Publications

2013
Working Paper

Did Bank Distress Stifle Innovation During the Great Depression?

By: Ramana Nanda and Tom Nicholas

We find a negative relationship between bank distress and the level, quality and trajectory of firm-level innovation during the Great Depression, particularly for R&D firms operating in capital intensive industries. However, we also show that because a sufficient... View Details

Keywords: Great Depression; R＆D; Bank Distress; Patents; Research and Development; Financial Crisis; Innovation and Invention; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

August 2012
Article

A Darker Side to Decentralized Banks: Market Power and Credit Rationing in SME Lending

By: Rodrigo Canales and Ramana Nanda

We use loan-level data to study how the organizational structure of banks impacts small business lending. We find that decentralized banks-where branch managers have greater autonomy over lending decisions-give larger loans to small firms and those with "soft... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Customers; Financing and Loans; Credit; Organizational Structure; Banks and Banking; Governance Compliance; Competitive Strategy

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March 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Blogging at BzzAgent

BzzAgent is a word-of-mouth marketing firm. The founder, Dave Balter, sees blogs as an important way to communicate BzzAgent's unique positioning: transparency. He sees the firm's blog--the BeeLog--as a way for the firm to participate in conversations with clients,... View Details

Keywords: Blogs; Marketing Communications; Social and Collaborative Networks; Advertising Industry

Although entrepreneurs constitute a key economic driving force for many countries, they often face unstable environments due to violence and civil unrest. Yet, we know very little about how environments characterized by high levels of political and civil violence... View Details

15 Apr 2024
Book

Struggling With a Big Management Decision? Start by Asking What Really Matters

cut through all the questions that inevitably run through their heads so they can instinctively choose the right path. The best way to tackle a tough call: Start by defining on a personal level what is right, says Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

The Benefits of Selective Disclosure: Evidence from Private Firms

This paper explores an unexplored benefit of being privately-held: Non-SEC-filing private firms’ ability to disclose confidential information to selected investors minimizes the scope for information asymmetry between the firms and their investors. This decreases... View Details

October 1987 (Revised January 2013)
Background Note

Note on Free Cash Flow Valuation Models

By: William A. Sahlman

Explores some of the issues involved in valuing cash flow streams. A simple model is presented that reveals the effect on value of changing assumptions about the appropriate discount rate, the level of profitability, the growth rate of sales, the asset intensity ratio,... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Valuation

September 2023
Case

The Rise and Fall of FTX

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli and Max Hancock

In November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried's multi-billion-dollar crypto exchange, FTX, collapsed, wiping out investors and throwing the crypto industry into disarray. As FTX's founder and CEO, Bankman-Fried developed a reputation for his unerring business sense and... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Crime and Corruption; Financial Statements; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Failure; Restructuring; United States; Hong Kong; Bahamas

March 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Doing Business in Kigali, Rwanda

By: Andy Zelleke, A. Zelleke, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Wale Lawal

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Rwanda. It highlights Rwanda's economic transformation in the decades leading up to 2023 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. The case gives an overview of some of the main... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Growth; Transportation Industry; Tourism Industry; Rwanda

2015
Working Paper

Informal Tradables and the Employment Growth of Indian Manufacturing

By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Alexander Segura

India's manufacturing growth from 1989 to 2010 displays two intriguing properties: 1) a substantial fraction of absolute and net employment growth is concentrated in informal tradable industries, and 2) much of this growth is connected to the development of one-person... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; India; Informality; Small And Medium-sized Enterprises; Development Economics; Manufacturing Industry; India

April 2013
Article

Who Is Governing Whom? Executives, Governance, and the Structure of Generosity in Large U.S. Firms

By: Christopher Marquis and Matthew Lee

We examine how organizational structure influences strategies over which corporate leaders have significant discretion. Corporate philanthropy is our setting to study how a differentiated structural element—the corporate foundation—constrains the influence of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Leadership; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; United States

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2009
Working Paper

The Bloody Millennium: Internal Conflict in South Asia

By: Lakshmi Iyer

This paper documents the short-term and long-term trends in internal conflict in South Asian countries, using multiple data sources. I find that incidents of terrorism have been rising across South Asia over the past decade, and this increase has been concentrated in... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; International Relations; National Security; Conflict Management; Poverty; South Asia

2006
Chapter

Competitiveness in Developing Economies: The Role of Clusters and Cross-Cutting Policies

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

Competitiveness is high up on the policy agenda for countries around the world and at all stages of development. But while there is little disagreement that countries need to "upgrade their competitiveness"—even more so as the level of globalization is increasing—there... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Framework; Globalization; Policy; Growth and Development; Industry Clusters; Competitive Strategy

24 Apr 2022
News

Artificial Intelligence Is Stuck In A Narrow Rut

July/August 2004
Article

Stakeholders and Environmental Management Practices: An Institutional Framework

By: Magali Delmas and Michael W. Toffel

Despite burgeoning research on companies' environmental strategies and environmental management practices, it remains unclear why some firms adopt environmental management practices beyond regulatory compliance. This paper leverages institutional theory by proposing... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Environmental Management; Adoption; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Organizational Structure; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Competition; Framework; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

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