Publications

Educators

2009
Working Paper

Clusters of Entrepreneurship

By: Edward L. Glaeser, William R. Kerr and Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto

Employment growth is strongly predicted by smaller average establishment size, both across cities and across industries within cities, but there is little consensus on why this relationship exists. Traditional economic explanations emphasize factors that reduce entry... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Cost; Employment; Market Entry and Exit

March 2010
Article

Extreme Governance: An Analysis of Dual-Class Firms in the United States

By: Paul A. Gompers, Joy Ishii and Andrew Metrick

We construct a comprehensive list of dual-class firms in the United States and use this list to analyze the relationship between insider ownership and firm value. Our data have two useful features. First, since dual-class stock separates cash-flow rights from voting... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Cash Flow; Stocks; Rights; Ownership Stake; Value; United States

March 2010
Article

Interpersonal Authority in a Theory of the Firm

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper develops a theory of the firm in which a firm's centralized asset ownership and low-powered incentives give the manager, as an equilibrium outcome, interpersonal authority over employees (in a world with open disagreement). The paper thus provides... View Details

Keywords: Theory; Assets; Ownership; Motivation and Incentives; Governance Controls; Power and Influence; Projects; Perspective; Employees

December 2009
Article

Catering Through Nominal Share Prices

By: Malcolm Baker, Robin Greenwood and Jeffrey Wurgler

We propose and test a catering theory of nominal stock prices. The theory predicts that when investors place higher valuation on low-price firms, managers will maintain share prices at lower levels, and vice-versa. Using measures of time-varying catering incentives... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Stock Shares; Investment; Investment Return; Price; Theory; Valuation

2016
Working Paper

Does Firm Innovation Affect Corporate Social Responsibility?

By: Rui Shen, Yi Tang and Ying Zhang

This study examines the relationship between firm innovation and CSR. Stakeholders’ concern over transaction-specific investments exacerbates when firms engage heavily in innovation activities. To secure stakeholders’ support, firms adopt CSR effectively as an ex ante... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Firm Innovation; Transaction-specific Investments; Firm Risk; Environmental Munificence; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Innovation and Invention

January 1989 (Revised July 1991)
Case

Bank for International Development, Software Case

By: W. Carl Kester and Timothy A. Luehrman

A hypothetical case in which an assistant treasurer of a supranational bank is asked to determine in which currencies it has been cheaper ex post to borrow. An integral part of the case is a Lotus 1-2-3 worksheet containing monthly data on yen and dollar interest... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Interest Rates; International Finance; Relationships; Currency; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Analytics and Data Science; Inflation and Deflation

Educators

Program

Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation

take risks, experiment, and learn from failures Unleash the diverse talent in your organization to create "collective genius" Manage your network of relationships with colleagues, employees, and other stakeholders to break down barriers... View Details

Research Summary

Buyers, Sellers, Manufacturers in China’s Emerging Market around 1900

Ever since the economic reforms in the post-Mao period China’s economy as an emerging market has attracted much interest. However, we tend to forget that China was already an emerging market at the turn of the 19^th century, if not earlier. This... View Details

November 5, 2024
Article

The International Empirics of Management

By: Daniela Scur, Scott Ohlmacher, John Van Reenen, Morten Bennedsen, Nick Bloom, Ali Choudhary, Lucia Foster, Jesse Groenewegen, Arti Grover, Sjoerd Hardeman, Leonardo Iacovone, Ryo Kambayashi, Marie-Christine Laible, Renata Lemos, Hongbin Li, Andrea Linarello, Mika Maliranta, Denis Medvedev, Charlotte Meng, John Miles Touya, Natalia Mandirola, Roope Ohlsbom, Atsushi Ohyama, Megha Patnaik, Mariana Pereira-López, Raffaella Sadun, Tatsuro Senga, Franklin Qian and Florian Zimmermann

A country’s national income broadly depends on the quantity and quality of workers and capital. But how well these factors are managed within and between firms may be a key determinant of a country’s productivity and its GDP. Although social scientists have long... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Economy; Management Practices and Processes

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Article

Real Effects of Relational Contracts

By: Steven Blader, Claudine Gartenberg, Rebecca Henderson and Andrea Pratt

How important are factors such as "firm culture" and "employee engagement" in driving firm performance? Increasing evidence from a wide range of fields suggests that productivity differs widely across firms, even after the inclusion of careful controls for factors such... View Details

December 2005 (Revised December 2008)
Case

SchoolNet: Pursuing Opportunity beyond Federal Mandates

Settling into his seat on the train bound for New York, CEO Jonathan Harber reflected on the evolution of SchoolNet's position in the educational technology market and its important relationship with Philadelphia. Specifically, how could it transition from a project to... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Education; Performance Improvement; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Technology Adoption; Philadelphia

11 Jun 2024
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2024

As the vacation season looms, Harvard Business School faculty members share recommendations for a little light reading. Spoiler alert: Lessons in Chemistry tops two of their beach-read lists. For those whose brains can’t—or won’t—turn off, HBS faculty also suggest some... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

2017
Working Paper

Business and Green Knowledge Production in Sweden 1960s–1980s

By: Ann-Kristin Bergquist and Kristina Söderholm

This working paper contributes to the burgeoning historical literature that has transformed our understanding about the relationship between big business and the environmental regulation. Previously, it was believed that corporate managers resisted the extra costs... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Research and Development; History; Sweden

SSRN

Program

Disruptive Innovation

accomplished executives from various backgrounds, industries, and countries across the globe Build relationships with a diverse group of peers who can provide wide-ranging insights into your business challenges and career decisions Who... View Details

June 2016
Case

Augustine Heard & Co.: Building a Family Business in the China Trade (A)

By: William C. Kirby, Joycelyn W. Eby and John S. Ji

Augustine Heard Sr. founded Augustine Heard & Company, a commission house focused on trade between China and the United States, in 1840. He welcomed his four nephews into the family business as it expanded in the increasingly complex economic and political environment... View Details

Keywords: Exports; China; Commissions; Family Business; Family and Family Relationships; China; Boston

Educators

March 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Supplement

OneTen at Delta Air Lines: Catalyzing Family-Sustaining Careers for Black Talent (C)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

In February 2023, Delta Air Lines (Delta) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ed Bastian, celebrated the airline’s OneTen partnership in a room full of Atlanta’s prominent business leaders, educators, and public servants in Atlanta, at a OneTen/Delta Launch Event. To support... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business and Community Relations; Race; Leading Change; Air Transportation Industry; United States; Atlanta