Publications

August 2002
Case

Trilogy University

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Michael Paley

In early 2001, Trilogy Software faced a slowdown in its business, a large number of unsuccessful customer deployments, and an overall weakening in the enterprise software market. In response, the company revamped its business model and restructured the organization.... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Alignment; Restructuring; Organizational Structure; Change Management; Business Strategy; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Information Technology Industry

18 Apr 2018
News

What Most People Get Wrong About Men and Women

12 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 12, 2008

evaluated less negatively than harmful actions carried out directly? Four experiments examine the moral psychology of indirect agency. Experiment 1 reveals effects of indirect agency under conditions favoring intuitive judgment, but not View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Program

Designing and Executing Corporate Revitalization

Committee makes selections that balance each participant's experience, scope of current responsibilities, and type of organization. HBS seeks candidates who reflect a broad range of industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds. We... View Details

15 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

Why Giving to Others Makes Us Happy

that people did not express as much happiness thinking back on helping people compared to when they had just completed the act of giving. “If you’ve just finished enacting a helping behavior, that action tends to be associated with greater benefits as opposed to just... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Program

Foundations of Private Equity and Venture Capital

Admissions Committee makes selections that balance each participant's experience, scope of current responsibilities, and type of organization. HBS seeks candidates who reflect a broad range of industries, functions, countries, and... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Finance

Winter 2022
Article

Distributing a Billion Vaccines: COVAX Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities

By: Eric Budish, Hannah Kettler, Scott Duke Kominers, Erik Osland, Canice Prendergast and Andrew A. Torkelson

By January 2022, the COVAX international vaccine collaboration had allocated over a billion vaccines to over 140 countries. We describe and review the allocation process chosen, which reflected both an objective of equitably distributing vaccines across the world and... View Details

Keywords: Vaccines; Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Health Pandemics; Distribution; Supply Chain; Equality and Inequality

Article

Tax Policy and the Efficiency of U.S. Direct Investment Abroad

By: Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley and James R. Hines Jr.

Deferral of U.S. taxes on foreign source income is commonly characterized as a subsidy to foreign investment, as reflected in its inclusion among "tax expenditures" and occasional calls for its repeal. This paper analyzes the extent to which tax deferral and other... View Details

Keywords: International Taxation; Dynamic Efficiency; Deferral; Policy; Taxation; Performance Efficiency; Foreign Direct Investment; Investment Funds; Investment Return; Business Earnings; Equity; Financing and Loans; Cash Flow; Capital; United States

SSRN

2013
Chapter

The Design of Online Advertising Markets

By: Benjamin Edelman

Because the market for online advertising is both new and fast-changing, participants experiment with all manner of variations. Should an advertiser's payment reflect the number of times an ad was shown, the number of times it was clicked, the number of sales that... View Details

Keywords: Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Online Advertising; Price; Market Design; Measurement and Metrics; Sales; Motivation and Incentives; Internet and the Web

Read Now

January 2010
Case

Opportunities in Business and Life after Virgin Money: Asheesh Advani

Asheesh Advani is in an enviable position for a successful entrepreneur: he has sold his business and is trying to decide what to do with the next phase of his life. For the first two years after selling CircleLending—a pioneer in the person-to-person lending field—to... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investment; Managerial Roles; Personal Development and Career

March 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Risk Management at Wellfleet Bank: Deciding about "Megadeals"

By: Anette Mikes

Inspired by one of the few banks that successfully weathered the 2007-2009 credit crisis, the case illustrates risk management in a corporate finance business. Chief executive Alastair Dowes has to decide if the risk governance process is adequate to uncover mega-risks... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Decision Making; Performance Evaluation; Credit; Balance and Stability; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Decision Choices and Conditions; Negotiation Offer; Performance Effectiveness; Corporate Finance; Banking Industry

April 2011
Article

Institutional Tax Clienteles and Payout Policy

By: Mihir Desai and Li Jin

This paper employs heterogeneity in institutional shareholder tax characteristics to identify the relation between firm payout policy and tax incentives. Analysis of a panel of firms matched with the tax characteristics of the clients of their institutional... View Details

Keywords: Institutional Investors; Clienteles; Payout Policy; Private Equity; Investment; Taxation; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations

Read Now

March 2005 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Teach For America 2005

On November 17, 2004, as Teach for America's (TFA) national board meeting adjourned, Chief Operating Officer Jerry Hauser considered the opportunity before the organization. The board had just given the go ahead to move forward with development of a new strategic plan... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Education; Education Industry; United States

June 1991 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Lithonia Lighting

By: Nitin Nohria

In early 1991, Lithonia, the U.S.'s largest manufacturer of lighting fixtures, faced a major slump in the construction business that threatened to cause its first decline in revenues after over a decade of strong growth. With financial pressures from its parent company... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Industry Growth; Decision Making; Information Technology; Financial Crisis; Investment; Business Growth and Maturation; Electronics Industry; United States

March 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

WallStreetBets: Democratizing Retail Investing

By: Joseph Pacelli and Alexis Lefort

In summer 2024, Jaime Rogozinski anticipated the launch of a day-trading eSports event, a vision he had nurtured for years. Rogozinski, the founder of the influential subreddit WallStreetBets (WSB), created the forum in 2012 as a space for retail traders to explore... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Emerging Markets; Market Participation; Financial Strategy; Lawsuits and Litigation; Social and Collaborative Networks; Financial Markets; Financial Services Industry; United States

September 2018 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Sigfox: Building a Global IoT Network

By: Rajiv Lal, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emilie Billaud

In 2018, Ludovic Le Moan and Christophe Fourtet, co-founders of the French tech startup Sigfox, reflected on the evolution of their venture and the way forward. Founded in 2009, Sigfox was a company that provided a global connectivity network for devices connected to... View Details

Keywords: Internet Of Things; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Transition; Information Technology; Business Strategy; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; France; Europe

June 1997 (Revised May 1998)
Case

Mobil USM&R (A2)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Second of a two-part case on the development and use of a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) at Mobil's US Marketing and Refining Division. This case describes the completed BSC, and how this was linked to the BSCs of the independent business units and the internal service... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Performance Evaluation; Management Teams; Management Practices and Processes; Executive Compensation; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Strategy; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United States