
Case

HBS Class of 2009: All Talk As They Prepare to Walk?

By: Rakesh Khurana, Nitin Nohria and Dalia Rahman

Max Anderson, HBS Class of 2009, founded the MBA Oath Initiative. The oath was a voluntary pledge "to create value responsibly and ethically." Anderson and a team of students and faculty worked to launch the first MBA Oath Ceremony conducted on campus during Harvard... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Higher Education; Values and Beliefs; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Value Creation; Education Industry; Massachusetts

December 2003
Case

Antitrust Regulations in a Global Setting: The EU Investigation of the GE/Honeywell Merger

By: Mihir A. Desai, Belen Villalonga and Mark Veblen

Helps students understand the principles underlying competition and antitrust policy in the context of the proposed GE-Honeywell merger. The U.S. Department of Justice has already approved the transaction and it is being considered by the European Commission. The... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decisions; Economy; Fairness; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; Aerospace Industry

14 Sep 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Google Engineer Deserved to be Fired by the CEO

pointed out, he justified his assertions by cherry-picking research on gender differences. The real risk of Damore’s generalizations, expressed in a business context, is that they give license to people to behave as if those beliefs are... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

05 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 5

multiple needs not only possible, but profitable. We conclude by emphasizing the role of business schools in socializing business leaders and how these schools, by incorporating a more stakeholder-centric... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2008
Working Paper

Reality versus Propaganda in the Formation of Beliefs about Privatization

By: Rafael Di Tella, Sebastian Galiani and Ernesto Schargrodsky

Argentina privatized most public utilities during the 1990s but re-nationalized the main water company in 2006. We study beliefs about the benefits of the privatization of water services amongst low and middle income groups immediately after the 2006 nationalization.... View Details

Keywords: Privatization; Public Ownership; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Values and Beliefs; Public Opinion; Utilities Industry; Argentina

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20 Aug 2018
Research & Ideas

Bargain Hunters Beware: A Store's 'Original Price' Might Not Be After All

tells them so. What if those “original prices” stores base their discounts on aren’t real? That’s the question Donald Ngwe asks in his new working paper, Fake Discounts Drive Real Revenues in Retail. An assistant professor in Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising; Retail

03 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 3

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-100.pdf Nameless + Harmless = Blameless: When Seemingly Irrelevant Factors Influence Judgment of (Un)ethical Behavior (revised) Authors:Francesca Gino, Lisa L. Shu, and Max H. Bazerman Abstract People often make judgments about the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 1987 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Mebel, Doran & Co.

By: Samuel L. Hayes III

Puts the student in the position of a senior official of a major New York investment bank who discovers that information has leaked to the market on a confidential takeover plan that was being developed by a corporate client. The official has to decide how to deal with... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Banking; Mergers and Acquisitions; Crisis Management; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

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December 2008
Supplement

Procter & Gamble in the 21st Century (B): Welcoming Gillette (Abridged)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Matthew Bird

A.G. Lafley and P&G leaders decided to approach the Gillette integration differently from previous mergers. Using P&G's purpose, values, and principles (PVP) it treated the acquisition as a merger which sought to take the "best of both" from each company. In the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation

October 2018
Supplement

Zenefits Board of Directors (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Business Model; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Leadership; Risk Management; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; California

February 2021 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Henry Ford: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Max Saffer

This case traces the rise of Henry Ford from a small farm in Michigan to the controlling shareholder of the Ford Motor Company. The case describes how Ford, as young man, acquired engineering skills and the risks he took as he built and marketed one of the first... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Business Startups; Management; Success; Values and Beliefs; Technological Innovation; Personal Development and Career; Auto Industry; United States; Michigan

March–April 2024
Article

How Companies Should Weigh in on a Controversy: A Better Approach to Stakeholder Management

By: David M. Bersoff, Sandra J. Sucher and Peter Tufano

Executives need guidance about managing their organizations’ engagement with societal issues—including hot-button topics such as gender, climate, and racial discrimination. Success in this realm does not mean avoiding public controversy or achieving unanimous support... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Social Issues; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Judgments; Management Practices and Processes

June 2013
Case

Ken Traub at American Bank Note Holographics

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Michael Norris

Ken Traub is hired as CFO for American Bank Note Holographics, the market-leading security holograph company in January 1999, but discovers on his first day that the company has misstated its financials and resigns. After consulting with the company for the next... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Moral Sensibility; Earnings Management; Crime and Corruption; Personal Development and Career; Management Teams; Technology Industry; Service Industry; United States

June 1996
Case

Armscor: Life After Apartheid?

After taking office, South Africa's new president, Nelson Mandela, must decide whether to dismantle or support Armscor, South Africa's state-owned arms company, which has been a pillar of the apartheid regime. Complicating matters is the fact that the arms industry was... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Competitive Advantage; State Ownership; Government Administration; Business and Government Relations; Public Administration Industry; South Africa