Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(618)
- Faculty Publications (117)
- 2008
- Working Paper
Structural Closure and Exposure: Market Reactions to Announcements of Acquisitions and Divestitures
By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Nitin Nohria
This paper develops an exchange-network perspective on corporate diversification and proposes two measures of corporate scope: structural closure and structural exposure. Structural closure focuses on exchanges of goods and services inside the firm... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised July 2008)
- Case
Opportunity Partners
By: Robin Greenwood and James Quinn
Philip Goldstein, the principal in a growing hedge fund and prominent activist investor, has taken a position in a Mexico-based closed-end fund. Following a hard-fought proxy contest in which he advocated for management to eliminate the fund's substantial discount,... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
The Small World of Investing: Board Connections and Mutual Fund Returns
By: Lauren Cohen, Andrea Frazzini and Christopher J. Malloy
This paper uses social networks to identify information transfer in security markets. We focus on connections between mutual fund managers and corporate board members via shared education networks. We find that portfolio managers place larger bets on firms they are... View Details
- December 2007 (Revised October 2008)
- Case
The American National Red Cross (A)
By: Jay W. Lorsch, Eliot Sherman and David Chen
Describes the governance issues facing the Board of Governors of the American Red Cross. After a series of issues--FDA consent decree on its blood operations; the response to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina--the Red Cross board was under pressure to fix its governance from... View Details
- September 2007 (Revised September 2010)
- Case
ValueAct: Shareholder in the Boardroom
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Alexis Chernak
ValueAct, a San Francisco investment firm, makes an investment in PerSe Technologies. The partners of ValueAct build relationships with the PerSe board and management. Eventually ValueAct is given a seat on the PerSe board and is able to influence a significant imprint... View Details
- 2007
- Working Paper
The Impact of Shareholder Activism on Financial Reporting and Compensation: The Case of Employee Stock Options Expensing
By: Fabrizio Ferri and Tatiana Sandino
In this paper we examine the economic consequences of over 150 shareholder proposals to expense employee stock options (ESO) submitted during the proxy seasons of 2003 and 2004–the first case where the SEC has allowed an accounting matter to be subject to an advisory... View Details
- June 2007 (Revised January 2008)
- Case
The Vanguard Group, Inc. in 2006 and Target Retirement Funds
By: Luis M. Viceira
The Vanguard Group is one of the largest asset managers in the U.S., with over $1 trillion in assets, ninety percent of which are mutual fund assets, and more than 12,000 employees at year-end 2006. Vanguard has built a strong reputation as the manager of reference for... View Details
- June 2007 (Revised April 2008)
- Case
Say on Pay
By: Jay W. Lorsch, V.G. Narayanan and Alexis Chernak
Briefly describes the trend in 2006 and 2007 in the United States to give shareholders an advisory vote on executive compensation. Highlights a few examples where shareholders have successfully garnered a majority in support of an advisory vote measure on company proxy... View Details
- April 2007
- Case
ABN AMRO Bank N.V.: Global Change Agents
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Lance P. Pierce and Ryan Leo Raffaelli
ABN AMRO Global Banking Group developed its risk management function in response to expansion, and increasingly focused on environmental and social risks. The head of the function needed to influence policies and business decisions in a highly decentralized context in... View Details
- February 2007
- Case
Behavioral Finance at JP Morgan
By: Malcolm P. Baker and Aldo Sesia
Following a successful model in Europe, JP Morgan has introduced a set of five U.S. retail mutual funds with an investment philosophy and marketing strategy grounded in behavioral finance. The asset management group believes that understanding investor biases like... View Details
- October 2006 (Revised January 2008)
- Case
Allianz AG: Becoming a European Company
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Alexis Chernak
Focuses on the decision made by leadership at Allianz AG, the German insurance and financial services company, to complete a cross-border merger with the Italian insurance and financial services company, RAS. Allianz, however, could not complete the cross-border merger... View Details
- January 2006 (Revised February 2006)
- Case
Deutsche Borse and the European Markets
By: Dwight B. Crane and Monika Stachowiak
In December 2004, Deutsche Borse proposed an offer for the London Stock Exchange. Some shareholders opposed the acquisition, leading to the offer's withdrawal and replacement of management, including the CEO and board members. Written from the viewpoint of Deutsche... View Details
- August 2005 (Revised January 2007)
- Supplement
The Board of Directors at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (B)
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Alexis Chernak
- August 2004
- Article
Appearing and Disappearing Dividends: The Link to Catering Incentives
By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler
We document a close link between fluctuations in the propensity to pay dividends and catering incentives. First, we use the methodology of Fama and French (J. Finan. Econ. (2001)) to identify a total of four distinct trends in the propensity to pay dividends... View Details
- March 2004 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
Shurgard Self-Storage: Expansion to Europe
By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Indra Reinbergs
Shurgard, a U.S.-based firm that rents storage facilities to consumers and small businesses, is considering financing options for rapid expansion of its European operations. Five years after entering Europe, Shurgard Europe has opened 17 facilities in Belgium, France,... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised August 2005)
- Case
First Commonwealth Financial Corporation
By: Robert S. Kaplan
First Commonwealth Financial Corp., a financial institution in central and southwestern Pennsylvania, implemented the Balanced Scorecard for describing and implementing its new customer-focused strategy. Its founder and chairman decided that the Balanced Scorecard also... View Details
- November 2002 (Revised October 2003)
- Case
Circles: Series D Financing
By: Paul W. Marshall and Kristin Lieb
Circles, a corporate concierge company on the verge of profitability, must make a decision whether to take a D-round venture capital despite ever-changing and ever-worsening terms. A four-year-old company with several major clients, it has met its business plan... View Details
- March 2001 (Revised February 2004)
- Case
International Profit Associates
By: Ashish Nanda, Thomas J. DeLong and Monica Mullick
Describes the work environment, systems, and processes that allow International Profit Associates (IPA) to follow a systematic four-step approach to providing advisory service to small business owners. View Details
- July 1999 (Revised April 2001)
- Case
Quickturn Design Systems, Inc. (A)
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Katharina Pick
Quickturn Design Systems, Inc. faces a hostile takeover bid from its competitor, Mentor Graphics. Mentor makes the bid at a moment when Quickturn's stock price is depressed and the company is defending against a patent suit filed by Mentor. The two companies have a... View Details
- July 1999 (Revised April 2001)
- Case
Quickturn Design Systems, Inc. (B)
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Katharina Pick
Supplements the (A) case. View Details