Publications

25 May 2022
News

How Economic Interdependence Fosters Alliances and Democracy

January 1995
Background Note

Note on Foreign Direct Investment

By: Debora L. Spar

Between 1985 and 1990, the global economy witnessed an unprecedented surge in flows of foreign direct investment (FDI). This sudden increase called back into prominence the range of questions that have long surrounded FDI. What causes firms to expand or contract their... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment

Henry McGee joined the HBS faculty in 2013 after retiring as President of HBO Home Entertainment, the digital and DVD program distribution division of Home Box Office, the pioneering premium television company. A member of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit,... View Details

Keywords: television; motion pictures; media; e-commerce industry; entertainment; broadcasting; distribution; health care; journalism; wholesale; arts; nonprofit industry

May 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

SKS Microfinance

By: Shawn A. Cole and Theresa Chen

Vikram Akula, CEO of SKS Microfinance, seeks a venture capital investment to fund his firm. SKS, one of the largest and fastest growing microfinance institutions in India, is a profitable, for-profit institution with a social mission. In what is one of the first... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Venture Capital; Microfinance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Valuation; Financial Services Industry; India

18 Sep 2013
News

An Honest Wage: Dollars, Hours, And Ethics

Teaching Interest

IFC Asia: China's Belt & Road Initiative

By: Willy C. Shih

The course objective is to provide students perspectives and insight into one of the major political and economic development programs of China – its Belt and Road Initiative, a strategy that involves infrastructure development and investments in countries spanning... View Details

Keywords: China; Globalization; Trade; Infrastructure; China; Southeast Asia; South Asia; Central Asia

September 2016
Case

Partners Group: Ain't No Mountain High Enough

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

Partners Group (PG), a Swiss-based PE manager, initiated a series of strategic shifts and evolved from a predominately fund-of-funds manager into a large, multi-asset class PE firm focused on direct investments. PG was the first PE firm to go public in 2006. A number... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Management Practices and Processes; Entrepreneurship

June 2012 (Revised August 2012)
Case

MF Global: Changing Stripes

By: Clayton Rose, Yasmin Dahya and Jenevieve Lee

Jon Corzine became the CEO of MF Global in March of 2010. Eighteen months later, and in the wake of a massive trade in European sovereign debt, the firm filed for bankruptcy, the 8th largest in U.S. history. As the firm failed it was discovered that over $1.6 billion... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Leadership; Governance; Bankruptcy; Financial Firms; Financial Crisis; Brokerage; Asset Management; Sovereign Finance; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Borrowing and Debt; Trade; Business Model

October 2017 (Revised September 2022)
Teaching Note

Fuyao Glass America: Sourcing Decision

By: Willy Shih

This case is about globalization: a Chinese company has decided to locate a production facility close to its customers in the U.S., but a recent contract bid means it will lose money, at least initially, by supplying product from that factory. The purpose of this case... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chains; Labor Market; Labor Supply; Arbitrage; Tradable Sector; Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Labor; Globalization; Globalized Markets and Industries; Geographic Location; Auto Industry; United States; China

Article

Wealth-Making in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Britain: Industry v. Commerce and Finance

By: Tom Nicholas

This paper refutes the hypothesis put forward by W.D. Rubinstein that a disproportionately large share of Britain's wealth makers were active in commercial and financial trades in London. We use a data set of businessmen active in nineteenth- and early... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Finance; Commercialization; Mathematical Methods; Wealth and Poverty; Great Britain; London

Find at Harvard

Read Now

19 Jul 2022
News

Regulated Human Capital Disclosures

09 Dec 2016
News

Criminal business executives just don’t get why they’re in jail

Is It Time to Rethink Globalized Supply Chains?

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the complex interdependencies of globalized supply chains. While these global multistage production networks had spread during a relatively benign environment of falling trade barriers and increasing interdependencies among... View Details

February 1994 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, Inc.: Portfolio Insurance

By: Peter Tufano

Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, a small financial advisory firm founded in 1980, has created a successful business by selling a product commonly known as portfolio insurance. Portfolio insurance is a trading strategy that institutional investors use to establish... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Insurance; Product; Financial Services Industry

October 2013 (Revised August 2016)
Case

NOWaccount

By: Ramana Nanda, William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley

It was September 2013, and NOWaccount Network Corporation (NOW®) co-founders John Hayes and Lara Hodgson were putting the final touches on the presentation deck for their annual shareholders' meeting. Along with co-founder Stacey Abrams, the pair had designed NOW's... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Finance; Entrepreneurship

TeachingInterests

Behavioral Finance (Econ 970, Spring 2015)

Second-year undergraduate course covering recent advances in the field of behavioral finance. The course begins by examining some of the most canonical pricing anomalies, such as claims to identical cashflows trading at different prices in different markets, and... View Details

26 Jul 2022
News

Fragile US supply chains take center stage as Congress works out kinks in new chips bill

Earnings Call that get Lost in Translation

Does the form in which financial information is presented have consequences for the capital markets? The authors examine the level of linguistic complexity of more than 11,000 conference call transcripts from non-US firms between 2002 and 2010.... View Details

July 2003
Case

Deutsche Borse

Focuses on how Deutsche Borse's (the German stock exchange based in Frankfurt) acquisition of a 50% stake in Clearstream International, a company specialized in clearing, settlement, and custody of securities across borders, may or may not confirm its position as the... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Financial Markets; Innovation and Invention; Germany