Publications

August 2022 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Sweet Teez Bakery: Projecting the Dough's Rise

By: Emily R. McComb, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein

In 2021, the HBS Impact Investment Fund student team met with entrepreneur Teresa Maynard, who had applied for a $25,000 impact investment loan. The students thought the former Harvard Data Scientist’s bakery business, Sweet Teez Bakery, showed promise. Maynard had... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investment; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Investment; Goods and Commodities; Financial Reporting; Small Business; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Massachusetts

April 1980 (Revised December 1991)
Case

Hampton Machine Tool Co.

A bank lending officer must decide whether to extend and increase a loan to a small machine tool company. Case provides sufficient data for preparation of cash budgets and pro forma financial statements in order to analyze the lending officer's problem. Other issues... View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Financing and Loans; Financial Statements; Manufacturing Industry

May 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Enron Odyssey (A), The: The Special Purpose of "SPEs"

The board has asked Ron Tolbert, an employee in the Risk Assessment and Control Group, to analyze three SPE transactions executed by Enron executives: the Destec, Rhythms, and Fishtail/Bacchus transactions, which were prominently featured in the Examiner's Report in... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Financial Instruments; Analysis; Accounting; Financial Strategy; Energy Industry

November 2009
Case

Cisco Acquires Linksys

By: David F. Hawkins

Students must suggest ways to value intangible assets, including trademarks, acquired by Cisco in the Linksys acquisition. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Mergers and Acquisitions; Trademarks; Brands and Branding; Information Technology; Valuation; Telecommunications Industry

07 Dec 2016
HBS Case

Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing

example, tax-loss harvesting aims at realizing capital losses that help offset realized capital gains to reduce the amount of capital gains tax paid. Capital gains are computed based on when each individual made contributions to her View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

12 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Private Sector, Public Good

feasible or desirable to think about changing firms themselves. Can firms create shared value? Can industries regulate themselves? What are the responsibilities of managers? Does "purpose" matter? If academics chose to focus on... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Weighing Digital Tradeoffs in Private Equity

innovation, PE firms are discovering new sources of value creation, new research shows. Moreover, the PE industry itself has become more competitive as the number of PE firms grows, prompting firms to explore a new way of boosting the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

01 Oct 2001
News

Q&A: Orin Smith

young consumers. I believe that will be true in our case. How would you describe the Starbucks company culture? It is highly aspirational and very people-oriented. Starbucks gives stock options to all employees (we call them partners); we were also the first in this... View Details

Keywords: Hanna, Julia; Hospitality; Food and Beverage Stores; Retail Trade

09 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Matchmaker of the Modern Economy

position to do something about it. Money for new enterprises had been restricted, they believed, by the New Deal's onerous tax system, and by the increasing prominence of ultraconservative investment trusts. Investment trusts and life insurance companies View Details

Keywords: by Spencer E. Ante

02 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

Foreign Multinationals in the U.S.: A Rocky Road

performance problems in the United States. This seems surprising at first sight. The United States is by far the world's largest host economy for multinationals. Foreign firms hold large, and sometimes commanding, positions in such major View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston & Martha Lagace

01 Dec 2006
News

One-on-One with Jeff Hicks

industry entirely. Instead, the Miami native went home after graduation to join an upstart agency that seemed interested in doing things a little differently. At the time, Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) had a regional focus, with 55... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services; Professional Services

01 Oct 2002
News

The Class of 1977

debt, asleep-at-the-wheel boards of directors, and multiple mega-bankruptcies. We have watched with disbelief the disintegration of a major accounting firm, the discrediting of an alarming number of CEOs, and the growth of a widespread... View Details

Keywords: Desmond Wong

14 Nov 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas: November 14, 2017

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53507 forthcoming Journal of Financial Economics Bubbles for Fama By: Greenwood, Robin, Andrei Shleifer, and Yang You Abstract—We evaluate Eugene Fama's claim that stock prices do not exhibit price... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

06 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 6, 2007

depression, led to a crisis in the industry. Nonetheless, the pioneering group of forecasters shaped the core problems, and invented many of the techniques, that influenced the maturation of the industry in the decades that followed.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 1991 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Westchester Distributing, Inc. (A)

By: Robert L. Simons and Robert Boxwell

Focuses on the three-way interaction among internal controls, employee behavior, and incentives. Salesmen are illegally providing kickbacks to customers of this beer-distribution firm. In turn, salesmen are reimbursing themselves by filing fraudulent expense reports.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Crime and Corruption; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Salesforce Management; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Distribution Industry; Distribution Industry

30 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 30

& Law (forthcoming) Abstract The globalization of accounting standards as seen through the proliferation of IFRS worldwide is one of the most important developments in corporate governance over the last decade. I offer an analysis of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Corrections Corporation of America

This case illustrates a comprehensive valuation of a publicly traded firm specializing in building and managing prisons. Students must assess the firm's strategy and risks, evaluate key financial reports, derive forecasts of future performance, and use these forecasts... View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Buildings and Facilities; For-Profit Firms; Crime and Corruption; Forecasting and Prediction; Risk Management; Valuation; Construction Industry; Construction Industry; Construction Industry