Publications

22 Dec 2016
Op-Ed

The Small Business Administration is a Model for How to Drive Economic Growth

A recent Washington Post editorial suggested that the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is, in many ways, a remnant of days gone by. The arguments implied that small businesses that make up our nation’s “Main Street” sector are not particularly... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills

March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Background Note

Activity-Based Costing and Capacity

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Discusses the use of budgeted rather than historical data in an activity-based costing (ABC) model and argues for calculating rates using practical capacity, not actual utilization. An ABC model need not be limited to analysis of historical data. When cost driver rates... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Accounting Industry

07 Jan 2009
What Do You Think?

Is the World Really Flat?

Summing Up In supporting innovation, does it matter how flat the world really is? "The world is oval!" (Hujaj Ali Nawazkhan). "[T]he world is flatly circular" (Santhanam Krishnan). "[T]he flattening process, while occurring, is highly uneven in... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

August 1993
Background Note

Executing Change: Seven Key Considerations

By: Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana

Provides a 7S framework to complement the McKinsey 7S framework. Focuses on some of the critical choices that must be made in implementing change--Strategic Intent, Substance, Scale, Scope, Speed, Sequence, and Style. Overall, the note argues that these choices must be... View Details

Keywords: Change; Framework; Goals and Objectives; Management Style; Time Management; Strategy

Research Summary

Secrets of Succession (Financial Times, December 6, 2002, with Nicholas Carr)

By: Rakesh Khurana

Boards often choose a new chief executive in response to outside pressures, skewed perceptions and simple convenience. In this extended essay, we argue for a return to objectivity and rigour in the selection process. View Details

24 Jul 2018
Op-Ed

4 Ways Managers Can Exercise Their 'Agency' to Change the World

PeopleImages New business school graduates have now made their way from campus to workplace. For them, this should be a time of optimism and energy, of setting ambitious goals and testing new ideas. At Harvard Business School, where I teach, many of these passions and... View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

2024
Working Paper

How Real Is Hypothetical?: A High-Stakes Test of the Allais Paradox

By: Uri Gneezy, Yoram Halevy, Brian Hall, Theo Offerman and Jeroen van de Ven

Researchers in behavioral and experimental economics often argue that only incentive-compatible mechanisms can elicit effort and truthful responses from participants. Others argue that participants make less-biased decisions when the stakes are sufficiently high.... View Details

Keywords: Research; Behavioral Finance; Economics; Behavior; Prejudice and Bias

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29 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Work 3.0: Redefining Jobs and Companies in the Uber Age

Are Uber drivers and HourlyNerd consultants independent contractors or employees? Interesting question, but the wrong one. Better to ask: Are we stifling innovation across the digital economy by forcing a simplistic choice, contractor vs. employee? The short answer is... View Details

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Transportation; Web Services

April 2001 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Risk Management at Apache

After initiating a hedging strategy, Apache Corp. is interested in revisiting its decision to determine if hedging is value-adding. This case investigates how the company initially decided to hedge against commodity price risk and how it implemented its hedging... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Investment; Corporate Finance

December 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle

By: Ashish Nanda

Discusses the role of professionals in the Enron debacle. Argues that professionals failed to prevent or predict Enron's collapse because of the conflicts of interest they faced. Concludes with observations on management and regulation of conflicts of interest facing... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Trust; Management Teams; Energy Industry

31 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Taking the Fear out of Diversity Policies

sexual orientation are based on studies that focus on the scourge of discrimination—rather than on the benefits of a diverse workforce, she says. In a new working paper, A Positive Approach to Studying Diversity in Organizations, Ramarajan and fellow HBS professor... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

September 2019
Article

The Dollar, Bank Leverage and Deviations from Covered Interest Parity

By: Stefan Advjiev, Wenxin Du, Catherine Koch and Hyun Song Shin

We document a triangular relationship in that a stronger dollar goes hand in hand with larger deviations from covered interest parity (CIP) and contractions of cross-border bank lending in dollars. We argue that underpinning the triangle is the role of the dollar as a... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Currency; Financial Markets; Banks and Banking

Find at Harvard

2011
Chapter

Toward a Three-Tier Market for U.S. Home Mortgages

By: Robert C. Pozen

This chapter analyzes the various forms of federal programs to support home mortgages–both government-insured mortgages and privately issued mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It argues that there will be a third tier of home mortgages created by the... View Details

Keywords: Law; Mortgages

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January 1999
Background Note

The Professional Pledge and Conflict of Interest

By: Ashish Nanda

It is argued that professionals pledge fiduciary responsibility towards their clients to minimize the occurrence of conflicts of interest, which are socially inefficient. Professional associations are formed to ensure that in their practices, professionals live by... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Ethics; Organizations

2016
Other Teaching and Training Material

Organizational Behavior Reading: Decision Making

By: Francesca Gino, Max Bazerman and Katherine Shonk

This Reading argues that decision making is systematically flawed and introduces methods to improve decision-making effectiveness. The Essential Reading section covers the rational decision-making model and three important ideas that challenge it: Herbert Simon's... View Details

Keywords: Game Theory; Decision Making