Publications

March 2012 (Revised October 2012)
Case

Against the Grain: Jim Teague in Tanzania (A)

By: Karthik Ramanna

Loan officer Jim Teague discovers his agro-processor client has a serious health-code violation just days before a disbursement is due. Proceeding with the loan could jeopardize the health of thousands of customers and put his employer at serious risk. But withholding... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Financing and Loans; Health; Risk Management; Developing Countries and Economies; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Tanzania

16 Jul 2024
Op-Ed

Corporate Boards Are Failing in Their No. 1 Duty

2018 by Charles Scharf, who has focused on cleaning up the messes and restoring the confidence of regulators. These succession failures illustrate some of the risks companies face during CEO transitions, and they raise some obvious... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

06 Jan 2012
Op-Ed

Where Green Corporate Ratings Fail

characteristics such as pollution levels, regulatory compliance, environmental management practices that affect operations (such as environmental auditing), and stakeholder engagement (such as environmental reporting). Where Rankings Go... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Toffel & Auden Schendler; Information; Publishing

31 May 2016
First Look

May 31, 2016

Revealing Hand By: Kaplan, Robert S., and Anette Mikes Abstract—Many believe that the recent emphasis on enterprise risk management function is misguided, especially after the failure of sophisticated... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Aug 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Contest: 15 Years of Building Better Entrepreneurs

the Aldrich classrooms on the Harvard Business School campus where other people's ventures are the usual topic of discussion. Judges—a mix of angel investors, VCs, serial entrepreneurs, and industry executives—score the plans on criteria including financials, people,... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

24 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

IPR: Protecting Your Technology Transfers

by reading its patents. When the firm transfers this knowledge to local employees, there is a risk that these employees will defect to a local manufacturer, taking sensitive technology with them. These employees are able to combine the... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Hennes & Mauritz, 2000

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2000, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) was the second-largest and most global player in the fashion retail business. It operated 682 stores, 80% of them outside its home country of Sweden, and achieved revenues of $3.0 billion and operating profits of $375 million. In 1999,... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Strategy Alignment; Strategic Planning; Fashion; Risk Management; Competition; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Globalized Firms and Management; Expansion; Distribution Channels; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Sweden

01 Dec 2021
What Do You Think?

How Will the Metaverse Affect Productivity?

communicating both the business benefits (including the risk of not changing) (and for employees) ‘what’s in it for me.’” The predominant message of respondents was that culture change is a complex process often requiring years to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

07 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: Sept. 7

use loan-level data to study how the organizational structure of banks impacts small business lending. We find that decentralized banks—where branch managers have greater autonomy over lending decisions—give larger loans to small firms... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Teaching Note

Ransomware Attack at Springhill Medical Center

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan (Jason) Ni

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-065. In July, 2019, Springhill Medical Center (“SMC”) in Mobile, Alabama fell prey to a malicious ransomware attack that crippled the hospital’s internal network systems and public-facing web page. While the hospital rushed to... View Details

01 Aug 2012
What Do You Think?

Should CEOs Worry About ‘Too Big to Succeed?’

management of all resources that surround that particular scale of operation." Questions raised by Salli's and other of the comments include the following: Can leaders sense successfully when an entity is functioning at its proper... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Manufacturing; Financial Services

19 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Why Innovations Sit on the Shelf

Strive For Honesty Alongside Low Risk In most of the companies we've studied, managers discussed innovation-related problems with the few people they trusted but acted on their findings in more public... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat & Derek Schrader

13 May 2019
Research & Ideas

The Unexpected Way Whistleblowers Reduce Government Fraud

more risk in projects by limiting their use of “cost-plus” agreements, which make it easier to overcharge government agencies, according to researchers. This renegotiation of contractual terms allows the agency to hedge its bet with a... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Service; Construction

2012
Working Paper

Reaching for Yield in the Bond Market

By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina

Reaching-for-yield—the propensity to buy riskier assets in order to achieve higher yields—is believed to be an important factor contributing to the credit cycle. This paper analyses this phenomenon in the corporate bond market. Specifically, we show evidence for... View Details

Keywords: Fixed Income; Reaching For Yield; Financial Intermediation; Insurance Companies; Insurance; Bonds; Assets; Risk Management; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Insurance Industry

SSRN

Read Now

17 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Brazil Teaches About Investor Protection

What gave investors the confidence to risk their money? In a recent monograph, Musacchio reports that Brazilian companies were transparent about their operations, including the disclosure of executive compensation—something not even done... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Banking; Financial Services

09 Sep 2024
HBS Case

McDonald’s and the Post #MeToo Rules of Sex in the Workplace

drive-through restaurant with low prices that appealed to working-class families. “The company has built its brand around family dining, so that is especially important to its culture,” explains Paine. Despite its ubiquity, McDonald’s View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Food & Beverage

12 Jan 2016
First Look

January 12, 2016

Management Science The Relationship Between Workplace Stressors and Mortality and Health Costs in the United States By: Goh, Joel, Jeffrey Pfeffer, and Stefanos A. Zenios Abstract—Even though epidemiological evidence links specific... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

21 Sep 2009
Research & Ideas

Excessive Executive Pay: What’s the Solution?

majority of votes cast to be elected; mandates the creation of a board risk committee; and forces companies to split the CEO and board chairman positions. "The leadership at some of the nation's most renowned companies took too many... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson

February 2018
Case

Robert K. Steel at Wachovia (A)

By: Gautam Mukunda, Nien-hê Hsieh and David Lane

In September 2008, Robert Steel presided over the sale of Wachovia, a top U.S. bank, less than three months after becoming its CEO. Wachovia’s exposure to risky home loans led depositors and creditors to flee the bank on Friday, September 26, after the FDIC seized and... View Details