Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,336)
- Faculty Publications (310)
- Article
What Do Private Equity Firms Say They Do?
By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov
We survey 79 private equity investors with combined assets under management (AUM) of over $750 billion about their practices in firm valuation, capital structure, governance, and value creation. Investors rely primarily on internal rate of return (IRR) and multiples to... View Details
- August 2016 (Revised July 2017)
- Background Note
Brand Portfolio Strategy and Brand Architecture
By: Jill Avery
While companies choose to brand their products and services in many different ways, there are some central tenets that help define an optimal brand portfolio and associated brand architecture. Brand portfolio strategy involves the design, deployment, and management of... View Details
- 2016
- Working Paper
Liquidity Transformation in Asset Management: Evidence from the Cash Holdings of Mutual Funds
By: Sergey Chernenko and Adi Sunderam
We study liquidity transformation in mutual funds using a novel dataset on their cash holdings. To provide investors with claims that are more liquid than the underlying assets, funds engage in substantial liquidity management. Specifically, they hold substantial... View Details
- May 2016
- Case
Revitalizing State Bank of India
By: Srikant M. Datar, N. M. Bhatta, Rishikesha T. Krishnan and Rachna Tahilyani
State Bank of India is India’s oldest and largest bank with the government of India as its majority shareholder. Arundhati Bhattacharya, a 35-year veteran of the bank, is appointed as its chairman in October 2013. Her appointment coincides with Moody’s downgrading the... View Details
Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Communication Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change And Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility And Impact; Human Resources; Employees; Compensation And Benefits; Recruiting; Capital Markets; Performance Expectations; Financial Services Industry; Asia; India
- Spring 2016
- Article
Risk Neglect in Equity Markets
By: Malcolm Baker
The link between measures of risk and return within the equity market has been very weak over the past 47 years: in the United States, returns on high-risk stocks have cumulatively fallen short of the returns on low-risk stocks, during a period when the equity market... View Details
- February 25, 2016
- Article
The Hodgepodge Principle in U.S. Privacy Policy
By: John A. Deighton
Data, says Professor Lawrence Summers, is the new oil, "a hugely valuable asset essential to economic life." Personal data, the kind of data that invites thoughts of privacy, is a big part of that. The European Union saw this economic fuel source coming long ago and... View Details
- Working Paper
Covenant-Light Contracts and Creditor Coordination
By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina
In 2015, 70% of newly issued leveraged loans had weaker enforcement features, called covenant-light or "cov-lite"; this is nearly a three-time increase in cov-lite issuance compared to a previous peak in 2007. We evaluate whether this development can be attributed to... View Details
- 2017
- Working Paper
Optimal Tilts: Combining Persistent Characteristic Portfolios
By: Malcolm Baker, Ryan Taliaferro and Terry Burnham
We examine the optimal weighting of four tilts in US equity markets from 1968 through 2014. We define a “tilt” as a characteristic-based portfolio strategy that requires relatively low annual turnover. This is a continuum, with small size, a very persistent... View Details
- January 2016 (Revised November 2019)
- Case
Blackstone at Age 30
By: Josh Lerner, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal
Since its IPO in 2007 and following the global financial crisis, Blackstone largely outpaced its alternative investment firm peers in assets under management, new business launches, profitability, and market capitalization. Under the leadership of Stephen A.... View Details
- Article
Reaching for Yield in the Bond Market
By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina
Reaching for yield—the propensity to buy riskier assets in order to achieve higher yields—is believed to be an important factor contributing to the credit cycle. This paper analyzes this phenomenon in the corporate bond market. Specifically, we show evidence for... View Details
- September 2015
- Article
Banks as Patient Fixed-Income Investors
By: Samuel G. Hanson, Andrei Shleifer, Jeremy C. Stein and Robert W. Vishny
We examine the business model of traditional commercial banks when they compete with shadow banks. While both types of intermediaries create safe "money-like" claims, they go about this in different ways. Traditional banks create money-like claims by holding illiquid... View Details
- June 2015 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
American Electric Power: Facing the Challenges of Distributed Generation
By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Hilary White
American Electric Power, like most utilities in the USA, is currently exposed to distributed generation and the problem of net-metering. Solar installations in particular have been heavily subsidized, by the state and by regulation, which does not allow grid operators... View Details
Keywords: Electricity; Utilities; Electric Power Generation; Net Metering; Distributed Generation; Disruptive Innovation; Energy Markets; Solar Power; Wind Power; Solar; Wind; Subsidies; Legislation; Regulation; Disruption; Energy; Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Information Technology; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; Utilities Industry; United States
- Article
Do Strict Capital Requirements Raise the Cost of Capital? Bank Regulation, Capital Structure and the Low Risk Anomaly
By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler
Traditional capital structure theory predicts that reducing banks' leverage reduces the risk and cost of equity but does not change the weighted average cost of capital, and thus the rates for borrowers. We confirm that the equity of better-capitalized banks has lower... View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
What Do Private Equity Firms Say They Do?
By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov
We survey 79 private equity investors with combined assets under management (AUM) of over $750 billion about their practices in firm valuation, capital structure, governance, and value creation. Investors rely primarily on internal rate of return (IRR) and multiples to... View Details
- April 2015 (Revised April 2015)
- Case
Yale University Investments Office: February 2015
By: Josh Lerner
David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, real estate—given the impact of the recent market turmoil. The case explores the risks... View Details
- January 2015 (Revised September 2017)
- Case
Omar Selim: Building a Values-Based Asset Management Firm (A)
By: George Serafeim, Rebecca Henderson and Shannon Gombos
The sustainable investing market was a recent phenomenon in the first decade of the 21st century. However, an increasing number of investors began to integrated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues in investment decisions. At Barclays Capital, Omar Selim... View Details
Keywords: Sustainability; ESG; Social Business; Entrepreneurs; Scaling; Emerging Market Entrepreneurship; Not For Profit; Entrepreneurial Finance; Mentoring; Business Networks; Hybrid Nonprofit Funding; Investing; Investment Management; Asset Management; Values and Beliefs; Religion; Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Financial Services Industry; Europe; Germany; United Kingdom
- January 2015
- Article
X-CAPM: An Extrapolative Capital Asset Pricing Model
By: Nicholas Barberis, Robin Greenwood, Lawrence Jin and Andrei Shleifer
Survey evidence suggests that many investors form beliefs about future stock market returns by extrapolating past returns. Such beliefs are hard to reconcile with existing models of the aggregate stock market. We study a consumption-based asset pricing model in which... View Details
- June 2014 (Revised January 2017)
- Case
Focus Financial Partners and the U.S. RIA Industry in 2014
By: Luis Viceira and Emily A. Chien
In the Spring of 2014, Rudy Adolf, CEO and founder of Focus Financial, and the two other co-founders of the firm are considering alternative growth strategies to solidify Focus Financial's position as a leading aggregator of independent wealth management firms in the... View Details
- June 2014
- Teaching Note
Steve Carpenter at Cake Financial
After investing $9 million of venture capital, Cake Financial had failed to reach critical mass. In early 2010 Cake's assets were sold and the company was dissolved. Founded in 2006, the San Francisco-based Internet company allowed users to monitor their investments... View Details
- May 2014 (Revised June 2014)
- Case
Intellectual Property Strategy at North Technology Group—Sailing Downwind
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and William W. Fisher III
North Sails is the world's leading sailmaker. The company commands a global market share of more than 50% and is largely responsible for the rapid technological progress in the sailmaking industry over the past 30 years. CEO Tom Whidden needs to consider how to best... View Details