Publications

SSRN

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01 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Retail Execs Underplay Current Performance to Investors--but Why?

Business School finance professor Kenneth A. Froot in the April working paper What Do Measures of Real-Time Corporate Sales Tell Us about Earnings Surprises and Post-Announcement Returns? “It’s startling to find that managers are not even... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services

21 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

The Geography of Corporate Giving

Why companies support nonprofits and other socially responsible activities is an intriguing question for both academics and practitioners. After all, there is no clear-cut evidence that corporate "do-gooding" results in greater... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

12 Jan 2004
Research & Ideas

Does Your HQ Operation Fit With Corporate Strategy?

Structure and Performance of Corporate Headquarters." Among their findings: Contrary to popular belief, European HQs were smaller than American HQs. And the much-touted "lean and mean" ideal... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Editorial

Companies Must Include Environmental and Social Performance Measures

By: George Serafeim

Keywords: Sustainability; Impact; ESG; Transparency; Accounting

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June 2025
Article

Gender Diversity Performance and Voluntary Disclosure: Mind the (Gender Pay) Gap

By: June Huang and Shirley Lu

We study whether voluntary gender diversity disclosure is predictive of gender diversity performance. Exploiting a mandate in the United Kingdom that requires firms to disclose 2017 gender pay gap ("GPG") data for the first time, we find that providing voluntary gender... View Details

Keywords: Pay Gap; Diversity; Gender; Wages; Reputation; Corporate Disclosure; United Kingdom

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March 1995 (Revised March 2001)
Case

The Black & Decker Corporation (A): Power Tools Division

By: Robert J. Dolan

Presents Black & Decker's performance against a Japanese competitor and others in the power tools market. Black & Decker is anxious to regain its market share leadership in particular segments of the market. View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Competition; Globalization; Construction Industry; Consumer Products Industry

30 Jul 2001
What Do You Think?

What’s the Future of Corporate Governance?

could adversely affect non-financial indicators used as inputs for corporate governance. Vaddi provides a list of questions that need to be answered if a "public" balanced scorecard of non-financial information is to be created.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

February 2006 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Kevin McCarthy and Westlake Chemical Corporation (A)

Examines forecasting earnings/performance for a commodity chemical firm during a period of high uncertainty, highlighting the combined effects of input process (natural gas), industry capacity/utilization, and cyclicality. Assuming the role of Kevin McCarthy (the top... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Futures and Commodity Futures; Forecasting and Prediction; Chemicals; Chemical Industry

October 2011 (Revised January 2012)
Case

PepsiCo, Performance with Purpose, Achieving the Right Global Balance

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Rakesh Khurana, Rajiv Lal and Eric Baldwin

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Strategic Planning; Food and Beverage Industry

October 1994
Case

Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation (Abridged)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Describes a decision facing Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corp. in June 1985: whether to continue to compete in the silicon steel business in the face of stiff competition from imports. Includes a complete description of the company's productivity improvement systems and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Strategy; Performance Improvement; Management Systems; Technology; Steel Industry

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22 May 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Testing Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24

Keywords: by Dennis Campbell, Srikant M. Datar, Susan L. Kulp & V.G. Narayanan; Food & Beverage

2006
Working Paper

On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture)

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper shows why members of an organization often share similar beliefs. I argue that there are two mechanisms. First, when performance depends on making correct decisions, people prefer to work with others who share their beliefs and assumptions, since such... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Employees; Values and Beliefs; Mathematical Methods

SSRN

06 Jan 2012
Op-Ed

Where Green Corporate Ratings Fail

News Corporation—a multinational media conglomerate that includes BSKYB, Dow Jones, Fox News, 20th Century Fox and Star, among other units—announced earlier this year that it has become climate neutral, meaning that its operations have no net impact on global climate... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Toffel & Auden Schendler; Information; Publishing

05 Jul 2006
Op-Ed

Corporate Governance Activists are Headed in the Wrong Direction

Activist corporate governance reformers are spending too much time—and capturing too much of the media's attention—on fringe issues. One current initiative, for example, focuses on promoting "majority voting" for directors, a... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Hinsey

August 2000
Article

Corporate Reorganizations and Non-Cash Auctions

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and S. Viswanathan

This paper extends the theory of non-cash auctions by considering the revenue and efficiency of using different securities. Research on bankruptcy and privatization suggests using non-cash auctions to increase cash-constrained bidder participation. We examine this... View Details

Keywords: Auctions; Revenue; Debt Securities; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Privatization; Capital Structure; Bids and Bidding; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Efficiency; Contracts

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May 2024 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Hakluyt: From Corporate Intelligence to Trusted Advisors

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Lena Duchene

Established in 1995 by a group of ex-British intelligence officers, Hakluyt & Company (Hakluyt) was a corporate advisory firm that generated insights by leveraging a unique blend of internal expertise and a global network of well-connected individuals. Since 2019, the... View Details

04 Nov 2002
What Do You Think?

What’s Best for the Corporate Brain?

Summing Up Those offering insights into ways to make the corporate brain function more effectively suggest that the corporate brain may be as complex as its biological counterpart. Respondents alternatively... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Winter 2013
Article

Corporate Governance Reform and Executive Incentives: Implications for Investments and Risk-Taking

By: Daniel Cohen, Aiyesha Dey and Thomas Lys

We investigate the mechanism through which the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) was associated with changes in corporate investment strategies. We document that the passage of the governance regulations in SOX was followed by a significant decline in pay‐performance... View Details

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June 2005 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Corey Robinson at Sprint Corporation (A)

By: Linda A. Hill, Anthony Mayo and Lisa Pode

Corey Robinson is promoted to a new position at Sprint during a time of much internal change within the company. Asks readers to consider how he sets the tone to his new management team and how effective he is in building credibility in his new leadership role. A... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Management Skills; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Effectiveness; Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Telecommunications Industry