Publications

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July 2015
Article

Executives' 'Off-the-Job' Behaviors and Financial Reporting Risk

By: Robert Davidson, Aiyesha Dey and Abbie Smith

We examine how executives' behavior outside the workplace, as measured by their ownership of luxury goods (low “frugality”) and prior legal infractions, is related to financial reporting risk. We predict and find that chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief financial... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Behavior; Personal Characteristics; Crime and Corruption; Governance Compliance; Financial Reporting; Organizational Culture

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November 2015
Case

Rubicon Global

By: William A. Sahlman and Hunter Ashmore

The case describes Rubicon Global, a startup that aimed to disrupt the waste management industry. The company started with a bold idea: create a cloud-based, full-service waste management company providing low-cost, highly efficient, and environmentally friendly... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Rubicon; Rubicon Global; Waste Management; Startups; Disruptive Technology; Technological Innovation; Disruptive Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Entrepreneurship; Wastes and Waste Processing; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; Service Industry

April 2013 (Revised June 2016)
Case

AIG and the American Taxpayers (A)

By: Karthik Ramanna and Matthew Shaffer

Explores the decision faced by AIG's board on whether to join shareholder and ex-CEO Maurice Greenberg's lawsuit against the U.S. government. The suit, argued by super-lawyer David Boies (of Bush v. Gore and California Gay Marriage fame), claims that in September 2008... View Details

Keywords: Property Rights; Financial Institutions; Financial Markets; Financial Crisis; Property; Insurance Industry; United States

2011
Other Unpublished Work

Military Ties, New Ventures, and Political Risk Management in Emerging Economies

By: Shon R. Hiatt and Wesley Sine

New ventures in emerging economies face a number of challenges such as political instability, corruption, and uncertain property rights that can severely hinder their ability to grow and survive, yet little is known about how startups can mitigate such risk. Using data... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Business Startups; Government and Politics; Developing Countries and Economies; Latin America

February 2005 (Revised November 2012)
Supplement

UAL 2004: Pulling Out of Bankruptcy (CW)

By: Daniel Baird Bergstresser, Kenneth A. Froot and Darren Robert Smart

UAL is a large air transportation company with roots that go back to the 1920s. As a legacy carrier, going back to before the 1978 deregulation of air transportation markets, United Airlines is burdened with cost structures that make it difficult to compete with newer... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Compensation; Costs; Loans; Reorganization; Restructuring; Financing and Loans; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Compensation and Benefits; Air Transportation Industry; United States

Business leaders are being urged to adopt a multistakeholder approach to governance in place of the shareholder-centered approach that has guided their work for several decades. But through hundreds of interviews with directors, executives, investors, governance... View Details

01 Nov 2017
What Do You Think?

What Are the Real Lessons of the Wells Fargo Case?

has “serious questions regarding the oversight responsibilities within all levels of management, especially the Board of Directors!” Arie Goldshlager labels this “a classic case of Goals Gone Wild, referring to a paper by Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Banking

01 Dec 2023
News

The Imposter Among Us

Edited by Jen McFarland Flint; Illustrations by Peter Arkle It was their rst day at Harvard and like the rest of his cohort, Edgar Wallner (PMD 22, 1971) will never forget meeting Robert Gaines-Cooper. Frankly, it would have been difficult to miss the Englishman, who... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

March 2021
Supplement

Facebook's Libra (B): The Privatization of Money?

By: Marco Di Maggio, Ethan Rouen, George Serafeim and Amy Klopfenstein

This case addresses the events that took place following the conclusion of the case “Facebook’s Libra (A): The Privatization of Money?” In October 2019, several months after the conclusion of the A case, multiple members of the Libra Association announced that they... View Details

Web

Finance - Faculty & Research

Equity ; Private Equity ; Financial Liquidity ; Financial Instruments ; Debt Securities ; Credit Derivatives and Swaps ; Bonds ; Stocks ; Financial Strategy ; Interest Rates ; Governance ; Governing and Advisory Boards ; Crisis Management... View Details

08 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 8

priorities. Many years ago labor conditions in Asian contract factories prompted Nike board member Jill Ker Conway to lobby for a board-level corporate responsibility committee, which the company created in 2001. In the years since, the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Web

2023 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

should we evaluate the risks and benefits it creates for patients, employers, and investors? Emerging Strategic Priorities for Corporate Boards Professor Linda Hill ; Cheryl Beninga (MBA 1988); Shyam Gidumal (MBA 1983); Lisa Skeete Tatum... View Details

Forthcoming
Article

Disclosure Standards and Communication Norms: Evidence of Voluntary Sustainability Standards as a Coordinating Device for Capital Markets

By: Khrystyna Bochkay, Jeffrey Hales and George Serafeim

In this paper, we examine how the development of voluntary sustainability standards has affected the nature of information covered in conference calls. Using industry-specific dictionaries of sustainability terms contained in the disclosure standards developed by the... View Details

Keywords: Voluntary Disclosure; Accounting Standards; Sustainability Reporting; Sustainability Standards; ESG; ESG Disclosure; Accounting; Corporate Disclosure; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Standards; United States

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October 2022
Supplement

The SAH Group: The Time is Right, Spreadsheet Supplement

By: Juan Alcacer and Alpana Thapar

In January 2021, Jalila Mezni, CEO of the SAH Group, was preparing to present the company’s future growth plans to its board of directors. The Tunisian company was a leading producer and distributor of personal care and packaged hygiene products. In 2019, it expanded... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Investment Decisions; Growth Management; Vertical Integration; Distribution; Competition; Strategy; Supply Chain; Presentations; Market Entry and Exit; Product Positioning; Consumer Products Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Health Industry; Tunisia

January 20, 2020
Article

Larry Fink Isn't Going to Read Your Sustainability Report

By: Mark R. Kramer

In his recent annual letter to CEOs, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink makes the stunning claim that climate change has brought us to “the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance” and “in the near future … a significant reallocation of capital.” BlackRock has committed to... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Business Model; Investment

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December 2009 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Phreesia: The Patient Intake Company

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Sunaina Yarlagadda and Brian L. Walker

How should the co-founders of an organization that provides patient sign-in and billing services scale their company after five years of successfully targeting small private physician practices? Phreesia had deployed a direct mail and sales force strategy that resulted... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Social Entrepreneurship; Revenue; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

April 2009 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Skyhook Wireless

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Ted Morgan, the founder of Skyhook Wireless just received a call from Steve Jobs of Apple asking for a meeting. Ted must decide how to prepare for a meeting that could finally give Skyhook an anchor customer. Ted and his team have worked for three years to build a new... View Details

Keywords: Mobile and Wireless Technology; Information Technology; Business Ventures; Business Startups; Technology Industry

January 2008 (Revised September 2008)
Supplement

Marketing the "$100 Laptop" (C)

By: John A. Quelch and David Chen

In October 2007, the OLPC reported production delays and missed its shipment date. In early November, the $100 PC finally went into production, with initial shipments planned for Uruguay and Mongolia, and mid-month launched the "Give One, Get One" program. It enabled... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; For-Profit Firms; Partners and Partnerships; Information Infrastructure; Problems and Challenges; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Computer Industry; Canada; Mongolia; Uruguay; United States

February 2005 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Intelliseek

Intelliseek harvests, filters, and mines the content of messages posted by consumers online and on discussion boards and blogs. For any specified consumer product brand, Intelliseek measures the volume of work-of-mouth and its valence (proportion of positive and... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Consumer Behavior; Knowledge Management; Marketing Reference Programs; Web Services Industry