Publications

14 Mar 2023
In Practice

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

exhaustion after several years of dealing with surprises ranging from shortages and runs on basic goods to the Fed’s limited ability to control or even forecast inflation. Something will also have to be said... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

May 2015 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Colgate-Palmolive Company: Marketing Anti-Cavity Toothpaste

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

In October 2013, Colgate-Palmolive Company, the world's leading oral care company, was about to launch its new Colgate® Maximum Cavity Protection™ plus Sugar Acid Neutralizer™ toothpaste in Brazil. Oral care category accounted for 46 percent of Colgate's $17.4 billion... View Details

Keywords: New Product Management; Consumer Segmentation; Global Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility; Healthcare; Sustainability; Health Care and Treatment; Environmental Sustainability; Marketing; Segmentation; Product Development; Product Launch; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Product Positioning; Consumer Products Industry; Brazil; United States

July–August 2012
Article

A Better Way to Tax U.S. Businesses

By: Mihir Desai

The article argues that U.S. taxation reform should reduce corporate taxes, incorporate an awareness of the global marketplace, and generate revenue-neutral incentives for innovation. According to the article, a reduction in corporate tax rates would be offset by a tax... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Taxation; Globalization; Labor; Innovation and Invention; United States

Read Now

08 Sep 2008
HBS Case

The Value of Environmental Activists

There are many methods, most financial, to measure the success of companies in meeting goals. But the question becomes a lot harder at Harvard Business School when MBAs are challenged to measure the efforts of environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the World... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

22 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

The Mind of the Market: Extending the Frontiers of Marketing Thought

important tasks with corporate clients, then, is figuring out what the right questions are. "Managers need to grasp something fundamental," he says. The ZMET method is modeled after some basic theories View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

14 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Measuring Social Impact

what that spending achieved. Yet there has been little agreement on a set of hard-and-fast metrics to measure social performance. How should a nonprofit manager respond when a significant donor asks for proof View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

25 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

A Macroeconomic View of the Current Economy

If they didn't understand it already, executives and corporate managers have learned one huge lesson over the past couple of years: macroeconomics matters. Interest rates. Exchange rates. Trade deficits. The... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

August 2005
Background Note

Note on International Tax Regimes

By: Mihir A. Desai, Mark Veblen and Kathleen Luchs

Provides a framework for understanding different types of international tax regimes. Examines how alternative tax regimes tax the foreign income of their citizens (including corporate citizens); how tax regimes define foreign and domestic income; and how foreign tax... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Earnings Management; Nationality; Framework; Taxation; Profit; Globalization; Credit; United States

18 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

Hazard Warning: The Unacceptable Cost of Toxic Workers

good corporate citizen at the end of the day, not only do they make it a nicer place to work, but they also help the profitability of the firm compared to those who are at the... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

13 Aug 2007
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Trust

"The Speed of New Ideas: Trust, Institutions and the Diffusion of New Products." [PDF] The basic question at hand: Would TrapGuard encounter significant barriers to... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Service

14 Sep 2009
Research & Ideas

Understanding Users of Social Networks

news that gets read by others. Other than that, there is really no difference between users of Facebook and MySpace, except they are poorer on MySpace." Piskorski recently blogged on his findings. From Social Media To Social Strategy... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Advertising; Publishing

15 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

The Lessons of New-Market Disruption

Teradyne and HP forced their organizations to focus on these new technologies. The CEOs of both companies got involved, creating separate, financially autonomous divisions for the projects to ensure that the technological breakthroughs... View Details

Keywords: by Clark Gilbert; Technology

2007
Working Paper

Taxes and Portfolio Choice: Evidence from JGTRRA's Treatment of International Dividends

By: Mihir A. Desai and Dhammika Dharmapala

This paper investigates how taxes influence portfolio choices by exploring the response to the distinctive treatment of foreign dividends in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (JGTRRA). JGTRRA lowered the dividend tax rate to 15% for American equities... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Financial Markets; International Finance; Investment Portfolio; Government Legislation; Taxation; United States

11 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ’The Future of Boards’

Editor's note: The credit crisis and subsequent recession has thrown many financial and business institutions into, if not chaos, then at least a sense that the landscape underneath has shifted significantly. One institution undergoing such self-review is the View Details

Keywords: by Jay Lorsch

November 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Background Note

Capital Projects as Real Options: An Introduction

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Introduces a framework for evaluating corporate investment projects as call options. Presumes readers are familiar with basic option pricing and basic capital budgeting rules. Explains the motivation for viewing projects as options; presents a mapping between a capital... View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Capital Budgeting; Corporate Finance

2010
Chapter

The Many Faces of Nonprofit Accountability

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

Calls for greater accountability are not new. Leaders of organizations, be they nonprofit, business, or government, face a constant stream of demands from various constituents demanding accountable behavior. But what does it mean to be accountable? By and large,... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Corporate Accountability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Taxation; Leadership; Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Behavior; Trust