Publications

December 2003 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Globalizing the Cost of Capital and Capital Budgeting at AES

By: Mihir A. Desai and Douglas Kurt Schillinger

With electricity generating businesses around the world, AES Corp. is seeking a methodology for calculating the cost of capital for its various businesses and potential projects. In the past, AES used the same cost of capital for all of its capital budgeting, but the... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Risk Management; Globalized Firms and Management; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Emerging Markets; Foreign Direct Investment; Capital Budgeting; Energy Industry; South America

24 Jan 2024
Op-Ed

Why Boeing’s Problems with the 737 MAX Began More Than 25 Years Ago

aviation technology from the past 30-40 years, Stonecipher elected to maximize profits from older models and use the cash to buy back Boeing stock. Just two years after taking over, Stonecipher resigned after violating the company’s code... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Air Transportation; Transportation; Aerospace

09 May 2019
News

The Most Anxious Generation Goes to Work

A New Way to Understand Corporate Leverage

The link between measures of risk and return within the equity market has been very weak over the past 47 years: in the United States, returns on high-risk stocks have cumulatively fallen short of the returns on low-risk stocks, during a period when the equity market... View Details

17 Oct 2023
HBS Case

With Subscription Fatigue Setting In, Companies Need to Think Hard About Fees

for consumer products, B2B deals are also taking off, including software-as-a-service (SaaS) contracts that allow client companies to avoid hefty upfront payments. For example, Microsoft has recently shifted gears to SaaS at both the... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Consumer Products; Information; Information Technology

11 Oct 2016
News

Joke your way to success

02 May 2023
What Do You Think?

How Should Artificial Intelligence Be Regulated—if at All?

Minutes, April 16, 2023. Bailey Schulz, “Schumer proposes plan to address AI’s potential risks,” USA Today, April 18, 2023. Nico Grant and Karen Weise, “A.I. Frenzy Leads Tech Giants to Take Risks in Ethics... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Information Technology; Technology

Research Summary

Overview

Professor Begenau’s research agenda is directed at better understanding how financial markets work and how they affect the real economy. She uses quantitative analysis to build both prescriptive and descriptive models concerning financial risk in banking, and she also... View Details

08 Sep 2020
News

Maintaining Organizational Soul While Onboarding In A Remote World

August 2011 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Career at a Crossroad: Akhil Patel

By: Noam Wasserman, Lisa Brem and Yael Braid

Akhil Patel is passionate about his business idea: an innovative green technology fuel cell. He wants to dive in and commit to his startup, but his fiancée is much more risk averse, his parents don't approve of the startup, and Akhil has an enticing alternative offer... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Green Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

October 13, 2021
Editorial

How Companies Can Improve Employee Engagement Right Now

By: Daniel Stein, Nick Hobson, Jon M. Jachimowicz and Ashley Whillans

A year and a half into the pandemic, employees’ mental “surge capacity” is likely diminished. Managers must take proactive steps to increase employee engagement, or risk losing their workforce. Engaged employees perform better, experience less burnout, and stay in... View Details

Keywords: Employee Retention; Employee Engagement; Employee Relationship Management; Work-Life Balance

Read Now

11 Mar 2018
News

SoftBank Looks to Invade Wall Street’s Turf

29 Jul 2021
News

Virus Surge Upends Plans for Getting Workers Back to Offices

November 2016 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Elon Musk's Big Bets

By: David B. Yoffie, Eric Baldwin and Brandon Kaufmann

Between late 2014 and late 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk undertook several major, and risky, initiatives that would dramatically expand the scale and scope of Tesla’s business. In late 2014, Tesla began construction on a $5 billion “gigafactory” that would manufacture... View Details

23 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

How to Brand a Next-Generation Product

Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig—without destroying the franchise Whereas with Rocky, you're pretty much stuck with Sylvester Stallone." Risk Vs. Reward Companies also must assess risk... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

October 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Teaching Note

Alvogen

By: Daniel Isenberg, William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Alvogen is an Icelandic pharmaceutical company that makes and sells generic drugs. Founder and CEO Robert Wessman is deciding whether to take on private equity investors willing to buy out all shareholders, merge with a large and publicly-traded US pharmaceutical... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Globalization; Entrepreneurship; Biotechnology Industry