Publications

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March 2013
Case

Currency Wars

By: Laura Alfaro and Hilary White

In February 2013, the G-20 finance ministers met in Moscow, Russia to discuss the rising anxieties over a potential international currency war. It was speculated that certain countries were purposely devaluing their currencies in order to improve their competitiveness... View Details

Keywords: Currency; Competitiveness; Trade Policy; Devaluation; Exchange Rate; Monetary Policy; Quantitative Easing; Inflation Targeting; Capital Flows; Central Banking; Currency Exchange Rate; Competitive Strategy; Emerging Markets; Policy; Trade; Conflict and Resolution; Banking Industry; Public Administration Industry; Moscow

16 Dec 2014
News

The Future of Green China

June 2024
Case

Alignvest Student Housing: Keep Building or Time to Sell?

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Patrick Sanguineti

Sanjil Shah, Managing Partner of Alignvest Student Housing REIT (ASH), faces the most significant decision thus far in his career: is it the right time to sell the company? Together with his partner Reza Satchu, Shah had developed ASH into the largest student housing... View Details

Keywords: Exit Strategy; Real Estate; Founder; Equity Valuation; Decisions; Entrepreneurial Finance; Interest Rates; Health Pandemics; Housing; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Entrepreneurship; Business Exit or Shutdown; Canada

June 2019
Case

Fangda Partners: A Step Ahead

By: Ashish Nanda and Lisa Rohrer

Elite Chinese law firm Fangda Partners has steered Alibaba and other Chinese and international clients through the complex legal, corporate, and regulatory challenges associated with executing international transactions. “Fangda has traveled a long distance in a short... View Details

Keywords: Law Firm; Law Firms; Growth; Legal Industry; Regulation; Professional Services; Law; Leadership; Growth and Development; Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Legal Services Industry; China

November 2013 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Infection Control at Massachusetts General Hospital

By: Robert S. Huckman and Nikolaos Trichakis

The case explores the challenges facing Massachusetts General Hospital concerning the adoption of a new infection control policy, which promises to improve operational performance, patient safety, and profitability. The new policy requires coordination between... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Integration; Health Care and Treatment; Policy; Health Industry; Boston

KRISHNA G. PALEPU is the Ross Graham Walker Professor of Business Administration, and has served previously as Senior Advisor to the President of Harvard University, and Senior Associate Dean at the... View Details

Keywords: accounting industry; banking; financial services; information technology industry; pharmaceuticals; retailing

2008
Working Paper

Extending Producer Responsibility: An Evaluation Framework for Product Take-Back Policies

By: Michael W. Toffel, Antoinette Stein and Katharine Lee

Manufacturers are increasingly being required to adhere to product take-back regulations that require them to manage their products at the end of life. Such regulations seek to internalize products' entire life cycle costs into market prices, with the ultimate... View Details

Keywords: Product; Cost; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability

SSRN

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14 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Should You Bring Advertising Expertise In-House?

U.S. advertisers large and small operated some form of in-house advertising unit in the 1990s, a trend apparently on the increase. In this decade, Procter & Gamble, Google, and Condé Nast Media Group all introduced internal... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Advertising

May 2022
Case

TikTok and National Security: Investment in an Age of Data Sovereignty?

By: Jeremy Friedman, Sarah Bauerle Danzman and David Lane

This case covers TikTok’s purchase of Musical.ly and the reaction of the United States government, including the review of the purchase by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the reaction of the presidential administration of Donald... View Details

Keywords: Data Security; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cybersecurity; Internet and the Web; International Relations; Laws and Statutes; Globalized Firms and Management

September 2016
Article

Disproportional Control Rights and the Bonding Role of Debt

By: Aiyesha Dey, Valeri Nikolaev and Xue Wang

We examine the governance role of debt in the context of U.S.-based dual class ownership structures. We hypothesize that the use of debt alleviates the conflict between shareholder classes by balancing the power of controlling insiders. We document that dual class... View Details

Keywords: Dual Class; Private Debt; Debt Covenants; Bonding Mechanisms; Ownership Type; Capital Structure; Borrowing and Debt

Find at Harvard

September 2024
Case

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

By: Meg Rithmire, Hong Zhang and Salaar A. Shaikh

Since the launch of CPEC, two of Pakistan’s Prime Ministers had been removed from office, one by the Supreme Court and the other in a no confidence vote. Historic floods had underscored the country’s vulnerability to climate change, and the country had agreed to two... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics; Climate Change; Financing and Loans; Government Administration; International Relations; Political Elections; Projects; China; Pakistan

08 Nov 2021
Blog Post

Building an Internship Program at Your Startup: An Interview with Facily’s Diego Dzodan (MBA 1999)

the idea of a potential internship program began to grow. So, when Westphal read about Facily and was connected with Dzodan, the timing and pairing was ideal. As the first intern in Facily’s history, Westphal utilized his experience from... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Consumer Products / Retail

June 2007 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Italy: If not now, when?

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Julia Galef

Describes Italy's main macroeconomic problems: low productivity growth, stagnant GDP growth, and high public debt. As of early 2007, the country's global competitiveness has plummeted and its debt remains well above the level allowed by the EU's Maastricht treaty.... View Details

Keywords: Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Macroeconomics; Borrowing and Debt; International Relations; Competition; Italy

2013
Case

Career Pathways, Performance Pay, and Peer-review Promotion in Baltimore City Public Schools

By: Susan Moore Johnson, John J-H Kim, Geoff Marietta, S. Elisabeth Faller and James Noonan

In the fall of 2012, Dr. Andres Alonso had much to celebrate about in his five-year tenure as CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, including the approval and implementation of an innovative teachers' contract with a jointly-governed four-tier career pathway that tied... View Details

Keywords: Labor Management; Public Education; PELP; Union; Compensation; Collaboration; Public Education Leadership Project; Education; Labor; Compensation and Benefits; Education Industry; United States

02 Jan 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 3, 2018

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53646 January–February 2018 Harvard Business Review The New CEO Activists By: Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel Abstract—Though corporations have been lobbying the government and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Supplement

Jones Lang LaSalle (2012): Integrated Services and the Architecture of Complexity (D)

By: Ranjay Gulati and Luciana Silvestri

This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced between 2008 and 2012. In 2008, in order to strengthen the firm's brokerage team, JLL merged with The Staubach Company, a real estate services provider with a first-rate... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Strategy; Integration; Real Estate Industry; North America; South America; Central America

07 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Profits of Power: Commercial Realpolitik in Eurasia

Keywords: by Rawi E. Abdelal; Energy; Utilities

March 2012
Article

The Incentive Bubble

By: Mihir Desai

The past three decades have seen American capitalism quietly transformed by a single, powerful idea—that financial markets are a suitable tool for measuring performance and structuring compensation. Stock instruments for managers, high-powered incentive contracts for... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Financial Markets; Executive Compensation; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Governance; Equality and Inequality; Human Capital; United States