Publications

June 1996
Article

Risk-Based Capital Requirements and the Riskiness of Bank Portfolios

By: Brian J. Hall and Steven R. Grenadier

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Capital; Banks and Banking; Investment

May 1996 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Ecolab, Inc.

By: Ashish Nanda

By 1993, Ecolab has established a dominant market position in the institutional cleaning industry. As the company’s principal competitor, Diversify, drives sales aggressively, Ecolab president Al Schuman faces a choice about how best to market Ecolab’s offerings.... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Employees; Retention; Marketing Strategy; Risk Management; Service Industry

May 1996
Case

First Capital Holdings Corp.

By: Stuart C. Gilson, Harry DeAngelo and Linda DeAngelo

The manager of a money-management firm considers whether to invest in the securities of a large, financially troubled, California-based life insurance holding company that holds 40% of its assets in high-yield junk bonds. Over the past year, the value of its portfolio... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Debt Securities; Bonds; Valuation; Investment Return; Fair Value Accounting; Financial Institutions; Insurance Industry

April 1996 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Lex Service PLC-- Cost of Capital

By: W. Carl Kester and Kendall Backstrand

Lex Service company has grown into a large multidivisional company with a substantial capital budget. In 1993, the board was reviewing its capital budgeting procedures. Specifically, it sought to determine the company's cost of capital and whether it should use... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Cost of Capital; Equity; Capital Budgeting

April 1996 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Times Mirror Company PEPS Proposal Review

By: Peter Tufano

Times Mirror Co. (TMC) owns a substantial block of Netscape common stock purchased prior to Netscape's IPO, on which it has substantial unrealized gains. TMC is restricted from selling the stock in a public offering and is therefore considering a proposal by Morgan... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Stocks; Taxation; Corporate Finance; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

1996
Chapter

Measuring Risk and Return for Portfolios

By: D. E. Bell

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Investment Return; Risk and Uncertainty; Measurement and Metrics

1996
Chapter

Upside Opportunity and Downside Risk

By: Richard F. Meyer

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty

January 1996 (Revised February 1997)
Case

Tennessee Valley Authority: Option Purchase Agreements

By: Peter Tufano

James Cross, VP of customer planning at the Tennessee Valley Authority, a major supplier of electric power in the Southeast United States, is considering meeting its incremental capacity needs by creating new financial contracts, Option Purchase Agreements (OPAs) to... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Energy Generation; Corporate Finance; Energy Industry; United States

1996
Book Review

Book Review of Risk Taking edited by Z. Shapiro

By: M. H. Bazerman and K. A. Wade-Benzoni

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty

January 1996
Article

Reducing the Cost of Demand Uncertainty through Accurate Response to Early Sales

By: A. Raman and M. Fisher

Keywords: Cost; Risk and Uncertainty; Sales

December 1995 (Revised February 1997)
Case

Student Educational Loan Fund, Inc.

By: Peter Tufano

Rick Melnick oversees the Student Educational Loan Fund (SELF), which provides loans to Harvard Business School students. SELF is changing the terms of student loans from variable-rate with semiannual payments to fixed-rate loans with equal monthly payments. Melnick... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Financing and Loans; Interest Rates; Financial Services Industry

November 1995 (Revised April 1996)
Case

ENTel and the Privatization of Argentine Telecommunications

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Growing fiscal deficits, persistent economic recession, and underinvestment in the nation's telecommunications infrastructure lead the Argentine government to privatize its state-owned monopoly provider of telecommunications services, ENTel, in late 1990. The... View Details

Keywords: Opportunities; Risk and Uncertainty; Communication Technology; Privatization; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; Development Economics; Policy; Government and Politics; Performance Effectiveness; Telecommunications Industry; Argentina

Article

Investing in Distressed Situations: A Market Survey

By: S. C. Gilson

The risks of investing in distressed companies—a practice popularly known as "vulture" investing—are highly firm specific and idiosyncratic. Investors who are adept at managing these risks, who understand the legal rules that must be followed in corporate bankruptcy,... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Markets

1995
Book

Decisions under Uncertainty

By: D. E. Bell and A. Schleifer Jr.

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions

September 1995 (Revised March 1999)
Teaching Note

Canadian Airlines: Reservations About Its Future (A) and (B) TN

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Keywords: Air Transportation; Risk and Uncertainty; Air Transportation Industry; Canada

1995
Chapter

Incentive Problems in Financial Contracting: Impacts on Corporate Financing, Investment, and Risk Management Policies

By: K. Froot

Keywords: Catastrophe Risk; Corporate Finance; Cost Of Capital; Banking And Insurance; Asset Pricing; Hedging; Banking; Decision Choice And Uncertainty; Financial Markets; Insurance; Policy; Risk Management; Natural Disasters; Insurance Industry

September–October 1995
Article

Is Foreign Infrastructure Investment Still Risky?

By: L. T. Wells Jr. and E. S. Gleason

Keywords: Investment; Risk and Uncertainty; Global Range

August 1995 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Cricket Road, 503

By: William J. Poorvu and Donald A. Brown

In September 2003, Mason Sexton, a young, inexperienced developer, was making plans to replace a rooming house he had inherited next to the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville with a new 14-unit, 5-story apartment house. His attempts to assemble the... View Details

Keywords: Property; Entrepreneurship; Housing; Buildings and Facilities; Construction; Risk and Uncertainty; Management Practices and Processes; Real Estate Industry; United States

August 1995
Case

Credit General, SA

By: Andre F. Perold

The head of a bank's asset and liability committee has to approve an unexpectedly large overnight currency exposure or require at great cost that the exposure be reduced. View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Currency; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry