Publications

October 2006 (Revised September 2014)
Case

Summit Partners - The FleetCor Investment (A)

By: Michael J. Roberts

Part of a 3-case series in which students get to see the unfolding of due diligence on private equity (buy out) deal. In this, the A case, the deal team has negotiated a letter of intent with FleetCor, a firm that operates a fuel payment network for vehicle fleets.... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Preparation; Private Equity; Leveraged Buyouts; Investment; Negotiation Offer; Service Industry

13 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Diagnosing the Public Health Care Alternative

design with features that many people may not consider to be good value for the money. To return to the car analogy, it might demand a heated seat in every vehicle. As for public insurance, it ignores real... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

02 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

Indulgence vs. Regret: Investing in Future Memories

being toovirtuous and hard-working. She also presents a strategy to correct this behavior. Aside from influencing how people choose to live their lives, Keinan's findings have implications for marketers hoping to convince consumers to purchase those guilty-pleasure... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

November 2016
Case

But, It's For a Good Cause

By: Elizabeth Keenan and John Gourville

Companies have long tried to enhance consumers’ perceptions of their firms and the products they sell in a variety of ways. Such efforts include the development of a brand image that the public views favorably, as in the case of Apple. It extends to the development of... View Details

Keywords: Social Change; Marketing And Society; Social Marketing; Brands and Branding; Customers; Perception; Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Partners and Partnerships; Trends; Environmental Sustainability

22 Sep 2017
News

State Street’s SHE: Investing in Women Leaders

08 Jan 2016
News

Investing in Sustainability

should be investing in ways that align with their mission,” says the former hedge-fund investor. “In that way, they can get both good returns and further their goals.” Tiller knows that his goals of changing... View Details

Keywords: April White; Agriculture

01 Mar 2012
News

Social Investing Pioneers

be paid for that social performance at a rate that enables it to give a satisfactory return to the investors,” says Sir Ronald Cohen (MBA 1969), a cocreator of the idea. Cohen has emerged as the public face of social View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance; Social Assistance; Health, Social Assistance

25 Apr 2014
News

Investing in Innovation

and society have never been more divided. Even as the economy has recovered, trust has not. As business leaders, we need to remind the public that business is a force for good and is fundamental to societal... View Details

Keywords: HBS Fund; Educational Services

15 Nov 2018
Book

Can the Global Food Industry Overcome Public Distrust?

JamesBrey Food is the largest segment of the global economy. It is also widely recognized as more critical for human health than any pharmaceutical drug on the planet. But significant changes in the industry are making people lose trust in many institutions involved in... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Agriculture & Agribusiness

10 Feb 2016
News

Investing in Sustainability

that will make the organization sustainable. “I believe charities should be investing in ways that align with their mission,” says Tiller. “In that way, they can get both good returns and further their... View Details

30 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID Not Slowing VC Investment

expect their investments to outperform major equity indexes going forward, and they’re continuing to fund new endeavors. “It’s sort of the opposite of doom and gloom,” Gompers says. “We were surprised by how relatively unaffected the... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Financial Services; Banking

February 2015
Article

Corporate Investment and Stock Market Listing: A Puzzle?

By: John Asker, Joan Farre-Mensa and Alexander Ljungqvist

We investigate whether short-termism distorts the investment decisions of stock market listed firms. To do so, we compare the investment behavior of observably similar public and private firms using a new data source on private U.S. firms, assuming for identification... View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; Public Ownership; Corporate Finance

SSRN

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November 2007 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Indonesia: Attracting Foreign Investment

By: Michael E. Porter and Christian H.M. Ketels

Describes the economic development of Indonesia from independence after World War II to 2006 and the post-Suharto period. The coverage of the post-Suharto period provides evidence of how political and economic conditions are intertwined after a change in the political... View Details

Keywords: History; Situation or Environment; Competitive Strategy; Emerging Markets; Policy; Foreign Direct Investment; Business and Government Relations; Public Administration Industry; Indonesia

29 Oct 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Public Sentiment and the Price of Corporate Sustainability

Keywords: by George Serafeim

June 2007 (Revised December 2007)
Case

AFL-CIO: Office of Investment and Home Depot

By: Rakesh Khurana and James Weber

Describes the AFL-CIO: Office of Investments activities in their campaign to improve governance at Home Depot by calling attention to Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli's compensation package and the company's poor performance. The AFL-CIO Office of Investments advocates... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Labor Unions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Shareholder Relations

01 Feb 1999
News

Too Much of a Good Thing?

booming. Banks and companies, eager for a piece of the action, invest heavily in production capability. Not surprisingly, a market can soon become saturated with too much product; consequently, demand drops, revenues slow to a trickle,... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons

2015
Working Paper

Crowdfunding as 'Donations': Theory & Evidence

By: Kevin J. Boudreau, Lars Bo Jeppesen, Toke Reichstein and Francesco Rullani

For a wide class of crowdfunding approaches, we argue that the reward structure (for funders) is closer to that of charitable donations to public goods than it is to traditional entrepreneurial finance. Many features of the design of crowdfunding platforms can... View Details

Keywords: Crowdfunding Platforms; Entrepreneurial Finance; Free-riding; Voluntary Contributions To Public Goods; Online Technology; Entrepreneurship; Social and Collaborative Networks; Finance; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving