Publications

28 Apr 2022
Blog Post

Harvard Team Wins Second Place in MIINT Impact Investing Competition

Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School joined together in teams of 5-6 students, sourced investments in high-impact startups, and conducted due diligence on the business opportunity, financial... View Details

25 Apr 2023
Blog Post

How Short Intensive Programs (SIPs) Transform Your MBA Learning Journey

students. We interviewed two students about their experiences with SIPs, taking a closer look at their time in the Spiritual Lives of Leaders and Personal Finance courses. Tricia Peralta (MBA 2024) - Spiritual Lives of Leaders Why did you... View Details

Program

Mergers and Acquisitions

Details Enable growth through an effective M&A process Build stronger M&A strategies Identify the right targets, assess business value accurately, and perform meaningful due diligence Negotiate complex multi-party, multi-issue deals that... View Details

Program

Building a Legacy

Summary Wealth management for high-net-worth families has grown increasingly complex. For some families, the responsibility of wealth management has shifted to younger generations who have less experience investing. For other families, the early liquidation of View Details

16 Dec 2020
Blog Post

My HBS Student Loan Story: Ina Foalea (MBA 2018)

Business school is a valuable investment in your future. HBS supports that investment through generous need-based scholarships. In addition to scholarships, many HBS students utilize student loans to help meet their portion of the shared... View Details

Program

Driving Corporate Performance

measurement and control systems across all business functions for effective strategy execution—and to design, motivate, and lead a successful, scalable organization. Details Drive your strategy throughout the entire organization Translate... View Details

March 1988 (Revised July 1990)
Case

Walt Disney Productions: Greenmail

Considers a firm whose investment strategies have essentially run out. Walt Disney's original visions and goals have all been fulfilled and after his death no new ones are forthcoming. Disney faces repeated takeover attacks and is forced to either set new corporate... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Crisis Management; Acquisition; Financial Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

January 2009 (Revised November 2011)
Case

The Tip of the Iceberg: JP Morgan Chase and Bear Stearns (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose, Daniel Baird Bergstresser and David Lane

"Bear Stearns & Co. burned through nearly all of its $18 billion in cash reserves during the week of March 10, 2008, and an unprecedented provision of liquidity support from the Federal Reserve on Friday, March 13 was insufficient to reverse the decline in Bear's... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Crisis; Capital; Financial Liquidity; Financial Strategy; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Competition; Valuation; Financial Services Industry

March 2023 (Revised May 2025)
Case

On

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger and Sascha Mader

Founded in 2010, in just one decade, the Swiss company On had established itself as a main player in global sports footwear and apparel. Based on an unconventional strategy which one of the founders labeled as “obsessively distinct,” On grew its sales with a compound... View Details

January 1994 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Pankaj Ghemawat

Focuses on the evolution of Wal-Mart's remarkably successful discount operations and describes the company's more recent attempts to diversify into other businesses. The company has entered the warehouse club industry with its Sam's Clubs and the grocery business with... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Price; Marketing Channels; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Information Technology

November 2022
Case

Ajax Health: A New Model for Medical Technology Innovation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo

This case teaches key success factors for both startup and established MedTech firms. It examines how to structure a firm to maximize innovation and financial returns with organizational structures that better align the incentives for the different skill sets... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Success; Innovation Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Market Entry and Exit; Financial Strategy; Business Model; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Technology Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

June 2018 (Revised February 2019)
Teaching Note

Rose Electronics Distributing Company

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

Itamar Frankenthal (HBS ’13) wanted a $4.5 million bank loan to partially finance his planned acquisition of a small company, Rose Electronics. He received nine proposals which varied widely in term, interest rate, amortization schedule, and covenants. Frankenthal had... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Acquisition; Decision Making; Electronics Industry

2009
Other Unpublished Work

Bridge Building in Venture Capital-Backed Acquisitions

By: Paul A. Gompers and Yuhai Xuan

We study the role of common venture capital investors in alleviating asymmetric information between public acquirers and private venture capital-backed targets. We find that acquisition announcement returns are more positive for acquisitions in which both the target... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Knowledge Sharing; Market Transactions

Read Now

March 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Mirae Asset: Korea's Mutual Fund Pioneer

By: Mukti Khaire, Michael Shih-ta Chen and G.A. Donovan

Park Hyeon-Joo, the founder and chairman of Korea's earliest and largest mutual fund company, plans to expand internationally. After first offering emerging market funds to its Korean customers, the company then began selling local-currency funds in India and Brazil.... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Global Strategy; Emerging Markets; Financial Services Industry; South Korea

2012
Working Paper

Payout Taxes and the Allocation of Investment

When corporate payout is taxed, internal equity (retained earnings) is cheaper than external equity (share issues). If there are no perfect substitutes for equity finance, payout taxes may therefore have an effect on the investment of firms. High taxes will favor... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Equity; Financing and Loans; Investment; Taxation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Motivation and Incentives

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22 Oct 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Strategies to Fight Ad-sponsored Rivals

Keywords: by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell & Feng Zhu; Advertising

Web

Browse All Articles, Research, & Case Studies - HBS Working Knowledge

businesses afford to exclude the roughly one in three working Americans with criminal records from the economy? In a case study, Paul Gompers explores the challenges a social justice startup encounters in helping the formerly... View Details

December 2008 (Revised February 2011)
Supplement

Evan Williams: From Blogger to Odeo (B)

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Louis-Philippe Maurice

For several months, founder-CEO Evan Williams has felt trapped, unable to control Odeo and its strategic direction. He longs for the “simple” days of Blogger, the previous venture he had co-founded. Although his Blogger experiences had included a major blow-up with his... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Business Strategy