Publications

2022
Book

Private Equity

By: Paul A. Gompers and Steven N. Kaplan

This Advanced Introduction provides an illustrative guide to private equity, integrating insights from academic research with examples to derive practical recommendations. Paul Gompers and Steven Kaplan begin by reviewing the history of private equity then exploring... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment Funds; Value Creation

Find at Harvard

October 2021 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Engine No.1: An Impact Investing Firm Engages with ExxonMobil

By: Mark Kramer, Shawn Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi and T. Robert Zochowski

ExxonMobil, the world's fifth largest source of carbon emissions, remained committed to aggressively expanding its oil & gas business despite global warming. During the COVID pandemic this strategy resulted in massive losses as the price and demand for oil declined. ... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Global Warming; Impact Investment Funds; Hedge Fund Activism; Leadership Development; Business Model; Renewable Energy; Resource Allocation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards

June 2016 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Google to Alphabet: Ten Things We Know to Be True

By: Robert Simons and Annelena Lobb

Google’s founders wrote “10 Things We Know to Be True,” a document detailing founding principles and values, early in the company’s life. As the company expanded, added business units, and changed its name to Alphabet, were these principles and values still valid and... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Strategy; Organizational Design; Technology Industry

June 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Siemens AG: A Private Equity Approach within an Industrial Corporation?

By: David J. Collis and Haisley Wert

In July 2022, Horst Kayser, Chairman of Siemens AG Portfolio Companies (POC), was reflecting on the advice he could offer Roland Busch, Chief Executive Officer of the parent company Siemens AG, about whether and how to operate a private equity-like approach inside the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Management; Value Creation; Private Equity; Corporate Strategy

October 2007
Article

The Influence of Financial Statement Recognition and Analyst Coverage on the Market's Valuation of R&D Capital

By: Michael D. Kimbrough

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 141 (SFAS No. 141)'s requirement that an acquirer in a business combination estimate the fair value of the target's separately identifiable assets and liabilities (including research and development capital) provides a rare... View Details

Keywords: Information; Value Creation; Fair Value Accounting; Research and Development; Financial Statements; Capital

June 2000 (Revised September 2004)
Exercise

Amazon.com Valuation Exercise

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Designed to accompany Amazon.com: Exploiting the Value of a Digital Business Infrastructure. View Details

Keywords: Valuation

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

28 Jan 2016
Blog Post

Why Get an MBA?

These days you don’t have to look far to find someone questioning the value of an MBA. It seems like every week brings another article on rising costs and evolving employers. Even if you don’t believe the naysayers, does anyone actually... View Details

19 Sep 2016
News

Why Isn't Business Research More Relevant to Business Practitioners?

October 2021
Case

(180) Days of Quibi

By: David J. Collis and Terrence Shu

Mobile streaming app Quibi was ready to take the entertainment world by storm at its April 2020 launch. Backed by $1.75 billion, influential investors from Hollywood to Wall Street eagerly anticipated early success for this brainchild of Meg Whitman, former CEO of... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Strategy; Business Model; Business Startups; Mobile Technology

Victoria Ivashina is the Lovett-Learned Professor of Finance and Head of the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. She also serves as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy... View Details

Keywords: banking; federal government; financial services; investment banking industry; private equity (LBO funds); private equity (other)

April 2020 (Revised February 2023)
Case

GitLab and the Future of All-Remote Work (A)

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Emma Salomon

GitLab is arguably one of the world’s largest “all-remote” companies. Started in 2011 and with more than 1,000 employees at present, it has no physical offices and all employees, including the entire C-Suite, work remotely from all parts of the world. The case... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Business Model; Organizational Structure

February 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Braddock Industries, Inc.

By: William E. Fruhan

This case examines the drivers of economic value creation for shareholders, and how these drivers are reflected in various incentive compensation programs for management. The case also looks at how the economic performance of business units can be evaluated using... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Investment; Executive Compensation; Measurement and Metrics; Performance Evaluation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Value Creation

18 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: Manufacturing Morals

Editor's note: Building and landscape design can do much more for an organization than provide an inspirational headquarters or appealing work spaces. At Harvard Business School, the leafy, orderly, community setting helps reinforce a set of beliefs and View Details

Keywords: Education

September 2014 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Sustainability at IKEA Group

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Michael W. Toffel, Vincent Dessain and Jerome Lenhardt

By 2014, IKEA Group was the largest home furnishing company, with EUR28.5 billion of sales, and planned to reach EUR50 billion by 2020, mainly from emerging markets. At the same time, IKEA Group had adopted in 2012 a new sustainability strategy that focused the... View Details

Keywords: Furnishing; Sustainability; Supply Chain; Wood; Customer Value and Value Chain; Supply Chain Management; Environmental Sustainability; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

February 1997
Case

Arch Communications Group, Inc.

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Sarayu Srinivasan

The market values Arch differently from analysts' values. View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Framework; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment; Stocks

15 Sep 2022
Blog Post

6 Things to Know About Sustainability at HBS

Sustainability is a core value at HBS, and we endeavor to build a healthier, more sustainable, and inclusive community. We know that environmental sustainability is of growing interest to our student community and teamed up with the HBS... View Details

November 2019
Supplement

United Technologies Corp.: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune Magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Valuation; Investment Activism; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States