Publications

November 2014
Teaching Note

Marketing Marijuana in Colorado

By: John A. Quelch

The case, set in the middle of 2014, reviews the first six months of marketplace activity in Colorado, following the legalization of marijuana for recreational use and the expansion of marijuana retailing from medical dispensaries to recreational stores. The case... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Innovations; Retail Government Services; Public Health; Agribusiness; Customers; Goods and Commodities; Government and Politics; Health; Marketing; Society; Consumer Products Industry; Distribution Industry; Health Industry; Public Administration Industry; North and Central America

2013
Article

Non-Audit Services and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from 1978–1980

By: Kevin Koh, Shiva Rajgopal and Suraj Srinivasan

We provide evidence for the long-standing concern on auditor conflicts of interest from providing non-audit services (NAS) to audit clients by using rarely explored NAS fee data from 1978 to 1980. Using this earlier setting, we find cross-sectional evidence of improved... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Financial Reporting; Accounting Audits; Knowledge Dissemination; Quality; Corporate Disclosure; Motivation and Incentives

SSRN

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2021
Working Paper

Multiple Team Membership, Turnover, and On-Time Delivery: Evidence from Construction Services

By: Hise O. Gibson, Bradely R. Staats and Ananth Raman

Firms who want to compete in dynamic markets are finding that they must build more agile operations to ensure success. One way for a firm to increase organizational agility is to allocate employees to multiple project teams, simultaneously—a practice known as multiple... View Details

Keywords: Multiple Team Membership; Turnover; Fluid Teams; Project Management; Groups and Teams; Projects; Management; Performance

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18 Aug 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Non-Audit Services and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from 1978-1980

Keywords: by Kevin Koh, Shivaram Rajgopal & Suraj Srinivasan; Accounting

November 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Internal Governance and Control at Goldman Sachs: Block Trading

By: Malcolm S. Salter and Ratna Sarkar

Although the explicit problem presented in the case concerns pricing a block trade, the real issue involves the decision-making and oversight processes used to arrive at a price that is appropriate for both the client and Goldman Sachs. Asks students in assignment... View Details

Keywords: Price; Governance Controls; Trust; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry

15 May 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Money or Knowledge? What Drives Demand for Financial Services in Emerging Markets?

Keywords: by Shawn Cole, Thomas Sampson & Bilal Zia; Financial Services

04 Dec 2023
Blog Post

My Summer of Joy with the National Parks Service

Hi all, my name is Rhea! I was lucky enough to work for the National Park Service this summer as a business management intern with the Submerged Resources Center (SRC). The SRC is the NPS national dive program, responsible for... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

May 2022
Case

What to Propose?

By: David G. Fubini

Two audit and financial services firms, one of which your consulting firm has supported extensively, have merged to create one of the largest audit firms in the world. The audit firm's Executive Team has requested proposals aimed at re-evaluating their internal... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Professional Services; Governance; Presentations; Organizational Structure; Transition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Consulting Industry

Web

Managing and Innovating in Financial Services - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Managing and Innovating in Financial Services Course Number 1509 Professor David Scharfstein Spring; Q3Q4; 3.0 credits 27 Sessions Exam Course Content Financial services firms play a... View Details

July 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Airbnb Emerges from the Pandemic: Lessons for Stakeholder Governance (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison M. Ciechanover

As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details

Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Two-Sided Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Service Industry; Service Industry; Service Industry; United States

October 1993 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A)

By: Roy D. Shapiro and Michael D. Watkins

AT&T's Universal Card Services (UCS) has been extremely successful during its short lifetime. Dedicated to improving service quality and customer satisfaction, chief quality officer Rob Davis and his quality team have designed and put into place an unusual measurement... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Policy; Compensation and Benefits; Performance Evaluation; Quality; System; Telecommunications Industry

18 Jan 2021
Book

How Thinking Like a Startup Helps Governments Solve More Problems

discussed other key points from the book: Martha Lagace: What do you mean by “possibility government”? Mitchell Weiss: Possibility government is the pursuit of novel programs and services by public officials... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2004
Chapter

The Globalization of Stock Markets and Convergence in Corporate Governance

By: Gerald F. Davis and Christopher Marquis

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Financial Markets; Corporate Governance; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

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10 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon Web Services Changed the Way VCs Fund Startups

cloud-based software and service companies, which could take advantage of AWS to decrease costs, versus others like biotechs that were less impacted by the new technologies. “The goal was to try and understand whether VCs were allocating... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services; Financial Services; Financial Services

2014
Case

Microfinance Services in Rural Areas--Farmers' Self-reliance Branch of CFPA Microfinance in Shangyi County

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Siqun Yang and Meihua Shen

Microfinance is introduced into China in the 1990s. It had gone through 3 phases since the beginning, namely the pilot phase when all Microfinance practices are sponsored by charity funds based on projects, the promotion phase when the government subsidized some... View Details

Keywords: Rural Entrepreneurship; Value Added; China; Risk Management; Microfinance; China

2007
Article

Convictions, Conventions and the Operational Risk Maze—The Cases of Three Financial Services Institutions

By: Anette Mikes

Making sense of operational risk practices in the financial services sector is a challenge. There is a temptation to explain the wide variety of approaches as a characteristic of the early stage of development in which the genre resides.
Based on the evidence of... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Conflict and Resolution; Organizations; Financial Services Industry