Publications

13 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: September 13

W. Dunn, Dana R. Carney, and Dan Ariely Publication:Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (forthcoming) Abstract We predicted that able-bodied individuals and white Americans would have a difficult time saying no to persuasive appeals offered View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2011
Background Note

Customer Loyalty Schemes in the Retail Sector

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Aldo Sesia

Customer loyalty schemes (or programs) are explicit efforts by retailers to gain long-term patronage from customers. Loyalty schemes are developed for a variety of reasons: to reward loyal customers, to generate more robust information about customer behavior, to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; United Kingdom; United States

07 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 7

driven at least partly by career concerns. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-014.pdf Policy Bundling to Overcome Loss Aversion: A Method for Improving Legislative Outcomes Authors:Katherine L. Milkman, Mary Carol... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

April 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

BlackRock (D): Organizing for the Future (with video links)

By: Ranjay Gulati, Jan W. Rivkin and Aldo Sesia

By the end of 2015, BlackRock had succeeded beyond any of the early dreams of its founders. The firm remained the world’s largest asset manager, with more than $4.6 trillion under management, and other financial services companies used BlackRock’s Aladdin platform to... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Asset Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; United States

17 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 17

Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier immediately after this recollection; most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else in the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

November 2018
Case

Goldman Sachs: The 10,000 Small Businesses Program

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Aldo Sesia

In 2008, Goldman Sachs started the 10,000 Small Businesses program to help small businesses in the United States by providing education and a network of support—at no cost —and access to capital. It required the firm to create a new business ecosystem with a wide... View Details

Keywords: Ecosystem; Public/private Partnership; Small Business; Programs; Education; Partners and Partnerships; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; United States

August 2012 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Preem (A)

By: Bo Becker, Annelena Lobb and Aldo Sesia

High yield bond fund Proventus Capital Partners (PCP) has invested in underwater bonds issued by Preem, a large oil refinery. As maturity approaches, in the midst of financial crisis, Preem appear unlikely to be able to refinance. Meanwhile, Prreem has a complicated... View Details

Keywords: Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Liquidity; Restructuring; Courts and Trials; Negotiation; Bonds; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; Europe

13 Jul 2011
News

China Boot Camp

organized by C.B. Sung (MBA ’50), a Chinese native who, upon graduation, found himself unable to go home after his country’s fall to Communist forces in 1949. With the gradual opening of China, Sung, a career executive at Motorola, made... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

12 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 12

Martínez-Fritscher and Aldo Musacchio Abstract There is a large amount of literature that aims to explain what determines country risk (defined as the difference between the yield of a sovereign's bonds and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

LOLA: Do You Know What's in Your Tampon?

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Aldo Sesia

LOLA is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business launched in 2015. What started as a company to provide women with organic and transparent material-labeled tampons via a subscription model, had, by 2019 evolved to include additional menstrual and sexual wellness products.... View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Channels; Disruption; Business Model; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

April 2012
Teaching Note

Dubai: Debt, Development, and Crisis (TN) (A), (B), and (C)

By: Aldo Musacchio

June 2011 (Revised August 2011)
Background Note

China and the Yuan-Dollar Exchange Rate

By: Aldo Musacchio

This note explains how the People's Bank of China (PBOC) manages (some say manipulate) the dollar-yuan exchange rate. It discusses briefly the process of sterilization in China and the possible costs for the PBOC. Therefore, the note summarizes some of the main... View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; China

August 2008
Supplement

Iceland (B): Redefining Aaa-Rated Sovereigns

By: Aldo Musacchio

In May of 2008, a team of sovereign debt analysts at Moody's had to decide whether to downgrade the country's sovereign long-term debt from Aaa to Aa1 or lower. Investor sentiment toward Iceland had changed radically in March, and the Moody's team was fearful that the... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Currency; Financial Condition; Decision Choices and Conditions; Iceland; European Union

August 2008 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Iceland (A)

By: Aldo Musacchio

In May of 2008, a team of sovereign debt analysts at Moody's had to decide whether to downgrade the country's sovereign long-term debt from Aaa to Aa1 or lower. Investor sentiment toward Iceland had changed radically in March, and the Moody's team was fearful that the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Currency; Financial Condition; Sovereign Finance; European Union; Iceland

March 2008
Teaching Note

Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road (TN)

By: Aldo Musacchio

Teaching Note for [707031]. View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Programs; Problems and Challenges; Equality and Inequality; Poverty; Growth and Development Strategy; Brazil; India; Russia; China

January 2007 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road

By: Aldo Musacchio

Covers President Lula's challenges to reduce "Brazil cost" and grow like other BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Experts agreed that for Brazil to grow like other BRIC countries, the Brazilian government would have to reduce the cost of doing business... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Cost; Growth and Development Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Poverty; Equality and Inequality; China; India; Russia; Brazil

June 2007
Article

Law and Finance in Historical Perspective: Politics, Bankruptcy Law, and Corporate Governance in Brazil, 1850-2002

By: Aldo Musacchio

Keywords: Law; Finance; History; Perspective; Government and Politics; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Brazil

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2006
Working Paper

Can Civil Law Countries Get Good Institutions? Creditor Rights and Bond Markets in Brazil, 1850-2003

By: Aldo Musacchio