Publications

01 Jun 2012
News

IPA Meets IPO

line, took that concept to another level. When his company went public in 1995, Koch made sure that his loyal quaffers (at $15 a share), not Wall Street insiders (at $20), got the best stock price. He attached fliers to his six-packs that... View Details

Keywords: beer; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods; Wholesale Trade

01 Mar 2008
News

Lessons from Private Equity

GADIESH: To reap private equity returns, act more like a private equity manager COURTESY OF BAIN & CO A recent Harvard Business Review article headlined “If Private Equity Sized Up Your Business” gave many leaders of public companies a... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Finance; Finance; Finance; Finance

29 Apr 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Use Personal Experience to Pick Winning Stocks

that the prices are right, because they usually are," says Harvard Business School finance professor Lauren H. Cohen, who serves as an editor of Management Science. "From there, you can look for the small corners where they are... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

01 Jun 2025
News

Agenda: Stacy Sonnenberg (MBA 2003)

SUPERFAN When Sonnenberg attends a game, she often doesn’t watch the court or field. “I’m always intrigued by stuff that the public doesn’t necessarily think about—like the width of concourses and the mix of seating types,” she says.... View Details

Keywords: Sasha Issenberg

15 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Five Questions for Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner

companies have been financed during previous downturns in the venture capital market. Entrepreneurs should not necessarily abandon all hope. Venture capitalists still have many, many billions to invest, so well crafted business plans can... View Details

Keywords: by Carol Elsen; Financial Services

01 Mar 2014
News

Ask the Expert: Taxing Questions

profits corporations report to investors and the low profits they report to tax authorities. A minimal tax on the noncorporate business sector, thereby ending the relative disadvantage facing our largest public companies. Here's an HBR... View Details

Keywords: ask the expert; Finance

01 Sep 2007
News

How to Take a Stand On UBS and Climate Change

financial services companies as it determines its stand on a matter of increasing public prominence. Oberholzer-Gee teaches the case in Strategies Beyond the Market, a second-year elective that focuses on the interplay between business... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Finance; Finance; Finance

Career Coach

Juan Leung Li

While it takes introspection, Juan believes in the meaningful differences (finding purpose!) these efforts have in career searches. While at HBS, Juan considered a diverse set of opportunities such as brand management, consulting, PE, View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Finance

April 2011 (Revised January 2024)
Case

The Greek Crisis: Tragedy or Opportunity?

By: Dante Roscini, Jonathan Schlefer and Konstantinos Dimitriou

After its 2009-2010 fiscal crisis shook the euro, could the Greek government stabilize debt, avoid default, and stay on the euro? This case looks at the Greek social and political road to fiscal crisis; the economics of that crisis and efforts to recover from it; the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Currency; Financial Condition; Central Banking; Financial Markets; International Finance; Policy; Conflict Management; Cooperation; Public Administration Industry; Greece

13 May 2014
Op-Ed

The Alibaba Effect

Alibaba is about to make history with the first genuine mega-IPO of a Chinese entrepreneur-founded company in the United States. The numbers are historic as well—an anticipated market capitalization of some $200 billion. It comes to the US rather than Hong Kong for the... View Details

Keywords: by Bill Kirby & Warren McFarlan; Retail

05 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

VCs Survey Post-Bubble Opportunities

Venture investing has picked up from the post-dot-bomb era of a few years ago—but does the comeback signal good times ahead or a mini bubble of misguided exuberance? To provoke discussion, HBS professor Bill Sahlman threw down the gauntlet at a discussion on technology... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Hanna; Financial Services

November 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

State of South Carolina, The

By: Randolph B. Cohen

This case presents the managerial dilemma faced by the treasurer of South Carolina in 1998. Until last year, the South Carolina state pension fund (with over $17 billion in assets) was barred by the state constitution from investing in equities. After the constitution... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Capital Markets; Investment Return; Public Administration Industry; South Carolina

May 1991
Supplement

Bureau of Engraving and Printing, The: Determining the True Cost of Money (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Keywords: Money; Cost; Public Administration Industry

Find at Harvard

April 2010
Article

Endowments, Fiscal Federalism, and the Cost of Capital for States: Evidence from Brazil, 1891-1930

By: Andre C. Martinez Fritscher and Aldo Musacchio

There is a large literature looking at the determinants of country risk (defined as the difference between the yield of a sovereign's bonds and the risk-free rate). In this paper, we contribute to the discussion by arguing that an important explanatory factor is the... View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Performance Capacity; Taxation; Revenue; Governance; Geographic Location; Trade; Price; Cost of Capital; Risk and Uncertainty; Public Administration Industry; Brazil

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Read Now

01 Jun 2011
News

Four-Letter Word

to a calling — what can I do to help?” Miller said. “I always wanted to go into public service,” which he did, after writing a letter to Treasury Secretary and fellow Goldman alum Henry Paulson (MBA ’70). One Treasury project Miller has... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Finance; Finance

06 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

The Trouble Behind Livedoor

panic selling caused an unprecedented early shutdown of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Horie, who denies wrongdoing, was arrested on January 23. What went wrong at Livedoor, and what are we to learn from its undoing? Robin Greenwood, an assistant professor in the View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Technology

16 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Surveying the VC Landscape

public within five to seven years of its initial financing, will be able to pursue research that will not have a payoff for fifteen, twenty, or even more years in the future. (But it's not impossible—after all, venture capital has played... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

February 1999 (Revised October 2009)
Background Note

Debt v. Equity: Definitions and Consequences

By: Henry B. Reiling and Mark Pollard

Explores the location of the somewhat imprecise line between debt and equity. Identifies the primary business contexts that give rise to problems, the alternative tax consequences attending the debt versus equity determination, and the most prominent tests used to... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Equity; Interest Rates; Taxation; Business and Government Relations; Public Administration Industry