Publications

February 1997 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Jim Sharpe: Extrusion Technology, Inc. (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Barbara Feinberg

Jim Sharpe, 11 years after receiving his MBA from Harvard and working for others, has finally become his own boss and 100% owner of manufacturer of aluminum extrusions. After 10 months of an unfunded search, he acquires the business in an LBO and prepares to face his... View Details

Keywords: Acquisitions; Search Funds; Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurs; Turnarounds; Bank Loan; Manufacturing; Metals Processing; Entrepreneurial Finance; Leveraged Buyouts; Labor Unions; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Crisis Management; Management Skills; Experience and Expertise; Borrowing and Debt; Manufacturing Industry

May 2011
Article

The Hollow Science

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The financial meltdown made clear that the executives of many major financial institutions were operating with inadequate or distorted information about the values and risks of their firms' assets. It's fair to say that business scholars bear some... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Crisis; Financial Management; Information; Knowledge Acquisition; Risk Management; Practice

Find at Harvard

March 2009
Case

Putting Sparkle Into Soda-Club's European Partnerships

Daniel Birnbaum, new CEO of Soda-Club, has taken charge of a company with significant market penetration, brand equity, and revenues in certain European markets. The company is also plagued with hostile relationships with major distributors. He needs to decide how to... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Partners and Partnerships; Distribution; Entrepreneurship; Crisis Management; Distribution Industry; Europe

November 2003 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Samsung and Daewoo: Two Tales of One City

By fiscal year 2000, Samsung had pulled far ahead of other "chaebols," Korean conglomerates. For example, the market value of Samsung affiliates listed on the Korea Stock Exchange exceeded the sum of the market value of listed affiliates of second, third, and fourth... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Business Conglomerates; Corporate Strategy; Emerging Markets; Crisis Management; Electronics Industry; South Korea

04 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 4, 2008

Lerner, and Jean Tirole Abstract The sub-prime crisis has shown a harsh spotlight on the practices of securities underwriters, which provided too many complex securities that proved to ultimately have little value. This uproar calls... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2010 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Greenbriar Growth Partners and Microsurgery Devices

Greenbriar Growth Partners (GGP), a venture capital (VC) firm, has been an investor in Microsurgery Devices (MSD) for four-plus years and has come into conflict with the company's founder. Should the Board's nominating committee re-nominate the VC investor, and should... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Governing and Advisory Boards; Conflict of Interests; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

December 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Supplement

Goldman Sachs: A Bank for All Seasons (C)

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Tiffany Lynne Obenchain

After posting its first-ever quarterly loss in 2008, Goldman Sachs surpassed market expectations for the first quarter of 2009 but came under intensive fire for, among other things, announcing its intention to repay TARP thereby avoiding its compensation limitations. View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Investment Banking; Corporate Disclosure; Policy; Executive Compensation; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry

30 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Where Could More Regulation Help Small Businesses? Online Lending.

the depth of problems in small business lending, and find and measure solutions. In the advent of another credit crisis this could prove disastrous. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is empowered within Section 1071 of... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills and Brayden McCarthy; Financial Services

21 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 21, 2015

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/715457-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 415-052 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year Abby Falik, founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year (GCY), quickly read through the most recent news updates regarding the Ebola View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2010 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Liza Davis and the Bargain Hunting Customer

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez and Lisa Brem

Liza Davis, an upscale women's fashion retailer, is reeling from worldwide recession and lower demand. Should the company target the fast-growing bargain hunter segment or hold the line on price discounts to preserve their brand image? Customer profitability... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Price; Product Positioning; Customer Value and Value Chain; Business Cycles; Financial Crisis; Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry

September 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

BP's Macondo: Spill and Response

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

This case starts by reporting various factors that may have contributed to the massive Macondo oil spill, noting that BP, its partners and the government all made decisions that helped cause the accident. It then discusses the response to this spill by BP and the... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Metals and Minerals; Crisis Management; Infrastructure; Trade; Pollutants; Risk and Uncertainty; Business and Government Relations; Finance; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United Kingdom; United States

March 1999
Case

Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (A): The First Month

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Dr. Hans Fritz is 37 years old when he arrives in Bangkok on March 1, 1998 to assume his position as general manager of Novartis Thailand. Novartis is the world's largest pharmaceutical company. He had lobbied to transition from a staff position to this line management... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Organizational Structure; Transition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Working Conditions; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Crisis Management; Decision Making; Pharmaceutical Industry; Thailand

13 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Global Investments Are Still a Good Bet

sectors that are booming. However, as markets in different countries have increasingly moved in tandem or correlated, from 50 or 60 percent in the 1990s to more than 90 percent after the financial crisis of 2008, that strategy has seemed... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

30 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 30

Systems Approach in Venezuela: Laying the Foundation for Shared Value in a Time of Crisis No abstract available. Purchase this case:https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/917409-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 617-014 Korea... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Dec 2009
What Do You Think?

Should Immigration Policies Be More Welcoming to Low-Skilled Workers?

countries were pondering policies regarding a flood of guest workers, some legal and some illegal. These issues tend to arise at times of economic growth or stress. The differing rates at which countries emerge from the recent global economic View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

22 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

“Too Big To Fail”: Reining In Large Financial Firms

to monitor TARP expenditures and recommend regulatory reforms. Led by Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, the panel recruited Moss, an expert in risk management, to provide historical context to the financial crisis and a... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Banking; Financial Services

July 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Airbnb Emerges from the Pandemic: Lessons for Stakeholder Governance (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison M. Ciechanover

As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details

Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Two-Sided Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Service Industry; United States

May 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Supplement

Odebrecht's 'Transformation Journey' (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo

The case describes the changes in Odebrecht’s board of directors while the company had to file for court-supervised reorganization and cope with an ongoing feud within its founding family, and the new challenges that the Group’s leadership has to face. The changes in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Reputation; Mission and Purpose; Business and Government Relations; Engineering; Family Business; Emerging Markets; Construction Industry; Brazil; Latin America