Publications

May 2025
Case

Humana Commits to Value-Based Care

By: V.G. Narayanan, Henry Eyring and David Lane

In late 2023, CEO Bruce Broussard reviewed health insurer Humana’s transformation into a value-based care ecosystem. Under its CenterWell brand, the several millions of members in Humana Medicare Advantage plans now had access to Humana-provided primary care, home... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Units; Financing and Loans; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Health Industry; United States

May 2025
Case

The Micro-Family Office: Aamir Rehman

By: Lauren Cohen and Sophia Pan

With a successful career and strong academic credentials, Aamir Rehman sought to design a life grounded in autonomy. For him, this meant serving on boards, continuing his professorship, and ensuring a secure and comfortable life for his family. While he didn’t possess... View Details

2025
Working Paper

Generative AI Use by Capital Market Information Intermediaries: Evidence from Seeking Alpha

By: Mark Bradshaw, Chenyang Ma, Benjamin Yost and Yuan Zou

We study the use of generative AI for firm-specific financial analysis on the Seeking Alpha platform. We find that, after the initial launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, the share of AI-generated articles rose sharply to 13.4% of all articles, then declined in late... View Details

Keywords: Generative Ai; Seeking Alpha; Equity Research; Large Language Models; Gpt; AI and Machine Learning; Information Publishing; Financial Markets

April 2025
Case

Japan Industrial Partners Powers the Leveraged Buyout of Toshiba

By: Brian K. Baik, Joseph Pacelli and James Barnett

The case explores Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) $14 billion takeover of Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba). JIP was a private equity firm that took over the troubled electronics corporation in late 2023. The deal, which had been labeled one of the largest leveraged buyout... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; International Accounting; Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Ownership; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Value; Accounting Industry; Electronics Industry; Energy Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Semiconductor Industry; Asia; Japan

2025
Working Paper

With a Little Help from My Family: Informal Startup Financing

By: Brian K. Baik, Johan Ludvig S. Karlsen and Katja Kisseleva

Using Norwegian administrative data, we identify family equity investments in startups and examine their effects on investor returns and firm behavior. Informal investors earn lower returns than external individuals, and the firms they back are less likely to secure... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage Finance; Informal Investment; Household Finance; Risk Taking; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Personal Finance; Family and Family Relationships; Business Startups; Investment; Norway

25 Mar 2025
Other Presentation

Louis E. Caldera on the Panama Canal and DEI Under Trump's Administration

By: Louis Caldera and June Carolyn Erlick

Louis E. Caldera, a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, chaired the Panama Canal Commission the year the Canal was returned to Panama, 1999. He was also the first (and only) Latino to serve as Secretary of the Army. He talks on issues ranging from President... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; History; National Security; Diversity; Panama; United States

2025
Working Paper

Private Equity and Workers: Modeling and Measuring Monopsony, Reallocation, and Trust

By: Kyle Herkenhoff, Josh Lerner, Gordon M. Phillips, Francisca Rebelo and Benjamin Sampson

We measure the real effects of private equity buyouts on worker outcomes by building a new database that links transactions to matched employer-employee data in the United States. To guide our empirical analysis, we derive testable implications from three theories in... View Details

Keywords: Monopsony; Market Power; Productivity; Private Equity; Employment; Wages; Employees

March 2025
Case

Taylor Guitars: Making Employee Ownership Work The Taylor Way

By: Dennis Campbell, Petros Kusmu and Stacy Straaberg

In 2013, guitar manufacturer Taylor Guitars’ co-founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug were considering several exit options including selling to a competitor or to a private equity firm. The co-founders decided, instead, to embark on a seven-year process to transfer 100%... View Details

March 2025
Article

Do Public Financial Statements Influence Private Equity and Venture Capital Financing?

By: Brian K. Baik, Natalie Berfeld and Rodrigo S. Verdi

We study whether private firm public financial statements influence the probability of raising venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) financing. In particular, we propose that private firms’ public financial statements can help the VC/PE search process by... View Details

Keywords: Business Economics; Search Costs; Accounting; Venture Capital; Governance; Private Equity; Financial Statements

February 2025
Teaching Note

Influencer-Led Brand Building: Hairitage and the McKnights

By: William R. Kerr and James Palano

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 825-066. Mindy McKnight started in 2009 as an early influencer on social media whose videos of creative hairstyles for girls launched her family on an entrepreneurship journey. The McKnights transitioned from YouTube ad revenue to brand... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Social Media; Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Power and Influence; Expansion; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

February 2025
Case

Managing EPS at Stanley Black & Decker?

By: Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli, Yuan Zou and James Barnett

The case explores Stanley Black and Decker’s (SBD) 2022 financial restatement announcement, which related to how SBD accounted for certain equity issuances in 2019. These transactions had a minimal effect on earnings but significantly reduced shares outstanding, and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Ethics; Financial Statements; Equity; Measurement and Metrics; Accounting Industry; Construction Industry; Manufacturing Industry

February 2025 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Align Partners and SM Entertainment: Korean Shareholder Activism Meets K-Pop (A)

By: Charles CY Wang and Billy Chan

For years, institutional investors had experienced very limited success in influencing the management of listed companies through shareholder activist campaigns in Korea. The common practice of circular ownership and public resentment toward foreign shareholder... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Public Equity; Stocks; Investment Activism; Music Entertainment; Corporate Governance; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; South Korea

February 2025
Supplement

Align Partners and SM Entertainment: Korean Shareholder Activism Meets K-Pop (B)

By: Charles CY Wang and Billy Chan

For years, institutional investors had experienced very limited success in influencing the management of listed companies through shareholder activist campaigns in Korea. The common practice of circular ownership and public resentment toward foreign shareholder... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Public Equity; Stocks; Investment Activism; Music Entertainment; Corporate Governance; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; South Korea

February 2025
Case

RedBird Capital Partners

By: Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente

In July 2024, Gerry Cardinale, the founder and managing partner of RedBird Capital Partners (‘RedBird’) has helped orchestrate a high-profile deal in the world of entertainment: one in which Skydance Media (‘Skydance’), a content production studio led by David Ellison... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Media; Film; Television; Sports; Superstars; Marketing; Strategy; General Management; Investing; Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Asset Management

2025
Working Paper

Impact Investing and Worker Outcomes

By: Josh Lerner, Markus Lithell and Gordon M. Phillips

Impact investors claim to distinguish themselves from traditional venture capital and growth equity investors by also pursuing ESG objectives. Whether they successfully do so in practice is unclear. We use confidential Census Bureau microdata to assess worker... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Wages

February 2025
Article

Sale of Private Equity–Owned Physician Practices and Physician Turnover

By: Victoria Berquist, Lev Klarnet and Leemore Dafny

Private equity (PE) ownership of physician practices is increasing, with owners targeting sales, or exits, in 3 to 7 years. Little is known about the association of exit with physician retention and subsequent employment. Using panel data over the period 2014-2020, we... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Retention; Health Industry

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January 2025
Case

Arsenal Capital Partners' Refinancing of Pinnacle

By: Victoria Ivashina and Srimayi Mylavarapu

Arsenal Capital Partners’ portfolio company, Pinnacle, a leading producer of high-performance adhesive technologies, has experienced rapid growth under Arsenal’s ownership. Over just two years, Pinnacle's EBITDA increased from $13.5 million to $60 million. By mid-2021,... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Growth Management

January 2025
Case

Untapped Global: Financing Africa's Missing Middle

By: Raymond Kluender and Emanuele Colonnelli

In November 2024, Jim Chu, founder and CEO of Untapped Global, faced mounting internal tensions over the company’s strategic direction. Untapped had developed a data-driven revenue-based financing (RBF) model to address the “missing middle” problem—the $5.2 trillion... View Details

2025
Working Paper

Sale of Private-Equity Owned Physician Practices and Physician Turnover

By: Leemore S. Dafny, Victoria Berquist and Lev Klarnet

Keywords: Private Equity; Private Equity Exit; Physicians