Publications

July 2004 (Revised October 2004)
Case

Harbus Foundation (2003), The

In 1997, the Harbus Foundation was established by Harvard Business School students to use the school newspaper's accumulated operating surpluses for creating social value in the community. The case investigates the challenges that the student management team faced in... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Corporate Governance; Education Industry; Boston

February 1984
Case

AT&T Co.--1983

Describes the financing problems facing AT&T in 1983 prior to divestiture of the local telephone operating companies on Jan. 1, 1984. Leads up to the decision to issue equity, which AT&T did in early 1983 and which reduced AT&T's market value by $2 billion. The case is... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Telecommunications Industry

25 Oct 2006
Op-Ed

Fixing Executive Options: The Veil of Ignorance

The latest corporate governance crisis is buried in the details of executive compensation contracts. Don't like the timing of the stock option grant you got or the strike price of the contract? No worries! It turns out that this is... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai & Joshua Margolis

19 May 2020
Blog Post

The Aspen Fellowship: MBA Student Launches Program Supporting Black Undergrads

need to succeed in corporate America. Fellows will be paired with advisors who manage the project’s scope, development, and overall direction. At the conclusion of the program, fellows will have spent valuable time implementing their... View Details

2011
Chapter

The Economics of Housing Finance Reform

By: David S. Scharfstein and Adi Sunderam

This paper analyzes the two leading types of proposals for reform of the housing finance system: (i) broad-based, explicit, priced government guarantees of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and (ii) privatization. Both proposals have drawbacks. Properly-priced... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Housing; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government and Politics

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May 2011 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

By: Elie Ofek and Ryan Johnson

Nike's Football division needs to devise a strategy to excel at the 2010 World Cup games in South Africa. Nike has gone from a niche player in the market for football apparel and footwear in 1994 to a formidable competitor to Adidas in 2008 (with revenues of over $1... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Business Divisions; Communication; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Planning; Competition; Apparel and Accessories Industry; South Africa

October 2013 (Revised August 2016)
Case

NOWaccount

By: Ramana Nanda, William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley

It was September 2013, and NOWaccount Network Corporation (NOW®) co-founders John Hayes and Lara Hodgson were putting the final touches on the presentation deck for their annual shareholders' meeting. Along with co-founder Stacey Abrams, the pair had designed NOW's... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Finance; Entrepreneurship

Web

Strategy Explained - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Strategy Strategy Strategy Explained Business Strategy Creating a Successful Strategy Corporate Strategy The Role of Leaders Related Topics Strategy Explained Strategy Explained All strategy is based on understanding competition.... View Details

March 2013
Case

NovaStar Financial: A Short Seller's Battle

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Kaser

The NovaStar case describes the challenges faced by short seller Marc Cohodes of hedge fund Rocker Partners as he tried to expose what he thought was widespread fraud in mortgage lender NovaStar Financial. The case is set in the time period from 2001 to 2007 and tracks... View Details

October, 2023
Article

Cleaning Up the Great Lakes: Housing Market Impacts of Removing Legacy Pollutants

By: Alecia Cassidy, Robyn C. Meeks and Michale R. Moore

The Great Lakes and their tributaries make up the largest freshwater system on the planet, providing drinking water and recreational value to millions of people. Yet manufacturing plants left a legacy of toxic pollutants in the region, tarnishing it as part of the... View Details

Keywords: Valuation Of Environmental Effects; Housing Demand; Water Pollution; Water Quality; Infrastructure; Pollution; Consumer Behavior

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Program

Leading Professional Service Firms

frameworks you need to develop and retain talent, deliver outstanding client service, and build a flexible corporate culture that can exploit disruptive innovation and market trends. Key Benefits In this intensive program led by... View Details

Keywords: Professional Services; Professional Services

Mar 2012
Article

Choosing the United States

share of location decisions, even for high-value business activities such as R&D that it has traditionally been able to attract. In part, this is because U.S. policy makers are not addressing weaknesses in the national business environment. There are also problems... View Details

November 29, 2011
Article

The Role of The Board in Creating a Sustainable Strategy

By: Robert G. Eccles, Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

While conceptually elegant, the belief that a corporation's role is to maximize value for shareholders is under increasing challenge as society's expectations for companies change. An equally elegant new concept that takes account of these dual pressures has yet to... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Expectations; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Practices and Processes; Decisions; Risk and Uncertainty; Cost vs Benefits; Information

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Web

Placement - Doctoral

Decrease Corporate Misconduct? Evidence from Field Data Advisors: Eugene F. Soltes (Chair), Krishna G. Palepu , and Aiyesha Dey 2019 Jody Grewal Accounting & Management, 2019 Placement: University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management,... View Details

January 2024 (Revised June 2024)
Case

School of Rock: Tuning into Structured Empowerment (A)

By: Tatiana Sandino, Jeffrey Rayport, Samuel Grad and Stacy Straaberg

In summer 2021, School of Rock was a youth-oriented music education company with 291 franchise- and company-owned schools globally. Before CEO Rob Price’s hire in 2017, School of Rock’s nonconformist rock ‘n’ roll culture led to variability in teaching styles,... View Details

Benson P. Shapiro is a well-known authority on marketing strategy and sales management with particular interests in pricing, product line planning, and marketing organization. He is also the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing Emeritus at the Harvard Business... View Details

February 1992 (Revised October 1996)
Case

CUC International, Inc. (A)

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Paul M. Healy

The case series examines the role of financial reporting and corporate finance policies as vehicles for communication between managers and outside investors. This case describes management's concern that the company's stock is undervalued because analysts viewed the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Stocks; Financial Management; Decisions; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Management Style; Management Practices and Processes; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value; Financial Services Industry

May 2017
Teaching Note

Partners Group: Ain't No Mountain High Enough

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz

Partners Group (PG), a Swiss-based PE manager, initiated a series of strategic shifts and evolved from a predominately fund-of-funds manager into a large, multi-asset class PE firm focused on direct investments. PG was the first PE firm to go public in 2006. A number... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Management Practices and Processes; Private Equity