Publications

20 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 20, 2008

major mistake in his growth strategy? Purchase this case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=808101 Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A) Harvard Business School Case 108-024 Two activist investors,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

Company Town: Fixing Corrupt Governments

company or nonprofit must demonstrate to its shareholders or donors that it can perform efficiently. To state the obvious, companies must make money. How could running a local government be a profitable enterprise? In a word: taxes.... View Details

Keywords: by Eric Werker

18 Jul 2006
First Look

First Look: July 18, 2006

acquisition and the management team running the acquired firm for the private equity sponsor share the shareholder value creation in a successful leveraged buyout. Purchase this note:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2011
Article

Consequences and Institutional Determinants of Unregulated Corporate Financial Statements: Evidence from Embedded Value Reporting

By: George Serafeim

I analyze Embedded Value (EV) reporting by firms with life insurance operations to assess the impact of unregulated financial reporting on transparency and to examine the institutional characteristics that promote unregulated reporting. Under EV accounting the present... View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Reporting; Cash Flow; Contracts; Equity; Profit; Value; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Earnings

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April 29, 2014
Column

Corporate Reporting in the Big Data Era

By: George Serafeim

Advancements in information technology can improve corporate communication with shareholders, but not through incessant data dumps. Instead, companies will more likely be poised for continued success if they use digital platforms for long-term oriented engagement and... View Details

Keywords: Integrated Reporting; Big Data; Corporate Reporting; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility; Corporate Governance; Accounting; Reporting; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Accountability; Analytics and Data Science; Information Technology; Communication; Financial Reporting; Business and Shareholder Relations

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2012
Working Paper

Payout Taxes and the Allocation of Investment

When corporate payout is taxed, internal equity (retained earnings) is cheaper than external equity (share issues). If there are no perfect substitutes for equity finance, payout taxes may therefore have an effect on the investment of firms. High taxes will favor... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Equity; Financing and Loans; Investment; Taxation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Motivation and Incentives

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28 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

B2B Branding: Does it Work?

shareholder value be the same today if it had not made consumers aware of nylon, Lycra, and Stainmaster and linked these innovations to the Dupont name? Definitely not. Do you think brand-building is essential for B2B companies? Have you... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Consumer Products

July–August 2023
Article

Case Study: How Should a Start-Up Cut Its Burn Rate?

By: Nitin Nohria, Katie Josephson, Sophia Wronsky and Elizabeth Rha

Tyler Smith, the founder and CEO of the enterprise software firm Puck.io, is facing a hard decision. Just three months earlier the company laid off 20% of its employees to reduce its burn rate amid growing economic uncertainty and a suddenly unattractive funding... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business or Company Management; Business Startups

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summer 2008
Article

Corporate Social Responsibility Through an Economic Lens

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Robert N. Stavins and Richard H.K. Vietor

Business leaders, government officials, and academics are focusing considerable attention on the concept of "corporate social responsibility" (CSR), particularly in the realm of environmental protection. Beyond complete compliance with environmental regulations, do... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Shareholder Relations; Environmental Sustainability

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November 1998 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Explo Leisure Products

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Tim Trowac and Dave Rahall, two former investment bankers, skillfully execute the leveraged buyout of a golf ball recycling company after working intensely on their due diligence, writing a business and financial plan, and developing the investment memorandum. Six... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Leveraged Buyouts; Business Plan; Performance; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Financial Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Green Technology Industry; Sports Industry

04 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Start to Measure Your E-commerce Success

development. The multiple measures will typically include both financial and non-financial measures that are leading and lagging indicators of performance. They may be used in a balanced scorecard, shareholder value-added, or other... View Details

Keywords: by Marc J. Epstein

October 2011 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Gracious Eloise: What Do Angels Want? (A)

By: Lena G. Goldberg, Janet Kraus and Mary Beth Findlay

Eloise Bune successfully turned an idea into a product, but could she persuade angel investors that she had a business worth investing in? The case details her interactions with the angel investors and explores the role of angel investors in providing financial... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investment Return; Business Startups; Business Plan; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations

17 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 17, 2009

capitalists, entrepreneurs, and venture lenders. Purchase this case: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=809086 Banco Hipotecario S.A. Harvard Business School Case 206-102 In 2003, the chairwoman and controlling View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 4, 2008

avoidance activities advance shareholder interests? This paper tests alternative theories of corporate tax avoidance that yield distinct predictions on the valuation of corporate tax avoidance. Unexplained differences between income... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

A Manager’s Guide to International Strategy

multinational firms, then a framework for how to craft an international strategy that creates shareholder value, Collis provides students and new managers with an integrated perspective on international strategy, drawing on earlier work... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

18 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 18

500 boards as an empirical context, this study shows that the presence of directors who lack top-level experience but own large shareholdings is negatively associated with firm value, an effect that increases in the number of such... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Dec 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 4, 2018

to shareholders $7 trillion via buybacks and dividends, over 96% of their aggregate net income, prompting claims that "short-termism" is impairing firms' ability to invest and innovate. We show that, when taking into account both direct... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

16 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

the social fiction, as you call it, that there are very few qualified CEO candidates available? A: There are two big factors that have influenced this. The first is the rise of the institutional investor. Before this, managers were fairly autonomous from View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2011
Case

MorphoSys AG: The Evolution of a Biotechnology Business Model

By: Gary P. Pisano, Ryan Johnson and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In the biotech world, the 18-year-old Munich-based company MorphoSys was a rarity: it was profitable. The company achieved this profitability not by developing and selling its own drugs, but by licensing access to its proprietary library of human antibodies. Recently,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Profit; Intellectual Property; Rights; Risk Management; Digital Platforms; Product Development; Business and Shareholder Relations; Vertical Integration; Biotechnology Industry; Munich