Publications

January 2001 (Revised May 2010)
Case

BP Amoco (B): Financing Development of the Caspian Oil Fields

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Michael Kane

British Petroleum and Amoco were the two largest members of the Azerbaijan International Oil Consortium (AIOC), an 11-firm consortium that was spending $10 billion to develop oil fields in the Caspian Sea. As of March 1999, AIOC had completed a $1.9 billion development... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Policy; Capital Budgeting; Project Finance; Emerging Markets; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; United Kingdom; Europe

02 Aug 2016
First Look

August 2, 2016

the capital regulation of commercial banks? This paper builds a quantitative general equilibrium model with commercial banks and shadow banks to study the unintended consequences of capital requirements. A... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 1989 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.--1988

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Set two years after a takeover attempt forced the company to restructure by leveraging up, selling assets, and repurchasing stock. The case affords an opportunity to analyze what effect the restructuring had on: 1) the cost of capital, 2) investment decisions, and 3)... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Restructuring; Assets; Cost of Capital; Investment; Competition; Rubber Industry

10 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Hard Numbers on Social Investments

investment of $175,000 but no investments in follow-on rounds, and no cash out (still holds the investment at the current valuation). In this scenario, the hypothetical portfolio achieved an IRR of 8 percent. During roughly the same investment period, traditional View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

18 Aug 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Contest: 15 Years of Building Better Entrepreneurs

Chu, Joe Lassiter, and Mike Roberts. Initially, Sahlman recalls, there was some resistance to the idea, which was first proposed by Alison Berkley Wagonfeld and Bill Nussey (both MBA '96) as a project for Professor Josh Lerner's Venture... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

07 Jan 2009
What Do You Think?

Is the World Really Flat?

this month's column. Bruce Bockmann stated the case for the "flat-worlders" in reminding us that "it is the responsibility of government to support technology in its own country. If government does that, the capital and... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

27 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 27

venture capital for the first time. She has spent the last six long years building Sittercity into the nation's leading babysitting web service, larger than all of its competitors combined. In the process,... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

What It Takes to Restore Trust in Business

far. The American capital markets are a key element of the economic system, and "when they function well, they are a wonder of the world," he said. But the American capital markets require four... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

January 2024
Case

Fusion Industry Association: Igniting the Future of Clean Energy

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Jim Matheson, Kyle R. Myers and Henry Tao

Fusion energy is evolving from a scientific idea to a commercial possibility, drawing large investments and regulatory discussions; how should the FIA navigate this evolution?

The Fusion Industry Association (FIA) is at the forefront of transforming fusion... View Details

Keywords: Science-Based Business; Engineering; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Government and Politics; Government Legislation; Industry Clusters; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Technological Innovation; Energy Industry; United States

March 1995 (Revised July 1996)
Case

Mattson Foods, Inc. (Revised): The Bardolini Division

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

The Bardolini Division of Mattson Foods, with plants in the northeast and midwest, wants to open up the western market for its pizza. Management must decide whether to build a new plant on the West Coast, and what type of technology to put in the plant if they decide... View Details

Keywords: Logistics; Emerging Markets; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Plan; Capital Budgeting; Expansion; Buildings and Facilities; Strategic Planning; Marketing Strategy; Technology; Economic Systems; Food and Beverage Industry

February 2025
Case

Hyperscaling Dreams: Ualá’s Path from Startup to Fintech Champion

By: Juan Alcacer and Manuel Franck

Ualá, founded by Pierpaolo Barbieri in 2017, is a fast-growing fintech company on a mission to revolutionize financial services in Latin America. Starting with a 14-person team and a prepaid card linked to a digital app, Ualá rapidly expanded into a comprehensive... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Leadership; Venture Capital; Talent and Talent Management; Strategy; Credit; Banking Industry; Argentina; Mexico; Colombia; Latin America

08 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 8

investments across time and as they move between firms. We find evidence of skill and exit style differences even among venture partners investing at the same VC firm at the same time. Furthermore, our estimates suggest the partner's... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 12, 2019

headquarters. In these cases, the unit manager may be more informed than headquarters about which candidates would best match local conditions. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50576 Harvard Business School Case 818-137 View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

November 2000 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Loewen Group Inc., The

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jose Camacho

A publiclytraded funeral home and cemetery consolidator faces imminent financial distress. The company has aggressively grown through use of debt. Restructuring the debt is potentially very costly to creditors, shareholders, suppliers, and other corporate stakeholders.... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Cost of Capital; Debt Securities; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Crisis Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Service Industry

22 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 22

Their challenge had been finding the capital to finance the new ventures rather than the brand. Since 2005, Branson was dedicating more and more time to a charitable organization, Virgin Unite, and had... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2017 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Delivering the Goods at Shippo

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Olivia Hull

Laura Behrens Wu, CEO of software start-up Shippo, prepares her pitch for a Series A funding round following a successful seed round. Customer adoption of Shippo’s e-commerce dashboard application, which allows small and medium retailers to compare delivery rates... View Details

April 2009 (Revised March 2014)
Teaching Note

Evan Williams: From Blogger to Odeo (A) and (B)

By: Noam T. Wasserman

Teaching Note for [809088]. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Strategy; Groups and Teams; Blogs; Business Startups; Financing and Loans; Governing and Advisory Boards; Projects; Entrepreneurship