Publications

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December 2014
Article

Market Competition, Earnings Management, and Persistence in Accounting Profitability Around the World

By: Paul M. Healy, George Serafeim, Suraj Srinivasan and Gwen Yu

We examine how cross-country differences in product, capital, and labor market competition, and earnings management affect mean reversion in accounting return on assets. Using a sample of 48,465 unique firms from 49 countries, we find that accounting returns mean... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Performance; Valuation; Equity Valuation; Persistence; Competitive Advantage; Institutions; Earnings Management; Labor Market; Capital Markets; Competition; Profit; Performance; Supply and Industry; Financial Statements; Government and Politics; Globalized Markets and Industries

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January 2003 (Revised January 2008)
Case

The British Motorcycle Industry at a Crossroads

By: Jan W. Rivkin

By 1975, the collapse of the British motorcycle industry is nearly complete. Only one British manufacturer, NVT, remains in operation. In this setting, the British government commissions the Boston Consulting Group to identify and evaluate strategic alternatives for... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Industry Structures; Business and Government Relations; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Consulting Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motorcycle Industry; Great Britain

January 2025
Case

A Tiger in the Tank: Exxon Sues Investors

By: Clayton S. Rose, Sarah Sasso and James Weber

In June 2024, investors were trying to make sense of ExxonMobil’s (Exxon) lawsuit against two impact investors, Arjuna Capital (Arjuna) and Follow This, that had just been dismissed by the U.S. District Court of Northern Texas. Exxon’s suit challenged the rights of two... View Details

03 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 3, 2009

Authors:Joseph Rhatigan, Sachin H. Jain, Joia S. Mukherjee, and Michael E. Porter Abstract The care delivery value chain is a framework that can help conceptualize the organization and structure of care delivery for medical conditions. We... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Pharmaceutical Industry, The: Challenges in the New Century

By: Stephen P. Bradley and James Weber

Provides a broad overview of the numerous internal and external forces that were driving change in the global pharmaceutical industry in 2003. These forces--including downward price pressures, political and social pressures, increased development costs, new... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Change; Cost; Price; Globalization; Government and Politics; Brands and Branding; Industry Growth; Society; Competition; Consolidation; Technology; Pharmaceutical Industry

November 2023
Teaching Plan

Geely SEA: New Electric Vehicle Platforms

By: Willy Shih

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 622-001. Kent Bovellan, the Chief Engineer and Head of the Vehicle Architecture Center for Geely Holding, the Hangzhou, China headquartered global automotive group, was debating the platform choice for an upcoming "D" segment midsized... View Details

Keywords: Product Innovation; Product Architecture; Product Engineering; Platform Design; Platform Strategy; Product Design; Product Development; Cost Management; Competitive Strategy; Industry Structures; Product Positioning; Auto Industry; China; Sweden

16 Aug 2024
In Practice

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

and the International Economy Unit. Elisabeth Kempf: Political views shape economic outlook Political views influence the perception of economic reality among finance professionals. In a study linking credit rating analysts to party... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

03 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, October 3, 2017

have higher management quality, more MBA trained managers, and lower mortality rates. This is true compared to the distance to universities that offer only business or medical education (or neither). We argue that supplying joint... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2007
Working Paper

Competition in Modular Clusters

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and C. Jason Woodard

The last twenty years have witnessed the rise of disaggregated "clusters," "networks," or "ecosystems" of firms. In these clusters the activities of R&D, product design, production, distribution, and system integration may be split up among hundreds or even thousands... View Details

Keywords: Price; Profit; Digital Platforms; Industry Clusters; Competition; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration

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27 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

New Research: Surviving Bankruptcy, Useful Economics, and Retirement

Technological Eclecticism Could Help Journal of Applied Corporate Finance Amar Bhidé “Keynes thought it would be ‘splendid’ if economists became more like dentists. Disciplinary economics has instead become more like physics in focusing... View Details

December 1998
Case

Retail Financial Services in 1998: First Union

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Provides an overview of First Union's current strategy for retail financial services. Retail Financial Services in 1998 should be given to all students as background material. The class should then be split into groups, with each group receiving one of the following... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Industry Structures; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

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15 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 15

considered so basic that, regardless of culture, they are accepted as public responsibilities. However, for the low-income populations in developing countries, which constitute the majority of the world, access to these takes place through cash markets, which often... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 13

Materials Harvard Business School Case 814-073 Entrepreneurial Finance Lab: Scaling an Innovative Start-up Financing Venture Entrepreneurial Finance Lab provides credit-scoring... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales

strategic objectives,” he says. “Selling divorced from the firm’s goals may be good for individual salespeople and their compensation, but it’s not good for the enterprise and its investors.” The value of selling MBA finance courses often... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

02 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Explaining China's Crash

a number of commodities, in the process benefiting those countries that could supply them. The issue is that we may be reaching the limits to the outsourcing trend. For example, almost 100 percent of textiles in this country are now... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese; Financial Services

19 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 19, 2019

impact of immigration on native men’s employment and occupational standing, which increased the supply of “marriageable men.” We explore alternative mechanisms—changes in sex ratios, natives’ cultural responses, and displacement effects... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

July 2005 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Understanding Customer Profitability at Charles Schwab

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

Charles Schwab is transforming into a customer-centric organization. Central to this cultural and organizational change is the utilization of customer profitability at different decision-making levels. Examines several technical aspects of the ABC cost system, as well... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Motivation and Incentives; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Activity Based Costing and Management; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Profit; Performance Evaluation; Budgets and Budgeting

May 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Building the Digital Manufacturing Enterprise of the Future at Siemens

By: Willy Shih

This case describes the motivation for and the development of Siemens' digital manufacturing enterprise vision, which became the foundation for its implementation of Industrie 4.0. While the effort started with a purely defensive move by Anton Huber, head of the... View Details