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- All HBS Web (305)
- Faculty Publications (79)
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- All HBS Web (305)
- Faculty Publications (79)
- September 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Case
Icahn Enterprises: Ponzi Scheme or Sound Investment
By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and James Weber
Icahn Enterprises, a publicly traded limited partnership founded and operated by famed activist investor Carl Icahn, had earned above market returns for over a decade. Between 2018 and early 2023, it had a compound annual return of 31%. Icahn invested in undervalued...
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Dey, Aiyesha, Jonas Heese, and James Weber. "Icahn Enterprises: Ponzi Scheme or Sound Investment." Harvard Business School Case 124-013, September 2023. (Revised January 2024.)
- Research Summary
Corporate Bond Pricing and Different Sources of Asset Return Volatility (with George Chacko and Jens Hilscher)
This paper presents a pricing model for defaultable bonds. Default is defined by a cash flow, not value, covenant. The cash flow (total distributions) yield is stochastic. We find that different sources of volatility, cash flow versus discount rate news, affect...
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Entry into Platform-based Markets
This paper examines the relative importance of platform quality, indirect network effects, and consumer expectations on the success of entrants in platform-based markets. We develop a theoretical model and find that an entrant's success depends on the strength of...
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- Research Summary
Dynamics of Platform Competition: Exploring the Role of Installed Base, Platform Quality and Consumer Expectations
Researchers debate the role of installed base, platform quality and consumer expectations in driving the success of platforms. We analyze these three factors in a dynamic model where a new entrant with superior quality competes with an incumbent platform, and... View Details
- March 2023 (Revised September 2023)
- Case
Patagonia: 'Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder'
By: Brian Trelstad, Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael Norris and Susan Pinckney
In September 2022, Yvon Chouinard, the iconoclastic founder of outdoor apparel company Patagonia, announced a new ownership model for his company. Chouinard and his family had held complete control of the company's voting and non-voting stock since its founding 50...
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Keywords:
Trusts;
Business Ventures;
Business Organization;
Family Business;
Restructuring;
Change;
Disruption;
Transition;
Decision Making;
Ethics;
Values and Beliefs;
Finance;
Financial Management;
Governance;
Corporate Governance;
Investment Activism;
Leadership;
Labor;
Law;
Common Law;
Management;
Goals and Objectives;
Organizations;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Mission and Purpose;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Ownership;
Ownership Type;
Family Ownership;
Private Ownership;
Social Enterprise;
Nonprofit Organizations;
Society;
Social Issues;
Wealth and Poverty;
Value;
Value Creation;
Apparel and Accessories Industry;
United States
Trelstad, Brian, Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael Norris, and Susan Pinckney. "Patagonia: 'Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder'." Harvard Business School Case 323-057, March 2023. (Revised September 2023.)
- Research Summary
Output and asset price fluctuations
What are the sources of business cycles? How are these shocks propagated in the economy? Why are their effects so persistent? How can we explain asset price fluctuations? How are shocks transmitted internationally?To study these questions, I have developed a series... View Details
- 10 Jan 2011
- Research & Ideas
Is Groupon Good for Retailers?
Explain the theoretical model you describe in your paper and how it can help retailers decide whether a voucher service like Groupon makes sense for them. A: We present a model of online View Details
- August 2011 (Revised July 2014)
- Case
Social Innovation at Salesforce.com
By: Christopher Marquis, Marley C. Kornreich and Bobbi Thomason
Salesforce.com recently implemented an innovative social enterprise business model whereby the Salesforce.com Foundation funds its operations and grant budget by selling discounted salesforce.com software licenses to nonprofits and education clients. The case recounts...
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Keywords:
Innovation and Invention;
Corporate Entrepreneurship;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Business Model;
Information Technology;
Leading Change;
Problems and Challenges
Marquis, Christopher, Marley C. Kornreich, and Bobbi Thomason. "Social Innovation at Salesforce.com." Harvard Business School Case 412-049, August 2011. (Revised July 2014.)
- Article
Analyzing Scrip Systems
By: Kris Johnson, David Simchi-Levi and Peng Sun
Scrip systems provide a nonmonetary trade economy for exchange of resources. We model a scrip system as a stochastic game and study system design issues on selection rules to match potential trade partners over time. We show the optimality of one particular rule in...
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Keywords:
"Repeated Games";
Stochastic Trust Game;
Dynamic Program;
P2P Lending;
Scrip Systems;
Artificial Currency;
Non-monetary Trade Economies;
Marketplace Matching;
Currency;
Operations;
Game Theory
Johnson, Kris, David Simchi-Levi, and Peng Sun. "Analyzing Scrip Systems." Operations Research 62, no. 3 (May–June 2014): 524–534.
- 2007
- Working Paper
Dynamics of Platform Competition: Exploring the Role of Installed Base, Platform Quality and Consumer Expectations
By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti
This paper seeks to answer three questions. First, which drives the success of a platform, installed base, platform quality or consumer expectations? Second, when does a monopoly emerge in a platform-based market? Finally, when is a platform-based market socially...
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Keywords:
Price;
Network Effects;
Digital Platforms;
Monopoly;
Quality;
Competitive Advantage;
Digital Platforms
Zhu, Feng, and Marco Iansiti. "Dynamics of Platform Competition: Exploring the Role of Installed Base, Platform Quality and Consumer Expectations." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 08-031, November 2007.
- 2020
- Working Paper
Collusion in Brokered Markets
By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers and Richard Lowery
The U.S. residential real estate agency market presents a puzzle for economic theory: commissions on real estate transactions have remained high for decades even though entry is frequent and costs are low. We model the real estate agency market, and other brokered...
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Keywords:
Real Estate;
"Repeated Games";
Collusion;
Antitrust;
Brokered Markets;
Game Theory;
Real Estate Industry
Hatfield, John William, Scott Duke Kominers, and Richard Lowery. "Collusion in Brokered Markets." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-023, September 2019. (Revised July 2020.)
- Forthcoming
- Article
Collusion in Brokered Markets
By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers and Richard Lowery
High commissions in the U.S. residential real estate agency market present a puzzle for economic theory because brokerage is not a concentrated industry. We model brokered markets as a game in which agents post prices for customers and then choose which other agents to...
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Keywords:
Real Estate Agents;
Real Estate;
Realtors;
Broker Networks;
Brokerage;
Brokerage Commissions;
"Brokerage Industry;
Brokered Markets;
Brokering;
Brokers;
Industrial Organization;
Repeated Game Framework;
"Repeated Games";
Collusion;
Antitrust;
Microeconomics;
Market Design;
Theory;
Game Theory;
Real Estate Industry
Hatfield, John William, Scott Duke Kominers, and Richard Lowery. "Collusion in Brokered Markets." Journal of Finance (forthcoming).
- 2023
- Working Paper
Complexity and Time
By: Benjamin Enke, Thomas Graeber and Ryan Oprea
We provide experimental evidence that core intertemporal choice anomalies -- including extreme short-run impatience, structural estimates of present bias, hyperbolicity and transitivity violations -- are driven by complexity rather than time or risk preferences. First,...
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Enke, Benjamin, Thomas Graeber, and Ryan Oprea. "Complexity and Time." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 31047, March 2023.
- 2022
- Working Paper
Intertemporal Altruism
By: Felix Chopra, Armin Falk and Thomas Graeber
Most prosocial decisions involve intertemporal tradeoffs. Yet, the timing of prosocial utility flows is ambiguous and bypassed by most models of other-regarding preferences. We study the behavioral implications of the time structure of prosocial utility,...
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Chopra, Felix, Armin Falk, and Thomas Graeber. "Intertemporal Altruism." Working Paper, August 2022. (R&R at American Economic Journal Microeconomics.)
Do Bonuses Enhance Sales Productivity? A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Bonus-Based Compensation Plans
We estimate a dynamic structural model of sales force response to a bonus based compensation plan. Substantively, the paper sheds insights on how different elements of the compensation plan enhance productivity. We find evidence that: (1) bonuses enhance productivity...
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- Article
Bargaining with Imperfect Enforcement
By: Lucy White and Mark Williams
The game-theoretic bargaining literature insists on non-cooperative bargaining procedure but allows 'cooperative' implementation of agreements. The effect of this is to allow free-reign of bargaining power with no check upon it. In reality, courts cannot...
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Keywords:
Agreements and Arrangements;
Body of Literature;
Contracts;
Motivation and Incentives;
Code Law;
Game Theory
White, Lucy, and Mark Williams. "Bargaining with Imperfect Enforcement." RAND Journal of Economics 40, no. 2 (Summer 2009).
- March–April 2014
- Article
Do Bonuses Enhance Sales Productivity? A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Bonus-Based Compensation Plans
By: Doug J. Chung, Thomas Steenburgh and K. Sudhir
We estimate a dynamic structural model of sales force response to a bonus based compensation plan. Substantively, the paper sheds insights on how different elements of the compensation plan enhance productivity. We find evidence that: (1) bonuses enhance productivity...
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Chung, Doug J., Thomas Steenburgh, and K. Sudhir. "Do Bonuses Enhance Sales Productivity? A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Bonus-Based Compensation Plans." Marketing Science 33, no. 2 (March–April 2014): 165–187. (Lead article. Featured in HBS Working Knowledge.)
- August 2020 (Revised February 2021)
- Case
Luckin Coffee (A): Caffeine-fueled Growth?
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman
This case describes the founding of Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee in 2017 and its path to surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in China (by number of stores) in 2019. Unlike Starbucks stores, which were designed to be welcoming “third places” for...
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Keywords:
Business Model;
Business Earnings;
Cost;
Cost Management;
Financial Statements;
Financial Condition;
Financial Management;
Stocks;
Profit;
Revenue;
Price;
Food;
Business History;
Employment;
Brands and Branding;
Product Positioning;
Marketing Strategy;
Business Strategy;
Expansion;
Competitive Strategy;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Technology Industry;
Asia;
China
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Karen Elterman. "Luckin Coffee (A): Caffeine-fueled Growth?" Harvard Business School Case 721-370, August 2020. (Revised February 2021.)
- 07 Apr 2015
- First Look
First Look: April 7
invest in external R&D to acquire new product lines and in internal R&D to improve their existing product lines. A baseline model derives the theoretical implications of weaker scaling for external R&D versus internal R&D,...
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Keywords:
Sean Silverthorne
- Research Summary
Valuation Theory and Practice
Timothy A. Luehrman's primary research interest is in the application of valuation methods to companies, businesses, and individual assets. Some of his work involves applications of tools originally developed for valuing derivative securities to the valuation of other...
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