Publications

13 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Public Companies Underinvest in the Future

short-term bias, boards of public firms must be careful with the type of incentives they set or risk that managers will behave in a way that might harm the long-term interests of the company. "It's important that boards of public... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

07 Sep 2007
What Do You Think?

Are Elite Business Schools Fostering the Deprofessionalization of Management?

large, established, highly-regarded business firms. Khurana then proceeds to outline significant events that led to the dilution and destruction of this ideal, to the replacement of "managerial capitalism" by "shareholder capitalism." At the View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Lessons from a Nasty Trade Dispute

seems likely that Brazil will work with Canada to arrive at mutually agreeable financing packages to be used by each country. HBS professors Rawi Abdelal and Laura Alfaro recently co-wrote a business case with Brett Laschinger on the... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

2011
Working Paper

CEO Bonus Plans: And How to Fix Them

By: Kevin J. Murphy and Michael C. Jensen

Almost all CEO and executive bonus plans have serious design flaws that limit their benefits dramatically. Such poorly designed executive bonus plans destroy value by providing incentives to manipulate the timing of earnings, mislead the board about organizational... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Competency and Skills; Cost of Capital; Executive Compensation; Risk Management; Performance Evaluation; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Value

SSRN

October 2018
Case

Zenefits Board of Directors (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

In early 2018, the time seemed right for Zenefits investor and director Lars Dalgaard to reflect on whether Zenefits had the right board of directors to shepherd the company through its next stages of growth. For the company whose name combined the words “benefits,”... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Business Model; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Leadership; Risk Management; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; California

September 2011 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and Mala Kaul

The Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System case presents one home healthcare organization's efforts to use telemonitoring to improve the quality of care provided to at-risk patients who were discharged from hospitals and needed home care. After two years of... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Cost vs Benefits; Risk Management; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; Technology Industry

02 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Explaining China's Crash

economists as to what the future holds. Are we headed for a “soft landing,” a correction that can be managed so that growth, albeit at a slower pace, will continue to be solid, or are we at an inflection point and we risk a more... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese; Financial Services

09 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 9

results illustrate how firms redesign their organizational structure through a set of complementary choices in response to changes in their environment. We discuss several possible interpretations of these changes. Managing Risk in the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Dec 2008
What Do You Think?

Can Housing and Credit be “Nudged” Back to Health?

"greed and corruption helped create the crisis, ... simple human frailty played a vital role." They suggest providing incentives to make financial products easier, not more difficult, to understand. This would involve, among other things, more disclosure... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

05 Dec 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, December 5, 2017

methodologies such as machine learning. We highlight the importance of distinguishing between which customers are at risk and which should be targeted—as they are not necessarily the same customers. We identify trade-offs between reactive... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 30, 2007

pre-specified limit. Mr. Sattaiah, managing director of the BASIX's bank, considers a revised insurance policy for the coming season, weighing the costs and potential risks of expanding the product against the potential benefits. Purchase... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Who Guarantees Your Workplace Is Safe for Return?

Beyond what we can do as individuals to reduce our risks of exposure, are there objective measures employers can use to validate what is effective? The answer, fortunately, is yes. Many claims will be made over the next few weeks and... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber and Joseph Allen; Real Estate

01 May 2009
What Do You Think?

Do Innovation and Entrepreneurship Have to Be Incompatible with Organization Size?

strong finance and legal teams" as sources of risk aversion. But other respondents concluded that it doesn't have to happen, and proposed antidotes to the phenomenon, starting with David Levine's... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

13 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 13, 2007

A. Desai, and C. Fritz Foley Abstract This paper examines how costly financial contracting and weak investor protection influence the cross-border operational, financing and investment decisions of firms. We develop a model in which... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

12 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

Creating Value Across Borders

Europe and Africa because property rights are more difficult to enforce there. —Walter Kuemmerle The first difference is the development of capital markets and the transparency of these markets. In countries where family-owned conglomerates are the main source of View Details

Keywords: by Staff

November 2003 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Weetman Pearson and the Mexican Oil Industry (A)

By: Geoffrey Jones and Lisa Bud-Freirman

Taught in the MBA Evolution of Global Business course, a business history course on the growth of multinationals. Explores the role of the British entrepreneur Weetman Pearson in developing the Mexican oil industry before 1914. Shows this entrepreneur's evolution from... View Details

Keywords: History; Risk and Uncertainty; Non-Renewable Energy; Growth Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Developing Countries and Economies; Energy Industry; Mexico

Article

Spanning the Institutional Abyss: The Intergovernmental Network and the Governance of Foreign Direct Investment

By: Juan Alcacer and Paul Ingram

Global economic transactions such as foreign direct investment must extend over an institutional abyss between the jurisdiction, and therefore protection, of the states involved. Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), whose members are states, represent an important... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Market Transactions; Foreign Direct Investment; Government and Politics; Risk and Uncertainty; Networks; Culture; Complexity; Public Administration Industry