Risk Allocation - Publications - Faculty & Research

15 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 15

failed to address important measurement and valuation issues that have arisen in the past 40 years of practice. This gap is illustrated with missed opportunities in risk measurement and management and the estimation of the fair value of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Mastering Strategy Execution

By: Robert Simons

Professor Robert Simons’ research encompasses three areas of management accountability that are the foundation for successful strategy execution: organization design, performance measurement and control, and risk management. In addition, Simons is interested in the... View Details

16 Feb 2023
HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services

14 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 14

because external capital markets became more costly, but also because the efficiency of internal capital allocation increased significantly during the crisis. Our analysis provides new evidence on how the diversification discount and its... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 May 2017
What Do You Think?

Should Management Be Primarily Responsible to Shareholders?

it) creates undue risk of moral hazard, simply because boards and senior management are often significant shareholders. If it is true that the average tenure of a CEO today is 3 years, how could any sane CEO not seek to maximize share... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

October 2024
Teaching Plan

Teamworks: Tackling a Forecasting Fumble

By: Lou Shipley and Stacy Straaberg

In late March 2018, Teamworks CEO Zach Maurides learned Q1 2018 sales were at risk for a large forecasting miss. Founded in 2004, Teamworks’s software application assisted support staff in messaging, scheduling, and sharing documents with collegiate and professional... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Communication Strategy; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Cycles; Technological Innovation; Sports; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Marketing; Sales; Business Strategy; Expansion; Sports Industry; Technology Industry; United States; North Carolina

Citation

12 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Using the Law to Strategic Advantage

Constance Bagley: Yes, I'd be happy to. The law offers a variety of tools managers can use to manage the firm more effectively. They range from contracts, which can be used to strengthen business relationships, allocate View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Legal Services

09 Nov 2022
In Practice

COP27: What Can Business Leaders Do to Fight Climate Change Now?

The US government’s newly passed Inflation Reduction Act will direct $370 billion toward advancing renewal energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions—the country's largest investment in fighting climate change so far. As business and government leaders around the... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Danielle Kost

05 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

How Anchor Investors Help Impact Funds Succeed

investments. "Funds with anchors are, on average, $9 million larger than those without anchors at last close." The initial anchor investment can serve as a quality indicator to other investors, including those that are more risk... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

18 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

How Eliminating Non-Competes Could Reshape Tech

are often more expensive than just making individual job offers to everyone at the startup, but they take care of the issue of outstanding non-competes. Fewer acqui-hires may increase risk for early-stage venture capital firms, who rely... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

26 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 26

April 2002, started providing its branch managers with customer lifetime value (CLV) information about mortgage applicants. The data allow us to gauge the effects of enriching the information set of these employees in an environment where incentives and the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 1

Abstract We study the relationship between different margins of information technology (IT) use and vertical integration using plant-level data from the U.S. Census of Manufactures. Focusing on the short-run decision of whether to View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

04 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Are the Big Four Audit Firms Too Big to Fail?

the risks of failure. Adding to this concern is that even as the number of mega audit firms has contracted from eight in the 1980s to four today, their combined market share remains formidable, especially in the United States. The... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Accounting

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Problem with Hedge Funds

claims to have but really doesn't—any more than the mutual funds had expertise in picking dot-com stocks. The banks argue that they have expertise allowing them to pick the better hedge funds in which to invest. And they provide statistical models that supposedly View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

products, but they became worldwide brands because of the capabilities of Unilever. Their success rested on the choices made on strategy and organization, on the recruitment and development of managers, on the allocation of spending... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

28 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 28, 2015

management literature. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=47633 Concentrated Capital Losses and the Pricing of Corporate Credit Risk By: Siriwardane, Emil N. Abstract—Using proprietary credit default... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

31 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

American Idle: Workers Spend Too Much Time Waiting for Something to Do

example, at a call center in which the number of calls fluctuates. In other cases, however, managers may allocate work poorly, leaving employees with nothing to do, or equipment could malfunction or break down, leaving workers unable to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

08 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 8

develop a methodology to collect and analyze data on CEOs' time use. The idea—sketched out in a simple theoretical set-up—is that CEO time is a scarce resource and its allocation can help us identify the firm's priorities as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2024
Case

Teamworks: Tackling a Forecasting Fumble (A)

By: N. Louis Shipley and Stacy Straaberg

In late March 2018, Teamworks CEO Zach Maurides learned Q1 2018 sales were at risk for a large forecasting miss. Founded in 2004, Teamworks’s software application assisted support staff in messaging, scheduling, and sharing documents with collegiate and professional... View Details