Real Assets - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Expensing Options Doesn’t Solve the Problem

do no more than palliate public outrage. What we need is a much more comprehensive look at the recent scandals so that we can begin to figure out what the real issues are. As a start, let's consider one of corporate America's biggest... View Details

Keywords: by William Sahlman

07 Dec 2016
HBS Case

Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing

asset accumulators of the future” A new breed of financial technology companies, known collectively as fintech, has taken advantage of these traits to disrupt an unexpected industry: personal investing. Just as manufacturing companies... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

05 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Watching for the Next Economic Downturn? Follow Corporate Debt

3.6 percentage point rise in the probability a financial crisis will ensue. When commercial lending is backed by real estate, the alarm sounds even louder. Each standard deviation increase in real-estate backed corporate credit relative... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

17 Nov 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

How Activist Investors Became Respectable

investment banks, and consultancies that once shunned the practice and from the increasing influence of proxy advisory firms. But it was the many institutional investors who eventually embraced activists in their search for better returns who gave these hedge funds... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Fuller; Financial Services; Banking

30 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: Preparing to Sell

and support new family wealth creators for future generations. The family has been the foundation of your success, and it always will be. Remember, businesses come and go, but business families can last for generations. Maintaining family momentum and growing family... View Details

Keywords: by Jonathan Pellegrin; Food & Beverage; Retail

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Where Main Street Meets Wall Street

single, highly value-added package: the marketability of its instantly redeemable shares, affordability, oversight by professional investors, asset diversification, and diminished risk. With these consumer-oriented advantages, with the... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Financial Services

06 Nov 2012
Op-Ed

Stop Talking About the Weather and Do Something: Three Ways to Finance Sustainable Cities

The wrath of Hurricane Sandy has illuminated a fundamental question: How do we ensure that our cities are resilient in the face of inevitable future disasters? A destroyed city is not a sustainable city. I'm making the case that it's time to stop complaining about... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Construction; Real Estate; Energy; Utilities

23 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It’s Effective

improve how workers are treated or betters the environment. But new research from Harvard Business School and London Business School demonstrates the first real evidence that mandatory CSR reporting works, and could give policymakers and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

05 Sep 2000
What Do You Think?

Whither the Information Economy?

the end is better products and services. According to Bob DeNoble, "... information is a tool to help get the real work done. It enables us to produce food, clothing, and shelter, run our transportation and banking systems, and keep... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

28 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 28

are deciding whether to refinance their home less than two years after taking out an initial mortgage and a subsequent home equity line of credit. Purchase this case: http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/209043-PDF-ENG How Institutional Investors Think About View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 22

Proceedings Crime and Punishment: The Reputational Consequences of Withdrawals from Venture Capital Syndicates By: Zhelyazkov, Pavel Ivanov, and Ranjay Gulati Abstract—Traditional research has long treated reputation as an egocentric attribute, typically described as... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

Tech Investment the Wise Way

margins provide the justification for the real and financial assets required to realize the value proposition. The margins and assets together establish the threshold for... View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough & Richard S. Rosenbloom

30 Jul 2008
Op-Ed

Why the U.S. Should Encourage FDI

differentiated capabilities. Simply replicating strategies that were successful at home is likely to be insufficient in the United States. The real lesson of this experience is that investing directly in corporate View Details

Keywords: by Mihir A. Desai

07 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

Even for Non-Believers, These Are the Next Steps on Climate Change

now or wait a bit. Selection It’s not possible or even a defensible investment strategy to try to reinforce every asset everywhere, and forever. High value assets in high risk areas clearly merit investment... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber

24 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 24, 2009

relative lack of success in fundamentally altering the political institutions of the countries in question...this is the real problem—not the 'hegemonic pretensions' of the United States, but its chronic lack of imperial stamina."... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

The Competition of Countries

rising real per capita income). Capital formation (investment) and the development of human resources are key to this process. Q: Were you surprised by anything you've discovered? A: I am constantly surprised—surprised about corruption... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

08 Nov 2024
Op-Ed

How Private Investors Can Help Solve Africa's Climate Crisis

African people, businesses, and nations are becoming increasingly stressed by climate-related perils like droughts, river flooding, extreme heat, and rising sea levels. This is leading not only to the destruction of assets but also challenges to lives and... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Green Technology; Energy

26 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 26, 2018

evidence of NPE opportunism: targeting of firms that have reduced ability to defend themselves, repeated assertions of lower-quality patents, increased assertion activity nearing patent expiration, and forum shopping. We find moreover that NPE litigation has a View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

10 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 10

barred sponsors from soliciting small investors for large commercial real estate. However, the JOBS Act of 2013 loosened U.S. restrictions on equity crowdfunding. Nino believes that crowdfunding will democratize View Details