Publications

2024
Working Paper

Economic Budgeting for Endowment-Dependent Universities

By: John Y. Campbell, Jeremy C. Stein and Alex A. Wu

To understand their financial position, universities need to understand the long-term implications of their operating revenues and costs in relation to the financial assets they have available. Standard budgeting procedures that focus on one or two years at a time and... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Cash Flow; Cost; Revenue; Education Industry

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2010
Working Paper

Accounting Scholarship that Advances Professional Knowledge and Practice

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Recent accounting scholarship has used statistical analysis on asset prices, financial reports and disclosures, laboratory experiments, and surveys of practice. The research has studied the interface among accounting information, capital markets, standard setters, and... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Business Education; Information; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Risk Management; Measurement and Metrics; Business Processes; Performance Improvement; Practice

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27 Oct 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Achieving Excellence in Nonprofits

a bit more tumultuous than usual, but what nonprofits need to do is what they always need to do: learn and adapt. Q: The issue of financial oversight for nonprofits seems to be facing increasing regulatory (Sarbanes-Oxley-like) and media... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 20, 2020
Article

Expanding AI's Impact with Organizational Learning

By: Sam Ransbotham, Shervin Khodabandeh, David Kiron, François Candelon, Michael Chu and Burt LaFountain

Most companies developing AI capabilities have yet to gain significant financial benefits from their efforts. Only when organizations add the ability to learn with AI do significant benefits become likely. View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Learning; Adoption

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March 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Restricting Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value in Texas Public Schools

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan

The Commission of Agriculture in Texas wants to improve the nutritional quality of the school lunch program to help fight obesity in students. It needs the cooperation of the soft drink industry to change their products and the manner in which they provide financial... View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Nutrition; Food; Quality; Education; Education Industry

April 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Module Note

Teaching Project Finance: An Overview of the Large-Scale Investment Course

By: Benjamin C. Esty

Large-Scale Investment is a case-based course about project finance for second-year MBA students. Project finance involves the creation of a legally independent project company financed with nonrecourse debt for the purpose of investing in a single-purpose industrial... View Details

Keywords: Projects; Financing and Loans

19 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Connecting School Ties and Stock Recommendations

social networks in the form of school ties—bonds formed based on attendance at a common educational institution—helped equity analysts outperform on stock recommendations when the analysts enjoyed an View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

28 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 28

financial and nonfinancial measures, some envisioned its role only in formulaic compensation contracts. We describe an alternative view, in which the scorecard's formal measures are created and used for informal management, with... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2020 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Fossil Fuel Divestment (Abridged)

By: Michael W. Toffel and Sarah Gulick

The president of Harvard University is facing growing pressure from students, alumni, and other climate change activists that are urging the university to divest its multi-billion dollar endowment from fossil fuel companies. The case summarizes the arguments for and... View Details

Keywords: Divestment; Harvard University; Higher Education; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Public Opinion; Ethics; Education Industry

25 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Being a Team Player: Why College Athletes Succeed in Business

commitment means there are things that you learn that are hard to learn otherwise.” Co-authors on the paper include George Hu, a doctoral student in the Harvard Department of Economics; Natee Amornsiripanitch, senior financial economist... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

March 2001
Case

FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes some strategic and financial issues confronting the founder and executive director of a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving awareness of and interest in science and technology among elementary and high school students. The organization sponsors... View Details

Keywords: Middle School Education; Finance; Nonprofit Organizations; Cognition and Thinking; Strategy; Technology

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September 2011 (Revised February 2013)
Case

Trucost: Valuing Corporate Environmental Impacts

By: Michael W. Toffel and Stephanie van Sice

Trucost provided corporate environmental performance data and analysis to institutional investors and corporate managers, but after operating for a decade had yet to achieve profitability. Trucost was struggling to effectively differentiate its high quality products... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Distribution Channels; Investment; Measurement and Metrics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Information; Value; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Services Industry

2021
Working Paper

Once Bitten, Twice Shy: Learning from Corporate Fraud and Corporate Governance Spillovers

By: Trung Nguyen

This paper finds that investors learn from their experience with corporate fraud and financial misconduct and modify their investment behavior to avoid suspicious firms and increase corporate governance efforts. More specially, mutual funds that experienced corporate... View Details

Keywords: Institutional Investors; Investor Experience; Shareholder Voting; Corporate Fraud; Corporate Governance; Institutional Investing; Behavior; Change; Learning

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October 2020 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Divesting Harvard's Endowment

By: Daniel Green, Luis M. Viceira and Holly Fetter

By early 2020 Harvard University was facing growing pressure from students, faculty, and alumni to divest its $40 billion endowment of financial stakes in fossil fuel producers. Its previous policy of avoiding the issue was quickly becoming outdated—$21 trillion of... View Details

Keywords: Divestment; Harvard University; ESG; Higher Education; Investment Portfolio; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact