Publications

Program

Designing and Executing Corporate Revitalization

Summary Given today's turbulent environment, business leaders are seeking a new path to success for their companies. But while many firms talk about transforming themselves around current trends such as digitization and remote work, most... View Details

April 2009
Case

Brummer and the bracNet Investment

By: Alnoor Ebrahim, Michael Pirson and Patricia Mangas

bracNet, a for-profit/nonprofit partnership, aims to establish Internet connectivity throughout Bangladesh. Venture capitalist Patrik Brummer invested in a first round of funding to connect major cities. Should he invest again, this time in a rural roll-out, which may... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Venture Capital; Investment; Investment Return; Rural Scope; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations; Internet; Telecommunications Industry; Bangladesh

16 Nov 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Private Equity and Employment

Keywords: by Steven J. Davis, John C. Haltiwanger, Ron S. Jarmin, Josh Lerner & Javier Miranda

15 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 15

inventory turns and can be uniformly utilized by all stakeholders to assess whether a retailer is carrying too much or too little inventory. We explain applications of the metric with examples and lay out prescriptions for retailers. August 2013 Review of View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2024
Working Paper

Does the Case for Private Equity Still Hold?

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Philipp Chvanov

Private Equity (“PE”) received a 10-fold increase in capital flows since the Great Financial Crisis (“GFC”) Investors sought higher nominal returns relative to those they could obtain in the public capital markets. This paper questions the fundamental assumptions... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Financial Markets

SSRN

Read Now

January 1995
Background Note

A Note on Distribution of Venture Investments

By: Josh Lerner

Venture capitalists typically exit investments by distributing shares to investors. These transfers pose challenges for these investors. Predictions and evidence about the behavior of stock prices of firms around the time of these distributions are presented. View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Venture Capital; Stocks; Investment; Price

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24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The Climate Needs Aggressive CEO Leadership

invest to reduce pipeline leaks of natural gas, given how the cost of those emissions could rise substantially if carbon were priced? From a financial perspective, answering these big and expensive questions requires knowing how to price... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Toffel & Auden Schendler; Energy; Utilities

January 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Microfinance International Corporation: No, Not Another Microfinance Case

CEO and founder Atsumasa Tochisako (52) sat in his Washington D.C. headquarters, looking with pride at the copy of a press release that would announce the latest in a broadening line of financial services that Washington D.C.-based Microfinance International... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Social Entrepreneurship; Microfinance; Globalized Firms and Management; Financial Services Industry

May 2020
Teaching Note

Edward Jones: Implementing the Solutions Approach

By: David J. Collis

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 719-411.Updates the classic Edward Jones strategy case as the firm shifts to a new "Solutions" business model from its previous "product" model in response to changes in the brokerage industry, technology and demographics, and its own... View Details

Keywords: Management; Strategy; Value; Business Model; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America

Web

CSV Explained - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

affordable housing and financial security, and other key measures of societal wellbeing. Only business can create economic prosperity by meeting needs and making a profit, creating infinitely scalable and self-sustaining solutions . Key... View Details

January 2000 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Cachet Technologies

By: Paul A. Gompers and Howard Reitz

Describes the decision facing Danny Lewin, Jonathan Seelig, and Tom Leighton, the founders of Cachet Technologies, an MIT spin-out. The firm has done poorly in the annual MIT business plan competition and the founders have to decide whether to continue. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Business Startups; Business Plan; Failure; Cooperative Ownership; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry

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04 Oct 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Cold Call: Corporate Governance and Growth Strategy at Capital SAFI

Keywords: Re: V.G. Narayanan; Financial Services

18 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 18

innovation and entrepreneurship in renewable energy. Using data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, we first show that patenting in renewable energy remains highly concentrated in a few large energy firms. In 2009, the top 20 firms... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2017
Case

Christine Lagarde

By: Julie Battilana, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Vanessa Ampelas and Noemie Assenat

The case covers the youth and career trajectory of Christine Lagarde across her time at Baker & McKenzie, as a minister in the government of France and as the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The case highlights the challenges and opportunities she faced... View Details

Keywords: Change; Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Leadership; Gender; Leading Change

29 Jan 2009
Working Paper Summaries

An Exploration of the Japanese Slowdown during the 1990s

Keywords: by Diego A. Comin

2003
Conference Paper

Follow the Money: What Really Drives Technology Innovation in Construction

By: John D. Macomber

Technology enthusiasts, academics, and software companies remain concerned about the slow pace of innovation in the construction industry. Tools are widely available that seem to provide eminently sensible and clearly apparent improvement to the process of design and... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Technological Innovation; Construction; Design; Performance Improvement; Motivation and Incentives; Knowledge Management; Adoption; Business Model; Capital Structure; Supply Chain

November 1998 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Collateralized Loan Obligations and the Bistro Trust

By: Kenneth A. Froot and Ivan G. Farman

This case examines a large bank trying to protect itself from the risks and capital requirement created by its loan portfolio. Considers a variety of ways available to the firm to offload the risks. View Details

Keywords: Banking; Loan Evaluation; Financing Strategy; Credit; Risk Management; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy; Banking Industry

2008
Other Unpublished Work

Accounting, Risk Management and the Aftermath of a Control Debacle

By: Anette Mikes

Despite the widespread adoption of risk management systems in the financial services industry, recent control debacles highlight the apparent lack of top managerial attention to risk controls. Yet in order to understand the workings and uses of risk controls (or any... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Governance Controls; Management Systems; Accounting; Conflict and Resolution; Trends; Financial Services Industry

2012
Working Paper

Earnings Management from the Bottom Up: An Analysis of Managerial Incentives Below the CEO

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Julie Wulf

Performance-based pay is an important instrument to align the interests of managers with the interests of shareholders. However, recent evidence suggests that high-powered incentives also provide managers with incentives to manipulate the firm's reported earnings. The... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Interests; Business and Shareholder Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Earnings Management; Performance Evaluation; Stock Options