Publications

November 2009
Background Note

Business Valuation and the Cost of Capital

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

This note is an introduction to the cost of capital as used in discounted cash flow valuation analyses. The note covers basic financial economic principles and practical problems encountered in calculating the cost of capital, especially WACC. It concludes with... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Capital Budgeting; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Valuation

March 1978 (Revised October 1978)
Case

Rosemont Hill Health Center

An administrator of a neighborhood health center is considering changing his cost accounting system from a single cost per visit to a cost per visit for each department in the center. Used to illustrate several issues related to cost accounting in health care:... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

Yiwei Li

Yiwei Li is a Doctoral student of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He concentrates on managerial accounting research, with interest in topics like incentive scheme and management control system. He pursues the goal of applying research output into... View Details

April 2012
Article

Storybook-keepers: Numbers and Narratives in Nineteenth-Century America

To give an account of something is to tell a story about it, and to hold someone accountable is to make him responsible for that story. This essay explores the ways bookkeepers wove numbers into narratives and the way the stories they told influence their... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Accounting; United States

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28 Jul 2020
Video

Sizwe Nxasana

Sizwe Nxasana, the founding partner of SizweNtsalubaGobodo, the largest Black accounting firm in South Africa, as well as the former CEO of Telkom and FirstRand Group, describes the actions he took to develop a... View Details

Bridging the GAAPs

Inconsistencies in accounting treatment across countries are a major obstacle for global equity investment. Founded in 1985, HOLT is an equity valuation service provider that offers its clients (e.g., global equity investors) a consistent performance metrics from... View Details

2006
Book

The Soul of a Doctor

By: Susan Pories, Sachin H. Jain and Gordon Harper

Collection of essays written by Harvard Medical School students focused on the experiencing of transitioning from clinician to student. Particular emphasis is given to the role of student as an "embedded critic," i.e. a practitioner knowledgeable about medicine, but... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Practice; Personal Development and Career; Education; Health Care and Treatment; Emotions

2010
Chapter

Women and Leadership: Defining the Challenges

By: Robin J. Ely and Deborah L. Rhode

We use the experience of Carly Fiorina as an introduction to the continued challenges faced by women in top leadership roles. Although Fiorina, on becoming CEO of Hewlett Packard in 1999, asserted that "there is not a glass ceiling," her memoir eight years later... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Leadership; Perception; Behavior; Attitudes; Gender

July 2008
Case

Aurora Capital Group - Douglas Dynamics

Aurora Capital, a U.S. Private Equity firm, contemplates whether to acquire Douglas Dynamics, the leading U.S. maker of snow plows. Does a business that is highly dependent on the weather, and is seasonal, make a good LBO candidate? This case provides a good... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Private Equity; Investment; Goods and Commodities; Value Creation

20 Nov 2021
News

Young Wall Streeters Are Pumping Their Bonus Checks into Crypto. Here’s an Inside Look at How They’re Making Trades—And What Their Firms’ Compliance Departments Have to Say about It.

May 2017
Teaching Note

Hilti Fleet Management (A) and (B)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Oliver Gassmann and Roman Sauer

These notes are meant to accompany Hilti Fleet Management (A): Turning a Successful Business Model on Its Head (717-427) and Hilti Fleet Management (B): Towards a New Business Model (717-465).
This case explores the introduction of fleet management in the... View Details

December 2010 (Revised July 2011)
Supplement

DoubleClick, Inc.: Additional Paid-in-CapitalStock Options

By: David F. Hawkins

Income statement and balance sheet consequences of DoubleClick adoption of the fair value method to account for stock options. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Stock Options

16 Jul 2020
News

Q&A: Harvard impact investing expert on proposed ESG rule

28 Aug 2020
Video

Stata Reproducible Reporting (DynDoc) Demo

March 1996
Case

Restructuring in the 1990s (A)

Presents the accounting issues involved with reporting a restructuring charge, including when an entity should recognize an expense and what types of costs are appropriate to be included. Summarizes the deliberations made by the Emerging Issues Task Force in... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Accounting

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August 2010 (Revised February 2012)
Supplement

Cosmeticos de Espana, S.A. (B)

By: David F. Hawkins

Second case in the Cosmeticos de Espana case series. What should management's accounting response be to a devaluation of the Bolivar? View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Decision Choices and Conditions; Inflation and Deflation; Currency Exchange Rate; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Spain; Venezuela