Publications

2016
Working Paper

Credit-Market Sentiment and the Business Cycle

By: David Lopez-Salido, Jeremy C. Stein and Egon Zakrajsek

Using U.S. data from 1929 to 2013, we show that elevated credit-market sentiment in year t – 2 is associated with a decline in economic activity in years t and t + 1. Underlying this result is the existence of predictable mean reversion in credit-market conditions.... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Credit; Macroeconomics

November 2011
Article

Social Strategies That Work

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Although most companies have collected lots of friends and followers on social platforms such as Facebook, few have succeeded in generating profits there. That's because they merely port their digital strategies into social environments by broadcasting their commercial... View Details

Keywords: Social Platforms; Social Strategies; Social and Collaborative Networks; Customers; Relationships; Business Strategy; Profit

2010
Article

Corporate Governance at the World Bank and the Dilemma of Global Governance

By: Ashwin Kaja and Eric Werker

Most major decisions at the World Bank are made by its Board of Executive Directors. While some countries enjoy the opportunity to serve on this powerful body, most countries rarely, if ever, get that chance. This gives rise to the question: does board membership lead... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Decisions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Voting; Globalized Economies and Regions

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January 2001
Background Note

Country Analysis in a "Global Village"

By: Bruce R. Scott

Substantially rewritten to establish the relevance of countries in the global context. It does so in terms of their differing economic performance in recent decades, and also by contrasting those that have "converged" toward the rich country norm (as theory would... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Economies and Regions; Macroeconomics; Trade; Business Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Industry Growth; Currency; Policy; Development Economics

Educators

As fires, floods, and droughts increasingly threaten homes, businesses, and other institutions, climate risk has become financial risk. Mortgages written on homes in exposed locations are being shed by banks and absorbed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,... View Details

Web

The General Management Program Impact

Career-changing, life-changing where passionate leaders become the change. When senior executives from all corners of the world join forces at GMP, their energy, excitement, and expectations are flying high. From attending virtual... View Details

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

that foreign firms possess an "advantage" when they invest in a foreign market, it might be expected that they would earn higher returns than their domestic competitors. 7 This seems to be the general case, but perhaps not for... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

Blog

Take Control of Your Personal Brand

emotions, attitudes, and expectations others have about you. Let's say you’re in a high-stakes situation—you're applying for a new job, seeking a raise, promoting your company to investors, or trying to engage a new client. Whether you... View Details

16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

start, the company encouraged additional voluntary departures and offered to help people find new jobs, but got few takers. Many workers were civil servants who expected job security for life. And, at the time, unemployment was also high... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 May 2013
What Do You Think?

Why Isn’t ‘Servant Leadership’ More Prevalent?

The remarkable thing was that board members and employees alike hardly noticed as he did it. It was as if it was expected in a company with self-proclaimed servant leadership. Lao-Tzu wrote about servant leadership in the fifth-century... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

12 Dec 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 12, 2017

Organizational Behavior The Energizing Nature of Work Engagement: Toward a New Need-Based Theory of Work Motivation By: Green, Paul, Eli Finkel, Grainne Fitzsimons, and Francesca Gino Abstract—We present theory suggesting that experiences at work that meet employees’... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Virtual Tours Still Worth It in Real Estate? Evidence from 75,000 Home Sales

you’re an agent or a virtual-tour creator, temper your clients’ expectations and highlight potential benefits, like their ability to reduce showings with unlikely buyers. You Might Also Like: When Glasses Land the Gig: Employers Still... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Real Estate

Research Summary

Selling your Heritage: The Challenge of Legacy Divestitures

This paper studies companies that diversify away from and later divest their historical cores, or "legacy" businesses. There are many reasons a firm might undertake this strategy, including a concentration of the legacy business in a declining... View Details

Research Summary

The Effects of Firm Size and Sales Growth Rate on Inventory Turnover Performance in the U.S. Retail Sector

We review and extend recent academic literature on the inventory turnover performance of public-listed U.S. retailers using firm-level financial data. Past research has shown that there is a large variation in the inventory turnover performance of retailers across... View Details

February 1992 (Revised March 1993)
Case

Intel Corp.--1992

By: Kenneth A. Froot

Intel Corp., the world's dominant designer and manufacturer of microprocessors (the "brains" of the personal computer), has accumulated a large amount of cash (net of debt). Furthermore, it expects to continue to accumulate cash at an unprecedented rate. Has the... View Details

Keywords: Dividends; Financial Management; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Cash; Technological Innovation; Capital Structure; Investment Return; Equity; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Semiconductor Industry; United States

Educators

Article

Managing the Unknowable: The Effectiveness of Early-stage Investor Gut Feel in Entrepreneurial Investment Decisions

By: Laura Huang and Jone L. Pearce

Using an inductive theory-development study, a field experiment, and a longitudinal field test, we examine early-stage entrepreneurial investment decision making under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Building on existing literature on decision making and risk in... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Making; Emotions; Performance Effectiveness

December 2017 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Tesla's Bid for SolarCity

By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Raaj Zutshi

In October 2016, Tesla asked its shareholders to ratify their $2.4 billion bid for SolarCity. Tesla had announced a series of large projects in the preceding months including the unveiling of the Model 3, the new Solar Roof, and pushing forward the opening of the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business and Shareholder Relations; Project Finance

Educators

August 2013
Article

The Price of Diversifiable Risk in Venture Capital and Private Equity

By: Michael Ewens, Charles Jones and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

This paper explores the private equity and venture capital (VC) markets and extends the standard principal-agent problem between the investors and venture capitalist to show how it alters the interaction between the venture capitalist and the entrepreneur. Since the... View Details

Keywords: Price; Risk and Uncertainty; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Contracts; Investment; Competition; Agency Theory; Investment Return; Forecasting and Prediction; Theory; Diversification