Publications

March 1981 (Revised October 1984)
Case

Corning Glass Works: Indonesia

By: Michael Y. Yoshino

Evaluates the market opportunities and risks by Corning and International Finance Corporation in Indonesia. View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities; Financial Services Industry; Indonesia

May 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

AirFox (A): Embracing the Blockchain and an ICO

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Edward B. Berk and Nate Schwalb

In summer 2017, Victor Santos, CEO of AirFox, considered whether to pivot his startup towards a new product built with blockchain—a quickly growing technology at the time. AirFox was an early stage startup that sold Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to small telecom... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Initial Coin Offering; ICO; Business Startups; Finance; Currency; Strategy; Decision Making; United States

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Where Main Street Meets Wall Street

participation by everyday folk in the capital markets was all but unheard of; Wall Street remained an exclusive investment preserve (some would say playground) for America's financial elite. But by making... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Financial Services

27 Mar 2016
News

One Surprising Way to Get People to Save More

09 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

Big Hits: The Best of the 2018 Super Bowl Ads

The Super Bowl isn’t just a mainstage for football’s two best teams. With over 100 million viewers tuned in, and 30-second spots going for more than $5 million, the big game also represents one of the highest stakes advertising events of the year. Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Telecommunications

July/September 2005
Article

Le consensus de Paris: la France et les règles de la finance mondiale

By: Rawi Abdelal

This article is about the institutional foundations of the globalization of finance. These institutional foundations are both informal and formal. Until the 1980s the formal rules of the international financial architecture – most consequentially in the European Union... View Details

Keywords: Policy; International Finance; Globalization; France; European Union

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Web

Placement - Doctoral

Dissertation: Essays in Financial and Labor Markets Advisors: Gabriel Chodorow-Reich , Jeremy Stein , Samuel G. Hanson , and Adi Sunderam Jiafeng (Kevin) Chen Business Economics, 2024 Placement: Stanford... View Details

November 2005 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Bally Total Fitness (A): The Rise, 1962–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

From a single, modest club in 1962, Bally Total Fitness had grown to become—in management’s words—the “largest and only nationwide commercial operator of fitness centers” in the United States in 2004. Bally had faced its share of challenges, but the last couple of... View Details

Keywords: Bally Total Fitness; Fitness; Gyms; Health Clubs; Chain; Securities And Exchange Commission; Paul Toback; Weight Loss; Exercise; Contracts; Personal Training; Retention; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Accrual Accounting; Finance; Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Revenue Recognition; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Trends; Cost Management; Profit; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Five Forces Framework; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

22 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Forgiving Student Loan Debt Leads to Better Jobs, Stronger Consumers

cars, for instance. Source: “Second Change: Life Without Student Debt” by Marco Di Maggio, Ankit Kalda, and Vincent W. Yao. All of these results show that policy interventions in the student loan market should not be considered a zero-sum... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

November 2012
Case

Ahold versus Tesco—Analyzing Performance

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Penelope Rossano

The case relates to understanding and comparing the performance of two leading retail companies—Ahold and Tesco. The case introduces the tools of Dupont and Modified Dupont Decomposition. While performance as measured by return on equity has been similar for the two... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Retail Industry

Forthcoming
Chapter

Oil, Macroeconomic Volatility and Crime in the Determination of Beliefs in Venezuela

By: Rafael Di Tella, Javier Donna and Robert MacCulloch

Book Abstract: At the beginning of the twentieth century Venezuela had one of the poorest economies in Latin America, but by 1970 it had become the richest country in the region and one of the twenty richest countries in the world, ahead of countries such as Greece,... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Volatility; Crime and Corruption; Values and Beliefs; Non-Renewable Energy; Energy Industry; Venezuela

2011
Book

Capitalism at Risk: Rethinking the Role of Business

By: Joseph L. Bower, Herman B. Leonard and Lynn S. Paine

The spread of capitalism worldwide has made people wealthier than ever before. But capitalism's future is far from assured. The global financial meltdown of 2008 nearly triggered another Great Depression, economies in Europe are still teetering, and powerful... View Details

Keywords: Business And Society; Economic Systems; Economic Growth; Leading Change; Business and Community Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business Strategy

Article

The Collapse of First Executive Corporation: Junk Bonds, Adverse Publicity, and the Run on the Bank Phenomenon

By: S. C. Gilson, H. DeAngelo and L. DeAngelo

In April 1991, regulators seized the major subsidiaries of First Executive Corporation (FE), an insurer that invested heavily in junk bonds. During the junk bond market turmoil of 1989–1990, adverse publicity fueled a bank run at FE, forcing a $4 billion portfolio... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Bonds; Banks and Banking

May 2012
Article

Global, Local, and Contagious Investor Sentiment

By: Malcolm Baker, Jeffrey Wurgler and Yu Yuan

We construct investor sentiment indices for six major stock markets and decompose them into one global and six local indices. In a validation test, we find that relative sentiment is correlated with the relative prices of dual-listed companies. Global sentiment is a... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Globalization; Stocks; Markets; Capital; Financial Services Industry

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April 1961 (Revised April 1986)
Background Note

Case of the Unidentified U.S. Industries, The

Examines the impact of the nature of an industry on: 1) general patterns of the need for funds (asset allocation); 2) the methods of meeting these needs; and 3) the financial results of most firms in the industry. View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Markets; Finance; United States

February 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

first direct (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Describes the operations and strategy of the world's largest, fastest growing branchless bank. Using a person-to-person interface over conventional phone lines, First Direct provides standard banking and related financial products to nearly 700,000 customers throughout... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Customer Satisfaction; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry; United Kingdom

July 2021 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Supreme: Remaining Cool While Pursuing Growth

By: Jill Avery, Sandrine Crener, Marie-Cecile Cervellon and Ranjit Thind

Following VF Corporation’s acquisition of cult streetwear brand Supreme, consumers and industry pundits were nervous that becoming part of a large, public corporation would put an end to Supreme’s slow and careful growth trajectory as pressure for quarterly results... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Growth Management; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; United States; North America

Working Paper

Covenant-Light Contracts and Creditor Coordination

By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina

In 2015, 70% of newly issued leveraged loans had weaker enforcement features, called covenant-light or "cov-lite"; this is nearly a three-time increase in cov-lite issuance compared to a previous peak in 2007. We evaluate whether this development can be attributed to... View Details

Keywords: Credit Cycles; Loan Contracts; Debt Covenants; Contracts; Financing and Loans; Credit; Borrowing and Debt

SSRN

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October 2008 (Revised August 2010)
Background Note

Understanding the Credit Crisis of 2007 to 2008

By: Arthur I Segel and Ben Creo

This note details the background of the credit crisis, discusses potential causes of it, and considers its ramifications. The exhibits contain a variety of pertinent data regarding the rise of securitization, debt levels, and typical aspects of financial crises. A new... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Financial Instruments; Financial Management; Financial Markets