Publications

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November 2015 (Revised August 2016)
Case

Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

In January 2009, when Paul Polman was appointed CEO of Unilever, he inherited a company in long-term decline at the beginning of a major global financial crisis. As the first outsider ever recruited to lead the company, Polman lost little time in challenging the... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competitive Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Consumer Products Industry

May 2007
Article

Corporate Financing Decisions When Investors Take the Path of Least Resistance

By: Malcolm Baker, Joshua Coval and Jeremy Stein

We explore the consequences for corporate financial policy that arise when investors exhibit inertial behavior. One implication of investor inertia is that, all else equal, a firm pursuing a strategy of equity-financed growth will prefer a stock-for-stock merger to... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Investment; Policy; Corporate Finance

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Research Summary

Current Research: Issues in Corporate Governance

Effectiveness of shareholder voting

Reform of shareholder voting is a key component of legislation arising from the financial crisis of 2008. Professor Gow examines the effect of shareholder voting on corporate actions, particularly on... View Details

Curriculum | MBA

Business School Financial Reporting and Control Harvard Business School Leadership & Organizational Behavior Harvard Business School Marketing Harvard Business School Technology & Operations Management Harvard Business School More on the... View Details

Spring 2013
Article

Does Mandatory IFRS Adoption Improve the Information Environment?

By: Joanne Horton, George Serafeim and Ioanna Serafeim

We examine the effect of mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on firms' information environment. We find that after mandatory IFRS adoption, consensus forecast errors decrease for firms that mandatorily adopt IFRS relative to forecast... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Financial Reporting; Standards; Information; Quality; Earnings Management

31 Mar 2010
Working Paper Summaries

When Open Architecture Beats Closed: The Entrepreneurial Use of Architectural Knowledge

Keywords: by Carliss Y. Baldwin

March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies at General Motors: Competitive Exposures

By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen

How can a multinational firm analyze and manage currency risks that arise from competitive exposures? General Motors has a substantial competitive exposure to the Japanese yen. Although the risks GM faces from the depreciating yen are widely acknowledged, the company's... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Currency Exchange Rate; Competition; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; International Finance; Financial Management; Investment Funds; Risk and Uncertainty; Auto Industry

2013
Working Paper

Securities Litigation Risk for Foreign Companies Listed in the U.S.

By: Beiting Cheng, Suraj Srinivasan and Gwen Yu

We study securities litigation risk faced by foreign firms listed on U.S. exchanges. We take into account not only the propensity for foreign firms to commit violations of U.S. securities laws but also the costs that investors face when suing foreign firms. We find... View Details

Keywords: Litigation Risk; Cross Listing; Bonding; 10b-5; Securities Litigation; U.S.Listing; Class Action; Risk and Uncertainty; Debt Securities; Globalized Firms and Management; Ethics; Lawsuits and Litigation; United States

June 2010 (Revised January 2019)
Case

The Guggenheims and Chilean Nitrates

By: Geoffrey Jones and Felipe Tamega Fernandes

The case describes the growth of Guggenheim Brothers as one of the largest mining companies in the world in the early twentieth century. Global expansion led the firm to Chile, first in copper and later in natural nitrates. Chile's economic growth was driven by the... View Details

Keywords: History; Venture Capital; Business History; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Foreign Direct Investment; Financial Crisis; Mining Industry; Chile

September 2023
Article

Stock Price Reactions to ESG News: The Role of ESG Ratings and Disagreement

By: George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon

We investigate whether ESG ratings predict future ESG news and the associated market reactions. We find that the consensus rating predicts future news, but its predictive ability diminishes for firms with large disagreement between raters. Relation between news and... View Details

An Anatomy of Crypto-Enabled Cybercrimes

The advent of cryptocurrencies and digital assets holds the promise of improving financial systems by offering cheap, quick, and secure transfer of value. However, it also opens up new payment channels for cybercrimes. Assembling a diverse set of public on- and... View Details

Gerald Zaltman

*Joined Harvard Faculty: 1991
Prior Faculty Appointments: Northwestern University, 1968-75;
University of Pittsburgh, 1975-91

*Doctoral Degree in Sociology Received from: The John Hopkins University;
MBA Degree Received from: The University of... View Details

Keywords: financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services

June 2014
Teaching Note

Doing Deals and Leading Teams at XAF Partners

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott and Robin Abrahams

Private equity firm XAF Partners had grown steadily over the last decade, establishing offices across Asia. At the end of their day-long partners' retreat, several firm partners discuss the challenges they face as "producing managers." These include collaboration and... View Details

Keywords: Management; Time Management; Development; Competency and Skills; Talent and Talent Management; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Business or Company Management; Management Practices and Processes; Financial Services Industry; China

August 1996
Article

When Do Joint Ventures Create Value?

By: Ashish Nanda and P. Mohanram

Firms enter into joint ventures when their performance is deteriorating. Parent firms earn significant positive returns around announcements. However, at joint venture level, market value weighted return is insignificant. The stock market reacts negatively to ventures... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Financial Markets; Value

August 2020
Supplement

Mary Guerrero and the Advancement of Latinx Talent: Developing an Employee Resource Group at a Top Tier Bank (B)

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Amy Hernandez Turcios

Mary Guerrero decided to pursue the challenging road and kicked off Hispanic/Latinx Advancement and Career Engagement (HACE) at her Bulge Bracket Bank (BBB). For Mary, her larger purpose was to advance Latinx talent in the U.S. because she believed it was important for... View Details

Keywords: Latin America; Career; Engagement; Bank; Inclusion; Scale; Latinx; Talent and Talent Management; Diversity; Ethnicity; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Leadership Development; Banks and Banking

2009
Chapter

The Decline and Renewal of British Multinational Banking.

By: G. Jones and Lucy Newton

This chapter discusses the renaissance of British multinational banking from the 1990s. British commercial banks had pioneered multinational banking during the 19th century, but they were unable to build on this legacy during the new wave of global banking that began... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Commercial Banking; International Finance; Multinational Firms and Management; Strategy; Banking Industry; Great Britain

June 2023 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Optimalen Capital

By: Malcolm Baker, Elisabeth Kempf and Jonathan Wallen

A new client portfolio manager at a quantitative investment management firm must explain why her firm, Optimalen Capital, has rebalanced a client portfolio with a set of trades that seem unintuitive. In particular, Optimalen has added to its position of Walmart (ticker... View Details

Keywords: Investments; CAPM; Capital Asset Pricing Model; Investment Portfolio; Asset Pricing; Stocks