Contracting - Publications - Faculty & Research

16 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist?

voice of the impartial spectator. With my coauthors I applied this framework to designing a savings product for a bank in the Philippines that helps clients act in line with their long-term interests. In this "commitment savings product," clients sign a View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

Web

Case Studies - Social Impact Collaboratory

to design use investment capital to create social change. Key Themes: The social impact bond is a unique financial contract that allows investors to fund social service organizations with the potential to earn a return. Returns, if any,... View Details

26 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

To Motivate Employees, Give an Unexpected Bonus (or Penalty)

with how employees are motivated than the actual consequences they receive. Motivation is important in business for one reason: In the contract between employers and employees, it’s simply not possible to spell out how employees’ roles... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing

January 2005 (Revised August 2014)
Exercise

Hamilton Real Estate: Confidential Role Information for the CEO of Estate One (BUYER)

By: Deepak Malhotra

Presents a two-party negotiation between the executive VP of Pearl Investments and the CEO of Estate One for the sale of real estate in the town of Hamilton. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Price; Information; Contracts; Managerial Roles; Agreements and Arrangements; Sales; Strategy; Value; Real Estate Industry

Citation

Purchase

08 May 2020
Blog Post

Building a World of Trusted Leaders: Taking the MBA Oath

uphold, in letter and spirit, the laws and contracts governing my conduct and that of my enterprise. I will refrain from corruption, unfair competition, or business practices harmful to society. I will protect the human rights and dignity... View Details

01 Mar 2024
News

Giving All Stakeholders a Voice

“Now with blockchain, network effects are turbocharged, while bringing back principles of open innovation that Web 1.0 had,” Wu says. Read more about Building open-source applications with logic encoded in smart contracts helps businesses... View Details

Keywords: April White

23 Mar 2023
Blog Post

Arla Foods: How Sustainable Can A Dairy Company Be?

owned and contracted operations (Scope 1 and 2) and emissions from up- and downstream activities (Scope 3). Although we frequently hear Scope 1 and 2 emissions considered separately from Scope 3, it became clear that Arla corporate’s... View Details

25 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Is Baseball Ready to Compete for the Next Generation of Fans?

New York Yankee slugger Aaron Judge, would surpass the $10.7 billion it reported in 2019—the last full season before pandemic interruptions. The league also signed new TV contracts with ESPN and TBS before this season, and next year will... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Media & Broadcasting; Sports

February 2019 (Revised August 2019)
Case

KangaTech

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Patrick J. Ferguson, Sarah Fleischer, Jin Hyun Paik and Steven Randazzo

On a warm January afternoon in 2019, Steve Saunders, Dave Scerri, Carl Dilena, and Nick Haslam (see Exhibit 1 for biographies), co-founders of KangaTech, wrapped up the latest round of discussions about the future direction of their sports-technology start-up. Focused... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Technology Commercialization; Prototype; Business Startups; Technological Innovation; Sports; Health; Commercialization; Research and Development; Decision Making; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Sports Industry; Health Industry; Australia

Citation

Educators

Purchase

April 1998 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Acquisition of Consolidated Rail Corporation (A), The

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Lori A. Flees and Mathew M Millett

On October 15, 1996, Virginia-based CSX and Pennsylvania-based Consolidated Rail (Conrail), the first and third largest railroads in the eastern United States, announced their intent to merge in a friendly deal worth $8.3 billion. This deal was part of an industry-wide... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decisions; Contracts; Rail Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

01 Oct 1997
News

Brice Cutrer Jones

New York attorney. "We shook hands on the corner of 57th and Lex on September 17, 1972," recalls Jones. "He said, 'You go do it and I'll get the equity,' and that's been our only contract to this day." At his 15th HBS Reunion, Jones was... View Details

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

10 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Globalization: The Strategy of Differences

cautionary tale of what can happen when companies go too far. Acer entered early into the contract manufacturing of personal computers, operating in low-wage Taiwan, and made good money with that arbitrage play. But in the early 1990s, it... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

05 Sep 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Making the Right Technical Hire

performance engineer is a critical full-time hire. However, it may behoove you to find a good contract engineer who specializes in performance tuning as needed, at least until you’re operating at scale. Same thing for a designer; unless... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin; Technology

18 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

Where Morals and Profits Meet: The Corporate Value Shift

competitors can get away with paying off officials—either public or corporate—to win major contracts or secure exemptions from health, safety, or other requirements. On the other hand, a background of corruption can sometimes make it... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

11 May 2022
Blog Post

MoMBAs: The Inspiring Student Mothers of HBS

here will make the MBA experience very different from many of the students, but as long as your priorities are clear you can make it work and you will likely find more people around to help than you imagine. HBS mama memory? I started having View Details

Web

Richard P. Melnick | About

University CIO) that evaluates the business, technical and financial case for major university administrative technology investments. He sits on several Executive Committees that manage the implementation of university financial systems. Rick has twice served on the... View Details

04 Jun 2001
What Do You Think?

What’s the Future of the Subscription Model?

arrangement under which it charged a royalty for equipment usage, as I mentioned in an earlier column "Can You Hard-Wire Performance?" in this series. The model is so attractive that a number of "industrial" firms are adopting it, as shown by IBM's... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

July 2018 (Revised July 2018)
Teaching Note

Argentina Power—Don’t Cry for Me Argentina

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Sayiddah Fatima McCree

Teaching Note for HBS No. 218-041. This case concerns a complex potential energy infrastructure investment in Argentina by a global conglomerate shortly after Mauricio Macri (“Macri”) became President of Argentina in 2015. The central issues are (i) why was a country... View Details

Keywords: Argentina; Argentine Exceptionalism; Infrastructure Finance; Investing; Finance; Inflation and Deflation; Government and Politics; Energy Generation; Infrastructure; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; Financial Services Industry; Argentina; South America

Citation

Purchase

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Building a Better Buyer-Seller Relationship

the relationship," he said. In their paper, they developed nine propositions and identified five processes. They found that the contract stage in industrial markets leads to a performance evaluation stage. Performance evaluation... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Oriental Land Co., Ltd.—Tokyo Disney Resort

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Akiko Kanno

This case describes the history of Oriental Land Co. Ltd.’s (OLC's) Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR), its operations, the extent of vertical integration, and the challenges it faced in 2018 as OLC's chairman and CEO, Toshio Kagami, contemplated how best to deal with... View Details