Publications

February 2016
Case

BancoSol and Microfinance in Bolivia

By: Rajiv Lal and Annelena Lobb

BancoSol, a microfinance bank headquartered in La Paz, Bolivia, was forced to adjust its lending strategy and business model because of a regulatory change—60% of the bank's lending portfolio would have to move to the productive sector of the Bolivian economy by 2018,... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Banks and Banking; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business Model; Strategy; South America; Bolivia

December 2008 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Amylin Pharmaceuticals: Diabetes and Beyond (A)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Rachel Gordon

Ginger Graham, CEO of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, joined the company with the expectation of taking the company's signature drug, Symlin, to market. However, unforeseen regulatory challenges have put the approval process in jeopardy. At the same time, the company has a... View Details

Keywords: Regulations; Drug Regulations; Symlin; Negotiation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Resource Allocation; Negotiation Deal; Product Development; Research and Development; Commercialization; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

2008
Working Paper

Hiring Cheerleaders: Board Appointments of 'Independent' Directors

By: Lauren Cohen, Andrea Frazzini and Christopher J. Malloy

We test the hypothesis that firms appoint independent directors who are overly sympathetic to management, while still technically independent according to regulatory definitions. We explore a subset of independent directors for whom we have detailed, micro-level data... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Managerial Roles; Prejudice and Bias

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July 2024
Article

The Home State Effect: How Subnational Governments Shape Climate Coalitions

By: Jonas Meckling and Samuel Trachtman

Organized business interests often seek to block public interest regulations. But whether firms oppose regulation depends on institutional context. We argue that, in federal systems, sub-national policies and politics can have a home state effect on firms' national... View Details

Keywords: Local Range; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations

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01 Mar 2011
News

Tax and Grow

© politicalcartoons.com/Jimmy Margulies With the U.S. economic recovery stuck in low gear and traditional monetary and fiscal policy options seemingly exhausted, now is a good time to consider more novel approaches to stimulating growth. In particular, Congress should... View Details

Keywords: Mihir A. Desai; Administration of Economic Programs; Government; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices; Management

19 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 19

demonstrate the catalytic role of committed state elites, who introduced incremental reforms over three decades. These officials operated beneath the political radar, layering small-scale initiatives on top of the mainstream school... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Oct 2016
First Look

October 11, 2016

significantly larger nominal bond risk premia and borrow less in local currency. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51720 Tort Reform and Innovation By: Galasso, Alberto, and Hong Luo Abstract—Current... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2024
Article

Tepid Uptake of Digital Health Technologies in Clinical Trials by Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Firms

By: Caroline Marra and Ariel D. Stern

Digital health technologies (DHTs) can enable more patient-centric therapeutic development by generating evidence that captures how patients feel and function, enabling decentralized trial designs that increase participant inclusivity and convenience, and collecting... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Product Development; Health Testing and Trials; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

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Article

Is It Time for Auditor Independence Yet?

By: M. H. Bazerman and D. A. Moore

Well before the collapse of Enron and Arthur Andersen, we argued that the auditing system had been corrupted by the incentives auditors face to please their clients. We stated that even honest auditors were incapable of independence within the current regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Change; Crime and Corruption; Customer Satisfaction; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Failure; Motivation and Incentives

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April 2008
Case

Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (A)

By: Paul W. Marshall, Michael Shih-ta Chen and Keith Chi-ho Wong

In late November 2000, Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., the once-monopolized telecom operator owned by the Taiwanese government, was on its way to privatization. Mr. C.K. Mao, Chairman of the company, who headed the job only three months earlier, after its prior chairman... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Employee Relationship Management; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Privatization; Competition; Telecommunications Industry; Taiwan

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05 Nov 2013
News

Start-Ups Get a Start in New Orleans

a per capita basis—and there's no indication that has stopped. What's attracted them? "It is a very easy city in which to adopt new approaches," says Wilkins. "It's a very open city in which to take a risk. That's not often the case. It's often very hard to get any... View Details

Keywords: New Orleans; Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services; Professional Services

11 Jul 2012
News

A Man, and a Plan, in Africa

MCC’s explicit selection criteria,” notes Bloom. “We’ve also seen African countries who have not yet qualified seeking advice from those who have. Most valuably, countries have made important legal, economic policy, and institutional View Details

Keywords: Administration of Economic Programs; Government

November 2024
Background Note

Nonprofit Governance: Some Basics

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

This background note discusses basics about the prevalence, purpose, and unique legal, governance and regulatory dynamics of nonprofits and their boards of directors. The note describes both similarities and differences between for-profit and non-profit governance,... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Nonprofit Organizations; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; United States

March 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Can Papaya Global Keep Scaling Fast?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

Companies that employ people all around the world also need to pay those people. That can be an exceedingly complex task, though - defining terms of employment, complying with global regulations, and working with huge quantities of data, among other obstacles,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Scaling And Growth; Job Design and Levels; Compensation and Benefits; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Global Range

June 2012 (Revised August 2012)
Case

MF Global: Where's the Money?

By: Clayton S. Rose, Pamela Chan and Raghav Chopra

When MF Global failed in October of 2011, it was discovered that $1.6 billion of segregated customer assets was missing. Safeguarding these assets was the firm's responsibility, and in the words of one SEC official, its "sacred obligation." What is known about the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Firms; Customer Obligations; Bankruptcy; Regulation; Financial Crisis; Brokerage; Asset Management; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Management; Crisis Management; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Services Industry

August 2009 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Pandora: Royalties Kill the Web Radio Star? (A)

By: Robert C. Pozen and Alex Curtis Rosenfeld

Joe Kennedy, president and CEO of Pandora, one of the largest and most popular web (Internet) radio broadcasters, had just received bad news. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) had announced its decision to increase the royalties required to be paid by the web radio... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Copyright; Laws and Statutes; Rights; Internet and the Web; Media and Broadcasting Industry

2009
Working Paper

Where Is the Pharmacy to the World? International Regulatory Variation and Pharmaceutical Industry Location

By: Arthur Daemmrich

A consumer-oriented model for drug development and use has attracted attention in recent years as an alternative to the much-maligned approach of mass-marketing blockbuster drugs. In a parallel development, patients and disease-based organizations have assumed greater... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Disorders; Health Testing and Trials; Power and Influence; Competitive Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; European Union; Germany; United States

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November 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Tyco International: Corporate Governance

By: Rakesh Khurana and James Weber

Examines how Tyco and its board recovered from its corporate scandals. Describes how its CEO and board set out to institute processes, guidelines, and a culture that would make Tyco into a company widely recognized for its world class corporate governance. View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Processes; Organizational Culture