Publications

Research Summary

Good cop, Bad Cop: Complementarities between Debt and Equity in Disciplining Management

Joint work with Alexander Gümbel, Saïd Business School and Lincoln College Oxford

In this paper we examine how the quantity of information generated about firm... View Details

March 2019 (Revised June 2021)
Case

HelloSelf: Foundation

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

On January 6, 2019, HelloSelf, a London-based “BrainTech” company, founded a year earlier by Charles Wells, soft launched. The proposition was simply to help its members “Be your Best Self.” The company provided its registered members with access to a clinical... View Details

August 2015
Article

Hospital Board and Management Practices Are Strongly Related to Hospital Performance on Clinical Quality Metrics

By: Thomas C Tsai, Ashish K. Jha, Atul A. Gawande, Robert S. Huckman, Nicholas Bloom and Raffaella Sadun

National policies to improve health care quality have largely focused on clinical provider outcomes and, more recently, payment reform. Yet the association between hospital leadership and quality, although crucial to driving quality improvement, has not been explored... View Details

Keywords: Hospitals; Quality; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Practices and Processes; Service Delivery; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

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January 1990 (Revised June 1995)
Case

Colliers International Property Consultants

By: Nitin Nohria

Describes the origins, organizational structure, management practices, and use of information technology (IT) in Colliers, a real estate network. Colliers provides local firms with a way to maintain local autonomy while gaining national and international coverage.... View Details

Keywords: Property; Organizational Structure; Information Technology; Management Practices and Processes; Partners and Partnerships; Business Model; Mission and Purpose; Business Growth and Maturation; Conflict and Resolution; Quality; Real Estate Industry

09 Mar 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Impact Investing: A Theory of Financing Social Entrepreneurship

Keywords: by Benjamin N. Roth; Financial Services

Oct 2020
Other Presentation

How to Lead in a Crisis

By: Amy C. Edmondson

Humility, transparency and urgency are the keys to successfully steering an organization—big or small—through the challenges that come your way. Leadership expert Amy C. Edmondson provides clear advice and examples to help any leader rise to the occasion. View Details

Keywords: Psychological Safety; COVID-19; Leadership; Crisis Management

December 2000 (Revised December 2016)
Technical Note

Valuing Companies in Corporate Restructurings: Technical Note

By: Stuart C. Gilson

This case provides a technical overview of different valuation techniques for use in valuing companies in corporate restructuring. Techniques covered include adjusted present value, WACC, capital cash flow, and discounted cash flow valuation. Specific numerical... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Capital; Cash Flow; Interest Rates; Valuation

01 Aug 2012
News

Nothing gets done in August (and that's OK)

20 Jul 2010
News

How to Measure Brand Value: Likes, Followers, Influencers, Views? No, Social Currency

11 Jun 2018
Blog Post

Meet the 2018-2019 Blavatnik Fellows in Life Science Entrepreneurship

including; the New Venture Competition, the Harvard Innovation Lab, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and entrepreneurial-focused courses. More than 50 percent of HBS graduates create ventures in a quest to change the world. In that spirit, alongside the Harvard network, HBS... View Details

March 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Aligning Mission and Margin at Southern Bancorp

By: Rebecca M. Henderson, Brian Trelstad and Eren Kuzucu

In October 2020, after spending almost a decade to turnaround Southern Bancorp, an Arkansan bank founded with the mission to provide financial services to rural, underserved communities, CEO Darrin Williams is wondering how Southern Bancorp should continue to grow.... View Details

Keywords: Racial Wealth Gap; Banks and Banking; Growth and Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Going Public; Investment Return; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; Arkansas

17 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Are Companies Getting Away with 'Cheap Talk' on Climate Goals?

Companies regularly set ambitious climate goals, but these plans often end up like many people’s New Year’s resolutions: unmet aspirations that quietly fizzle out. While companies often gain positive media attention by trumpeting plans for reducing greenhouse gas... View Details

Keywords: by Tim Gray

01 Feb 2017
Blog Post

How to Partner With a Student Club: Join a Club Panel

Club panel events provide a myriad of benefits to employers coming to campus. Company representatives can build brand awareness and speak to their company and its mission in front of a targeted group of talent that could be potential team... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

08 Nov 2024
Op-Ed

How Private Investors Can Help Solve Africa's Climate Crisis

African people, businesses, and nations are becoming increasingly stressed by climate-related perils like droughts, river flooding, extreme heat, and rising sea levels. This is leading not only to the destruction of assets but also challenges to lives and... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Green Technology; Energy

September 2023
Module Note

Live Case Exercise for Financial Reporting

By: Tatiana Sandino and Marshal Herrmann

Harvard Business School employs the case method as a cornerstone of its pedagogy, providing students with opportunities to engage in discussions related to difficult or contentious decisions confronted by real-world organizations. In this “live case,” we depart from... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Research; Corporate Disclosure

2014
Working Paper

Contraceptive Access and Fertility: The Impact of Supply-Side Interventions

By: Nava Ashraf, Erica Field and Jessica Leight

Declining fertility in both the developed and developing world has led to large and potentially welfare-enhancing changes in women's labor supply, education and investment in children in recent decades. However, it has been widely noted that the pace of this decline... View Details

Keywords: Fertility; Contraceptive Access; Zambia

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May 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Ultra: The Quest for Leadership (A)

By: Dwight B. Crane and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

Ultra is one of a small group of competing Brazilian petrochemical companies, each of which buys raw material and is a minority owner of Copene, a "cracking" company that provides ethylene and other materials. Because of an industry restructuring, an auction of shares... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Capital Budgeting; Investment; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Industry Structures; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Bids and Bidding; Economy; Ownership Stake; Chemical Industry; Brazil

September – October 2010
Article

The Effect of Product Variety and Inventory Levels on Retail Sales: A Longitudinal Study

By: Zeynep Ton and Ananth Raman

We examine the effects of product variety and inventory levels on store sales. Using four years of data from stores of a large retailer, we show that increases in product variety and inventory levels are both associated with higher sales. We also show that increasing... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Design; Logistics; Product; Quality; Sales; Retail Industry

August 2022
Case

Rocket Learning: Evidence in Action

By: Brian Trelstad, Tomas Rosales and Malini Sen

Founders of Rocket Learning, an India-based nonprofit which focused on early childhood education (ECE), received an invitation from MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), a development research organization, to test its intervention for ECE with a... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Early Childhood Education; Nonprofit Organizations; Literacy; Values and Beliefs; Social and Collaborative Networks; Education Industry; India; Asia