Publications

2021
Working Paper

Time Dependency, Data Flow, and Competitive Advantage

By: Ehsan Valavi, Joel Hestness, Marco Iansiti, Newsha Ardalani, Feng Zhu and Karim R. Lakhani

Data is fundamental to machine learning-based products and services and is considered strategic due to its externalities for businesses, governments, non-profits, and more generally for society. It is renowned that the value of organizations (businesses, government... View Details

Keywords: Economics Of AI; Value Of Data; Perishability; Time Dependency; Flow Of Data; Data Strategy; Analytics and Data Science; Value; Strategy; Competitive Advantage

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Introducing One-Step Photography - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987), 16. Contact Baker Library Special Collections Baker Library | Bloomberg Center Harvard Business School Soldiers Field... View Details

February 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Labor, Capital, and Government: The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902

By: David Moss and Marc Campasano

In late October 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt felt relieved after months of anxiety and uncertainty. Workers in Pennsylvania's anthracite coal industry had been on strike for five months, threatening to leave eastern cities in the cold without enough heating fuel... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Government Relations; Labor; Law; Policy; Mining; History; Mining Industry; Pennsylvania

June 2008
Article

The Market for Mergers and the Boundaries of the Firm

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and David Robinson

We relate the property rights theory of the firm to empirical regularities in the market for mergers and acquisitions. We first show that high market-to-book acquirers typically do not purchase low market-to-book targets. Instead, mergers pair together firms with... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Assets; Investment; Property; Mathematical Methods; Boundaries

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18 Apr 2023
Blog Post

HBS Students and Alumni Fostering a Supportive Community

business and sparked his interest in leveraging it to address social issues, which ultimately led him to HBS. Alexxis Isaac (MBA 2020) Mbanusi, who now works for Guild Education, a tech platform that helps... View Details

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The General Shoe Company, 1921 | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

assembly line production, worker fatigue, workplace supervision, wages, and inflation. Other HBS cases also focused on issues of labor relations following the direction of Dean Donham. The A.W. Shaw Company,... View Details

03 Apr 2013
News

Need A Business Loan? Impress The Algorithm, Not The Loan Officer

Keywords: Credit Intermediation and Related Activities; Credit Intermediation and Related Activities

August 2013
Case

HgCapital and the Visma Transaction (A)

By: Paul A. Gompers, Karol Misztal and Joris Van Gool

This case concerns the negotiations of a deal by HgCapital, a UK-based private equity firm, to buy Visma, ASA, a Norwegian software company. Visma has received an offer from Sage Group, a strategic acquirer. HgCapital must determine if it wants to bid and how to outbid... View Details

Keywords: Management Buyout; Deal Structuring; Negotiations; Private Equity; Finance; Valuation; Leveraged Buyouts; Negotiation Deal; Negotiation; Strategy; Europe

April 2008
Case

Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston and Dr. Bradford J. Shingleton (2004)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Marcelo Pancotto

Dr. Bradford Shingleton has developed some of the highest quality eye surgery techniques in the industry. He involves his nurses and technicians in creating a surgical service that is constantly improving. The case has many details about how Dr. Shingleton works with... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Independent Innovation and Invention; Service Operations; Performance Productivity; Practice; Problems and Challenges; Health Industry; Boston

February 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Background Note

Note on Measuring Controlling Shareholder's Ownership, Voting, and Control Rights

Founders and their families can raise equity without relinquishing control of their companies through the use of mechanisms such as dual-class stock, pyramidal ownership, voting agreements, and disproportionate board representation. The use of these mechanisms in... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Measurement and Metrics; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations; Valuation

2018
Working Paper

Business, Governments and Political Risk in South Asia and Latin America since 1970

By: Geoffrey Jones and Rachael Comunale

This working paper provides a new perspective on how businesses have responded to political risk in South Asia and Latin America over the last half century. The existing business history literature on political risk is focused on the experiences of Western... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Risk Management; Government and Politics; Business History; South Asia; Latin America

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December 2010
Article

Management and the Financial Crisis (We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us...)

By: William A. Sahlman

The financial crisis of 2008-2009 has revealed that our broad model of corporate governance is broken, independent of the shortcomings in the regulatory system. Managers and boards of directors in scores of systemically important firms failed to protect employees,... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Human Capital; Ethics; Policy; Corporate Governance; Financial Crisis; Finance; Business and Shareholder Relations

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June 2007 (Revised December 2007)
Case

AFL-CIO: Office of Investment and Home Depot

By: Rakesh Khurana and James Weber

Describes the AFL-CIO: Office of Investments activities in their campaign to improve governance at Home Depot by calling attention to Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli's compensation package and the company's poor performance. The AFL-CIO Office of Investments advocates... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Labor Unions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Shareholder Relations

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Bibliography | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. Business Historical Society. “Industrial Pictures and Their Relations to Business History.” Bulletin of the... View Details

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Invention of the Polarizer - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

Goldfaden Land, who studied physics, and Harry Land, who ran a scrap metal and real estate business in Connecticut. In high school at the Norwich Free Academy, Land excelled in... View Details

May 1996 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Timberland and Community Involvement

By: James E. Austin and Jaan Elias

The Timberland Co., a manufacturer and retailer of footwear, outdoor apparel, and accessories, committed itself to instituting and communicating a core set of values to its employees, stockholders, and consumers. The system of beliefs emphasized community service.... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Business and Community Relations; Social Enterprise; Corporate Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry

24 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 24, 2018

marry the high level of governance expected by shareholders with the entrepreneurial spirit that had driven Hikma’s growth and development. Purchase this case:https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/318108-PDF-ENG... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

May 2017 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: Unilever and the Kraft Heinz Takeover Bid (A)

By: William W. George and Amram Migdal

This case describes Kraft Heinz Company’s (KHC) February 2017 unsolicited $143 billion takeover offer to acquire Unilever. The offer was made to Unilever CEO Paul Polman by KHC chairman Alexandre Behring, who was also co-founder and CEO of Brazilian-based 3G Capital... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions

June 2014
Article

Acquirer-Target Social Ties and Merger Outcomes

By: Joy Ishii and Yuhai Xuan

This paper investigates the effect of social ties between acquirers and targets on merger performance. Using data on educational background and past employment, we construct a measure of the extent of cross-firm social connection between directors and senior executives... View Details

Keywords: Mergers; Acquisitions; Social Ties; Social Connections; Mergers and Acquisitions; Relationships; Outcome or Result