Publications

October 1994 (Revised January 1995)
Case

Rhone-Poulenc (A) and (B) Condensed

Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, has achieved a major position in the United States as the result of an ambitious series of acquisitions. As it expanded in the United States from 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc management sought to take a "hands-off" approach... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Chemical Industry; France; United States

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September 1993
Case

Rhone-Poulenc (B)

Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, has achieved a major position in the United States as the result of an ambitious series of acquisitions. As it expanded in the United States from 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc management sought to take a "hands-off" approach... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Chemical Industry; France; United States

24 Sep 2015
News

3 Things Managers Should Be Doing Every Day

15 Mar 2022
News

Seven Ways Parents Can Help Kids Persist at Tasks They Resist

03 Oct 2019
News

How to Market Innovations to Small Mid-Sized Businesses

09 May 2013
HBS Seminar

D.J. Wu, Georgia Tech

05 Mar 2019
HBS Seminar

Nailya Ordabayeva, Boston College

08 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

The Return of the Salesman

and arranged terms of credit in case the "prospect" wanted to buy. In some cases, like the refrigerator, manufacturers relied on salespeople to introduce a product, but once it was accepted by consumers, they turned to advertising. In this sense, salespeople played a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

July 1991 (Revised August 1991)
Case

Philip Morris Companies, Inc. (A)

By: Samuel L. Hayes III

This large tobacco and diversified food processor is seeking to refinance debt funds raised to accomplish a large acquisition. It has filed a large "shelf" registration that authorizes it to issue during the subsequent two years. At the time of the case, the market... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Initial Public Offering; Consumer Products Industry; United States

April 2024
Article

Demand-and-Supply Imbalance Risk and Long-Term Swap Spreads

By: Samuel G. Hanson, Aytek Malkhozov and Gyuri Venter

We develop and test a model in which swap spreads are determined by end users' demand for and constrained intermediaries’ supply of long-term interest rate swaps. Swap spreads reflect compensation both for using scarce intermediary capital and for bearing convergence... View Details

Keywords: Swap Spreads; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Interest Rates; Risk and Uncertainty; Volatility

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2021
Working Paper

Invisible Primes: Fintech Lending with Alternative Data

By: Marco Di Maggio, Dimuthu Ratnadiwakara and Don Carmichael

We exploit anonymized administrative data provided by a major fintech platform to investigate whether using alternative data to assess borrowers’ creditworthiness results in broader credit access. Comparing actual outcomes of the fintech platform’s model to... View Details

Keywords: Fintech Lending; Alternative Data; Machine Learning; Algorithm Bias; Finance; Information Technology; Financing and Loans; Analytics and Data Science; Credit

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February 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Google Inc. (Abridged)

By: Benjamin Edelman and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Describes Google's history, business model, governance structure, corporate culture, and processes for managing innovation. Reviews Google's recent strategic initiatives and the threats it poses to Yahoo, Microsoft, and others. Asks what Google should do next. One... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Governance; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Search Technology; Web Services Industry

October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Pilgrim Bank (A): Customer Profitability

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Provides a context in which students can explore managerial decision making that is critically informed by data analysis. The setting is a retail bank and the decision making relates to the bank's policy toward online banking. The management team is evaluating whether... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Customers; Profit; Banking Industry

April 2001 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Level (3) Communications in 2001: The 'Pivotal Year'

Level (3) is one of the most distinctive of the new "fiber backbone" start-ups in the year 2001. Unlike its competitors, Level (3) has built its fiber network--and organization--in such a way that it should be able to utilize future generations of technologically... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Risk Management; Industry Growth; Competitive Advantage; Telecommunications Industry; United States

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March 2022
Case

Metric

By: Christina Wallace, Rebecca Cink and Maria Lappas

Megan Murday, the founder of Metric, an environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) analytics startup, must decide which customer segment to target as a beachhead market. She received positive feedback from a Swiss venture capital (VC) firm, indicating their... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Mission and Purpose; Customers

01 Dec 2023
News

Wide Horizon

There were three critical events that led John Rodakis (MBA 1997) to form the nonprofit N of One in 2014 and ultimately dedicate his life to surfacing breakthrough autism research. The first occurred on Thanksgiving of 2012. He had driven about four hours with his wife... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Photos by Sarah Wilson

16 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million

achieve more success in the future. Failure to do so at the right moment may result in a strong reduction in the momentum of the company. By contrast, having the courage to change in favor of new marketing strategies can help a company succeed in the long run, and... View Details

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira and Michael Blanding; Retail; Transportation; Accommodations

Article

The Job Market for New Economists: A Market Design Perspective

By: Peter A. Coles, John Cawley, Phillip B. Levine, Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth and John J. Siegfried

This paper, written by the members of the American Economic Association (AEA) Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market, provides an overview of the market for new Ph.D. economists. It describes the role of the AEA in the market and focuses in particular on two mechanisms... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Jobs and Positions