Publications

October 1995
Case

DISC (A) (Abridged)

By: Nitin Nohria and Scott A. Snook

Follows the development and implementation of fundamental organizational change in a large government bureaucracy. The case is set in the Defense Industrial Supply Center (DISC) and follows two senior leaders as they grapple with issues of fundamental change in a... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Restructuring; Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; National Security; Leadership Style

Find at Harvard

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 1999
Case

City of Charlotte (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

This case shows how two operating departments-transportation and police-translate the high-level corporate scorecard for the city into departmental balanced scorecards. The transportation department follows a highly structured approach designed to link initiatives... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Global Strategy; National Security; Balanced Scorecard; Organizational Design; Technology Adoption; Public Administration Industry; Transportation Industry

November 2008 (Revised January 2009)
Case

Arcapita - 2002

In 2002, Arcapita Bank, B.S.C., then known as First Islamic Investment Bank, or FIIB, faced a liquidity crunch. Aracapita offered Islamic-compliant private equity, real estate, and venture capital products. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack, however, Islamic... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Globalized Firms and Management; National Security; Religion; Financial Services Industry

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

24 Jun 2008
First Look

First Look: June 24, 2008

(Winner of the Barclays Global Investors Award, Best Paper in Asset Pricing, European Finance Association 2007) Abstract This paper uses social networks to identify information transfer in security markets. We focus on connections between... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

25 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Planning for Surprises

document the dysfunctional role of the airlines in weakening airline security throughout the '90s and into the twenty-first century. We also show the dysfunctional role of the lead auditing firms in keeping auditor independence from... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

31 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Why Competition May Not Improve Credit Rating Agencies

third-party opinions about the credit-worthiness of a firm or a security. Over the past decades, the financial system has come to rely more and more on such ratings. For example, many institutional investors are legally obliged to hold only View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

10 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Counting Up the Effects of Sarbanes-Oxley

Widely deemed the most important piece of security legislation since formation of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934, the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was born into a climate still reeling... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Accounting; Banking

15 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

The Right Connections

capital on their ability to secure resources. "In biotech it can take eight to ten years to develop a product and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to bring it to market," says Higgins. "Therefore, funding is... View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

December 2007 (Revised December 2021)
Case

The South Sea Company (A)

By: David A. Moss, Eugene Kintgen, Agnieszka Rafalska and Kimberly Hagan

In early 1720, the South Sea Company and the Bank of England were cometing for the right to issue new shares and to exchange those shares for government bons that were then in the hands of the public. The British government had already executed two such debt conversion... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Debt Securities; Stock Shares; Financial Strategy; Bids and Bidding; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Great Britain

21 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 21, 2015

clothes at a retailer, or checking into a flight at an airport-and in which NCR software would register the transactions, securely store and process the data, and use the transaction information to help NCR customers efficiently manage... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

The Trouble Behind Livedoor

Horie represented all that is wrong with Western-style capitalism, others saw him as the future of the country's media industry, and a man of the people. But last month, Horie was arrested on suspicion of accounting fraud and illegal View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Technology

05 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

Are Consumers the Cure for Broken Health Insurance?

of defined benefit investments not only in the boom period from 1995 through 1998 but also in the down market years of 1990, 1993, and 1994. And, fourth, consumer pressure and intensified competition forced the entire U.S. securities... View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger

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