Publications

November 1999 (Revised June 2001)
Case

Compaq Computer Corporation: The DEC Acquisition

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and Barbara Feinberg

Compaq's board of directors is faced with responsibility for setting the price range and terms for the proposed acquisition of Digital Equipment Corp. The transaction is described in the context of the rapidly evolving markets and business models of the computer... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Situation or Environment; Negotiation Offer; Acquisition; Computer Industry

10 Mar 2021
News

In My Humble Opinion: A Timely Tension

as a ship engineer. In time, she moved into business to, as she puts it, “understand how the world worked,” even as her passion for the environment continued. After two decades... View Details

Keywords: April White

2008
Working Paper

Laws vs. Contracts: Legal Origins, Shareholder Protections, and Ownership Concentration in Brazil, 1890–1950

By: Aldo Musacchio

The early development of large multidivisional corporations in Latin America required much more than capable managers, new technologies, and large markets. Behind such corporations was a market for capital in which entrepreneurs had to attract investors to buy either... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Governance Controls; Contracts; Laws and Statutes; Ownership Stake; Brazil

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March 2024 (Revised April 2025)
Case

TELEXISTENCE Inc.

By: Paul A. Gompers and Akiko Saito

A case about a Japanese robotics startup aiming to enter the U.S. market with its robots that combine AI and human intervention to complete restocking tasks in retail stores. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Market Entry and Exit; Technology Adoption; Decisions; AI and Machine Learning; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Japan; United States

05 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

Business and the Global Poor

Are the world's poor, who individually have less than $5 a day in disposable income, a viable market for new goods and services? Consider the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

14 Mar 2023
In Practice

What Does the Failure of Silicon Valley Bank Say About the State of Finance?

on SVB, and the subsequent run on other regional banks. Many observers postulate that the vulnerability was hiding in plain sight (an unsettling thought), a result of a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

24 Jul 2013
Op-Ed

Detroit Files for Bankruptcy: HBS Faculty Weigh In

most cities? In part, the answer is that OPEB liabilities were for many decades never reported on municipal balance sheets. Without such reporting, it seemed that cities' healthcare promises did not have... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber, Robert C. Pozen, Eric D. Werker & Benjamin Kennedy; Auto

2017
Chapter

The Swedish Competitiveness Scorecard 2017

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

The Swedish Competitiveness Scorecard assesses Sweden's current competitiveness across a broad range of indicators, applying an impact logic from competitiveness fundamentals to productivity and prosperity outcomes. On these indicators Sweden is compared to a peer... View Details

Keywords: Competitiveness; Sweden; Economic Policy; Economy; Policy; Competition; Sweden

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01 Oct 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Systemic Risk and the Refinancing Ratchet Effect

Keywords: by Amir E. Khandani, Andrew W. Lo & Robert C. Merton; Construction; Real Estate

01 Aug 2005
What Do You Think?

Is There an “Efficient Market” in CEO Compensation?

Summing Up Paul Jackson sums up the thinking of most respondents to this month's column with the comment, " . . . nothing about CEO compensation seems to be 'efficient.'" Brad Millet adds,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

The Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy: Settling the Opioid Crisis

By: Kristin Mugford, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Susan Pinckney

How to get to a fair outcome for claimants in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy given its significant role in the U.S. opioid crisis. View Details

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

Since the start of the 2000s, historians have renewed their interest in capitalism, two Harvard professors observe in their new book, American... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

05 Jan 2017
Blog Post

Crossing the River: The HBS/HKS Joint Degree Program

Nonprofits, and The Role of Government in Market Economies. For my MPP capstone exercise, I tapped into interest generated by View Details

28 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

The FDA’s Speedy Drug Approvals Are Safe: A Win-Win for Patients and Pharma Innovation

and effective in preventing severe disease, and their accelerated review will go down in history as having saved millions of lives. But COVID vaccines weren’t the first medical... View Details

Keywords: by Kasandra Brabaw; Pharmaceutical

June 1996 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Hostile Bid for Red October, The

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Alan Bigman

Manatep Bank, a Russian investment bank, has just announced the country's first hostile tender offer for Red October, a confectionery company located in Moscow. As the chief financial officer of the target company, Yuri Yegorov must decide how to respond, how much his... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Cash; Governance Controls; Financial Condition; Investment Banking; Financial Markets; Trade; Valuation; Financial Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Moscow

April 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

The U.S. Shale Revolution: Global Rebalancing?

By: Laura Alfaro and Richard H.K. Vietor

The American shale revolution has upended oil and gas markets for nearly a decade. Prices have risen then plunged, production has surged and then waned, LNG has boomed, and technology and productivity have improved. The U.S. energy policy, under the Obama... View Details

Keywords: Shale Oil; Shale Gas; LNG; Energy Policy; Drilling Technology; Energy; Trade; Economics; Macroeconomics; Policy; Energy Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; Middle East