Publications

09 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Andy Grove: A Biographer’s Tale

who you were. He believed that the heart of a corporation was its middle management, because he felt that there are Darwinian aspects to his beliefs and if you are in top management, that's because you were... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Computer

January 2023
Case

Natura: Weathering the Pandemic at Brazil's Cosmetic Giant

By: Brian Trelstad, Pedro Levindo and Carla Larangeira

Brazil's Natura, a multi-brand cosmetics group, has taken several measures to safeguard the livelihoods of its thousands of employees and millions of sales representatives during the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. The company has also made strides in its efforts... View Details

2015
Working Paper

Staggered Boards and Shareholder Value: A Reply to Amihud and Stoyanov

By: Alma Cohen and Charles C.Y. Wang

In a paper published in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2013, we provided evidence that market participants perceive staggered boards to be on average value-reducing. In a recent response paper, Amihud and Stoyanov (2015) “contest” our results. They... View Details

Keywords: Staggered Boards; Takeover Defense; Antitakeover Provision; Firm Value; Agency Costs; Delaware; Chancery Court; Airgas; Governing and Advisory Boards; Acquisition; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Delaware

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03 Sep 2020
Op-Ed

Why American Health Care Needs Its Own SEC

health care system could similarly gather and publish relevant data on health care prices and outcomes. Then corporations could see which clinicians, hospitals, insurers, and others provide the best value. The good ones would thrive, and... View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger; Health

October 2019
Case

Impax Laboratories: Executing Accretive Acquisitions (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Impax Laboratories was a technology-based pharmaceutical company that used a “dual platform” strategy to sell both generic and branded treatments. While Impax had grown organically for most of its history, it was beginning to use major acquisitions for growth. In the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

January 2018
Case

Merck CEO Ken Frazier Quits President Trump's Advisory Council

By: Andy Zelleke and Brian Tilley

In the first six months of Donald Trump’s presidency, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier appeared alongside Trump at least three times at press events, one of which commemorated the first and only meeting of the president’s Manufacturing Job Initiative (better known at the... View Details

Keywords: CEO Role; Politics; Corporate Governance; Moral Sensibility; Managerial Roles; United States

March 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

National Parks Conservation Association

By: Forest L. Reinhardt and Briana Huntsberger

The National Parks Conservation Association seeks to help the U.S. National Park Service increase its efficiency by incorporating principles of business management so that American national parks will be better managed. Its efforts raise fundamental questions about the... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Business or Company Management; Corporate Governance; Government and Politics; Natural Environment; Cooperation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Tourism Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

19 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Activist Board Members Increase Firm’s Market Value

Public company shareholders have long complained that corporate boards don't always act in the best interest of their investors. But does the addition of a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

08 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 8

outsider's view to challenge the status quo. Given the string of ethical failures of corporations around the world in recent years-from BP to GM to JPMorgan Chase-it's clear... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

07 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 7, 2007

influence portfolio choices by exploring the response to the distinctive treatment of foreign dividends in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (JGTRRA). JGTRRA lowered the dividend tax rate to 15% for American equities and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

25 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Chasing Stars: Why the Mighty Red Sox Struck Out

performance decline when they move from one team to another; they operate fairly independently. (In the corporate world, the somewhat autonomous position of the chief financial officer is analogous to that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Sports; Banking

May 2007
Case

Free the Grapes--Direct-to-Consumer Shipping in the Wine Industry

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Dennis A. Yao, Patricia Wu and Libby Cantrill

While wine tourism in the United States was booming, the majority of consumers who tasted a Cabernet Sauvignon in one of Napa Valley's tasting rooms were not permitted to ship the wine directly to their home. In 2002, direct-to-consumer shipping was either banned or... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Lawsuits and Litigation; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

06 Sep 2018
Cold Call Podcast

Should US Companies Still Care About the Paris Climate Change Agreement?

Keywords: Re: Vincent Pons; Manufacturing; Mining

October 2022 (Revised September 2023)
Supplement

SolarWinds Confronts SUNBURST (B)

By: Frank Nagle, George A. Riedel, William R. Kerr and David Lane

Supplements the (A) case, describing actions taken by SolarWinds as well as by regulatory agencies in the aftermath of the immediate crisis. The case also includes reflections by SolarWinds managers on the choices they made with respect to disclosure, media relations,... View Details

Keywords: Cyberattacks; Cybersecurity; Corporate Disclosure; Crisis Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Legal Liability; Governance Compliance; Business and Government Relations; Information Technology Industry; United States

29 Apr 2020
Book

The Key to Powerful Social Change: Small Villages

Who will solve the great problems facing humanity, a list of critical issues that only begins with the current pandemic? In the interview below, Rosabeth Moss Kanter discusses her recent book, Think Outside the Building, and her view that solutions are most likely to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2013
Working Paper

What Makes the Bonding Stick? A Natural Experiment Involving the U.S. Supreme Court and Cross-Listed Firms

By: Amir N. Licht, Christopher Poliquin, Jordan I. Siegel and Xi Li

On March 29, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court signaled its intention to geographically limit the reach of the U.S. securities antifraud regime and thus differentially exclude U.S.-listed foreign firms from the ambit of formal U.S. antifraud enforcement. We use this legal... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; International Finance; Investment; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Courts and Trials; Legal Liability; United States

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16 Aug 2024
In Practice

Election 2024: What's at Stake for Business and the Workplace?

credit analysts exhibit a sizable partisan gap in their economic outlook, with roughly two-thirds the size of the gap observed among households. This bias affects analysts’ decision to upgrade or downgrade View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

October 2019
Supplement

Impax Laboratories: Executing Accretive Transactions (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Impax Laboratories was a technology-based pharmaceutical company that used a “dual platform” strategy to sell both generic and branded treatments. While Impax had grown organically for most of its history, it was beginning to use major acquisitions for growth. In the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Financial Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

December 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Daniel Defense: Responding to the Shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

At 11:33am on May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old man from Uvalde, Texas walked into the Robb Elementary School carrying a semi-automatic "AR-15-style” rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense and killed 19 children and two adults. Three days later, Representative Carolyn Maloney... View Details

Keywords: Gun Violence; Gun Policy; Second Amendment; Legal Liability; Government Legislation; Marketing Strategy; Business or Company Management; Product Marketing; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Advertising Industry; United States