Publications

December 1998 (Revised March 1999)
Case

Guangdong Nowada Group, The

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Anthony St. George

In late 1998, 38-year-old He Boquan, CEO of the Guangdong Nowada Group, a health beverage producer, needs to decide how to fund his company's growth and ambition to become China's number one domestic health beverage producer by 2002. A consultants study revealed that... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Capital; Foreign Direct Investment; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Management Skills; Negotiation Offer; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; China

October 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Wells REIT II

By: Arthur I Segel and Dwight Angelini

Dr. Richard Planter, a dentist, asks his financial adviser, Michael Saris, to review an offering memorandum for a new, private real estate investment trust. After reviewing the documents, Saris needs to develop an analytical framework and provide concrete advice... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Investment; Framework; Private Ownership; Mathematical Methods; Real Estate Industry

15 Sep 2021
Video

Okechukwu "Okey" Enelamah

Okey Enelamah, the former Nigerian Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment (2015-2019) and Founder of African Capital Alliance, discusses the importance of creating the correct environment to encourage the development of economies throughout Africa. View Details

April 2006
Module Note

Asset Allocation: A Half-Course Module Note

By: Luis M. Viceira

Provides an overview of the main ideas and structure of a 15-session module on long-term asset allocation designed for MBA graduate students and investment professionals. This module is taught as part of a full-length, 30-session elective class on investment management... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Investment; Decisions; Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Teaching; Theory

November 2005 (Revised May 2007)
Case

HP Nanotech: Partnership with CNSI

Stan Williams, leading nanotech researcher at Hewlett Packard Laboratories, must decide whether to renew the firm's sponsorship of California NanoSystems Institute, spend the funds on internal R&D, or fund foreign universities. Illustrates the challenge of managing... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Partners and Partnerships; Investment; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Business and Community Relations; Financial Strategy; Technology Industry; California

2000
Other Unpublished Work

Career Concerns and Staged Investment: Evidence from the Venture Capital Industry

By: Malcolm Baker

I develop a model in which career concerns lead to inefficient reinvestment decisions. Managers have incentives to inflate interim returns by continuing bad projects and delaying write-offs. In the venture capital industry, the syndication of follow-on investments can... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Valuation; Venture Capital; Investment; Decisions; Motivation and Incentives; Quality

Read Now

Professor Ramarajan is the Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research examines the management and consequences of identities in organizations.

She teaches the... View Details

Keywords: nonprofit industry

15 Jan 2007
Research & Ideas

The Business of Free Software

proprietary software portfolios to invest in open source software (OSS) projects that can sometimes seem unrelated to their core business. "This new reality upends the classic rules of strategy," Iansiti says, "and it's... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Computer

August 1998
Supplement

Cleveland Tomorrow, Video

By: James E. Austin and Rosabeth M. Kanter

As part of Cleveland's turnaround, Cleveland Tomorrow creates new investment funds to stimulate new business development. This development is designed to earn a profit and bring new benefits to the community. Part of the HBS Social Enterprise Video Series on Business... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Business and Community Relations; Social Enterprise

Awa Ambra Seck is an Assistant Professor in the View Details

January 1993 (Revised April 1993)
Case

Chadwick, Inc.: The Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The pharmaceutical division of a diversified company has been asked to develop a Balanced Scorecard. Research and development projects take about ten years to bring a new product to the marketplace and the division depends on good relations and active feedback from its... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Performance Evaluation; Customer Relationship Management; Goals and Objectives; Customer Satisfaction; Research and Development; Marketplace Matching; Financial Condition; Product Launch; Pharmaceutical Industry

03 Jun 2019
News

Collaborations, not tax breaks, are better for growth

April 2020 (Revised August 2020)
Case

WeWork—November 2018

By: Paul A. Gompers, Patrick Sweeney and Alex Gachanja

In May 2017, SoftBank announced the official launch of the Vision Fund — which promptly became the largest technology-focused investment fund in the world, with nearly $100 billion in capital under its management. Reports from a few months prior hinted that SoftBank... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Valuation; Corporate Governance

October 1996 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Mobil USM&R (D): Gasoline Marketing

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Mobil US Marketing & Refining has shifted from a centralized staff-driven organization to decentralized business-units. Staff functions now must negotiate service agreements with a buyer's committee consisting of representatives from the profit-center business units.... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Management Teams; Human Resources; Agreements and Arrangements; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customers; Situation or Environment; Business Units; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United States

18 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Will Global Demand for Oil Peak This Decade?

Is the globe’s thirst for oil finally topping out? A major international energy watcher says yes, predicting last month that demand for global oil for transport will peak around 2026, plateau for all uses by 2028, and possibly hit a zenith by the end of the decade.... View Details

Keywords: by Alvin Powell, Harvard Gazette; Energy; Industrial Products; Auto; Green Technology

May 1981 (Revised May 1989)
Case

Congoleum Corp.

Describes the development and terms of the largest leveraged buyout up to the date of the case. The main problem is to value the positions of the various participants: lenders, equity holders, investment bankers, and management. View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Leveraged Buyouts

January 2004 (Revised February 2005)
Background Note

A Note on Methodological Fit in Management Field Research

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Stacy McManus

To use in doctoral-level management courses on the design of field research methods. Advocates the importance of fit, or internal consistency, among the different elements of a field research project. Although the scientific method provides an essential framework for... View Details

Keywords: Management; Research