Publications

2016
Working Paper

Diversified Business Groups in the West: History and Theory

By: Asli M. Colpan and Takashi Hikino

This working paper examines the historical origins, evolutionary paths, and long-term resilience of diversified business groups in contemporary developed economies of Western Europe, North America, and Oceania. It aims to come up with a new theoretical understanding of... View Details

Keywords: History; Diversification; Business Divisions; Theory; Oceania; North America; Europe

SSRN

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19 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 19

making complex decisions. Under some circumstances, unconscious thought improves decisions even more than conscious thought. Executive functioning depends on energy provided by glucose, and we know from previous research that the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Nov 2016
News

How Focusing on Content Leads the Media Astray

November 2017
Supplement

Merging American Airlines and US Airways (B)

By: David G. Fubini, David A. Garvin and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Exhibit to Merging American Airlines and US Airways (A) case. In February 2013, US Airways announced that it would merge with American Airlines to create the world’s largest airline. Doug Parker, the CEO of US Airways, would become CEO of the new American Airlines... View Details

Keywords: Airlines; Merger; Takeover; Integration Strategy; Merger Integration; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Governance; Management Teams; Operations; Organizational Culture; Air Transportation Industry; United States

Web

The Five Forces - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Strategy Strategy Strategy Explained Business Strategy Creating a Successful Strategy Corporate Strategy The Role of Leaders Related Topics Business Strategy Business Strategy The Five Forces View Details

The Contract Year Phenomenon in the Corner Office: An Analysis of Firm Behavior During CEO Contract Renewals

This paper investigates how executive employment contracts influence corporate financial policies during the final year of the contract term, using a new, hand-collected data set of CEO employment agreements. On the one hand, the impending... View Details

September–October 2020
Article

A New Model for Ethical Leadership

By: Max Bazerman

Rather than try to follow a set of simple rules (“Don’t lie.” “Don’t cheat.”), leaders and managers seeking to be more ethical should focus on creating the most value for society. This utilitarian view, Bazerman argues, blends philosophical thought with business school... View Details

Keywords: Social Value; Leadership; Moral Sensibility; Ethics; Decision Making; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Society

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January 1985
Case

Business Research Corp. (A)

By: William A. Sahlman

Contains a description of a decision confronting an entrepreneur: which of two investment proposals should he accept to fund the creation and marketing of a database that comprises the full text of research reports produced by Wall Street investment banking firms? The... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Cost vs Benefits; Valuation; Investment Banking; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Deal; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Service Industry

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11 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

Marissa Mayer Should Bridge Distance Gap with Remote Workers

Marissa Mayer's decision to ask Yahoo! employees to work from offices rather than at home has at least two potentially negative consequences, one for her and one for her employees. But she can mitigate both by linking personal and... View Details

Keywords: by Lakshmi Ramarajan; Publishing; Web Services

Anthony Mayo

Tony Mayo is the Thomas S. Murphy Senior Lecturer of Business Administration and C. Roland Christensen Distinguished Management Educator in the Organizational Behavior Unit of Harvard Business School (HBS). He currently teaches and serves as the course head for... View Details

Keywords: advertising; airline; education industry; nonprofit industry; publishing industry; service industry

Elon Kohlberg

Elon Kohlberg is the Royal Little Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. His research is mainly in Game Theory, in particular the study of non-cooperative equilibrium.

Professor Kohlberg has taught many courses in the MBA,... View Details

Keywords: asset management; education industry; energy; pharmaceuticals; real estate

25 Jul 2019
Blog Post

Advancing a More Sustainable World with an MBA/MPA-ID

change was a reality we lived with every day – experienced in wildly fluctuating rains that flooded my house, turbulent storms that eroded roads, and increases in sea levels that caused thousands of Maldivians to migrate to my city. This reality drove my View Details

December 2004 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Cutlass Capital, L.P.

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Brian DeLacey

David Hetz and Jon Osgood are forming a new venture capital fund in 2001 to invest in health care start-ups. Describes their fundraising activities at a time when venture capital investing has reached an all-time high. Although their background skills and experiences... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Negotiation Process; Entrepreneurship; Investment Funds; Health Care and Treatment; Business Startups; Health Industry; United States

July 2021
Case

'Why I Blew the Whistle': Mauro Botta v. PwC

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and Sarah Mehta

Set in April 2021, this case tells the story of Mauro Botta, a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In 2016, Botta filed a whistleblower claim with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that PwC had failed to fulfill its obligations to remain... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Ethics; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Governance; Corporate Governance; Accounting Industry; United States; California; San Jose

TeachingInterests

Management of Technology: Strategies for the Digital Economy

Companies make decisions daily to compete in the digital age; some are laying strategic building blocks for the future while others are toiling away on tactical distractions or leading their organizations headlong down the path to obsolescence. The advent of digital... View Details

Generating Higher Value at IBM

This case analyzes IBM's financial performance and its capital allocation decisions over a 10-year period from 2004-2013, during which IBM returned more than $140B to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases. During this time, CEO Sam... View Details

21 Sep 2015
News

Toe to toe

June 2017
Teaching Note

The De Beers Group: Exploring the Diamond Reselling Opportunity

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Daniel P. Gross and Lauren G. Pickle

In September 2014, Tom Montgomery (SVP of strategic initiatives at the De Beers Group) and his team launched a pilot program in the United States to explore $1 billion diamond market for pre-owned (recycled) diamonds. According to Montgomery, the motivation for the... View Details

June 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Utah Symphony and Utah Opera: A Merger Proposal

By: Thomas J. DeLong and David L. Ager

Anne Ewers, general director of Utah Opera, is awaiting the decision of the members of the board of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera about whether to merge Utah's top two arts organizations. If the vote favors the merger, Ewers will be asked to assume the helm of the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Human Resources; Management; Fine Arts Industry; Music Industry; Utah