Publications

December 2013
Supplement

Bruce Allyn: Negotiating with the KGB (B)

By: James K. Sebenius

This case picks up (from the end of the "A" case) the detailed story of the KGB's high-pressure negotiations with Harvard doctoral student Bruce Allyn to recruit him as a secret asset for the Soviet spy agency. The "A" case describes how, at the tense height of the... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Bargaining; Hard Bargaining; KGB; Espionage; Spying; War; National Security; Alliances; Ethics; Negotiation Tactics; Decision Choices and Conditions; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Offer; Cambridge; Moscow; Soviet Union

13 Jun 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: A Startup Takes On the Credit Ratings Giants

including several instances where the highest rated securities (AAA) defaulted. The resulting financial meltdown pushed the US and the rest of the world economy into recession. In the recent case "Kroll Bond Rating Agency," Bo... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Banking; Financial Services

March 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

The TARP Bailouts: Saving the Banking and Automotive Industries

By: Kristin Mugford

Comparison of the U.S. Government response, using the $700 billion TARP fund, to downturns in the banking and auto industries during the global financial crisis. View Details

Keywords: Bailout; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Banks and Banking; Government and Politics; Debt Securities; Government Legislation; Public Opinion; Auto Industry; Banking Industry; United States

29 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

'Green Bonds' May Be Our Best Bet for Environmental Damage Control

environment by accessing finance at better terms. “The whole idea of ESG investing is predicated on the notion that by tilting their portfolios towards securities that have better ESG properties, investors might be able to change who has... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy; Utilities; Construction; Green Technology; Public Administration

31 Oct 2016
Research & Ideas

Quantitative Easing Didn’t Ease the Housing Crisis for the Neediest

financial crisis, for example, the Federal Reserve orchestrated multiple rounds of QE. In the initial round, QE1, the Fed bought $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and $300 billion in Treasury bonds. During QE2, the Fed... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

April 2022
Supplement

PG&E and the First Climate Change Bankruptcy

By: Stuart C. Gilson

Keywords: Chapter 11; Utilities; Liabilities; Restructuring; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Debt Securities; Legal Liability; Climate Change; Utilities Industry; United States

Article

Beacon and Warning: Sherman Kent, Scientific Hubris, and the CIA's Office of National Estimates

By: J. Peter Scoblic

Would-be forecasters have increasingly extolled the predictive potential of Big Data and artificial intelligence. This essay reviews the career of Sherman Kent, the Yale historian who directed the CIA’s Office of National Estimates from 1952 to 1967, with an eye toward... View Details

Keywords: National Security; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Forecasting and Prediction; History

Read Now

25 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Who Wants to Be an Entrepreneur? [Part II]

airports come at a premium, however; securing space depended on financing, a credible design for Polished's stores, and leasing managers' belief in Rhyne's ability to hire people and satisfy customers—neither of which was possible, of... View Details

Keywords: by John S. Rosenberg

March 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11

This case looks at the turnaround at the Massachusetts Port Authority after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It begins with the situation during the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and then describes how the new CEO restructures the public agency to operate much more like a... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Corporate Accountability; National Security; Governance Controls; Organizational Culture; Public Administration Industry; Massachusetts

February 2025
Case

Fly, Fix, Fly at True Anomaly

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Jim Matheson, Fiona Murray and David Allen

How should companies learn from failure? Founded by four U.S. Space Force warfighters, the tough tech startup True Anomaly wanted to compete with major defense contractors to supply the U.S. Department of Defense with satellites and software that could help protect... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Engineering; National Security; Digital Platforms; Failure; Problems and Challenges; Business and Government Relations; War; Aerospace Industry; United States; Colorado

August 2010 (Revised September 2010)
Case

Paul Bremer at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq

By: Robert Steven Kaplan and Nicholas Henri Taranto

Since becoming the President's envoy responsible for post-war Iraq, Paul Bremer endured many sleepless nights, struggling with the decision of how to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqi people. Despite daily assassination attempts, tribal warfare, growing violence, and... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; International Relations; National Security; Leadership; Crisis Management; Iraq; District of Columbia

March 2011
Article

Institutional Demand Pressure and the Cost of Corporate Loans

By: Victoria Ivashina and Zheng Sun

Between 2001 and 2007, annual institutional funding in highly leveraged loans went up from $32 billion to $426 billion, accounting for nearly 70% of the jump in total syndicated loan issuance over the same period. Did the inflow of institutional funding in the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Financial Crisis; Credit; Debt Securities; Financing and Loans; Interest Rates; Investment

SSRN

Find at Harvard

26 Jun 2013
Op-Ed

A Roadmap for Afghanistan’s Economic Future

Future of Diplomacy Project and Harvard University's South Asia Institute, brought together diplomats, security experts, and entrepreneurs in a conversation that ought to occur more often. Celebrate, on the one hand, the dramatic rise in... View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna

03 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Web Services

"These are massive projects involving some of the largest companies in the world. One challenge we'll be facing is managing a highly distributed, complex Web services environment outside the firewall while maintaining security... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Service

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

Greed, Fear, and The System Hinder Corporate Reform

Rakesh Khurana. Here are some of the challenges: Basic greed. Wayne M. Carlin, northeast regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who clarified that he was speaking for himself and not on behalf of his organization,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

10 Jul 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: It’s a Bad Idea to Ban Customers From Recording Videos

discreet—smartphones are easily concealed. A banning policy often itself causes escalation of a conflict. “The video that this store doesn’t want you to see!” is that much more likely to get attention. And when store staff enforce a ban by calling View Details

Keywords: by Benjamin G. Edelman; Food & Beverage; Air Transportation; Retail; Service

December 2005 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Flagstar Companies, Inc. (Abridged)

By: Stuart C. Gilson

A large restaurant chain undergoes a leveraged buyout and subsequent recapitalization. Financial and operating problems at the company force it to consider various restructuring options, including a prepackaged Chapter 11 exchange offer to its public bondholders. Two... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Capital; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Debt Securities; Competition; Valuation; Financial Services Industry; United States