Publications

October 2024
Module Note

Purpose of the Firm

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

Purpose of the Firm (PoF) is a short module designed to explore how, and under what circumstances, business leaders can harness the power of capitalism and markets to “make a difference in the world”—that is, to address a significant societal problem as a commercial... View Details

Keywords: Social Accounting; Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Enterprise; Mission and Purpose; Leadership

January 2023
Case

Baofeng's Philanthropic Efforts in China

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Bo Li and Zhaoheng Gong

Yanbao Dang, President of Baofeng Group and founder of the Yanbao Foundation, Baofeng Group’s philanthropic arm, weighed how the family nonprofit could maximize its impact. On a mission to eliminating poverty through broadening access to educational opportunities in... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Rural Scope; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Issues; Poverty; Resource Allocation; Green Technology Industry; Education Industry; China; Asia

November 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Summa Equity: Building Purpose-Driven Organizations

By: George Serafeim

In 2015, Reynir Indahl left top Nordic private equity firm Altor Equity Partners to found Summa Equity (Summa). After long contemplation following the financial crisis, Indahl was convinced the financial system was producing negative externalities and that the current... View Details

January 2020
Article

How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?

By: Paul A. Gompers, William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan and Ilya A. Strebulaev

We survey 885 institutional venture capitalists (VCs) at 681 firms to learn how they make decisions across eight areas: deal sourcing, investment selection, valuation, deal structure, post-investment value-added, exits, internal firm organization, and relationships... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Value Creation; Capital Structure; Entrepreneurship; Decision Making

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November–December 2018
Article

Online Network Revenue Management Using Thompson Sampling

By: Kris J. Ferreira, David Simchi-Levi and He Wang

We consider a network revenue management problem where an online retailer aims to maximize revenue from multiple products with limited inventory constraints. As common in practice, the retailer does not know the consumer's purchase probability at each price and must... View Details

Keywords: Online Marketing; Revenue Management; Revenue; Management; Marketing; Internet and the Web; Price; Mathematical Methods

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2004
Working Paper

Are Perks Purely Managerial Excess?

By: Raghuram G. Rajan and Julie Wulf

Why do some firms tend to offer executives a variety of perks while others offer none at all? A widespread view in the corporate finance literature is that executive perks are a form of agency or private benefit and a way for managers to misappropriate some of the... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Performance Productivity; Executive Compensation; Corporate Finance

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February 2022
Teaching Plan

Community Solutions

By: Brian Trelstad and Tom Quinn

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 322-021. Community Solutions was an anti-homelessness nonprofit founded in 2011 after protagonist Rosanne Haggerty grew frustrated with the limited impact of traditional housing and outreach strategies. It set an ambitious goal, reached... View Details

Keywords: Homelessness; Social Issues; Housing; Human Needs; Poverty; Welfare; Business and Community Relations; Analytics and Data Science; Business Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

March 2021 (Revised January 2023)
Background Note

The Pandemic's Impact on the U.S. Food System

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

This note is intended not as a comprehensive account but as a starting point for discussion about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. food system. Written in late 2020, the note describes, in part through the voices of industry leaders, how the pandemic... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Agribusiness; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Leadership; Change Management; Safety; Health; Health Pandemics; Disruption; Adaptation; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Transportation Industry; United States

April 2020
Case

Ment.io: Knowledge Analytics for Team Decision Making

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Jeffrey T. Polzer, Susie L. Ma and Shlomi Pasternak

Ment.io was a software platform that used proprietary data analytics technology to help organizations make informed and transparent decisions based on team input. Ment was born out of founder Joab Rosenberg’s frustration that, while organizations collected ever... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Information Technology; Knowledge; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Management; Operations; Information Management; Product; Product Development; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Communications Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Middle East; Israel

August 8, 2018
Article

Hospital-based ACOs Face Challenges in Tracking Performance Indicators

By: Christiana Beveridge, Sofia Warner, Greg Leya and Thomas W. Feeley

Given that accountable care organizations (ACOs) have not achieved the degree of cost reductions and quality improvements initially hoped for, we sought to better understand the underlying reasons for their limited success. Our analysis of American Hospital Association... View Details

Keywords: ACOs; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Performance; Measurement and Metrics

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Research Summary

Working Papers

By: Dennis A. Yao

Anton, James J. and Dennis A. Yao (2011). "Delay as Agenda Setting."

Abstract: In this paper we examine a class of... View Details

22 Jan 2015
News

Food Safety in Numbers

06 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 6, 2007

centered on proving masculinity—in which such displays and interactions were absent. We use this case to develop theory about how organizational features, such as work practices and norms, can disrupt conventional masculine... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 Jul 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Why Do We Redistribute So Much but Tag So Little? The Principle of Equal Sacrifice and Optimal Taxation

Keywords: by Matthew Weinzierl

William C. Vrattos

Bill Vrattos is a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches Investment Strategies, a course on public market investing in the elective curriculum. He also co-teaches Private Equity Projects and Ecosystems, where he mentors student groups on... View Details

July 1998 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Bank of Ireland (BOI): Internet Strategy

Conor O'Toole, Internet business executive, must consider how to take the Bank of Ireland on-line. The bank, and Ireland, and most of continental Europe, lagedlagged behind the United States in adopting Internet techologytechnology. O'Toole wondered how he should... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Internet; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Republic of Ireland

18 Nov 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Dynamics of Firm Lobbying

Keywords: by William R. Kerr, William Lincoln & Prachi Mishra

2013
Case

Yanzhou Coal Mining Company Limited: Overseas Acquisitions (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Yongjun Jin and Xiaohui Li

Yanzhou Coal Mining Company Limited (Yanzhou Coal) is a listed company controlled by Yankuang Group Co., Ltd. (Yankuang Group) which is affiliated to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of Shandong Provincial Government, China.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Strategy; China; Electric Power Generation; China