Publications

June 1991 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Second Bank of the United States: Banks and Banking Before the Second Bank of the United States

Describes the problems of early banking, early attempts at central banking, achieving a sound uniform currency, and economic growth. Illustrates the problems of developing a sound money economy in a developing country and shows the difficulties of branch management in... View Details

Keywords: Currency; Business History; Central Banking; Communication; Economic Growth; Banking Industry; United States

05 Aug 2021
News

The chip shortage is getting worse

04 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Need to Solve a Problem? Take a Break From Collaborating

Got a problem? Throw some collaboration software at it. It's a common strategy among today's managers: Organizations spend a lot of money on technology that enables employees to tackle problems collectively. Hence, the market is rife with... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Video Game; Web Services

28 Oct 2009
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Begins Teaching Consumer Finance

look at what functions they perform. In the classroom, we study four functions: payments, movements of money from today to tomorrow (savings and investing), movements of money from tomorrow back to today... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Financial Services; Education

30 Sep 2019
News

WeWork Needs Cash as Botched IPO Scuttles Planned Infusion

19 May 2009
News

Mid-level jobs key to recovery

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 Its previous policy of avoiding the issue was quickly becoming outdated—$21 trillion of...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

May 2022
Case

Rawbank's Illico Cash: Can 'Fast Money' Overcome Cash Dependency in the DRC?

By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger

Thomas de Dreux-Brézé, the Head of Strategy and Project Management at Rawbank Congo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was perplexed as he reviewed annual adoption rates for the bank’s launch of Illico Cash 2.0. As the bank’s mobile money app, Illico Cash... View Details

26 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

What’s the Value of a Win in College Athletics?

school’s piggy bank in his paper, How Much Is a Win Worth? An Application to Intercollegiate Athletics, forthcoming in Management Science. “Some of the top schools make enormous amounts of money—just extraordinary, close to $200 million,”... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Sports; Education

May 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Breaking the Buck

By: Robert C. Pozen and Elizabeth Leonard

After an incredibly volatile six months since Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, Finbar McCall contemplated his options. As the investment manager of RPG Prime Reserve Fund, Inc. (RPGXX), McCall had just heard the news that the U.S. Treasury was extending the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Financial Crisis; Financial Management; Insurance; Investment Funds; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Financial Services Industry

November 2011
Compilation

VCPE Strategy Vignettes: 2012

By: Josh Lerner, Felda Hardymon, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, Ann Leamon and Lisa Strope

This compilation of five vignettes depicts common challenges confronting venture capital and leveraged buyout groups. They range from when to deviate from a strategy and how to manage an inept but well-connected executive to equity splits among founders and whether to... View Details

Keywords: Strategy

June 2003 (Revised September 2004)
Exercise

The Pacific Sentinel: Role for Chris Coleman

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Dina R. Pradel

A new publishing company has just purchased the Pacific Sentinel, a fictional West Coast newspaper. The new publisher is willing to invest $1 million in the future success of the paper and has asked the executive editor and advertising manager to develop a joint plan... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Conflict of Interests; Decision Making; Publishing Industry

20 Jan 2020
News

Is Venture Capital Worth The Risk?

01 Jun 2023
News

Action Plan: Net Proceeds

“I’m a root-cause kind of guy,” says Robert Goodwin (GMP 3, 2007), reflecting on a military, government, and civilian career that has taken him from counterdrug operations in Colombia to assisting with the peace process in Sudan to rebuilding the health care system in... View Details

Keywords: April White; recycling; corporate social responsibility; waste management; water; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

June 2003 (Revised May 2004)
Exercise

The Pacific Sentinel: Role for Alex Martinez

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Dina R. Pradel

A new publishing company has just purchased the Pacific Sentinel, a fictional West Coast newspaper. The new publisher is willing to invest $1 million in the future success of the paper and has asked the executive editor and advertising manager to develop a joint plan... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Acquisition; Business Strategy; Publishing Industry; Western United States

Article

Sadness, Identity, and Plastic in Over-shopping: The Interplay of Materialism, Poor Credit Management, and Emotional Buying Motives in Predicting Compulsive Buying

By: Grant Edward Donnelly, Masha Ksendzova and Ryan Howell

A comprehensive study is currently lacking to explain why material values strongly influence compulsive buying. The goal of the current study is to test if money management, buying motivations for improving mood and identity, and self-transformation expectations... View Details

Keywords: Credit Cards; Consumer Behavior; Identity; Emotions

Find at Harvard

15 Feb 2018
News

Black Business Leaders Series: John Rogers and the Importance of Hiring Minority-Owned Services Firms

December 2018 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Bulb 2015: Foundation

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In late August 2015, Amit Gudka and Hayden Wood, co-founders of Bulb, Ltd (Bulb), were ready to offer affordable renewable energy to the United Kingdom’s 27 million households. They hoped to capitalize on the hundreds of thousands of customers switching their energy... View Details