Publications

January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

'GEnron'? Markopolos versus General Electric (A)

By: Jonas Heese and David Lane

In August 2019, Harry Markopolos—the forensic accountant known for uncovering Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme—alleged that General Electric had committed accounting fraud totaling $38 billion, coining the term “GEnron” for perceived similarities with the 2001 accounting... View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Communication; Energy; Financial Condition; Insurance; Performance; Planning; Business and Shareholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Value; Insurance Industry; Financial Services Industry; Energy Industry

06 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Behavioral Finance—Benefiting from Irrational Investors

raise enough money to build the factory," says Baker. "Or I could borrow $100 to build the factory and acquire the target with stock. If shareholders in the target are inertial—and our evidence suggests they are—it is more... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

11 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

opening up the shareholding of the parent trading company, but by floating separate 'free-standing' firms on the British capital markets, which the merchant houses continued to control through management contracts and other means in the... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

October 2021
Case

Financial Reporting at Mattel

By: Aiyesha Dey, Trung Nguyen, Marshal Herrmann and Julia Kelley

In September 2020, Diana Ferguson was nearing her first Audit Committee meeting as the newly appointed Audit Committee chair of Mattel, Inc. Mattel was just recovering from an accounting scandal which had revealed the company’s poor internal controls and weak board... View Details

June 2004
Article

A Catering Theory of Dividends

By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler

We propose that the decision to pay dividends is driven by prevailing investor demand for dividend payers. Managers cater to investors by paying dividends when investors put a stock price premium on payers, and by not paying when investors prefer nonpayers. To test... View Details

Keywords: Dividends; Catering; Financial Instruments; Investment Return; Business and Shareholder Relations

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02 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

Negotiating in Three Dimensions

customer relationships, dealing with large shareholders and creditors, as well as initiating and managing cross-border strategic alliances. It is true inside the firm where people from different functional areas and divisions need to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

22 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

Pulling Campbell’s Out of the Soup

were able to create a very powerful culture." Conant established two performance metrics to measure progress, one based on economic value, measured by shareholder returns compared to competitor companies; and the other based on... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

December 2022
Technical Note

Risks and Opportunities from the Transition to a Low Carbon Economy: A Business Analysis Framework

By: George Serafeim

The transition to a low carbon economy introduces many risks and opportunities for businesses. Risks emerge from regulatory actions, such as carbon taxes and cap and trade systems, technological innovation that develop alternatives for customers making existing... View Details

Keywords: Risk Assessment; Opportunities; Environmental Sustainability; Carbon Footprint; Risk Management; Competitive Dynamics; Business Analysis; Climate Change; Accounting; Finance; Valuation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Technological Innovation; Transition; Product Positioning; Renewable Energy; Analysis

21 Feb 2005
Op-Ed

Is Business Management a Profession?

some of the most urgent problems facing modern societies, we find American business schools propagating the doctrine of shareholder primacy and the paradigm of the manager as the mere agent of the company's "owners". Taken in... View Details

Keywords: by Rakesh Khurana, Nitin Nohria & Daniel Penrice

31 Aug 2020
What Do You Think?

Why Don’t More Organizations Understand the Power of Diversity and Inclusion?

causal relationship between diversity and profitability, then management can safely argue that managing for diversity is a way to increase shareholder value. If, however, the relationship is negative, then management cannot morally go out... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

10 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

High Commitment, High Performance Management

high commitment, high performance company. Martha Lagace: What differentiates HCHP firms and their leaders? Michael Beer: The leaders manage with a multiple stakeholder perspective. Contrary to many CEOs, HCHP leaders—with support from their boards—define firm purpose... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

23 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Sponsorship Programs Could Actually Widen the Gender Gap

FabioFilzi Key aspects of corporate sponsorship programs, while designed to advance women’s careers, may end up widening the gender gap rather than narrowing it, according to new experimental research. “We’re not trying to say that sponsorship programs don’t work or... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

2023
Working Paper

Corporate Leaders Say They Are for Stakeholder Capitalism—But Which Version Exactly?: A Critical Look at Four Varieties

By: Lynn S. Paine

The past few years have seen an outpouring of articles and statements heralding the arrival of a new and more inclusive form of capitalism often called stakeholder capitalism. The new capitalism promises to strengthen companies, improve outcomes for their... View Details

Keywords: Stakeholder Capitalism; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Economic Systems; Business and Shareholder Relations