Publications

February 2025
Tutorial

Preparing Business Leaders for an Era of Climate Instability: Understanding and Managing Physical Climate Risk

By: Michael W. Toffel and Spencer Glendon

In this compelling video, Spencer Glendon, founder of Probable Futures and Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, describes the profound implications of climate change for businesses, the economy, and societies around the world. Drawing from his background in... View Details

Keywords: Risk; Uncertainty; Modeling; Climate Change; Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management

Mar 2020
Conference Presentation

A New Analysis of Differential Privacy's Generalization Guarantees

By: Christopher Jung, Katrina Ligett, Seth Neel, Aaron Roth, Saeed Sharifi-Malvajerdi and Moshe Shenfeld

We give a new proof of the "transfer theorem" underlying adaptive data analysis: that any mechanism for answering adaptively chosen statistical queries that is differentially private and sample-accurate is also accurate out-of-sample. Our new proof is elementary and... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Transfer Theorem; Mathematical Methods

Read Now

12 Jun 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The Triumph of the Humble Chief Risk Officer

Keywords: by Anette Mikes

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

May 2017 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: Unilever and the Kraft Heinz Takeover Bid (A)

By: William W. George and Amram Migdal

This case describes Kraft Heinz Company’s (KHC) February 2017 unsolicited $143 billion takeover offer to acquire Unilever. The offer was made to Unilever CEO Paul Polman by KHC chairman Alexandre Behring, who was also co-founder and CEO of Brazilian-based 3G Capital... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions

30 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles of 2013

Lemmens and Sunil Gupta provides a novel method for determining which customers to target in order to maximize the profit of a retention campaign. The Impact of Patent Wars on Firm Strategy: Evidence from... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

11 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

Secrets of the Successful Businesswoman

your emotional life and your commitments to others and your relationships and your commitments to an institution and [pursuing] excitement and opportunity and possibility." Each woman she described had... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

17 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

Resisting the Seductions of Success

chain. Tony is an up-and-coming leader with bright prospects. Then Tony makes two extraordinary decisions. First, he commits a serious but brilliantly undetectable crime. Next, despite the advice and pleas View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

22 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Failure Analysis

the folly of not adhering strictly to the company's core beliefs.2 Similarly, we have observed failed consulting relationships in our field research in which the consultants simply blamed the failure on the client, concluding that the... View Details

Keywords: by Amy Edmondson & Mark D. Cannon

05 Oct 2021
Cold Call Podcast

How the Clean Network Changed the Future of Global Technology Competition

Keywords: Re: Meg Rithmire

04 Nov 2009
What Do You Think?

What is the Role of Government Vis-à-Vis Capitalism?

Summing Up How broad is government's role in a capitalistic society? The debate this month boiled down to the extent of government's role in relation to capitalism. Those arguing for a relatively narrow role included C. J. Cullinane, who... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

December 2011
Article

How Do Acquirers Retain Successful Target CEOs? The Role of Governance

By: Julie Wulf and Harbir Singh

The resource-based view argues that acquisitions can build competitive advantage partially through retention of valuable human capital of the target firm. However, making commitments to retain and motivate successful top managers is a challenge when contracts are not... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Mergers and Acquisitions; Acquisition; Equity; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Contracts; Performance; Governance; Legal Services Industry

Read Now

October 2003 (Revised October 2004)
Case

AT&T Canada (A)

By: Andre F. Perold and Kwame C. Van Leeuwen

AT&T Canada (ATTC) is a merger arbitrage situation where AT&T Corp. has a contractual commitment to purchase the shares of ATTC at an escalating formula price. However, ATTC's business is performing poorly, and its bonds are trading at significant discounts to par.... View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Investment; Telecommunications Industry; Canada

17 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Tales of the Newly-minted MBA

the chaos theory—a mix of passion and practicality, risk and reward," said Carl Horton (HBS MBA '95). His parents moved to Washington, DC, in 1978 to work for Jimmy Carter, Horton recalled, initiating his interest in politics. Over... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

03 Nov 2008
HBS Case

Economics of the Ethanol Business

their corn commitments to the plant, and some have even invested in a competing interest. Another alternative is to sell the plant, although Utlaut believes that the best offer would be the book value, roughly $50 million. The third... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Energy

2009
Book

Leading for Equity: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Montgomery County Public Schools

By: Stacey M. Childress, Dennis Doyle and David A. Thomas

Leading for Equity tells the compelling story of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools and its transformation—in less than a decade—into a system committed to breaking the links between race and class and academic achievement. In chapters organized around six... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Education; Leadership; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Social Issues

May 2022
Case

Timnit Gebru: 'SILENCED No More' on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models

By: Tsedal Neeley and Stefani Ruper

Dr. Timnit Gebru—a leading artificial intelligence (AI) computer scientist and co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team—was messaging with one of her colleagues when she saw the words: “Did you resign?? Megan sent an email saying that she accepted your resignation.” Heart... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Employment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Technological Innovation

March 2008 (Revised October 2009)
Case

IBM in the 21st Century: The Coming of the Globally Integrated Enterprise

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Members of IBM's fifth Integration and Values Team (IVT5) were close to finishing their deliberations. Convened by Sam Palmisano, Chairman and CEO, and sponsored by Jon Iwata, Senior VP of Corporate Communications and Marketing, and John E. Kelly III, Senior VP and... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Innovation and Management; Leadership Development; Management Teams; Organizational Culture; Integration

October 2007
Article

The Effectiveness of Pre-Release Advertising for Motion Pictures: An Empirical Investigation Using a Simulated Market

By: Anita Elberse and Bharat N. Anand

One of the most visible and publicized trends in the movie industry is the escalation in movie advertising expenditures over time. Yet, the returns to movie advertising are poorly understood. The main reason is that disentangling the causal effect of advertising on... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Stocks; Investment Return; Price; Revenue; Quality; Mathematical Methods; Motion Pictures and Video Industry