Publications

May 2018 (Revised June 2018)
Case

Cowen Inc.: Leveraging Data

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah Abbott and Annelena Lobb

Cowen Inc.’s broker-dealer, Cowen and Company, LLC, boasted a number of analysts who had made prescient stock calls on the basis of creative data analysis. Now Cowen Inc. had opened a new subsidiary, Kyber, which would attempt to monetize new data science products.... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Equity Research; Research Analysts; Investment; Analytics and Data Science; Equity; Research; Analysis; Competitive Strategy

November–December 2018
Article

Online Network Revenue Management Using Thompson Sampling

By: Kris J. Ferreira, David Simchi-Levi and He Wang

We consider a network revenue management problem where an online retailer aims to maximize revenue from multiple products with limited inventory constraints. As common in practice, the retailer does not know the consumer's purchase probability at each price and must... View Details

Keywords: Online Marketing; Revenue Management; Revenue; Management; Marketing; Internet and the Web; Price; Mathematical Methods

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28 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Eyes Shut: The Consequences of Not Noticing

August 5, Bazerman documents a decade of research showing how and why many leaders fail to detect critical information in their midst. "This book will help you recognize when to seek more useful View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman; Retail

January 2021
Article

Turbulence, Firm Decentralization and Growth in Bad Times

By: Philippe Aghion, Nicholas Bloom, Brian Lucking, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

What is the optimal form of firm organization during “bad times”? We present a model of delegation within the firm to show that the effect is ambiguous. The greater turbulence following macro shocks may benefit decentralized firms because the value of local information... View Details

Keywords: Decentralization; Growth; Turbulence; Great Recession; Organizational Design; System Shocks; Economic Growth; Performance

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Web

Publications - Faculty & Research

the State: Trade Shocks and Informal Insurance in Brazil By: Paula Rettl How does economic globalization affect vote choices? Conventional wisdom holds that voters who lose from economic integration support parties that propose expanding... View Details

07 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 7, 2007

community and local entrepreneurs in India's software industry. We find that entrepreneurs located outside software hubs—in cities where monitoring and information flow on prospective clients is harder—rely significantly more on diaspora... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2002 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co., 2001

By: Joshua Musher and Andre F. Perold

Asset manager GMO underperforms the market during the 1996-2000 stock market bubble because of the focus on absolute risk. After suffering significant client withdrawals, performance again shines when the bubble collapses. Did they win the battle only to lose the war?... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Asset Management; Stocks; Investment; Price Bubble; Mathematical Methods; Risk and Uncertainty

December 2016
Article

Deal Process Design in Management Buyouts

By: Guhan Subramanian

Management buyouts (MBOs) are an economically and legally significant class of transaction: not only do they account for more than $10 billion in deal volume per year, on average, but they also play an important role in defining the relationship between inside and... View Details

Keywords: Management Buyout; Deal Structuring; Acquisition; Design; Fairness

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05 Apr 2004
What Do You Think?

Should We Brace Ourselves for Another Era of M&A Value Destruction?

into the acquisition price that it is difficult to realize value for the acquirers? Is the information regarding human resources just too difficult to obtain during a sensitive acquisition process? Or do... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 1995
Case

Banc One Corporation (A)

As Banc One's use of derivatives had proliferated, investors and analysts had expressed increasing concern about the size of derivative portfolios, the potential sensitivity of their value to interest rate swings, and the lack of standardized reporting on their use.... View Details

Keywords: Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Investment Banking; Financial Reporting; Annual Reports; Banking Industry

11 May 2009
Research & Ideas

The IT Leader’s Hero Quest

in. He had come to New York for an early afternoon meeting with Wall Street analysts. That [CEO Carl] Williams had chosen him for the meeting was a sign of just how well things had been going lately for IVK—and for Jim Barton, CIO. In the past three weeks, IVK's View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

November 2002 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Corning, Inc.: Technology Strategy in 2003

By: Rebecca Henderson

Corning, Inc. has a 150-year history of building a strategy around innovation. Founded as a glass manufacturer in 1851, the company quickly established itself as a maker of specialty glass products and over the next 100 years diversified into light bulbs, television,... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Situation or Environment; Research and Development; Consumer Products Industry; United States

23 Feb 2016
First Look

February 23, 2016

months, on average, after AIPA's enactment. These findings suggest a hitherto unexplored benefit of the patent system: by requiring inventions to be published through a credible, standardized, and centralized repository, it mitigates View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2016 (Revised November 2021)
Teaching Note

T-Mobile in 2013: The Un-Carrier

By: John Beshears and Francesca Gino

By 2013, the U.S. wireless industry was in the midst of a costly transition. As consumers began to embrace more sophisticated mobile devices, the industry's four main players spent heavily to improve their infrastructures for providing reliable high-speed data... View Details

Keywords: Wireless Industry; Telecommunications; Mobile; Service Contracts; Behavioral Economics; Add-on Fees; Shrouded Attributes; Contracts; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Infrastructure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; United States

14 Oct 2020
Blog Post

Veteran Financial Aid Outlook

charged. Now the good news: After going through the full-time MBA program at HBS (even with the Coronavirus disruption and finishing my last quarter on-line), I don’t think I could put a price on the education and experiences I received.... View Details

April 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Supplement

Eastman Kodak Company: Restructuring a Melting Ice Cube

By: Stuart C. Gilson, John D. Dionne and Sarah L. Abbott

In May 2013, senior managers of GSO Capital Partners, an $80 billion credit-oriented investment firm owned by The Blackstone Group, are considering what to do next with their investment in the senior secured debt of Eastman Kodak Company. Once a great company and an... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Financial Strategy; Investment; United States

April 2005 (Revised January 2006)
Background Note

Note on Basic Option Properties

Options are contracts that give the right, but not the obligation, to either buy or sell a specific underlying security for a specified price on or before a specific date. Explains the basis of options, covering fundamentals such as option terminology, the payoff... View Details

Keywords: Stock Options

September 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Charles Schwab Corporation (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Nicole Tempest

A look at the industrial restructuring in the brokerage industry made possible by e-commerce. Focuses the student's attention on the decision alternatives facing Charles Schwab, one of the industry leaders in January 1998. In a word, the challenge is "Do they slash... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Internet and the Web; Price; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

March 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

The Nikkei 225 Reconstitution

By: Robin Greenwood

Taka Haneda, a proprietary trader at the Tokyo office of Goldman Sachs, has just learned that the Nikkei 225 will undergo a significant redefinition over the coming week. He faces several billion dollars of customer orders, as well as the opportunity to commit the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Liquidity; Stocks; Investment Return; Price; Market Transactions; Financial Services Industry; Tokyo