Publications

Research Summary

The Transparency of Ethical Behavior

(with Max Bazerman, Karim Kassam, and Neeru Paharia)
This research analyzes how unethical behavior is viewed when performed... View Details

2016
Article

The Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet as a Financial-Stability Tool

By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel Gregory Hanson and Jeremy C. Stein

We argue that the Federal Reserve should use its balance sheet to help reduce a key threat to financial stability: the tendency for private-sector financial intermediaries to engage in excessive amounts of maturity transformation—i.e., to finance risky assets using... View Details

Keywords: Central Banking; Policy; Risk Management; Public Administration Industry; United States

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February 2008 (Revised March 2008)
Teaching Note

LinkedIn (TN) (A) and (B)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

In the summer of 2005, LinkedIn, a two-year-old start-up, was choosing between two options to monetize its 5 million business people network. Members could contact each other through trusted intermediaries on the network to offer or seek jobs, consulting engagements,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet and the Web; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Design; Service Operations

15 Aug 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Liquidity Transformation in Asset Management: Evidence from the Cash Holdings of Mutual Funds

Keywords: by Sergey Chernenko and Adi Sunderam; Financial Services

January–February 2017
Article

The Truth about Blockchain

By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

Contracts, transactions, and records of them provide critical structure in our economic system, but they haven’t kept up with the world’s digital transformation. They’re like rush-hour gridlock trapping a Formula 1 race car. Blockchain promises to solve this problem.... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; Information Management; Information Technology Industry

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12 Apr 2013
HBS Seminar

Gary Frazier, USC Marshall School of Business

March 2013
Case

NovaStar Financial: A Short Seller's Battle

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Kaser

The NovaStar case describes the challenges faced by short seller Marc Cohodes of hedge fund Rocker Partners as he tried to expose what he thought was widespread fraud in mortgage lender NovaStar Financial. The case is set in the time period from 2001 to 2007 and tracks... View Details

fall 2008
Article

Typosquatting: Unintended Adventures in Browsing

By: Benjamin Edelman

"Typosquatting" is the practice of registering domain names, identical to or confusingly similar to trademarks and famous names, in hopes that users will accidentally request these sites—whereupon they will receive, typically, advertisements. This piece presents the... View Details

Keywords: Web; Advertising; Business Model; Lawsuits and Litigation; Profit; Practice

November 2001 (Revised September 2005)
Case

What's the BIG Idea? (A)

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Scott Duncan Anthony

CEO Michael Collins must decide if and how a process he developed to further innovation in the kids' industry could port over to other industries. The process was based on Collins' experiences as an inventor and as a venture capitalist, and it allowed his company to be... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Entrepreneurship

February 1997 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Tale of Two Electronic Components Distributors

By: Ananth Raman and Bharat P. Rao

Discusses the role of distribution intermediaries in the electronic components industry, and describes operations at two of these distributors. Serves as a vehicle to discuss the functions provided by distributors in the channel. Also lets students understand the... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Distribution Channels; Consolidation; Internet; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry

17 Jun 2010
Working Paper Summaries

When Do Analysts Add Value? Evidence from Corporate Spinoffs

Keywords: by Emilie Rose Feldman, Stuart C. Gilson & Belén Villalonga

January 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Case

LeBron James

By: Anita Elberse and Jeff McCall

In 2005, to the astonishment of many sports industry insiders, superstar basketball player LeBron James fired his agent and established his own firm, LRMR, to handle all aspects of his business ventures and marketing activities and named his childhood friend Maverick... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Compensation and Benefits; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Sports; Sports Industry

13 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

How Government can Discourage Private Sector Reliance on Short-Term Debt

financial institutions. “Most people agree that the financing of large financial intermediaries put the larger financial system at risk” Can the government do anything to discourage short-term borrowing by the private sector? HBS... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Financial Services

Research Summary

Marketing and Privacy Concerns

When finer consumer information becomes available, competing firms sometimes target consumers too finely, disrupting scale economies prematurely. This leads to excessive product variety or to the wasteful exclusion of certain consumer types. This paper suggests that... View Details

Article

Towards a Bill of Rights for Online Advertisers

By: Benjamin Edelman

Online advertising presents remarkable efficiencies—better targeting, improved measurement and greater return on investment. Yet there are challenges, particularly when networks of intermediaries place ads through convoluted relationships, and all the more so when... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Rights; Measurement and Metrics; Investment Return; Negotiation; Networks; Problems and Challenges; Performance Efficiency; Law; Advertising Industry

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October 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Grove Street Advisors: September 2009

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Ann Leamon

The investment committee of Grove Street Advisors, a pioneer in the provision of customized private equity funds-of-funds for pension fund clients, must decide how to respond to the market opportunities and challenges presented by the turmoil of 2008 and 2009. How can... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Expansion; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry

February 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Prime Coalition: Catalytic Capital for Climate Innovation

By: Ramana Nanda, Benjamin N. Roth and Olivia Hull

With long development timelines and high risk, new energy technologies were often left to languish in the “valley of death,” unable to raise enough funds to bring a product to market. In 2014, Sarah Kearney founded the nonprofit Prime Coalition to solve this problem.... View Details

Keywords: Energy Conservation; Renewable Energy; Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Mission and Purpose; Science-Based Business; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Enterprise; Energy Industry; Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States

July 2011
Case

Edna McConnell Clark Foundation-Enabling a Performance Driven Philanthropic Capital Market

By: Allen Grossman and Aldo Sesia

The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, focused on building the organizational capabilities of nonprofits that served the disadvantaged youth in the United States, has recently been named an intermediary in the federal government's new social innovation fund (SIF), which... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Financial Strategy; Performance Improvement; Capital Markets; United States

September 2009 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Intellectual Ventures

By: Andrei Hagiu, David B. Yoffie and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Intellectual Ventures creates and acquires intellectual property, which it then seeks to monetize through non-exclusive licensing. In early 2009, as an increasing number of companies were trying to position themselves as leading intermediaries in the market for... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Rights; Service Operations; Research and Development; Technology; Service Industry