Publications

22 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Not Your Father’s State-Run Capitalism

There's a trade-off, however, as it can open the door to minority investors taking a hit, say as when a government-owned company holds down the price of gasoline in order to benefit voters, but depresses profits View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

March 2023
Article

Not from Concentrate: Collusion in Collaborative Industries

By: Jordan M. Barry, John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers and Richard Lowery

The chief principle of antitrust law and theory is that reducing market concentration—having more, smaller firms instead of fewer, bigger ones—reduces anticompetitive behavior. We demonstrate that this principle is fundamentally incomplete.

In many... View Details

SSRN

December 2021
Article

Cash-for-Information Whistleblower Programs: Effects on Whistleblowing and Consequences for Whistleblowers

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and Gerardo Pérez Cavazos

We study the effect of financial incentives on whistleblowing and the consequences for whistleblowers under the cash-for-information program of the False Claims Act (FCA). Exploiting appeals-court decisions that increase financial incentives for whistleblowing, we find... View Details

Keywords: Whistleblowers; Cash-for-information Whistleblower Programs; False Claims Act; Corporate Misconduct; Consequences For Whistleblowers; Crime and Corruption; Information; Cost

SSRN

20 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

Rocket-tunity: Can Private Firms Turn a Profit in Space?

to launch the first private mission to land on the moon, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission will use a lander to study the moon’s magnetic field. “One could imagine a trip like this becoming not exactly a rite of passage, but a... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Wallask; Aerospace; Tourism; Transportation

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Not All M&As Are Alike—and That Matters

processes. Take the time to figure out how the target company achieved the success that led you to buy it. If it's brilliant at product development and you're not ...well, you figure it out. Keep in mind that the bigger you are relative... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower

20 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Blind Spots: We’re Not as Ethical as We Think

self-interest and, often, without regard for moral principles—is silent during the planning stage of a decision but typically emerges and dominates at the time of the decision. Not only will your... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2007
Working Paper

Fair (and Not So Fair) Division

By: John W. Pratt

Drawbacks of existing procedures are illustrated and a method of efficient fair division is proposed that avoids them. Given additive participants' utilities, each item is priced at the geometric mean (or some other function) of its two highest valuations. The... View Details

Keywords: Fairness; Price

Read Now

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

SSRN

September 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

In late 2018, evidence emerged that many of Google’s temporary help agency workers, vendors, and independent contractors (“TVCs”) were unhappy with the company. TVCs, who reportedly made up 49.95% of Google’s 170,000-person global workforce, had raised concerns of... View Details

Educators

21 Oct 2010
Conference Presentation

How the ISO 9001 Standard for Quality Management Systems Improves Employee Morale and Increases Profitability and Competitiveness

By: Michael W. Toffel

Keywords: Management Systems; Employees; Quality; Happiness; Profit

Read Now

Article

How Not to Cut Health Care Costs

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Derek A. Haas

Health care providers in much of the world are trying to respond to the tremendous pressure to reduce costs—but evidence suggests that many of their attempts are counterproductive, raising costs and sometimes decreasing the quality of care. Using evidence from field... View Details

Register to Read

January 11, 2023
Article

Russia and Ukraine Are Not Ready for Talks: But They Might Get There If Ukraine Keeps Winning

By: James K. Sebenius and Michael Singh

While there are many calls for negotiation between Ukraine and Russia to end their war, there does now (early 2023) not appear to be a zone of possible agreement (ZOPA), since each side's best no-agreement option ("BATNA") likely appears superior to any mutually... View Details

Keywords: Diplomacy; Agreements; Ukraine; International Relations; War; Negotiation; Ukraine; Russia

Register to Read

Article

Sales Productivity, Not Just Sales Technology

By: Frank V. Cespedes

This article discusses the reasons behind the rapidly increasing investments in “Sales Enablement” (SE) technology, including the declining costs of that technology, a change in company cost structures, and a consequent shift in the focus of productivity improvements... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Information Technology; Performance Productivity

October 2019
Teaching Note

Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

A Teaching Note for the "Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?" case study (HBS#820-048). The case discusses recent controversies regarding how Google manages temporary help agency workers, workers supplied by vendors, and independent contractors ("TVCs"). Such TVCs reportedly... View Details

2014
Book

A Social Strategy: How We Profit from Social Media

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Almost no one had heard of social media a decade ago, but today websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have more than 1 billion users and account for almost 25 percent of Internet use. Practically overnight, social media seems indispensable to our lives—from... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Web; Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing

22 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Profits and Prophets: The Role of Values in Investment

education, not for use as a political weapon. The board conditionally agreed to end the disputed investments. The result: With investments constricted over a number of years, the fund experienced a $3... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

September 2009 (Revised November 2021)
Case

OnStar: Not Your Father's General Motors

By: Clayton M. Christensen

After two years of less than stellar performance resulting in sales well below plan, senior management at General Motors (GM) mobile telecommunications service start-up, OnStar, recognized that without a substantial change in their strategy, support for the venture... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology; Risk and Uncertainty; Joint Ventures; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Product Positioning; Risk Management; Auto Industry; Telecommunications Industry

Educators

December 2007
Article

Fair (and Not So Fair) Division

By: John W. Pratt

Drawbacks of existing procedures are illustrated and a method of efficient fair division is proposed that avoids them. Given additive participants' utilities, each item is priced at the geometric mean (or some other function) of its two highest valuations. The... View Details

Keywords: Price; Management Practices and Processes; Valuation