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All HBS Web
(806)
- People (2)
- News (181)
- Research (426)
- Events (2)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (117)
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- June 29, 2022
- Other Article
Strategic Complexity? Using Experiments to Understand and Overcome Obfuscation
By: Michael Luca, Ginger Zhe Jin and Daniel Martin
Credit card companies must decide what product features to disclose to consumers, such as payment schedules, penalties, and fees--and also whether to present them clearly or bury them in the fine print. Firms face similar choices in settings ranging from privacy...
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Keywords:
Obfuscation;
Credit Cards;
Strategic Incentives;
Complexity;
Agreements and Arrangements;
Customers;
Consumer Behavior;
Financial Services Industry
Luca, Michael, Ginger Zhe Jin, and Daniel Martin. "Strategic Complexity? Using Experiments to Understand and Overcome Obfuscation." Management Science Review (June 29, 2022). (Summary of "Complex Disclosure," Management Science, May 2022.)
- November 2023
- Case
Gabon Special Economic Zone
By: John Macomber and Wale Lawal
Tropical rain forest covers about 80% of the West African nation of Gabon, part of the Congo Basin and the "lungs of the world." Gabon is one of the first nations to earn revenue from carbon sequestration...as long as the rain forest remains intact. There are...
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Keywords:
Economic Development;
Forestry;
Wood;
Carbon Credits;
Supply Chain;
Economic Growth;
Developing Countries and Economies;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Government Administration;
Business and Government Relations;
Strategy;
Forest Products Industry;
Africa;
Gabon
Macomber, John, and Wale Lawal. "Gabon Special Economic Zone." Harvard Business School Case 224-012, November 2023.
- August 2014 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
Pivots and Incentives at LevelUp
By: Benjamin Edelman and Karen Webster
LevelUp's mobile payments service lets users scan a smartphone barcode rather than swipe a credit card. Will consumers embrace the service? Will merchants? LevelUp considers adjustments to make the service attractive to both consumers and merchants, while trying to...
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Keywords:
Mobile Payments;
Smartphone;
Credit Cards;
Interchange Fee;
Mobile Marketing;
Product Positioning;
Competitive Strategy;
Mobile Technology;
Technology Networks;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Banking Industry;
United States
Edelman, Benjamin, and Karen Webster. "Pivots and Incentives at LevelUp." Harvard Business School Case 915-001, August 2014. (Revised March 2015.) (request courtesy copy.)
- Working Paper
Covenant-Light Contracts and Creditor Coordination
By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina
In 2015, 70% of newly issued leveraged loans had weaker enforcement features, called covenant-light or "cov-lite"; this is nearly a three-time increase in cov-lite issuance compared to a previous peak in 2007. We evaluate whether this development can be attributed to...
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Keywords:
Credit Cycles;
Loan Contracts;
Debt Covenants;
Contracts;
Financing and Loans;
Credit;
Borrowing and Debt
Becker, Bo, and Victoria Ivashina. "Covenant-Light Contracts and Creditor Coordination." Swedish House of Finance Research Paper, No. 16-09, March 2016.
- October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
KOKO Networks: Bridging Energy Transition and Affordability with Carbon Financing
By: George Serafeim, Siko Sikochi and Namrata Arora
The problem was massive: two million hectares of African forests were lost annually to charcoal production for cooking, an area equivalent to 13 times Greater London, resulting in one billion tons of carbon emissions yearly. At the same time, an estimated 700,000...
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Keywords:
Africa;
Clean Tech;
Energy;
Sustainability;
Health;
Digital;
Carbon Credits;
Carbon Offsetting;
Market Design;
Regulation;
Climate Change;
Entrepreneurship;
Energy Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Africa
Serafeim, George, Siko Sikochi, and Namrata Arora. "KOKO Networks: Bridging Energy Transition and Affordability with Carbon Financing." Harvard Business School Case 124-022, October 2023. (Revised March 2024.)
- February 2019 (Revised March 2019)
- Case
Banorte and the Capital Call Facility: Infrastructure Finance in Mexico
By: John D. Macomber, Carla Larangeira and Fernanda Miguel
As a result of Mexico´s pension industry deregulation, pension funds were able to invest in energy and infrastructure projects through a variety of financial instruments, particularly through Capital Development Certificates (CKDs), an asset class that served as a...
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Keywords:
Financial Products;
Fund Management;
Capital Call Facility;
Pension Funds;
Infrastructure;
Energy;
Finance;
Decision Making;
Investment Funds;
Financial Instruments;
North America;
Mexico
Macomber, John D., Carla Larangeira, and Fernanda Miguel. "Banorte and the Capital Call Facility: Infrastructure Finance in Mexico." Harvard Business School Case 219-049, February 2019. (Revised March 2019.)
- February 2022
- Article
Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century
By: Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas and Stefanie Stantcheva
This paper studies the effect of corporate and personal taxes on innovation in the United States over the twentieth century. We build a panel of the universe of inventors who patent since 1920, and a historical state-level corporate tax database with corporate tax...
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Keywords:
Innovation;
Income Taxes;
Corporate Taxation;
Firms;
Inventors;
State Taxation;
Business Taxation;
R&D Tax Credits;
Taxation;
Innovation and Invention;
History;
United States
Akcigit, Ufuk, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas, and Stefanie Stantcheva. "Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century." Quarterly Journal of Economics 137, no. 1 (February 2022): 329–385.
- February 2008 (Revised March 2009)
- Case
Primus, 2007
Primus is a credit derivative product company. How will they weather the credit crisis of 2007?
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Keywords:
Financial Crisis;
Credit;
Credit Derivatives and Swaps;
Financial Markets;
Financial Services Industry
Bergstresser, Daniel B. "Primus, 2007." Harvard Business School Case 208-099, February 2008. (Revised March 2009.)
- August 2020 (Revised August 2023)
- Case
Nubank: Democratizing Financial Services
By: Michael Chu, Carla Larangeira and Pedro Levindo
Nubank, a wholly-digital solution created to disrupt Brazilian banking, with 6 million clients and a $4 billion valuation after five years, must decide whether to expand to Mexico. The company was founded in São Paulo in 2013 by Colombian-born David Vélez to seize what...
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Keywords:
Fintech;
Financial Inclusion;
Digital Banking;
Credit Cards;
Banks and Banking;
Disruption;
Expansion;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Financial Services Industry;
South America;
Brazil;
North America;
Mexico
Chu, Michael, Carla Larangeira, and Pedro Levindo. "Nubank: Democratizing Financial Services." Harvard Business School Case 321-068, August 2020. (Revised August 2023.)
- November 1994 (Revised February 1996)
- Case
Toy World, Inc.
By: W. Carl Kester
A shift from seasonal to level production of toys will change the seasonal cycle of Toy World's working capital needs and necessitate new bank credit arrangements. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
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Keywords:
Working Capital;
Business Cycles;
Cash Flow;
Forecasting and Prediction;
Investment Funds;
Financial Statements
Kester, W. Carl. "Toy World, Inc." Harvard Business School Case 295-073, November 1994. (Revised February 1996.)
- January 2001 (Revised June 2001)
- Case
COFIDIS
An offspring of French catalog marketer 3 Suisses, and a popular sponsor of Tour de France, Cofidis sells consumer credit over the phone, defying conventional banking with a product policy and a communication strategy that perfectly fits the company's comparative...
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Keywords:
Marketing Strategy;
Internet and the Web;
Marketing Communications;
Competitive Advantage;
Product;
Credit;
Financial Services Industry;
France
Wathieu, Luc R. "COFIDIS." Harvard Business School Case 501-055, January 2001. (Revised June 2001.)
- 2019
- Working Paper
The (Heterogenous) Economic Effects of Private Equity Buyouts
By: Steven J. Davis, John Haltiwanger, Kyle Handley, Ben Lipsius, Josh Lerner and Javier Miranda
The effects of private equity buyouts on employment, productivity, and job reallocation vary
tremendously with macroeconomic and credit conditions, across private equity groups, and by
type of buyout. We reach this conclusion by examining the most extensive...
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Keywords:
Private Equity Buyouts;
Impact;
Private Equity;
Economics;
Employment;
Performance Productivity;
Wages
Davis, Steven J., John Haltiwanger, Kyle Handley, Ben Lipsius, Josh Lerner, and Javier Miranda. "The (Heterogenous) Economic Effects of Private Equity Buyouts." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-046, October 2019. (Revised July 2021. NBER Working Paper 26371.)
- December 2006 (Revised February 2009)
- Case
China Merchants Bank: Here Just For You
By: F. Warren McFarlan, GuoQing Chen, HengYuan Zhu, Bin Yang, Michael Shih-ta Chen, G.A. Donovan, Waishun Lo and Yan Yang
Founded in 1987, China Merchants Bank (CMB) is a pioneer in the use of technical innovation and IT as a competitive tool in the rapidly evolving Chinese banking sector. With a relatively small branch network when compared to its larger competitors, CMB uses an...
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Keywords:
Credit Cards;
Information Technology;
Technological Innovation;
Innovation Leadership;
Competitive Strategy;
Initial Public Offering;
Emerging Markets;
Opportunities;
Banking Industry;
China;
Hong Kong
McFarlan, F. Warren, GuoQing Chen, HengYuan Zhu, Bin Yang, Michael Shih-ta Chen, G.A. Donovan, Waishun Lo, and Yan Yang. "China Merchants Bank: Here Just For You." Harvard Business School Case 307-081, December 2006. (Revised February 2009.)
- June 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
Membership Rewards® from American Express
By: Shelle Santana, Frances X. Frei and Lauren G. Pickle
Credit and charge card issuer American Express (Amex) had developed a strong reputation among consumers due in part to its Membership Rewards (MR) loyalty program, first established in 1991. Through MR, all Amex cardholders could accumulate and redeem “points” based on...
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Keywords:
Financial Services;
Customer Loyalty;
Credit Cards;
Marketing Strategy;
Product Marketing;
Brands and Branding;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Value Creation;
Financial Services Industry;
Banking Industry;
North America;
United States
Santana, Shelle, Frances X. Frei, and Lauren G. Pickle. "Membership Rewards® from American Express." Harvard Business School Case 518-079, June 2018. (Revised January 2019.)
- 10 Apr 2008
- Working Paper Summaries
Where Does it Go? Spending by the Financially Constrained
- December 1961 (Revised January 1994)
- Case
Plowman Poultry Farm
A poultry farmer wanted to expand production greatly and sought a large extension of his line of credit from his bank in addition to his existing loan on which he had not made payment. The Board of Directors must review a detailed account of events leading to this...
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Keywords:
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Animal-Based Agribusiness;
Expansion;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Financing and Loans;
Commercial Banking;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry
Hayes, Samuel L., III. "Plowman Poultry Farm." Harvard Business School Case 262-003, December 1961. (Revised January 1994.)
- January 2011 (Revised May 2011)
- Case
Paydiant
By: Jose B. Alvarez, Elizabeth C. Williamson and James Weber
Kevin Laracey, founder of Paydiant, needed to figure out how to launch a payment processing company with a new technology based on smart phones. Consumers had increasingly turned to electronic payment methods such as credit cards and debit cards to make purchases....
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurship;
Credit Cards;
Product Marketing;
Product Launch;
Market Entry and Exit;
Industry Structures;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Cooperation;
Technology Adoption;
Retail Industry
Alvarez, Jose B., Elizabeth C. Williamson, and James Weber. "Paydiant." Harvard Business School Case 511-065, January 2011. (Revised May 2011.)
- 12 Mar 2006
- Research & Ideas
New Research Explores Multi-Sided Markets
there are interesting common threads that tie together markets which, on the face of it, have nothing to do with each other: credit cards, videogames, and dating clubs. It is also true that certain categories of two-sided markets have...
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- September 1998 (Revised July 1999)
- Case
Costco Companies, Inc.
By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon
Costco Companies, one of the major players in the wholesale club industry, has developed a new class of membership that offers discounted services--auto, health, and home insurance, business credit card processing, real estate services--in exchange for a higher annual...
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Keywords:
Cost vs Benefits;
Cost Management;
Brands and Branding;
Marketing Strategy;
Supply and Industry;
Service Delivery;
Service Operations;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Retail Industry
Bell, David E., and Ann Leamon. "Costco Companies, Inc." Harvard Business School Case 599-041, September 1998. (Revised July 1999.)
- March 2007 (Revised April 2011)
- Case
Madam C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur, Leader, and Philanthropist
By: Nancy F. Koehn, Anne Dwojeski, William Grundy, Erica Helms and Katherine Miller
Madam C. J. Walker, who has been credited as the first self-made African-American woman millionaire, created a hair-care empire after years spent as a laundress in St. Louis, Missouri. Decades before the Civil Rights movement, her company gave employment to thousands...
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Keywords:
Leadership;
Business History;
Race;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Entrepreneurship;
Personal Development and Career;
Gender;
Philanthropy and Charitable Giving;
Saint Louis
Koehn, Nancy F., Anne Dwojeski, William Grundy, Erica Helms, and Katherine Miller. "Madam C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur, Leader, and Philanthropist." Harvard Business School Case 807-145, March 2007. (Revised April 2011.)