Publications

June 2009
Article

Level Playing Fields in International Financial Regulation

By: Lucy White and Alan Morrison

We analyze the desirability of level playing fields in international financial regulation. In general, level playing fields impose the standards of the weakest regulator upon the best-regulated economies. However, they may be desirable when capital is mobile because... View Details

Keywords: Economy; International Finance; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Standards; Banking Industry

Find at Harvard

22 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 22, 2008

Business School Case 808-025 Explores the opportunities and threats to Unilever's global business in 1978 based on the commercial and political challenges faced by three of its... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2007 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Excerpts from Interview with Jim Triandiflou, Founder of Ockham Technologies

By: Noam Wasserman

Describes the issues facing a founder-CEO regarding building a board, assembling an executive team, managing tension between co-founders, and outsourcing system development work. The abridged version does not include the introduction and final sections of the full case... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Governing and Advisory Boards; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Conflict Management

November 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Fair Value Accounting at Noble Group (A)

By: Siko Sikochi, Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

Noble Group was a large commodities trader based in Hong Kong and listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. In 2012, Noble shifted its business strategy towards an asset-light model. Under this model, Noble did not own mines or farms to produce commodities but built... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Policy; Goods and Commodities; Contracts; Valuation

October 2015 (Revised August 2019)
Background Note

Higher Education in China: Internationalization in Turbulent Times

By: William C. Kirby, Joycelyn W. Eby and Yuanzhuo Wang

The rapid growth in quantity and quality of universities in China since 1978 is the most recent evolution in a long history of higher education. From as early as the Tang Dynasty, academies existed to prepare scholars for the civil service examination, but by the... View Details

Keywords: Non-profit Management; University Administration; University Faculty; University Curriculum; Education Reform; Nonprofit Organizations; Management; Higher Education; History; Governance; Education Industry; China

Keywords: Education and Retail

23 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 23, 2008

number of Americans eligible for cancer prevention and treatment. The new strategy brings with it considerable political risk. Leveraging an organization with three million volunteers, this case describes... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 1998 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Commercial Financial Services, Inc.: Securitization of Charged-off Credit Card Receivables

By: Kenneth A. Froot and Ivan G. Farman

Commercial Financial Services (CFS) is a company that buys charged-off credit card receivables, securitizes them, and then attempts to collect on the receivables. The case deals with how the firm makes money and the limits of securitization as an efficient financing... View Details

Keywords: Financing; Asset-back Finance; Financial Policy; Securitization; Credit; Financial Strategy; Business Strategy; Policy; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

July 2007
Teaching Note

Rwanda: National Economic Transformation (TN)

By: Michael E. Porter and Michael Patrick McCreless

Teaching Note to 706491. View Details

Keywords: Economy; Problems and Challenges; Development Economics; Policy; Poverty; Transformation; Performance Evaluation; Political Elections; Rwanda

August 2019
Case

Creating Accountability in Afghanistan

By: Jonas Heese, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos, Eugene F. Soltes and Grace Liu

By early 2019, the United States had contributed $132 billion to the Afghan reconstruction. John Sopko, in his role as the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), was in charge of providing accountability for U.S. aid funding. Sopko’s oversight... View Details

Keywords: Auditing; Fraud; Accountability; Crime and Corruption; Law Enforcement; Governance; Infrastructure; Information; Networks; Strategy; Afghanistan

29 Apr 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Use Personal Experience to Pick Winning Stocks

make it move the way you want," says Malloy. Team members Nami Singhal, Trish Higgins, and Yura Mikhalev (all MBA 2013) used a case that Singhal had studied about Argentina's volatile political system... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

January 2025 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Colbún’s Angostura Dam Project (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Nicolas Andrade

The A case describes Colbún Chile’s plans for the Angostura dam in the Bío Bío River, a hydroelectric construction venture with major challenges given the region’s history of indigenous resistance. This context was especially unfavorable given the highly contentious... View Details

Keywords: Bargaining; Conflict Resolution; Dam; Stakeholder Analysis; Environmental Negotiation; Negotiation; Energy Generation; Construction; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Conflict and Resolution; Energy Industry; Chile

13 Mar 2014
News

Can We Get To Where We Need To Go?

2007
Report

The Role of Clusters in the Chemical Industry

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

The European Chemical Industry, still in the leading position globally, is under intense competitive pressure from emerging locations in Asia and the Middle East. After first reacting by efficiency upgrading within companies and then pursuing outsourcing and aggressive... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Industry Clusters; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy; Chemical Industry; Asia; Europe; Middle East

Read Now

May 2007
Case

Free the Grapes--Direct-to-Consumer Shipping in the Wine Industry

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Dennis A. Yao, Patricia Wu and Libby Cantrill

While wine tourism in the United States was booming, the majority of consumers who tasted a Cabernet Sauvignon in one of Napa Valley's tasting rooms were not permitted to ship the wine directly to their home. In 2002, direct-to-consumer shipping was either banned or... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Lawsuits and Litigation; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States