Publications

November 1985 (Revised August 1997)
Case

Harnischfeger Corp.

By: Krishna G. Palepu

Presents an analysis of Harnischfeger's quality of earnings, and the investment potential of the company's stock in light of the company's turnaround strategy. View Details

Keywords: Financial Condition; Revenue; Stock Shares; Profit; Economic Growth; Financial Reporting; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Safety; Utilities Industry

November 2010
Case

Lessons Learned? Brooksley Born & the OTC Derivatives Market (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose and David Lane

On May 7, 1998, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, chaired by Brooksley Born, issued a "Concept Release" inviting public comment on the relevance and appropriateness of existing regulation of the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market, a market with a... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; District of Columbia

February 1990 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Carter Automotive Group

By: Walter J. Salmon

The Carter Automotive Group is a Southern California automobile dealer group. The head of the group is assessing whether his current and unique marketing strategy should be modified in light of changing competitive conditions. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Change; Competition; Auto Industry; Auto Industry; California

September 1994
Case

Otis Elevator Company: China Joint Venture (B-2)

By: Michael Y. Yoshino

Asks the students to evaluate the challenges a company faced in the summer of 1989 in the light of great political uncertainties. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Risk and Uncertainty; Business Strategy; Government and Politics; Globalization; Construction Industry; Construction Industry; China

Article

An Evaluation of Money Market Fund Reform Proposals

By: Samuel G. Hanson, David S. Scharfstein and Adi Sunderam

U.S. money market mutual funds (MMFs) are an important source of dollar funding for global financial institutions, particularly those headquartered outside the U.S. MMFs proved to be a source of considerable instability during the financial crisis of 2007–2009,... View Details

Keywords: Balance and Stability; Globalized Markets and Industries; Banks and Banking

Read Now

November 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Time Inc. and New Magazine Development

By: David J. Collis and Nancy Donohue

Looks at the magazine development at Time Inc. in light of the growing dominance of the video group and the modern management of the 1980s. Highlights the firm's magazine development during 1989. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Management; Product; Segmentation; Publishing Industry

March 2002 (Revised July 2004)
Case

Price of Light, The: Privatization, Regulation and Valuation in Brazil

Asks students to produce a valuation for Rio Light, a Brazilian power company that is state owned and to be sold in March 1996. If successful, the privatization would bring in over $2 billion to the Brazilian treasury. But success was far from assured. Members of the... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Energy Generation; Privatization; Corporate Governance; Energy Industry; Brazil

11 Dec 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 11, 2018

industries over others, including wishing to avoid sectors where there was extensive government interference. Oral history can shed light on hypersensitive topics, such as corruption, which are rarely... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

October 2021
Case

Financial Reporting at Mattel

By: Aiyesha Dey, Trung Nguyen, Marshal Herrmann and Julia Kelley

In September 2020, Diana Ferguson was nearing her first Audit Committee meeting as the newly appointed Audit Committee chair of Mattel, Inc. Mattel was just recovering from an accounting scandal which had revealed the company’s poor internal controls and weak board... View Details

June 1978 (Revised August 1987)
Background Note

Note on the Motorcycle Industry--1975

Discusses several changes in the motorcycle industry: the emergence of Japanese competitors; the growth in demand for light motorcycles; and the emergence of recreational uses; and how these changes have affected older United States and British manufacturers. View Details

Keywords: Change; Motorcycle Industry; Japan; Great Britain; United States

June 1992 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Coopers & Lybrand in Hungary (A)

Multinational professional services firm Coopers & Lybrand has decided to enter the Hungarian market and weighs its strategic options in light of the environment in which it will operate and its resources. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Market Entry and Exit; Service Industry; Hungary

22 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Is Performance-Based Pricing the Right Price for You?

Other industries as diverse as consulting, trucking, and heavy industrial services are seeing the same trend. Before explaining the benefits, drawbacks, and application of performance-based pricing, let us... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro; Manufacturing

October 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Data Breach at Equifax

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Quinn Pitcher and Jonah S. Goldberg

The case discusses the events leading up to the massive data breach at Equifax, one of the three U.S. credit reporting companies, the organizational and governance issues that contributed to the breach, and the consequences of the breach. The case supplement provides... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Information Management; Cybersecurity; Technology Industry; United States

October 1999 (Revised July 2000)
Case

MasterCard International: World Championship Soccer Sponsorship

By: David J. Arnold and David Lane

MasterCard must decide whether to renew the sponsorship of the World Cup and other soccer events in light of a 100% increase in the sponsorship fee and a strategic realignment by MasterCard. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Credit Cards; Marketing Strategy; Sports; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

January 1983 (Revised February 1988)
Case

Hospital Corp. of America (A)

By: W. Carl Kester

HCAs ratio of debt to total capital is approaching 70%, jeopardizing its single-A bond rating. Students must determine an appropriate target debt ratio for HCA in light of its growth objectives, its acquisition strategy and its changing regulatory environment. View Details

Keywords: Situation or Environment; Capital Structure; Health Care and Treatment; Borrowing and Debt; Health Industry; Tennessee

15 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

GM: What Went Wrong and What’s Next

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for General Motors? Or are those just headlights from an oncoming train? Among Harvard Business School faculty, it depends on whom you ask. The carmaker—home to such storied brands as Cadillac,... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Auto

June 2012
Article

A Reexamination of Tunneling and Business Groups: New Data and New Methods

By: Jordan I. Siegel and Prithwiraj Choudhury

One of the most rigorous methodologies in the corporate governance literature uses firms' reactions to industry shocks to characterize the quality of governance. This methodology can produce the wrong answer unless one considers the ways firms compete. Because... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Mergers And Acquisitions; Business Economics; Firm Organization; Firm Performance; Groups and Teams; Analytics and Data Science

28 Mar 2012
What Do You Think?

Are Factory Jobs Important to the Economy?

which the directors toured a newly-created "beauty park" in the US, where companies cooperating to create and manufacture new fashion beauty products are located together in one light industrial park. It is... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Manufacturing

2019
Working Paper

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 15 The IBM PC

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The IBM PC was the first digital computer platform that was open by as a matter of strategy, not necessity. The purpose of this chapter is to understand the IBM PC as a technical system and set of organization choices in light of the theory of how technology shapes... View Details

Keywords: IBM; Personal Computer; Digital Platforms; System; Strategy