Accounting & Management

- 2025
- Chapter
Critical Choices in Designing a Board: An Overview

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Lynn S. Paine

Board design is never one-size-fits-all. It’s a series of critical choices—each with trade-offs—that can define how a board functions, governs, and delivers strategic value. That’s the premise of "Critical Choices in Designing a Board", a chapter for the newly released "Public Company Series: Board Structure and Composition", a manual of corporate governance published by the NYSE and J.P. Morgan. In our chapter, we outline six key decisions every board must address: What is the board’s purpose? Who should serve on it? How should the board be structured? How to clearly define roles and responsibilities? Which processes help the board function most effectively? What norms foster the right dynamics and culture? We draw on research, boardroom case studies, and our experience at teaching board governance programs Harvard Business School to offer a practical framework for boards navigating complexity—from CEO succession to stakeholder engagement and regulatory scrutiny. The full volume brings together insights from legal advisors, investors, and governance experts and covers topics ranging from board refreshment and audit committees to shareholder activism, cybersecurity, and global governance trends.
- 2025
- Chapter
Critical Choices in Designing a Board: An Overview

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Lynn S. Paine

Board design is never one-size-fits-all. It’s a series of critical choices—each with trade-offs—that can define how a board functions, governs, and delivers strategic value. That’s the premise of "Critical Choices in Designing a Board", a chapter for the newly released "Public Company Series: Board Structure and Composition", a manual of corporate...
- June 2025
- Article
Gender Diversity Performance and Voluntary Disclosure: Mind the (Gender Pay) Gap

By: June Huang and Shirley Lu

We study whether voluntary gender diversity disclosure is predictive of gender diversity performance. Exploiting a mandate in the United Kingdom that requires firms to disclose 2017 gender pay gap ("GPG") data for the first time, we find that providing voluntary gender diversity disclosure in 2016 is correlated with having a worse gender pay gap in 2017. Our results are concentrated in industries with worse gender diversity reputations, consistent with legitimacy theory, where firms facing more public pressure use voluntary disclosure to help legitimize their reputations. We further examine whether this disclosure reflects a firm's intent to improve its gender diversity performance over time. We find that forward-looking disclosures, such as gender diversity targets, are positively associated with GPG improvement from 2017 to 2019. Collectively, these gender pay gap findings shed light on how voluntary ESG disclosure can be used to predict current and future ESG performance.
- June 2025
- Article
Gender Diversity Performance and Voluntary Disclosure: Mind the (Gender Pay) Gap

By: June Huang and Shirley Lu

We study whether voluntary gender diversity disclosure is predictive of gender diversity performance. Exploiting a mandate in the United Kingdom that requires firms to disclose 2017 gender pay gap ("GPG") data for the first time, we find that providing voluntary gender diversity disclosure in 2016 is correlated with having a worse gender pay gap...
- May 2025
- Case
Dell Med: Transforming Care Delivery & Payment

By: Robert S. Kaplan, David N. Bernstein and Mary L. Witkowski

Health care in the U.S. and globally continues to undergo massive transformation, surging towards a system that rewards value for patients. However, widespread adoption of value-based health care remains a challenge. This case study focuses on the care delivery transformation undertaken within an academic medical center, with a specific focus on novel payment structures (e.g., bundle payments), integrated practice units (IPUs), and outcomes measurement. Insight into time-driven activity-based costing, or TDABC, and the use of innovative digital health solutions are also touched upon. Leadership challenges and strategic dilemmas are highlighted.
- May 2025
- Case
Dell Med: Transforming Care Delivery & Payment

By: Robert S. Kaplan, David N. Bernstein and Mary L. Witkowski

Health care in the U.S. and globally continues to undergo massive transformation, surging towards a system that rewards value for patients. However, widespread adoption of value-based health care remains a challenge. This case study focuses on the care delivery transformation undertaken within an academic medical center, with a specific focus on...

About the Unit

The Accounting & Management unit at Harvard Business School strives to be the worldwide leader in research, course development, and teaching on top managements' use of performance measurement systems to:

Communicate with external investors to ensure that their firms' securities are fairly priced and that they are able to access capital,
Measure and evaluate their firms' economic performance,
Improve resource allocation and strategy implementation within their firms, and
Build accountability for performance through effective external and internal governance.

Unit research, course development, and teaching fall into two broad areas: Financial Reporting and Analysis and Management Accounting. Our research helps scholars and educators understand current best practices for the design and use of performance measurement systems that help managers to build more effective, value-creating organizations. Our teaching materials enable us to bring the results of this research into the classroom, and to practice.

Recent Publications

Paul Weiss: Fighting or Negotiating with POTUS

By: Eugene Soltes and Anthea Brady

June 2025 |
Teaching Note |
Faculty Research

This note was prepared by Professor Eugene Soltes and Research Associate Anthea Brady for the purpose of aiding classroom instructors in the use of “Paul Weiss: Fighting or Negotiating with POTUS,” HBS No. 125-098. It provides analysis and questions that are intended to present alternative approaches to deepening students’ comprehension of business issues and energizing classroom discussion.

Citation

Purchase

Critical Choices in Designing a Board: An Overview

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Lynn S. Paine

2025 |
Chapter |
Faculty Research

Board design is never one-size-fits-all. It’s a series of critical choices—each with trade-offs—that can define how a board functions, governs, and delivers strategic value. That’s the premise of "Critical Choices in Designing a Board", a chapter for the newly released "Public Company Series: Board Structure and Composition", a manual of corporate governance published by the NYSE and J.P. Morgan. In our chapter, we outline six key decisions every board must address: What is the board’s purpose? Who should serve on it? How should the board be structured? How to clearly define roles and responsibilities? Which processes help the board function most effectively? What norms foster the right dynamics and culture? We draw on research, boardroom case studies, and our experience at teaching board governance programs Harvard Business School to offer a practical framework for boards navigating complexity—from CEO succession to stakeholder engagement and regulatory scrutiny. The full volume brings together insights from legal advisors, investors, and governance experts and covers topics ranging from board refreshment and audit committees to shareholder activism, cybersecurity, and global governance trends.

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards

Citation

Read Now

Gender Diversity Performance and Voluntary Disclosure: Mind the (Gender Pay) Gap

By: June Huang and Shirley Lu

June 2025 |
Article |
Accounting, Organizations and Society

We study whether voluntary gender diversity disclosure is predictive of gender diversity performance. Exploiting a mandate in the United Kingdom that requires firms to disclose 2017 gender pay gap ("GPG") data for the first time, we find that providing voluntary gender diversity disclosure in 2016 is correlated with having a worse gender pay gap in 2017. Our results are concentrated in industries with worse gender diversity reputations, consistent with legitimacy theory, where firms facing more public pressure use voluntary disclosure to help legitimize their reputations. We further examine whether this disclosure reflects a firm's intent to improve its gender diversity performance over time. We find that forward-looking disclosures, such as gender diversity targets, are positively associated with GPG improvement from 2017 to 2019. Collectively, these gender pay gap findings shed light on how voluntary ESG disclosure can be used to predict current and future ESG performance.

Keywords: Pay Gap; Diversity; Gender; Wages; Reputation; Corporate Disclosure; United Kingdom

Citation

What Board-level Control Mechanisms Changed in Banks Following the 2008 Financial Crisis? A Descriptive Study

By: Shelly Li, Shivram Rajgopal, Suraj Srinivasan and Yu Ting Forester Wong

June 2025 |
Article |
Accounting, Organizations and Society

Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) identified major shortcomings in bank board governance, contributing to systemic risk management failures. This study adapts a management control framework and empirically examines changes in board-level “process control” and “input control” mechanisms in 95 large U.S. bank holding companies (2000–2015) and contrasts these with 1,452 nonbanks. Our findings indicate that most post-2008 improvements occurred in "process controls," e.g. Chief Risk Officer (CRO) appointments increased from 53% pre-crisis to 91% post-crisis, with significantly more banks establishing a dedicated risk committee and identifying the committee responsible for reputation management. We also find progress in "input control” related to domain knowledge with an increase of 16% in new bank directors with prior risk management experience, and significant increase in directors with other relevant domain knowledge. We observed limited or no change in control mechanisms related to improving the board members’ ability to voice different perspectives or commit more time to their role. Our results show that improvements in certain types of controls seem to have taken precedence over others which have implications for explaining and implementing changes in corporate governance and control mechanisms.

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Management Control; Governing and Advisory Boards; Governance Controls; Risk Management; Change Management; Banks and Banking; Financial Crisis

Citation

Read Now

Dell Med: Transforming Care Delivery & Payment

By: Robert S. Kaplan, David N. Bernstein and Mary L. Witkowski

May 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

Health care in the U.S. and globally continues to undergo massive transformation, surging towards a system that rewards value for patients. However, widespread adoption of value-based health care remains a challenge. This case study focuses on the care delivery transformation undertaken within an academic medical center, with a specific focus on novel payment structures (e.g., bundle payments), integrated practice units (IPUs), and outcomes measurement. Insight into time-driven activity-based costing, or TDABC, and the use of innovative digital health solutions are also touched upon. Leadership challenges and strategic dilemmas are highlighted.

Keywords: Integrated Practice Units; Outcomes Measurement; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Health Care and Treatment; Business Strategy; Leading Change; Decisions; Transformation; Service Delivery; Adoption; Value; Health Industry; United States; Texas

Citation

Educators

Purchase

Initial Financial Statements at Blank Corporation: Bridging Content and Commerce

By: Jung Koo Kang, Panje Jayden Kim and David Allen

May 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

This accounting case is intended to teach students how to compile an income statement, a balance sheet, and a cash flow statement. It focuses on Blank Corporation, an innovative South Korean company that bridged content and commerce by selling products directly through social media posts featuring video content that was designed to go viral. As Blank grows in 2016 and 2017, CEO Nam Dae-Kwang puts the company on a firmer footing, and begins to communicate with investors, by creating standard financial results.

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Statements; Business Startups; Social Media; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Consumer Products Industry; South Korea

Citation

Educators

Data-driven Technologies and Local Information Advantages in Small Business Lending

By: Wilbur Chen, Jung Koo Kang and Aditya Mohan

2025 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

We investigate whether banks' adoption of data-driven technologies influences competitive dynamics in local small business lending by diminishing the information advantages traditionally held by local banks. Using local newspaper closures as an adverse shock to the local information available to non-local banks, we show that banks with higher local market concentration increase their share of small business loans in their local counties after these closures. However, these information advantages gradually diminish after cloud platforms—a key data-driven technology infrastructure—are widely implemented. We find that local banks' information advantages disappear in counties where they compete against banks that heavily invest in these technologies: those with greater AI-related human capital, AI patents, or web analytics technologies. We further support our findings by instrumenting banks' AI-related hiring activity with their proximity to AI research institutions. Overall, our results suggest that data-driven technologies can reduce local banks' information advantages and reshape the competitive landscape in local lending markets.