Publications

29 Jan 2015
Op-Ed

The Fall of Greece

Professor of Business Administration and a native of Greece, offers his insights into what the election means for the country. Many people ask me what the recent elections in Greece mean for the Greek... View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

Summer 2019
Article

The Political Influence of Voters' Interests on SEC Enforcement

By: Jonas Heese

I examine whether political influence as a response to voters’ interest in employment levels is reflected in the enforcement actions of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I find that large employers are less likely to experience SEC enforcement actions.... View Details

Keywords: SEC Enforcement; Government Preferences; Voters' Interests; Political Influence; Employment; Public Opinion; Government Administration; Governance Compliance; Political Elections

SSRN

April 2006
Background Note

Legal Aspects of Management: Anticipating and Managing Risk

Describes the sixth and final module of the Harvard Business School MBA second-year elective course Legal Aspects of Management. This module deals with the way firms should approach business risks in order to avoid legal liability and how firms can use contracts to... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Contracts; Legal Liability

October 2000 (Revised April 2003)
Background Note

Project Finance Research, Data, and Information Sources

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Fuaad Qureshi

Documents the major sources of project finance research and data. It is to be a reference guide for MBA students writing for the elective curriculum course, Large-scale Investment, and for others interested in the field of project finance. View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Project Finance; Research; Investment

October 1989 (Revised November 2006)
Background Note

Managing Selling and the Salesperson

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Written for a module in the Marketing Implementation course (a second-year elective in the MBA program). Provides a brief introduction to common issues involved in recruiting, training, compensating, and evaluating field salespeople. Also offers questions to consider... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management

Spring 2018
Article

Henry Kissinger and Robert Mugabe: The Forgotten Connection via Remarkably Creative Negotiation

By: James K. Sebenius

When Robert Mugabe was forced out of office in late 2017 after 37 years of increasingly brutal rule in Zimbabwe, he had been in the job so long that few recall how he got there. Fewer still remember that it was Henry Kissinger, whose complex, if unlikely, negotiations... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; History; Negotiation Style; Outcome or Result; Zimbabwe

Read Now

June 1995
Case

Northern Telecom and Netas (A): Turkey's Telecommunications Team

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Kalman D. Applbaum and Pamela A. Yatsko

The Turkish general manager of a successful telecommunications equipment-manufacturing joint venture between the Canadian company Northern Telecom and local partners in Turkey reviews the solutions to a crisis in 1989 and wonders whether the company will be able to... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Crisis Management; Problems and Challenges; Change Management; Developing Countries and Economies; Political Elections; Telecommunications Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Turkey; Canada

April 2006 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Ghana: National Economic Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and Kjell Ke-Li Carlsson

Set in the year 2001, as President John Kufuor contemplates a national economic strategy following his election in the first democratic transfer of power in Ghana's history. Focuses on Ghana's long history of poor economic performance and intractable poverty,... View Details

Keywords: History; Economic Growth; Government Administration; Developing Countries and Economies; Growth and Development Strategy; Ghana

April 2006
Background Note

Legal Aspects of Management: Increasing and Capturing the Value of Knowledge Assets

Describes the third module of the Harvard Business School MBA second-year elective course Legal Aspects of Management. This module deals with the way in which intellectual property rights--as protected by patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets--enable firms... View Details

Keywords: Rights; Patents; Competitive Advantage; Trademarks; Copyright

Research Summary

Models of Industry Evolution

Through a series of large-scale statistical studies and case studies on specific industries, Anita M. McGahan is developing a framework for evaluating industry evolution. Her work has generated a number of statistical studies, several co-authored with Michael E.... View Details

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Malcolm P. Baker

I currently teach Finance 1 in the required curriculum. In the past, I have taught Finance 2, I have taught in the elective curriculum - Investment Strategies and Behavioral Finance - and I have taught in executive courses, including Finance for Senior Executives and... View Details

June 2001
Teaching Note

Retail Operations TN

By: Ananth Raman

Describes the teaching objectives and content of the Retail Operations Module in the Coordinating and Managing Supply Chains elective course at HBS. First describes the motivation for developing a module on retail operations in a supply chain course and then addresses... View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Operations; Supply Chain Management; Motivation and Incentives; Retail Industry

Research Summary

Managing Service Operations Course Development

By: Frances X. Frei

Managing Service Operations is an Elective Curriculum course taught at HBS. Over thirty cases and exercises have been created for the course. For a list of the cases developed for this course, please see the Publications link below. For the most recent syllabus,... View Details

Teaching Interest

Innovation in Business, Energy and the Environment

By: John D. Macomber

This MBA Elective is offered as a half credit classroom course and as a full credit classroom plus project course. Students investigate industries and interventions in a wide range of topics ranging from hydraulic fracturing to nutrition in urban school districts;... View Details

October 2003 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Globalizing Consumer Durables: Singer Sewing Machine before 1914

By: Geoffrey Jones and David Kiron

Examines the global strategy of Singer, one of the world's first multinationals, before 1914. Singer, a U.S. pioneer of the modern sewing machine, established its first foreign factory in Scotland in 1867. Investments followed in manufacturing and marketing in other... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Multinational Firms and Management; Global Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Globalization

Teaching Interest

Overview

I currently teach an Elective Course on Capitalism and the State, and recently developed a module for the Required Curriculum on the Social Purpose of the Firm. Earlier I developed Managing International Trade and Investment, and have also taught BGIE and Strategy in... View Details

April 1992 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Reconstruction of Zambia

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Examines the causes of decline--economic, social, and political--of the Zambian economy since 1974. It takes place at the time of the election of Frederick Chiluba, in October 1991. Examines the problems of economic development in Africa, and especially, of structural... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Borrowing and Debt; International Finance; Political Elections; Africa; Zambia

December 2022 (Revised May 2024)
Background Note

Brief Note on Staggered Boards

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

This background note discusses the evolution, use, and prevalence of staggered boards. By comparison with unitary boards whose members are all elected annually for one-year terms, staggered boards are divided into subsets of directors, with one subset up for election... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business History; Trends; Decision Choices and Conditions; United States