Publications

November 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

'Care in Every Drop': Ayala Corporation and Manila Water (A)

By: Debora L. Spar, Paul Healy, Tricia Peralta and Julia M. Comeau

Since 1834, eight generations of the Ayala family have used their conglomerate to fund nation-building projects in the Philippines, including investments in tramcars, telecommunications, hospitals, and schools. In 1997, Ayala’s subsidiary, Manila Water, took control of... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Economic Growth; Social Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Natural Resources; Crisis Management; Failure; Privatization; Social Issues; Urban Development; Adaptation; Public Opinion; Mission and Purpose; Utilities Industry; Asia; Philippines

Research Summary

Islamic Financing Practices

By: Samuel L. Hayes

Samuel L. Hayes III is examining (with faculty of Harvard University's Law School and Center for Middle Eastern Studies) Islamic banking and investment practices. Because the Koran prohibits the payment of fixed interest and guarantees on funds invested either with... View Details

November 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Praava Health: A New Model for Bangladesh

By: Michael Chu

Launched in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2018, Praava Health (‘Praava’) delivered high-quality in-clinic primary and specialist care, backed by its own high quality diagnostic laboratories, imaging and pharmacy. Praava was founder Sylvana Sinha’s response to what she saw as a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Investment Return; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; Bangladesh; Asia

04 Mar 2020
News

Female Faculty Leading the Way on International Women's Day

February 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Korea First Bank (A)

In December 1999, Newbridge Capital, an equity investment fund based in San Francisco, successfully negotiated with the Korean government to acquire a controlling interest in Korea First Bank. It was the first time a foreign financial institution acquired a Korean... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Process; Negotiation Participants; Foreign Direct Investment; Acquisition; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; San Francisco; South Korea

August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management; Technology Industry

May 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Breaking the Buck

By: Robert C. Pozen and Elizabeth Leonard

After an incredibly volatile six months since Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, Finbar McCall contemplated his options. As the investment manager of RPG Prime Reserve Fund, Inc. (RPGXX), McCall had just heard the news that the U.S. Treasury was extending the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Financial Crisis; Financial Management; Insurance; Investment Funds; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Financial Services Industry

09 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Could Clean Hydrogen Become Affordable at Scale by 2030?

Hydrogen is poised to move from the sidelines of global clean energy as the industry learns to produce it more efficiently and at lower cost, according to newly published research led by Gunther Glenk, a climate fellow with Harvard Business School's Institute for the... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Green Technology

05 Feb 2013
News

The Social Sector Needs to Take More Risk and Accept Failure

August 2005 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Partners Healthcare

By: Joshua D. Coval

Focuses on the portfolio allocation decision of a passive fund manager. Provides a setting to study portfolio theory, including mean-variance analysis, the capital market line, and the efficient frontier. View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Capital Markets; Business or Company Management; Decisions; Health Industry

December 2003 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Alusaf Hillside Project

By: Kenneth S. Corts and John R. Wells

The aluminum industry has suffered from long periods of depressed prices and profits interspersed with relatively short-lived price and profit peaks. The case investigates why this has occured, focusing on the decision Alusaf must make on whether to invest in a major... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Business Cycles; Financial Crisis; Metals and Minerals; Financial Strategy; Investment; Price; Profit; Demand and Consumers; Industry Structures

March 2018 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Cadre

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Scott Duke Kominers and David Lane

Late in 2017, CEO Ryan Williams and his team debated whether Cadre should become not only a technology-enabled investment manager, but also an online trading exchange providing high levels of liquidity for investors in commercial real estate (CRE) equity. Cadre was a... View Details

Keywords: ＂Cadre,＂; Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Digital Platforms; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Private Equity; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States

01 Mar 2014
News

Social Enterprise Initiative Marks 20th Anniversary

10 Apr 2020
News

Managing the Liquidity Crisis

2021
Working Paper

Going by the Book: Valuation Ratios and Stock Returns

By: Ki-Soon Choi, Eric So and Charles C.Y. Wang

We study the use of firms’ book-to-market ratios (B/M) in value investing and its implications for comovements in firms’ stock returns and trading volumes. We show B/M has become increasingly detached from common alternative valuation ratios over time while also... View Details

Keywords: Valuation Ratios; Book-to-market Ratios; Investment Return; Investment; Decision Making