Publications

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22 Apr 2020
Research Event

How Investors Are Sizing Up Climate Change’s Risks—and Opportunities

March 4, Harvard Business School gathered senior executives, risk experts, and leading investment professionals from some of the world’s largest asset managers to share how they’re approaching these complex questions. The conference,... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Financial Services

June 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Tough Choices for the Illinois Pension System

By: Robert C. Pozen and Brij S. Khurana

This case describes the precarious fiscal situation of the Illinois public pension system in the spring of 2009 and the accounting of pension plans by non-federal municipalities more generally. In February 2009, in the midst of a recession, recently-appointed Governor... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Crisis; Financial Liquidity; Annuities; Financial Management; Financing and Loans; Taxation; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Illinois

December 1989 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Destin Brass Products Co.

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A specialized manufacturer of brass valves, pumps, and flow controllers is troubled by competitive pricing in pumps and higher than expected margins for flow controllers. Managers suspect that cost accounting and cost allocations to products may be to blame. Two... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Activity Based Costing and Management; Five Forces Framework; Customer Value and Value Chain; Competition; Business Strategy; Design; Inflation and Deflation; Asset Pricing; Governance Controls; Manufacturing Industry

June 2008
Journal Article

Strategic Alliances: Bridges Between 'Islands of Conscious Power'

By: George P. Baker, Robert Gibbons and Kevin J. Murphy

Strategic alliances range from unstructured collaborations, through consortia and joint ventures that superimpose new governance structures on existing firms, to transactions that restructure firm boundaries and asset ownership. In this paper, we draw on detailed... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Alliances; Strategy; Theory

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December 2006 (Revised February 2009)
Case

China Merchants Bank: Here Just For You

By: F. Warren McFarlan, GuoQing Chen, HengYuan Zhu, Bin Yang, Michael Shih-ta Chen, G.A. Donovan, Waishun Lo and Yan Yang

Founded in 1987, China Merchants Bank (CMB) is a pioneer in the use of technical innovation and IT as a competitive tool in the rapidly evolving Chinese banking sector. With a relatively small branch network when compared to its larger competitors, CMB uses an... View Details

Keywords: Credit Cards; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Innovation Leadership; Competitive Strategy; Initial Public Offering; Emerging Markets; Opportunities; Banking Industry; China; Hong Kong

17 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 17

explore the consequences of scientific publication-an instance of public disclosure-for a core set of activities within the firm. Specifically, we link publications to human capital management practices, showing that scientists' bonuses and the View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Aug 2016
First Look

August 2, 2016

instead for consumer attention. We model and characterize how households allocate their scarce attention in arguably the largest market for attention: the Internet. Our characterization of household attention View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit

By: Charles A. O'Reilly III and Michael L. Tushman

Dynamic capabilities have been proposed as a useful way to understand how organizations are able to adapt to changes in technology and markets. Organizational ambidexterity, the ability of senior managers to seize opportunities through the orchestration and integration... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Practices and Processes; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Opportunities

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06 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 6, 2007

and Self-actualization Author:Laura Morgan Roberts Publication:In Exploring Positive Relationships at Work: Building a Theoretical and Research Foundation, edited by J. Dutton and B. Ragins. Erlbaum, in press Abstract No abstract available. Developments in View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2022 (Revised September 2024)
Case

To SFO or Not To SFO: The Tolman Family Selects a Family Office Strategy

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Victoria Alvarez-Arango, Grace Headinger, Mili Sanwalka and Anna Yuan

Peter Tolman, a first-generation investment professional, debated which family office strategy to adopt for managing his family’s assets. As the sole steward of his family’s wealth, he sought to conserve and grow his family’s wealth for him, his wife, and his two very... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Investment Strategy; Family Business; Financial Strategy; Investment; Strategy; Diversification; Management; Asset Management; Wealth; Financial Services Industry; United States; Canada

July 2014
Case

Venture Capital at the Harvard Management Company in Historical Perspective

By: Felda Hardymon, Tom Nicholas and Vasiliki Fouka

The compromise between capital preservation and growth has always been central to the performance of the Harvard endowment. Setting an institutional structure for effectively governing this compromise became especially important when the Harvard Management Company... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Financial Management; Asset Management; Higher Education; Investment; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry; Cambridge

14 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 14, 2015

Publications May-June 2015 Human Resource Management Back to the Future: Implications for the Field of HRM of the Multi-stakeholder Perspective Proposed 30 Years Ago By: Beer, Michael, Paul Boselie, and Chris Brewster Abstract—Thirty years on from the seminal work... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 30, 2015

turmoil. The case explores the risks and benefits of a different asset allocation strategy and also considers how to classify some of the different assets. It highlights the issues around View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

11 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: Dec. 11

and Models, edited by G. Caprio, 47-58. U.K.: Academic Press, 2012 Abstract Despite its developmental justification, aid is deeply political. This paper examines the political economy of aid allocation first from the perspective of the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 22

the modern theory and practice of contingent claims analysis (CCA), which is successfully used today at the level of individual banks by managers, investors, and regulators. The basic analytical tool is the risk-adjusted balance sheet, which shows the sensitivity of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

from the risk that they will live a long time. The funds that individuals contribute to a MIF are invested in a mutual fund. The proceeds from the fund's underlying assets are reinvested until the contributor dies or he turns an age... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

company can divest a subsidiary through a tax-free spin-off, management must first decide how corporate overhead will be allocated between the subsidiary and the parent. The allocation decision can be... View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

September 2009
Article

Are You Having Trouble Keeping Your Operations Focused?

By: Robert S. Huckman

As a business broadens over time, it can lose the operational edge that led to its original success. Core strengths atrophy, efficiency or quality suffers, and sharper rivals close in to take advantage of the loss of focus. In his classic article "The Focused Factory"... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Goals and Objectives; Resource Allocation; Operations; Performance Efficiency

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