Publications

02 Oct 2017
What Do You Think?

Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?

case a financial services company, to bail us out. The experience could have soured me on the entire notion of hedge funds. But of course hedge funds later came into vogue, prompting the growth and... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Financial Services

David A. Thomas

David Thomas is H. Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His research addresses issues related to executive development, cultural diversity in organizations, leadership and organizational change. He recently served as a... View Details

Keywords: financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services

October 2019
Case

Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship (A)

By: George Serafeim

Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their Harvard Business School MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the... View Details

August 2019
Case

The Allstate Corporation, 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In July 2019, Allstate, the United States’ number-three property and casualty (P/C) insurer, released its second-quarter earnings, which reported first-half revenues of $22.1 billion, up 11.4% year-over-year. Shareholders cheered the top-line growth, but P/C premiums... View Details

Keywords: Insurance Companies; Strategic Analysis; Strategic Change; Insurance; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Insurance Industry; North America

Web

Faculty - Creating Emerging Markets

Professor of Business Administration Research Interests : customer behavior , customer satisfaction , service management , service operations , service quality Interviews... View Details

08 Sep 2022
Book

Gen Xers and Millennials, It’s Time To Lead. Are You Ready?

will lead to an integrated life. In 2008, as the financial crash worsened, Sally Krawcheck was fired at Citibank for urging the firm to repay customers for defective investments. She stuck to her values and now leads her own online... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

06 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

What We Learned from Reading Jeff Bezos’ Patents

Jeff told her he’d found a local professor who was letting him experiment with airplane wings and friction and drag.” Flash forward to today. Amazon is not only one of the world’s most powerful and innovative companies, but one of the most secretive. View Details

Keywords: by Tricia Gregg and Boris Groysberg; Retail

25 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Fintech Borrowing

that fintechs attract a different type of loan-seeker—one with a higher propensity to overspend—which is not something easily captured in their credit reports. The rise of fintechs Fintech lending’s popularity exploded in the years following the View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services; Financial Services

September 2020
Teaching Plan

Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship

By: George Serafeim

Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the principle that addressing the... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital Firm Compensation; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurial Financing; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Leadership; Black Inventors; Inclusion; Minority-owned Businesses; Race And Ethnicity; Race Characteristics; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Diversity; Race; Gender; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry; United States

April 2007
Case

Microfinance in Bolivia: A Meeting with the President of the Republic

By: Michael Chu

Herbert Muller, chair of leading microfinance bank BancoSol, has met with Evo Morales one year after the populist leader's inauguration as president of Bolivia and proceeds to write an email to his fellow board directors. The bank is world famous for pioneering... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Race; Government Administration; Business and Government Relations; Microfinance; Poverty; Interest Rates; Banks and Banking; Financial Services Industry; Bolivia; South America

Find at Harvard

September 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Acumen Fund: Measurement in Impact Investing (A)

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

Acumen Fund is a global venture capital firm with a dual purpose: it looks for a return on its investments, and it also seeks entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty. This case examines Acumen's new projects in Kenya. The organization's investment committee and its... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Venture Capital; Investment Return; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry; Kenya

01 Dec 2023
News

Drop Everything, Read This

is transferable to life on campus and a career beyond HBS. —Kartik Varma (MBA 2002) In Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect, Will Guidara describes a mindset around customer service and... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

August 2024 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Discerene Group: Long-Term Public-Markets Investing

By: Luis M. Viceira and Brent Schwarz

This case discusses active investing based on fundamental valuations and price distortions created by market events, and whether contractual terms between investment managers and their investors can help align incentives between long-term investors and active managers.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Valuation; Financial Markets; Financial Services Industry; Connecticut

16 Jun 2021
HBS Case

Cruising in Crisis: How Carnival Is Riding Out the COVID-19 Storm

reported infections. By mid-March, Carnival, the largest cruise line in the world, suspended operations across the globe. Yet it took weeks to get its 260,000 guests and 80,000 employees who were floating at sea back to their homes in more than 130 countries. The... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Travel

Article

Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

This paper investigates the impact of self-service technology (SST) usage on customer satisfaction and retention. Specifically, we disentangle the distinct effects of satisfaction and switching costs as drivers of retention among self-service customers. Our empirical... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Customer Satisfaction; Competition; Cost; Banks and Banking; Behavior; Market Transactions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques