Publications

04 Mar 2015
What Do You Think?

Can a Laissez-Faire Approach Fix Labor Market Inequality?

Summing Up When Is It In An Employer's Self-Interest to Voluntarily Raise All Wages? A laissez-faire approach to fixing labor market inequality has widespread appeal, judging by responses to this month's... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

17 Jun 2016
Op-Ed

Companies Need to Start Marketing Security to Customers

Recent events in Orlando underscore an important marketing truth: consumer safety and security are mission critical. A popular nightclub, Pulse, known as a safe place for the LGBT community, is put out of... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Entertainment & Recreation

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

It Came in the First Ships: Capitalism in America

"Capitalism came in the first ships." —Carl N. Degler, Out of Our Past No nation has been more market-oriented in its origins and subsequent history than the United View Details

Keywords: by Thomas K. McCraw

06 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

What the World Could Learn from America's Immigration Backlash—100 Years Ago

individuals displaced by natural disasters could surge to 1.2 billion by 2050, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace. Beyond the United States and France, the world witnessed the United... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Tabellini

November 2019 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Russia: A Drama In Three Acts

By: Rawi Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella, Galit Goldstein and Sogomon Tarontsi

The collapse of central authority in the Soviet Union in 1991 ushered in a period of revolutionary transformations for the states that emerged in its wake. The leaders of Russia, the USSR's successor, struggled to reestablish central authority while also seeking to... View Details

January 2002 (Revised September 2002)
Case

Corporate Renewal in America

By: Bruce R. Scott and Thomas S. Mondschean

Discusses various macroeconomic, regulatory, technological, and financial forces that led to increased corporate restructuring in the United States beginning in the mid-1980s. The U.S. financial system is often viewed as the most developed in the world and a model for... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Corporate Governance; Macroeconomics; Economic Systems; Restructuring; Markets; Private Sector; Corporate Finance; Germany; Japan; United States

01 Aug 2018
What Do You Think?

Are Free Trade and Free Markets Quaint Ideas From the Past?

organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization, has increasingly influenced the functioning of nation states to the detriment of labor and society. He argues for a kind of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 2012 (Revised October 2012)
Teaching Note

TripAdvisor (TN)

By: Sunil Gupta

By 2010, TripAdvisor (TA) was the largest travel site in the world operating in 24 countries and 16 languages, with listings for 455,000 hotels, 92,000 attractions and 564,000 restaurants in over 71,000 destinations worldwide. It had over 40 million reviews from 35... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Digital Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; China; United States

October 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Century Bank: Closing Time?

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Bill Kwon

Barry Sloane, second-generation Chairman, President, and CEO of his family’s bank, Century Bank, weighed whether to sell to Eastern Bank. As a small regional bank, Century faced a number of challenging trends, such as digitization and market share decline in the coming... View Details

21 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Is a Gap in Small-Business Credit Holding Back the American Economy?

(Editor's note: This first in a series of articles based on a Harvard Business School working paper by Karen Mills that analyzes the current state of availability of bank capital for View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Manufacturing

February 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Mohamed Azab and Seha Capital

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Sarah McAra

In January 2011, Mohamed Azab, founder and CEO of health care investment firm Seha Capital, made his first health care investment in Hassab Labs, a diagnostic lab in Alexandria, Egypt. Weeks later, a revolution erupted across the country as the Arab Spring swept... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health; Pan-Africa; Health Care Investment; Financing; Developing World; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Investment; Financing and Loans; Developing Countries and Economies; Egypt; Africa

12 Jun 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: Lawrence Summers on Market Capitalism’s Historic Opportunity

University Professor, Harvard University In this keynote address, former Harvard president Lawrence Summers shared his view of the challenges facing America at a time of financial and economic turmoil, and the opportunities they present.... View Details

21 Feb 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Do Legal Origins Have Persistent Effects Over Time? A Look at Law and Finance around the World c. 1900

Keywords: by Aldo Musacchio; Legal Services

28 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Investor Lawsuits Against Auditors Are Falling, and That's Bad News for Capital Markets

reporting fraud that professional standards are not infallible. You still need this external accountability mechanism. Lagace: What do your findings mean for the health of US capital markets? Srinivasan: Companies from around the world... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services; Accounting

25 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

MNCs in Asia: Investing in the Future

shareholders in both state and private enterprises." No Single Asian Market Mark Newman, vice president and CFO for GM Shanghai, the largest Sino-U.S. joint venture,... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

December 2006
Case

Southern Company's Investment in CEMIG

In the spring of 1997, Southern Company had the opportunity to acquire a significant portion of the electric utility in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The shares in the utility, CEMIG, were being sold by the state government as part of a comprehensive... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Privatization; Investment; Acquisition; Globalized Markets and Industries; Utilities Industry; Brazil

Find at Harvard

June 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Background Note

Digital Commerce and Delivery: Preparing Food and Retail Value Chains for a 50-50 World

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor, Paige Boehmcke and Will Ensor

Increasing digitalization of grocery retail and quick commerce reveals insights about managing complex supply chains at scale and shifting revenue streams from product sales to data monetization. How are the roles of retailers changing? What happens if marginal cost... View Details

Keywords: Grocery Delivery; Grocery; Digitalization; Fulfillment; Delivery; Supply Chain; Disruption; Food; Supply Chain Management; Market Design; Trends; Value Creation; Goods and Commodities; Customer Value and Value Chain; Digital Transformation; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; China

25 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

To Pay or Not to Pay: Argentina and the International Debt Market

fight for the long haul. The legal battle will culminate in the United States Supreme Court, with a ruling expected in June. Not Setting Precedent While most observers remain... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro

Forthcoming
Article

Disclosure Standards and Communication Norms: Evidence of Voluntary Sustainability Standards as a Coordinating Device for Capital Markets

By: Khrystyna Bochkay, Jeffrey Hales and George Serafeim

In this paper, we examine how the development of voluntary sustainability standards has affected the nature of information covered in conference calls. Using industry-specific dictionaries of sustainability terms contained in the disclosure standards developed by the... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Disclosure; Voluntary Disclosure; Accounting Standards; Sustainability Reporting; Sustainability Standards; ESG; ESG Disclosure; Accounting; United States