Informal Investment - Publications - Faculty & Research

2025
Working Paper

Dynamic Personalization with Multiple Customer Signals: Multi-Response State Representation in Reinforcement Learning

By: Liangzong Ma, Ta-Wei Huang, Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

Reinforcement learning (RL) offers potential for optimizing sequences of customer interactions by modeling the relationships between customer states, company actions, and long-term value. However, its practical implementation often faces significant challenges.... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Policy; Deep Reinforcement Learning; Representation Learning; Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment; Latent Variable Models; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Foreign Direct Investment; Analytics and Data Science

Citation

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Biotech and medical devices: Company Data and Analysis

Insights & Industry Analytics - Tracks global venture capital, angel investment, private equity, M&A, and IPO activity related to private companies and emerging spaces. Pitchbook - Information on companies, deals, funds, investors... View Details

30 Oct 2019
News

Creating Agents of Change

Susana Eshleman (MBA 1998) is president and CEO of Children International. In this interview she talks about the goals and benefits of running an international nonprofit organization. “Children International is a global nonprofit organization. We View Details

11 Oct 2012
News

Answering the Doctor's Call

that I could invest the rest of my career in helping people.” To that end, Downing started taking science classes three years ago. Then, while searching for a medical school that would accept a mid-career student, he stumbled upon a new... View Details

Keywords: resumed education; nontraditional students; Health, Social Assistance

August 2018 (Revised September 2018)
Supplement

LendingClub (B): Decision Trees & Random Forests

By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler

This case builds directly on the LendingClub (A) case. In this case students follow Emily Figel as she builds two tree-based models using historical LendingClub data to predict, with some probability, whether borrower will repay or default on his loan.
... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Data Analytics; Decision Trees; Investment; Financing and Loans; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Forecasting and Prediction

Citation

Purchase

24 May 2004
Research & Ideas

When Reputation Trumps Regulation

abroad. Is there the possibility of a diminished market for these issues if the SEC's enforcement record was better known? Given your findings on cross-listed firms, should investors be more cautious investing in American Depositary... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

19 Feb 2020
News

Running a Decathlon

in a way that would convince high school administrators and students to invest their time in a new program, and, of course, raising money for everything from test-graders to marketing. When funds were tight, the board made personal... View Details

Keywords: Lisa Scanlon Mogolov

20 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

Moving from Supply Chains to Supply Networks

about investing in these companies need to understand what they bring to the table. Raman: That's very true because venture capitalists often base their evaluation of established companies on their supply chain capabilities. Shapiro:... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 Dec 2004
News

HBS to Release 2004 Annual Report

2.8 percent to a total of $294 million. Commenting on the results, HBS chief financial officer Richard P. Melnick (MBA ’92) notes, “The combination of tight fiscal discipline and renewed revenue growth across the School allowed us to make important View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Dec 2000
News

Latin America's Decade

Oxenford says, "Picture a schoolboy in Pata-gonia, in a tiny town with no library. With the Internet, he can get information that fifteen years ago, only a Nobel Prize researcher could access." Education is also an essential part of... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons and Julia Hanna; Latin America; research; infrastructure; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments

07 Sep 2021
News

Building New Connections

has taught in numerous other HBS Executive Education programs. Foley is also a Research Associate in the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Corporate Finance and International Trade and Investment Programs. “I am eager to embark on... View Details

01 Jun 2025
News

Venture: A Welcome Assist

to websites, apps, online shopping, banking, and transportation; fines for non-compliance could range between 5,000 and 20,000 per violation. Besides that, Bervell argues, “There’s a huge case to be made that if you invest in what I call... View Details

Keywords: Jen Mcfarland Flint; photo courtesy Michael Bervell; Information; Information

Web

Preqin | Baker Library

Preqin Data and information on private equity and venture capital companies, funds, and deals; debt, real estate and infrastructure. Read More Preqin, a part of BlackRock, is known as the home of alternatives, with coverage spanning... View Details

01 Dec 2014
News

The Far-Reaching Impact of Fellowships

out into the world. An investment in their leadership potential, and in their potential to make a difference, has far-reaching impact—on the students and on society more broadly. “Fellowships enable the diversity of perspectives that is... View Details

Keywords: fellowships

01 Mar 2009
News

The Case for Studying Financial History

certainly anticipated something very large because the parallels are not just with the Great Depression but with the financial crisis of 1914, which in many ways was more spectacular. So, this was a case of history informing judgments... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; federal bailouts; Finance; Administration of Economic Programs; Government

Web

HBS Alumni Research Tips: Company Research | Baker Library

Mergent Intellect Search by name or ticker for companies. Profiles include financials, filings, and comprehensive company histories. GlobalData Disruptor Database focusing on tech-driven trends and innovation. In addition to financials, profiles include recent deal... View Details

24 Apr 2014
News

A game-changer for migrant students

Martin Curiel (MBA 2004) knows how hard life can be for migrant farm workers. He went from picking fruit with this family as a youth to creating a way for migrant farm workers to further their education. Curiel cofounded Rising Farmworker Dream Fund (RFDF), which... View Details

05 Apr 2016
First Look

April 5, 2016

measure of originality, I find that competition has an inverted-U effect on creativity: some competition is necessary to induce agents to produce radically novel, untested ideas over incrementally tweaking their earlier work, but heavy competition drives them to stop... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthlorne

21 Sep 2015
News

Rockin’ for a Cause

and want to invest in the district overall.” Since the Wildcats’ first appearance on PiE’s behalf—a two-hour fundraiser where they cycled through their nine-song repertoire multiple times—the band has contributed more than $300,000 to the... View Details

07 Sep 2021
News

September 2021 Alumni Books

entrepreneurs is Mary Kay Ash, a legend as a glass-ceiling breaker and a woman who built a very successful business with a go-to-market strategy of direct selling. Unlike Mary Kay Ash, however, not all aspiring business owners are willing or able to View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

Publications