Publications

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April 2011
Teaching Note

U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" (TN)

By: Ramana Nanda, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Michael J. Roberts

Teaching Note for 810144. View Details

Keywords: Energy; Financing and Loans; Risk and Uncertainty; Commercialization; Programs; Innovation and Invention; Capital; Government and Politics; United States

01 Jun 2020
News

All Hands on Deck

observes Dean Nitin Nohria, who deferred his plans to step down as dean until December in order to lead the School through this crisis “Every day, we must make key decisions amidst significant uncertainty and with incomplete information.... View Details

Keywords: Jen Mele

01 Mar 2019
News

INK: The Lessons of Blitzscaling

Companies. “Blitzscaling” is a set of techniques to scale up in a massive and urgent manner. Why is speed so critical? The key insight for blitzscaling is that there is a time when the best way to win is to prioritize speed over efficiency despite the View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint

01 Mar 2008
News

Avoiding a Succession Crisis

there is great uncertainty as to whom the successor should be and how the process of finding a successor should be managed. There is something very wrong with this picture. I would have been surprised by this situation before completing... View Details

Keywords: Joseph L. Bower; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

22 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 22

information about a company he or she manages. The student must make decisions about pollution-reducing investments and production levels in the face of uncertainty about pollution permit prices. Students form groups of five, and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

Thriving in the Turbulence of Emerging Markets

hard, we did well." Navigating Uncertainty In Turkey Güler Sabancı If the life experiences of Bajaj provide dramatic insights into the business environment in India, those of Güler Sabancı, the first woman to head a top business group in... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Manufacturing; Auto

01 Jun 1997
News

Entertainment Moguls Ponder the Future at HBS Conference

uncertainty is due to the megamergers of the past fifteen years when, Frank Biondi noted, all the major networks and film studios were sold. As Harold Vogel put it: "There are hardly any more multimillion-dollar deals to be made - the big... View Details

Keywords: Paula Maute

01 Dec 2001
News

Faculty News

work in long-term planning under risk and uncertainty ranged from helping to pioneer computer applications at large companies to charting U.S. space policy as a member of a Presidential task force. Meyer, a 1953 graduate of Harvard... View Details

Keywords: reunions; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

June 2024
Case

Tremblant Capital: Launching an Active ETF

By: Robin Greenwood, Luis M. Viceira and Robert Ialenti

The case highlights deliberations led by Brett Barakett, CEO and chief investment officer of Tremblant Capital, just months prior to launching an actively managed ETF, Tremblant Global (TOGA). However, his team continued to have reservations around the launch. On the... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Investment Funds; Product Launch; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Services Industry

2009
Working Paper

Systemic Risk and the Refinancing Ratchet Effect

By: Amir E. Khandani, Andrew W. Lo and Robert C. Merton

The confluence of three trends in the U.S. residential housing market-rising home prices, declining interest rates, and near-frictionless refinancing opportunities-led to vastly increased systemic risk in the financial system. Individually, each of these trends is... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Mortgages; Interest Rates; Price; Housing; Risk and Uncertainty; United States

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December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Blockbuster Inc. & Technological Substitution (B): Confronting New Digital Formats

Investigates how the rise of digital video formats threatens to make videocassette technology obsolete; how this technological substitution might alter the economics and structure of the video rental and retail industries; and how Blockbuster Inc., the industry leader,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Competition; Change Management; Service Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

May 2000 (Revised July 2000)
Case

U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Three Gorges Dam (A), The

By: George C. Lodge and Cate Reavis

Describes the dilemma Martin Kamarck faced as president of the Export-Import Bank in whether to provide U.S. companies financing for China's Three Gorges Dam project. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Risk and Uncertainty; Financing and Loans; International Finance; Construction Industry; Energy Industry; China; United States

06 Dec 2016
First Look

December 6, 2016

uncertainty into the consumer's relative product valuations since she is unable to observe the entire catalog of products that the retailer will sell that season. Rationally acting consumers may respond to this additional View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 1982 (Revised February 1985)
Case

Ruth M. Owades

By: Howard H. Stevenson, Richard O. von Werssowetz and Robert W. Kent

Ruth Owades developed a concept for a new mail order venture offering gardening products. Her current employer turned down the idea, so with permission to try it independently, she has begun the process of raising funds and preparing for a separate operation. She still... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Borrowing and Debt; Resignation and Termination; Operations; Risk and Uncertainty

September 2008
Article

Firm Heterogeneity and Credit Risk Diversification

By: Samuel G. Hanson, M. Hashem Pesaran and Til Schuermann

This paper examines the impact of neglected heterogeneity on credit risk. We show that neglecting heterogeneity in firm returns and/or default thresholds leads to under estimation of expected losses (EL), and its effect on portfolio risk is ambiguous. Once EL is... View Details

Keywords: Volatility; Credit; Investment Return; Outcome or Result; Risk and Uncertainty; Loss; Diversification; Complexity; United States

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August 2008 (Revised September 2008)
Case

The Flaxil Label (B)

This case focuses on the 2001 negotiation between Mytex Pharmaceuticals and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The outcome of the negotiation would determine the new label for Mytex's blockbuster drug for arthritis, Flaxil. The negotiation is quite... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Risk and Uncertainty; Value Creation; Negotiation; Attitudes; Health Care and Treatment; Government Administration; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Blockbuster Inc. & Technological Substitution (D): The Threat of Direct Digital Distribution

Examines the emergence of technologies for delivering video content to consumer homes via direct digital distribution and investigates the strategic options facing video rental giant Blockbuster Inc. as it tries to respond to the new technological substitutes. Examines... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Competition; Change Management; Service Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Blockbuster Inc. & Technological Substitution (C): The Internet Changes the Game

Investigates how the rise of the Internet as a vehicle for renting and buying movies has disrupted the video rental industry and how market leader Blockbuster Inc. can and should respond to these developments. Explores how the emergence of e-commerce affects the degree... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Competition; Change Management; Service Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

1998
Article

Alternative Models of Uncertain Commodity Prices for Use with Modern Asset Pricing Methods

By: Malcolm Baker, E. S. Mayfield and John Parsons

This paper provides an introduction to alternative models of uncertain commodity prices. A model of commodity price movements is the engine around which any valuation methodology for commodity production projects is built, whether discounted cash flow (DCF) models or... View Details

Keywords: Asset Pricing; Goods and Commodities; Price; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Production; Projects; Cash Flow