Publications

2021
Working Paper

Real Credit Cycles

By: Pedro Bordalo, Nicola Gennaioli, Andrei Shleifer and Stephen J. Terry

We incorporate diagnostic expectations, a psychologically founded model of overreaction to news, into a workhorse business cycle model with heterogeneous firms and risky debt. A realistic degree of diagnosticity, estimated from the forecast errors of managers of U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Econometric Models; Business Cycles; Credit

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July 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Technical Note

Note on Working with Relatives in the Family Enterprise

By: Christina R. Wing and Hillary B Sieber

This note delves into the intricacies of working with relatives, offering insights and strategic recommendations for navigating the opportunities and complexities inherent in such environments. This note will cover common challenges, best practices and key governance... View Details

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Governance Controls; Family Business; Business or Company Management

October 2007 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation: Venture Philanthropy Funding for Biotech

By: Robert F. Higgins, Sophie LaMontagne and Brent Kazan

In 2001, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated acquired the San Diego-based biotech company, Aurora Biosciences. The combination of Vertex's and Aurora's technologies would improve the flow of novel drug candidates into development. However, several questions related to... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Philanthropy Funding; Innovation; Funding Model; Venture Capital; Partners and Partnerships; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Acquisition; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; San Diego

Article

Consumer Neuroscience: Advances in Understanding Consumer Psychology

By: Uma R. Karmarkar and Carolyn Yoon

While the study of consumer behavior has been enriched by improved abilities to generate new insights, many of the mechanisms underlying judgments and decision making remain difficult to investigate. In this review, we highlight some of the ways in which our... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Neuroscience; Neuroscience; Neuroeconomics; Consumer Psychology; Customer Behavior; Predictive Analytics; Neural Prediction; Neuroimaging; fMRI; Eye-tracking; Consumer Behavior; Marketing

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08 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Twenty-first Century Skill: Trading Carbon Credits

Cap and trade has become an increasingly popular mechanism used by governments to induce green behavior among corporate polluters, with news emerging almost daily. Just recently New Jersey Governor Chris Christie withdrew his state from... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

October 1996 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Eric Wood (B)

By: Myra M. Hart

Describes Eric's purchase of the much larger Shaw Co. Describes the operating and financial problems that ensue, leaving Eric considering the option of bankruptcy. Issues include the overlap of business and personal finances, as well as the mechanics and implications... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Operations; Entrepreneurship; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Problems and Challenges; Acquisition

April 1973 (Revised April 1983)
Case

Mirassou Vineyards (A)

Examines the decision by Mirassou to test a mechanical grape harvester that requires a major change in growing methods and operations. The machine is unproven and the investor has asked this vineyard to test it for him and commit to use it. View Details

Keywords: Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Production; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

September 2020
Case

Minerva 2010: Turbulent Times

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2010, amid a flurry of new discoveries, Cynthia Bamdad, founder and CEO of Minerva Biotechnologies Corporation (Minerva), raised $6.6 million to test her new cancer drugs in mice. It had been more than 6 years since she had announced that she and her small team at... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Research; Product Development; Commercialization; Strategy

January 2011
Article

Let the Right One In: A Microeconomic Approach to Partner Choice in Mutualisms

By: Marco Archetti, Francisco Ubeda, Drew Fudenberg, Jerry R. Green, Naomi E. Pierce and Douglas W. Yu

One of the main problems impeding the evolution of cooperation is partner choice. When information is asymmetric (the quality of a potential partner is known only to himself), it may seem that partner choice is not possible without signaling. Many mutualisms, however,... View Details

Keywords: Microeconomics; Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; System; Problems and Challenges; Information; Economics; Theory; Cost; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cooperation

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Research Summary

Overview

By: Tatiana Sandino

In studying management control systems, Professor Sandino aims to understand how different control mechanisms can help lead employees within an organization to achieve common goals. Her work builds on contingency theory by exploring environmental, strategic, and... View Details

Research Summary

When Does IT Foster Markets, When Does it Foster Hierarchies?

The 'Electronic Markets Hypothesis' is, at present, essentially taken for granted. It holds that greater use of IT leads to greater use of market mechanisms for coordinating activity, basically because of IT's ability to reduce the costs of coordination.

The... View Details

13 Jun 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Firm Selection and Corporate Cash Holdings

Keywords: by Juliane Begenau and Berardino Palazzo

March 1989 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Marriott Corporation: The Cost of Capital (Abridged)

By: Richard S. Ruback

Gives students the opportunity to explore how a company uses the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) to compute the cost of capital for each of its divisions. The use of Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) formula and the mechanics of applying it are stressed. View Details

Keywords: Cost of Capital; Mathematical Methods

2021
Working Paper

Limits to Bank Deposit Market Power

By: Juliane Begenau and Erik Stafford

Claims about the market power of bank deposits in the banking literature are numerous and far reaching. Recently, a causal narrative has emerged in the banking literature: market power in bank deposits, measured as imperfect pass-through of short-term market rates on... View Details

Keywords: Bank Deposits; Market Power; Net Interest Margin (NIM); Banks and Banking; Interest Rates; Risk and Uncertainty

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10 Jan 2014
News

The baffling revival of the vinyl LP

October 2007 (Revised November 2010)
Module Note

Evaluating M&A Deals-Equity Consideration

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

What the acquiring company pays for a target in a merger or acquisition is called "consideration." Consideration can be in the form of cash, shares, or a combination of the two. Lays out the basic mechanics of equity consideration. Derives formulas for the Deal NPV of... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Equity

October 2011 (Revised December 2022)
Background Note

Ethical Analysis: Moral Disengagement

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Celia Moore

Moral disengagement is a process that enables people to engage in negative behaviors, from small misdeeds to great atrocities, without believing that they are causing harm or doing wrong. When Conrad Black, the fallen Canadian mogul convicted of multiple counts of... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Social Psychology; Values and Beliefs