Publications

June 2017
Article

Does Aggregated Returns Disclosure Increase Portfolio Risk Taking?

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

Many experiments have found that participants take more investment risk if they see returns less frequently, see portfolio-level returns (rather than each individual asset’s returns), or see long-horizon (rather than one-year) historical return distributions. In... View Details

Keywords: Information; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return

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February 1994 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, Inc.: Portfolio Insurance

By: Peter Tufano

Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, a small financial advisory firm founded in 1980, has created a successful business by selling a product commonly known as portfolio insurance. Portfolio insurance is a trading strategy that institutional investors use to establish... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Insurance; Product; Financial Services Industry

13 May 2015
News

Will brick-and-mortar stores survive?

May 2018
Teaching Note

Mubadala and EBX: To X or to X It?

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Sayiddah Fatima McCree

On April 3, 2013, Hani Barhoush and Oscar Fahlgren of Mubadala Capital (“Mubadala”) considered how to salvage Mubadala’s $2 billion preferred equity investment of a 5.63% stake in the EBX Group. At the time, EBX was the holding company of a myriad of subsidiaries and... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Cross Border; Negotiations; UAE; Oil And Gas; Finance; Strategy; Negotiation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Private Equity; Restructuring; Energy Industry; Real Estate Industry; Shipping Industry; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Brazil; Middle East

June 2024
Supplement

Heritage Holding (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Pre-Abstract: Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.

Abstract: The summer of 2022 marked a crucial period for Heritage Holding co-founders, Alex de Pfyffer and Ross Porter. The... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Small Business; Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Business Education; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Problems and Challenges; Private Equity; Corporate Strategy; Business Model; North America

March 2004 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Shurgard Self-Storage: Expansion to Europe

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Indra Reinbergs

Shurgard, a U.S.-based firm that rents storage facilities to consumers and small businesses, is considering financing options for rapid expansion of its European operations. Five years after entering Europe, Shurgard Europe has opened 17 facilities in Belgium, France,... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Valuation; Business Model; Governing and Advisory Boards; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Service Industry; Belgium; France; Sweden; United States; Europe

August 2021 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Northvolt: Making the World's Greenest Battery

By: Jurgen R. Weiss and Emilie Billaud

In 2021, the demand for lithium-ion batteries increased rapidly, particularly for electric vehicles. Anxious not to be reliant on Asian players, Europe was keen on developing its own home-grown capacity to control the value chain, maintain employment in Europe, and get... View Details

July 1991
Case

Pioneer Petroleum Corp.

By: Richard S. Ruback

Pioneer is an integrated oil company. Its operations include exploration and development, production, transportation, and marketing. The case focuses on Pioneer's cost of capital calculations and its choice between a single company-wide cost of capital or divisional... View Details

Keywords: Cost of Capital; Energy Industry; Mining Industry

May 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

SKS Microfinance

By: Shawn A. Cole and Theresa Chen

Vikram Akula, CEO of SKS Microfinance, seeks a venture capital investment to fund his firm. SKS, one of the largest and fastest growing microfinance institutions in India, is a profitable, for-profit institution with a social mission. In what is one of the first... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Venture Capital; Microfinance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Valuation; Financial Services Industry; India

03 Oct 2013
News

Who Wants to Buy BlackBerry? Prem Watsa Does

03 Mar 2022
News

Does Your Company Offer Fruitful Careers—or Dead-End Jobs?

25 Nov 2019
News

Harvard Nears Selection of Allston Development Partner

April 2020
Teaching Note

Oaktree: Pierre Foods Investment

By: Victoria Ivashina, Michael Harmon and Terrence Shu

Teaching Note for HBS No. 219-018. This case is a setting to discuss “loan to own” investment strategy that is often pursued by distressed investors. The aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis left many companies with poor liquidity and limited ability to obtain... View Details

Keywords: Distress Investing; Investment; Debt Securities; Strategy; Restructuring

2013
Working Paper

Do Strict Capital Requirements Raise the Cost of Capital? Banking Regulation and the Low Risk Anomaly

By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler

Minimum capital requirements are a central tool of banking regulation. Setting them balances a number of factors, including any effects on the cost of capital and in turn the rates available to borrowers. Standard theory predicts that, in perfect and efficient capital... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Cost of Capital; Capital Markets; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

24 Jun 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Accounting Data, Market Values, and the Cross Section of Expected Returns World

Keywords: by Charles C.Y. Wang; Accounting

January 1994 (Revised July 1994)
Case

Dell Computer Corporation

By: Peter Tufano

Tina Chen, chief investment officer of a large insurance company, hears accusations by a Kidder Peabody equity research analyst that Dell Computer Corp. might be improperly accounting for what he suspects are large foreign exchange losses resulting from speculation.... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Financial Instruments; Ethics; Financial Statements; Computer Industry; United States

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2014
Working Paper

Governing Misvalued Firms

By: Dalida Kadyrzhanova and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

Equity overvaluation is thought to create the potential for managerial misbehavior, while monitoring and corporate governance curb misbehavior. We combine these two insights from the literatures on misvaluation and governance to ask, when does governance matter?... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Performance; Corporate Governance

2011
Other Unpublished Work

Do Public and Private Firms Behave Differently? An Examination of Investment in the Chemical Industry

By: Albert W. Sheen

I compare the capacity expansion decisions of U.S. public and private producers of seven commodity chemicals from 1989-2006. I find that private firms invest differently, and more efficiently, than public firms. Specifically, private firms are more likely than public... View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; Chemicals; Investment; Public Ownership; Chemical Industry; United States