Publications

06 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 6

is related to higher UK CEO pay; however, the effect is similar when UK firms have a listing in any foreign country implying a foreign listing effect not unique to the U.S. Product market relationships measured by the extent of sales in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2023
Case

Breaking Barriers: How Brex is Shaping the Future of Financial Services for Startups

By: Marco Di Maggio, James Barnett and Susie L. Ma

In 2020, Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, co-founders and co-CEO’s of the fintech company Brex, needed to determine how to balance their vision with the desires of their investors. They intended to expand Brex’s offerings to include other products that served... View Details

Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurial Finance; Financial Services Industry

January 2014 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Showdown at Cracker Barrel

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Tim Gray

In the fall of 2011, activist investor, Sardar Biglari, has acquired nearly 10% ownership in the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain. He believes that the board and senior management have failed and the company has underperformed relative to its peers. When he is denied a... View Details

August 2013 (Revised December 2017)
Supplement

Harold Mills at ZeroChaos (B)

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Maurice L. Kuykendoll II

After leading a management buy-out, Harold Mills transformed ZeroChaos into a global staffing enterprise. Poised to raise additional capital to fund the company's next phase of growth, he was also confronting the liquidity demands of his early-stage investors and... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Growth and Development Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations

23 May 2011
Op-Ed

Leading and Lagging Countries in Contributing to a Sustainable Society

Editor's note: Please see related story, Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It's Effective. To what extent companies contribute to a sustainable society is a question increasingly important, not only to the companies themselves, but also... View Details

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles & George Serafeim

2010
Chapter

Backlash to Arbitration: Three Causes

By: Louis T. Wells

There are at least three reasons for the current backlash among developing countries against the international regime that governs disputes between foreign investors and host governments. First is the inconsistency of the decisions rendered by arbitration panels... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; International Finance; Foreign Direct Investment; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Government Relations; Conflict Management

Read Now

May 2002
Case

Venture Capital Fund Restructuring Vignettes (Abridged)

By: Paul A. Gompers

This case examines the changes in fund structures proposed by four venture capital firms in 2002: Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The venture capital market has experienced a major downturn, and these... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Restructuring; Financial Crisis; Motivation and Incentives; Business and Shareholder Relations; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry

October 2022 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Driving Decarbonization at BMW

By: Shirley Lu, George Serafeim and Michael W. Toffel

The case describes BMW’s electrification and decarbonization strategy, and how the company measured carbon emissions throughout the life cycle of its vehicles and used tools like carbon abatement cost curves to evaluate decarbonization opportunities. In mid-2022,... View Details

January–February 2021
Article

Cross‐firm Return Predictability and Accounting Quality

By: Wen Chen, Mozaffar Khan, Leonid Kogan and George Serafeim

We test the hypothesis that if poor accounting quality (AQ) is associated with poor investor understanding of firms’ revenue and cost structures, then poor AQ stocks likely respond more slowly than good AQ stocks to new non‐idiosyncratic information that affects both... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Quality; Earnings Quality; Stock Returns; Investment Strategy; Accounting; Business Earnings; Quality; Investment Return; Investment; Strategy

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

Web

Publications - Faculty & Research

The... View Details Keywords: Crowdfunding ; Prejudice and Bias ; Race ; Immigration ; Public Opinion Citation Read Now Related Bai, John (Jianqui), William R. Kerr, Chi Wan, and Alptug Yorulmaz. "Everyone Steps Back? The Widespread... View Details

23 Jun 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Role of Institutional Development in the Prevalence and Value of Family Firms

Keywords: by Raphael Amit, Yuan Ding, Belén Villalonga & Hua Zhang

Article

Resources and Relationships in Entrepreneurship: An Exchange Theory of the Development and Effects of the Entrepreneur-Investor Relationship

By: Laura Huang and Andrew P. Knight

We develop a theoretical model, grounded in exchange theory, about the process through which relationships between entrepreneurs and investors develop and influence the growth of new ventures. Our theory highlights the multifaceted relationships that entrepreneurs and... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Relationships; Business Startups; Business and Shareholder Relations; Theory

Find at Harvard

November 2021 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Babban Gona: Great Farm

By: Kristin Fabbe, Tarun Khanna, Caroline M. Elkins, Zeke Gillman, Eleni Kyrkopoulou and Thomaz Teodorovicz

In 2020, Babban Gona was one of the world’s largest farming operations with over 140,000 acres of maize farms, an area over ten times as large as Manhattan, and over 80,000 member-farmers in Nigeria. According to the company, the average Nigerian farmer’s net income... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Value Creation; Agribusiness; Capital Budgeting; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Nigeria; Africa

October 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

AfricInvest: A Pan-African Investment Platform

By: Victoria Ivashina and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case is set in December 2018, when Ziad Oueslati, co-managing director and co-founder of AfricInvest, a leading pan-African private equity firm headquartered in Tunisia, was reflecting on the future direction of his firm. AfricInvest started as a traditional small... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Strategy; Governance; Financial Services Industry; Tunisia; Africa; Middle East