Publications

April 2015 (Revised June 2016)
Case

The Transformation of NCR

By: David Collis, Raffaella Sadun and Matthew Shaffer

During his tenure as CEO since 2005, Bill Nuti had moved NCR Corporation (originally National Cash Register) from its historical competence in hardware to become a provider of hardware and software for managing transactions across a range of industries and payments... View Details

Keywords: NCR; Hardware; Software; Acquisitions; Financial Services; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Transformation; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

21 Nov 2006
First Look

First Look: November 21, 2006

Garry Twite Abstract U.S. corporations hold significant amounts of cash on their balance sheets, and these cash holdings have been justified in the existing empirical... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Pioneer Natural Resources: Enhancing the Capital Return Strategy with Variable Dividends

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Elisabeth Kempf and E. Scott Mayfield

In February 2021, Scott Sheffield, the CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources (an independent oil and gas company based in Texas), was considering the possibility of enhancing the firm’s capital return strategy by introducing a variable dividend tied to cash flows in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Cash Flow; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Return; Profit; Policy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Energy Industry; United States; North America; Texas

March 2013
Case

NovaStar Financial: A Short Seller's Battle

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Kaser

The NovaStar case describes the challenges faced by short seller Marc Cohodes of hedge fund Rocker Partners as he tried to expose what he thought was widespread fraud in mortgage lender NovaStar Financial. The case is set in the time period from 2001 to 2007 and tracks... View Details

July 1988 (Revised May 1989)
Background Note

On the Economics of a Parking Garage

By: David E. Bell

Introduces notions of cash flow, net present value, and internal rate of return by estimating the profitability of a parking garage. View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Corporate Finance; Auto Industry; Service Industry

July 1984
Case

Braniff International: The Ethics of Bankruptcy (A)

Intended to advance understanding of corporate responsibility in the context of a bankruptcy decision. The case documents the implementation of a turnaround plan for financially ailing Braniff International. This includes a new marketing and operations strategy,... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Insolvency and Bankruptcy

2024
Working Paper

Long-run Returns to Impact Investing in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies

By: Shawn Cole, Martin Melecky, Florian Mölders and Tristan Reed

We provide the first evidence on the long-run returns to private equity in emerging and frontier markets using the cash flows from every equity investment made by the International Finance Corporation across 130 countries over 58 years. Risk-adjusted returns are... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Investment; Emerging Markets; Developing Countries and Economies; Investment Return

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November 1985 (Revised April 1990)
Case

Signode Industries, Inc. (A)

Signode Industries' packaging division manufactures steel and plastic strapping. In 1981 the company underwent the largest leveraged buyout in U.S. corporate history. The case focuses on the packaging division's need to maintain high profitability in a declining market... View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Steel Industry

March 1986 (Revised July 1986)
Case

Applications for Financial Futures

Consists of a series of four brief descriptions of the use of financial futures as hedging vehicles: a savings and loan hedging the rollover of three-month money market certificates with T-bill futures, a corporate debt issuer hedging the cost of a future debt issue... View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments

April 1999 (Revised September 2001)
Case

Penelope's Personal Pocket Phones

By: Paul A. Gompers

Provides students with an opportunity to use simple real options analysis to value a startup. Penelope Phillips is deciding whether to start a company to make wireless phones. Students get experience using traditional discounted cash flow valuation and a real options... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Capital Budgeting; Corporate Finance; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry

September 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Mercury Athletic: Valuing the Opportunity

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Joel L. Heilprin

In January 2007, West Coast Fashions, Inc., a large designer and marketer of branded apparel, announced a strategic reorganization that would result in the divestiture of their wholly owned footwear subsidiary, Mercury Athletic. John Liedtke, the head of business... View Details

Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Sensitivity Analysis; Cost of Capital; Restructuring; Valuation; Cash Flow; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Finance; Apparel and Accessories Industry

April 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Mastercard Labs (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley

When Ajaypal (Ajay) Banga became the CEO of Mastercard in 2010, he shifted the company’s competitive focus from card networks to cash itself. Mastercard’s new vision of a “World Beyond Cash” distilled into a three-pronged framework: Grow the core business, Diversify... View Details

29 Aug 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Patent Trolls

Keywords: by Lauren Cohen, Umit G. Gurun & Scott Duke Kominers

September 2003
Case

Upromise 2002

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes a set of decisions confronting the senior management of a company that has established a loyalty rewards program allocating cash to tax-advantaged college savings accounts for participants. The company has recruited a new CEO and needs to raise additional... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Management Teams; Capital; Internet and the Web; Decisions

December 1993 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Kochman, Reidt + Haigh, Inc.

By: Richard S. Ruback and Roy Burstin

A small company faces the dilemma of how to finance growth (i.e., internally generated cash flows vs. outside financing sources). An innovative concept positions the company in promoting a niche within the kitchen-cabinet industry and in looking for an optimal way of... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Finance; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Utilities Industry

Research Summary

Financing Payouts

Despite the obvious interest in payout policy, no paper to date has systematically analyzed how payouts are funded, perhaps because the answer might have appeared just too obvious: payouts are funded with free cash flow — at least over long enough time periods.... View Details

Article

Are Buybacks Really Shortchanging Investment?

By: Jesse M. Fried and Charles C.Y. Wang

It’s no secret that the American economy is suffering from the twin ills of slow growth and rising income inequality. Many lay the blame at the doors of America’s largest public corporations. The charge? These firms prefer to distribute cash generated from their... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Investment; Stocks; Business and Shareholder Relations; Equality and Inequality; United States

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February 2025
Case

Blue Owl Financing of Ping Identity

By: Victoria Ivashina and Srimayi Mylavarapu

In the fall of 2022, Blue Owl Capital's investment committee evaluated a potential investment in the technology sector. The proposed transaction centered on Ping Identity Corporation (“Ping”), a fast-growing identity access management (IAM) software company that was... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Borrowing and Debt; Cash Flow; Investment; Privatization; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

June 2016
Supplement

Supply Chain Finance at Procter & Gamble Spreadsheet Supplement

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Scott Mayfield and David Lane

In April 2013, Procter & Gamble (P&G), the world’s largest consumer packaged goods (CPG) company, announced that it would extend its payment terms to suppliers by 30 days. At the same time, P&G announced a new supply chain financing (SCF) program giving suppliers the... View Details