Eugene Soltes is an assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Professor Soltes has taught in both the MBA ("Financial Reporting and Control") and Executive Education ("Driving Corporate Performance") programs. Beginning in the Fall of 2012, Professor Soltes will teach in the Executive Education course "Program for Leadership Development." Professor Soltes' research focuses on investor communications. He investigates how managers can effectively distribute news and information to investors. In recent research, Professor Soltes examined ways in which firms gain press coverage. He has also investigated the impact of private meetings with investors and the consequences of greater dissemination of firm news. This work has been featured in numerous industry publications including IR Magazine and IR Update, the monthly publication of the National Investor Relations Institute. Professor Soltes received his Ph.D. and MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Prior to his graduate work, he earned a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in statistics at Harvard University.
Publications
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Article
| Review of Accounting Studies
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What Do Dividends Tell Us About Earnings Quality
Douglas Skinner and Eugene F. Soltes
Over the past 30 years, there have been significant changes in the distribution of earnings (cross-sectional variation has increased, with increasing left skewness) as well as in corporate payout policy, with many fewer firms paying dividends and the emergence of stock repurchases. We investigate whether the informativeness of payout policy with respect to earnings quality changes over this period. We find that the reported earnings of dividend paying firms are more persistent than those of other firms, and that this relation is stable over time. We also find that dividend payers are less likely to report losses and those losses that they do report tend to be transitory losses driven by special items. Overall, the evidence shows that dividends are consistently informative with respect to earnings quality. These results do not hold as strongly for stock repurchases, consistent with repurchases representing less of a commitment.
Keywords: Distribution;
Business Earnings;
Change;
Policy;
Stocks;
Investment Return;
Performance Consistency;
Quality;
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Teaching Note
| HBS Case Collection
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2013
Monocle (TN)
Eugene Soltes and Sara Hess
Keywords: media and publishing;
monocle;
tyler brule;
Media;
Journals and Magazines;
Media and Broadcasting Industry;
Publishing Industry;
Citation: Soltes, Eugene, and Sara Hess. " Monocle (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 113-064, February 2013.
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2013
(Revised from original 2012 version)
Monocle
Eugene Soltes and Sara Hess
Monocle, a magazine on global affairs, culture, and business, was founded by Tyler Brûlé to counter a perceived deterioration in the quality of print publications available at the newsstand. Monocle differentiates itself from other publications through its diverse international coverage and related newspaper, radio, and shop offerings. The case investigates the growth of Monocle and how the publication has developed its unique relationship with readers and advertisers.
Keywords: media and publishing;
monocle;
tyler brule;
Media;
Journals and Magazines;
Media and Broadcasting Industry;
Publishing Industry;
Citation: Soltes, Eugene, and Sara Hess. " Monocle." Harvard Business School Case 113-024, May 2013. (Revised from original July 2012 version.)
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2012
Aman Resorts (Abridged)
Eugene Soltes and Aldo Sesia
This case describes the operating model and philosophy of this high-end set of global properties. Aman relies on employees taking considerable initiative to deliver the highest quality personalized service in the hospitality industry. The case also highlights Aman's strategy and operations, which differ in many ways from industry standards. "Aman Resorts (Abridged)" is a slightly shorter version of "Aman Resorts," HBS No. 111-012.
Keywords: global business;
management skills;
performance appraisals;
customer service;
incentives;
hospitality;
Globalized Firms and Management;
Business Model;
Employees;
Service Delivery;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Business Strategy;
Accommodations Industry;
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Teaching Note
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
Aman Resorts and Aman Resorts (B) (TN)
Eugene Soltes
Teaching Note for 111-012 and 111-015.
Keywords: Strategy;
Operations;
Employees;
Quality;
Accommodations Industry;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
(Revised from original 2010 version)
Aman Resorts
Eugene Soltes and Aldo Sesia
This case describes the operating model and philosophy of this high-end set of global properties. Aman relies on employees taking considerable initiative to deliver the highest quality personalized service in the hospitality industry. The case also highlights Aman's strategy and operations, which differ in many ways from industry standards.
Keywords: Business Model;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Customer Satisfaction;
Globalized Firms and Management;
Employees;
Service Delivery;
Business Strategy;
Accommodations Industry;
Citation: Soltes, Eugene, and Aldo Sesia. " Aman Resorts." Harvard Business School Case 111-012, April 2011. (Revised from original November 2010 version.)
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Supplement
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
(Revised from original 2010 version)
Aman Resorts (B)
Eugene Soltes and Aldo Sesia
The (B) case describes how employees are rewarded and compensated and is used to supplement the (A) case.
Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships;
Customer Satisfaction;
Globalized Firms and Management;
Compensation and Benefits;
Employees;
Performance Evaluation;
Motivation and Incentives;
Accommodations Industry;
Citation: Soltes, Eugene, and Aldo Sesia. " Aman Resorts (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 111-015, April 2011. (Revised from original November 2010 version.)
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
(Revised from original 2009 version)
A Letter from Prison
Eugene F. Soltes
Stephen Richards, the former global head of sales at Computer Associates, Inc. (CA), is serving a seven-year prison sentence for financial fraud. In the case, Richards responds to a number of questions about managerial responsibility and the manipulation of financial performance in a letter written to a graduate student.
Keywords: Accounting;
Crime and Corruption;
Ethics;
Corporate Accountability;
Managerial Roles;
Citation: Soltes, Eugene F. " A Letter from Prison." Harvard Business School Case 110-045, March 2011. (Revised from original December 2009 version.)
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Teaching Note
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
(Revised from original 2010 version)
A Letter from Prison (TN)
Eugene F. Soltes
Teaching Note for [110045].
Citation: Soltes, Eugene F. " A Letter from Prison (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 110-059, January 2011. (Revised from original March 2010 version.)
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Background Note
| HBS Case Collection
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2010
Spans of Control and Accountability
Eugene F. Soltes
Overview of Spans of Control and Accountability.
Keywords: Organizational Design;
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Other Unpublished Work
| 2012
Managerial Control of Business Press Coverage
Eugene F. Soltes and David H. Solomon
The business press plays a significant role in distributing firm news to investors. We investigate the extent to which managers can influence their firm's level of coverage in newswires and newspapers. We consider three choices under managerial control: press release timing, press wire service, and ease of firm access. We find evidence that issuing press releases during the day instead of the evening increases the probability of coverage in both newspapers and newswires. Nonetheless, the largest determinants of coverage are firm and news specific factors which lie outside managerial control. We also examine how media incentives affect coverage choices. We find that newspapers, but not newswires, are more likely to cover negative news which suggests that papers cover particular business events for reasons other than informativeness.
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Other Unpublished Work
| 2012
Private Interaction between Firm Management and Sell-Side Analysts
Eugene F. Soltes
I investigate private interaction between sell-side analysts and senior management by examining a set of internal records compiled by a large-cap NYSE traded firm. I find that analysts who privately meet with management cover fewer firms, have less experience, and cover the sample firm for a longer period of time. Individual analyst characteristics dominate attributes of the firms they work for in explaining who interacts with management. Analysts who interact privately are more likely to create research reports. At the same time, I do not find that private interaction significantly improves the accuracy of analysts' estimates of quarterly earnings. Evidence also suggests that private interaction with management largely complements, rather than substitutes for, other means of public interaction such as quarterly conference calls.
Keywords: Conferences;
Management Teams;
Experience and Expertise;
Reports;
Research;
Personal Characteristics;
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Other Unpublished Work
| 2012
What Are We Meeting For? The Consequences of Private Meetings with Investors
Eugene F. Soltes and David H. Solomon
Executives of publicly-traded firms spend considerable time meeting privately with investors, despite regulation restricting their ability to convey material nonpublic information. Using a set of records of all one-on-one meetings between senior management and investors for a NYSE traded firm, we investigate which funds meet privately with management and the consequences of these interactions. We find that hedge funds, large block holders, geographically close investors, and investors with higher turnover meet more frequently with management. We also find that trades are more correlated among funds that meet with management and these trades better predict future performance. Overall, our results suggest that private meetings help some investors make more informed trading decisions.
Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions;
Investment;
Investment Funds;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Management Teams;
Public Ownership;
Business and Shareholder Relations;
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Other Unpublished Work
| 2011
Winners in the Spotlight: Media Coverage of Fund Holdings as a Driver of Flows
Eugene F. Soltes, David H. Solomon and Denis Sosyura
We show that media coverage of mutual fund holdings affects how investors allocate money across funds. Controlling for fund performance, fund holdings with high past returns attract extra flows only if these stocks were recently featured in major newspapers. In contrast, holdings that were not covered in the media do not affect flows. We present evidence that media coverage tends to amplify investors' chasing of past returns rather than facilitate the processing of useful information in fund portfolios. Fund managers exploit this behavior by purchasing media-covered past winners at reporting dates, a strategy most prevalent among poorly performing funds. Our evidence suggests that media coverage can exacerbate investor biases and that it is the primary mechanism that makes window-dressing effective.
Keywords: Stocks;
Investment Return;
Investment Funds;
Investment Portfolio;
Resource Allocation;
Media;
Prejudice and Bias;
Awards & Honors
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Eugene F. Soltes: Winner of the 2012 Best Paper Award from the Financial Research Association for his paper with David H. Solomon “What Are We Meeting For? The Consequences of Private Meetings with Investors” (September 2012).
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