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Executive Education
in Europe

Changing the Game—Europe
Negotiation and Competitive Decision Making

June 28-July 3, 2009 (London, UK)

Designed as a comprehensive program for practical success, Changing the Game features courses, cases, and activities that improve every aspect of negotiation, including objective self-assessment tactics, negotiation simulations, situation analyses, and advanced decision-making skill sets that can be shared across the entire organization.

All Global Executive Education Programs

2009

Siegmund Warburg, the City of London and the Financial Roots of European Integration

Ferguson, Niall
September 2009

The process of European economic integration slackened in the 1960s. National markets for goods, most services, and labor were not being integrated because they were not really being liberalized. The exception to this rule was financial services, one of which-the sale of long-term corporate and public sector bonds to relatively wealthy investors-became integrated in a quite novel way in the course of the 1960s. The rise of the so-called 'Eurobond' market was a major breakthrough in the history of European integration, but it was a largely spontaneous result of innovation by private sector actors, led by Siegmund Warburg. In some measure, no doubt, the bankers' primary motive was the profit motive. Yet there is also compelling evidence that Warburg and his associates also had a political agenda. They regarded it not only as a way of making money but also as a potent device for advancing Europe's political integration. In particular, they appreciated that European capital market integration could reinforce the case for British membership of the EEC. The resurrection of London as Europe's principal financial center, even at a time of economic and exchange rate weakness, was a major achievement in its own right. But it was also crucial for the resumption of European integration in the 1970s.

Business History 51, no. 3 (May 2009)

What Causes Industry Agglomeration? Evidence from Coagglomeration Patterns (pdf)

Kerr, William R., Glenn D. Ellison, and Edward L. Glaeser
May 2009

Why do firms cluster near one another? We test Marshall's (1920) theories of industrial agglomeration by examining which industries locate near one another, or coagglomerate. We construct pairwise coagglomeration indices for U.S. manufacturing industries from the Economic Census. We then relate coagglomeration levels to the degree to which industry pairs share goods, labor, or ideas. To reduce reverse causality, where co-location drives input-output linkages or hiring patterns, we use data from U.K. industries and from U.S. areas where the two industries are not co-located. All three of Marshall's theories of agglomeration are supported, with input-output linkages particularly important.

The American Economic Review (forthcoming)

Measuring the Financial Sophistication of Households

Campbell, John Y., Laurent Calvet, and Paolo Sodini
May 2009

This paper constructs an index of financial sophistication that, in comprehensive data on Swedish households, best explains a set of three investment mistakes: underdiversification, risky share inertia, and the tendency to sell winning stocks and hold losing stocks (the disposition effect). The index of financial sophistication increases strongly with financial wealth and household size, and to a lesser extent with education and proxies for financial experience. The index is strongly positively correlated with the share of risky assets held by a household.

Market Reaction to the Adoption of IFRS in Europe

Riedl, Edward J., Christopher S. Armstrong, Alan D. Jagolinzer and Mary E. Barth
May 2009

This study examines European stock market reactions to 16 events associated with the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Europe. European IFRS adoption represented a major milestone towards financial reporting convergence yet spurred controversy reaching the highest levels of government. We find an incrementally positive reaction for firms with lower quality pre-adoption information, which is more pronounced in banks, and with higher pre-adoption information asymmetry, consistent with investors expecting net information quality benefits from IFRS adoption. We find an incrementally negative reaction for firms domiciled in code law countries, consistent with investors' concerns over enforcement of IFRS in those countries. Finally, we find a positive reaction to IFRS adoption events for firms with high-quality pre-adoption information, consistent with investors expecting net convergence benefits from IFRS adoption.

The Accounting Review (forthcoming).

Explicit Relative Performance Evaluation in Performance-vested Equity Grants

Ferri, Fabrizio
April 2009

Carter, Ittner, and Zechman (2009) examine the use of explicit relative performance evaluation (RPE) conditions in performance-vested equity plans in a sample of United Kingdom firms in 2002. They find that factors suggested by economic theories (for example, removal of common shocks and tournament theory) are more closely associated with specific features of the plan than with the firm-level decision to use an RPE equity plan. My discussion focuses on the interpretation of these findings and the opportunities and implications for future research. I also summarize the views of five U.K. directors who were involved in the design and use of performance-vested equity plans.

NBER Working Paper Series, No. 14891, April 2009

Leadership Competencies for Implementing Planned Organizational Change Leadership

Battilana, Julie, M.J. Gilmartin, A.-C., Pache, M. Sengul, and J. Alexander
February 2009

This paper bridges the leadership and organizational change literatures by exploring the relationship between managers' leadership competencies (namely, their effectiveness at person-oriented and task-oriented behaviors) and the likelihood that they will emphasize the different activities involved in planned organizational change implementation (namely, communicating the need for change, mobilizing others to support the change, and evaluating the change implementation). We examine this relationship using data from 89 clinical managers at the United Kingdom National Health Service who implemented change projects between 2003 and 2004. Our results lend overall support to the proposed theory. This finding suggests that treating planned organizational change as a generic phenomenon might mask important idiosyncrasies associated both with the different activities involved in the change implementation process and with the unique functions that leadership competencies might play in the execution of these activities.

Leadership Quarterly

Global Currency Hedging

Campbell, John Y., Karine Serfaty-de Medeiros, and Luis M. Viceira
February 2009

Over the period 1975 to 2005, the U.S. dollar (particularly in relation to the Canadian dollar) and the euro and Swiss franc (particularly in the second half of the period) have moved against world equity markets. Thus these currencies should be attractive to risk-minimizing global equity investors despite their low average returns. The risk-minimizing currency strategy for a global bond investor is close to a full currency hedge, with a modest long position in the U.S. dollar. There is little evidence that risk-minimizing investors should adjust their currency positions in response to movements in interest differentials.

Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-089, January 2009

From Regional Star to Global Leader

Nohria, Nitin
January 2009

Yang Jianguo was recently promoted from country manager for China to global head of product development at a staid French perfume maker. He was chosen for his technical smarts and his knowledge of emerging markets-a critical avenue for growth, given that sales in the company's core markets have stalled. Eager to succeed in his new role in Paris, Jianguo has lots of fresh ideas, but they seem to be falling on deaf ears. Members of the executive team, for their part, find Jianguo to be largely indifferent to their input. Can Jianguo adjust to this new culture? And can he succeed without sacrificing his identity? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0901A and R0901Z. Katherine Tsang, the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai, explains the cultural differences between China and France and recommends that Jianguo push his thinking beyond the Chinese market. She also suggests that the company give all its executive team members multicultural training so they have the tools to understand one another and work together effectively. Mansour Javidan, the dean of research and a professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management, acknowledges that Jianguo's transition would be easier if he had the full support of the CEO, Alain Deronde. But since that isn't forthcoming, he advises Jianguo to work with Alain to develop targets for growth in emerging and traditional markets and a plan for building an infrastructure to achieve those goals. James Champy, the chairman of consulting for Perot Systems, is surprised that a family business would choose an "outsider" for this important post, but he recognizes it as a wise strategic move. He says that Jianguo needs a coach and should focus on learning the home market first, before trying to make inroads further afield.

Harvard Business Review 87, no. 1, January 2009

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2008

Happiness Adaptation to Income beyond 'Basic Needs'

Di Tella, Rafael, and Robert MacCulloch
December 2008

We test for whether, once "basic needs" are satisfied, there is happiness adaptation to further gains in income using three data sets. Individual German Panel Data from 1985 to 2000, and data on the well-being of over 600,000 people in a panel of European countries from 1975 to 2002, shows different patterns of adaptation to income across the rich and poor. We find evidence that for wealthy Germans, and for the rich half of European nations, higher levels of per capita income don't buy greater happiness. The reason appears to be adaptation. However even for the rich half of European nations such habituation may take more than five years so the happiness gains that they experience, whilst not permanent, can still be relatively long-lasting. Finally we study a cross section of nations in 2005 from the World Gallup Poll and find that the past 45 years of economic growth (from 1960 to 2005) in the rich half of nations has not brought happiness gains above those that were already in place once the 1960s' standard of living had been achieved. However in the poorest half of nations we cannot reject the null hypothesis that the happiness gains they have experienced from the past 45 years of growth have been the same as the gains that they experienced from growth prior to the 1960s.

NBER Working Paper Series, No. 14539, December 2009

Responding to Public and Private Politics: Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Strategies (pdf)

Reid, Erin M., and Michael W. Toffel
August 2008

The challenges associated with climate change will require governments, citizens, and corporations to work collaboratively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a task that requires information on companies' emissions levels, risks, and reduction opportunities. This paper explores the conditions under which firms respond to shareholders' requests for this information. Building on previous theories of how social activists inspire field-level change, we hypothesize that shareholder actions and regulatory threats are likely to prime firms to cooperate with shareholder requests for information disclosure. Using a unique dataset, we find evidence of both direct and spillover effects. In the domain of private politics, shareholder resolutions filed against a firm, and against others in its industry, increase its propensity to acquiesce to these shareholder requests. Similarly, in the realm of public politics, the threat of state regulations that target a firm's industry-as well as those that target other industries-increases the likelihood that the firm will acquiesce to shareholder requests to disclose related information. These findings extend existing theory by showing how organizational change can be sparked by both activist groups and government policymakers and that challenges mounted against a single firm (and industry) can inspire field-level (and state-level) changes.

Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-019, August 2008

Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Survey

Pekkala Kerr, Sari, and William R. Kerr
August 2008

This paper surveys recent empirical studies on the economic impacts of immigration. Particular emphasis is given to the experiences of Northern Europe and Scandinavia. The survey first examines the magnitude of immigration as an economic phenomenon in various host countries. The second part deals with the assimilation of immigrant workers in host-country labor markets and the use of social benefits by immigrants. The survey then considers the effect of immigration on the labor market outcomes of natives. The paper concludes with studies of immigration's impact for the public sector of host countries.

Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-013, July 2008

Fight or Flight? Portfolio Rebalancing by Individual Investors

Calvet, Laurent E., John Y. Campbell, and Paolo Sodini
July 2008

This paper investigates the dynamics of individual portfolios in a unique dataset containing the disaggregated wealth of all households in Sweden. Between 1999 and 2002, we observe little aggregate rebalancing in the financial portfolio of participants. These patterns conceal strong household-level evidence of active rebalancing, which on average offsets about one half of idiosyncratic passive variations in the risky asset share. Wealthy, educated investors with better diversified portfolios tend to rebalance more actively. We find some evidence that households rebalance towards a higher risky share as they become richer. We also study the decisions to trade individual assets. Households are more likely to fully sell directly held stocks if those stocks have performed well and more likely to exit direct stockholding if their stock portfolios have performed well; but these relationships are much weaker for mutual funds, a pattern which is consistent with previous research on the disposition effect among direct stockholders and performance sensitivity among mutual fund investors. When households continue to hold individual assets, however, they rebalance both stocks and mutual funds to offset about one sixth of the passive variations in individual asset shares. Households rebalance primarily by adjusting purchases of risky assets if their risky portfolios have performed poorly and by adjusting both fund purchases and full sales of stocks if their risky portfolios have performed well. Finally, the tendency for households to fully sell winning stocks is weaker for wealthy investors with diversified portfolios of individual stocks.

NBER Working Paper Series, No. 14177, July 2008.

Industrial Specialization and Regional Clusters in the Ten New EU Member States (Special Issue on Macro and Micro Level Competitiveness)

Solvell, Orjan, Christian H.M. Ketels, and Goran Lindqvist
June 2008

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of regional concentration patterns within ten new European Union (EU) member states, EU10, and make comparisons with EU15 and the U.S. economy

Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal Incorporating Journal of Global Competitiveness 18, nos. 1/2 (2008): 104-130.

Industrial Specialization and Regional Clusters in the Ten New EU Member States

Solvell, Orjan, Christian H.M. Ketels, and Goran Lindqvist
June 2008

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of regional concentration patterns within ten new European Union (EU) member states, EU10, and make comparisons with EU15 and the U.S. economy.

Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal Incorporating Journal of Global Competitiveness 18, nos. 1/2 (2008): 104-130

America the Difficult

Desai, Mihir
June 2008

The American (May - June 2008)

Review of Stig Tenold's Tankers in Trouble

Ketels, Christian H.M.
May 2008

In Tankers in Trouble, Stig Tenold looks at the experience of the Norwegian shipping industry during the 1970s and 1980s, specifically of those companies active in the tanker business. The review discusses some complementary insights that can be gained from applying Michael Porter's cluster framework to the analysis of Norwegian shipping and the crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. It shows how the cluster perspective contributes to the understanding of why Norwegian shipping was so strong in the first place, it helps to distinguish whether the Norwegian crisis of the 1970s and 1980s was mainly demand or supply driven, and it can explain the drivers of the resurgence of Norwegian shipping in the 1990s and 2000s.

International Journal of Maritime History 21, no. 2 (December 2007): 407-411

Learning to Live with Governments: Unilever in India and Turkey, 1950-1980

Jones, Geoffrey G.
March 2008

A noteworthy characteristic of the contemporary global economy is the uneven distribution of world foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2007 three-quarters of world FDI was located in developed countries. The residual was concentrated in a small number of emerging countries. Large countries with little inward FDI included India and Turkey. This is puzzling, given that both countries have greatly liberalized their regulations on inward FDI. After 1945 many developing governments pursued policies which restricted foreign-owned firms. India and Turkey were among the countries with particularly difficult policy environments. This paper explores why Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer products company, was able to sustain large businesses in developing countries such as India and Turkey. The paper argues that the explanation is multi-causal. Unilever held first-mover advantages, but was also prepared to accept low dividend remittances for years. It pursued flexible business strategies beyond its "core" business, even distributing condoms. It maintained a high standard of corporate ethics. It was effective at building contacts with local business and government elites, primarily through localization of management.

Entreprises et Histoire 49 (December 2007)

Embracing Commitment and Performance: CEOs and Practices Used to Manage Paradox(pdf)

Fredberg, Tobias, Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat, Nathaniel Foote, and Flemming Norrgren.
January 2008

We tend to assume that great leaders must make difficult choices between two or more conflicting outcomes. In an interview study with 26 CEOs of top American and European companies (including IKEA, Campbell Soups, Nokia, H&M), we find that instead of choosing between conflicting outcomes such as long-term strategy or short-term performance drivers, top-tier managers argue that their role is to embrace such paradoxes to make both things happen simultaneously. The study identifies five groups of practices that make this possible. Together, they reveal a systematic approach to managerial work at the top, which is seldom found in the literature. By building on the engagement of many in the development of the organization, the practices are important for our understanding of how a CEO facilitates the partaking of many in strategy making. The paper contributes to theory by relating the current findings to the literature on the connection between commitment and performance and on the strategic management literature that focuses on the proliferation of strategy and strategy as practice.

Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 08-052, 2008

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2007

Identity Incentives As an Engaging Form of Control: Revisiting Leniencies in an Aeronautic Plant

Anteby, Michel J.
November 2007

Research has long shown that organizations shape members' identities. However, the possibility that these identities might also be desired and that members might benefit from this process has only recently been explored. In a qualitative study of a French aeronautic plant, I demonstrate how an implicitly negotiated leniency between management and workers around the use of company materials and tools, on company time, to produce artifacts for personal use, enhances workers' identities. This leniency applies to a select subset of workers and enhances their desired occupational identity. This practice produces an engaging form of control that relies on management's selective allocation of identity incentives. These findings document a previously overlooked type of control: one reliant on desired identities that engage rather than constrain. Desired identities, specifically previously enacted ones, constitute potent incentives for inducing efforts or actions.

Organization Science (forthcoming)

Pharmaceutical Regulation in the United States and Europe

Daemmrich, Arthur
November 2007

The Division for Public Education of the American Bar Association. Focus on Law Studies 23, no. 1 (fall 2007): 8-11

Design, Meanings, and Radical Innovation: A Meta-model and a Research Agenda

Verganti, Roberto
November 2007

Recent studies on design management have helped us to better comprehend how companies can apply design to get closer to users and better understand their needs; an approach usually referred to as "user-centered design". Yet, analysis of design-intensive manufacturers such as Alessi, Artemide and other leading Italian firms, show that their innovation process hardly starts from a close observation of user needs and requirements. Rather, they follow a different strategy that we call "design-driven innovation". This strategy aims at radically changing the emotional and symbolic content of products, i.e., their meanings and languages, through a deep understanding of broader changes in society, culture and technology. Rather than being pulled by user requirements, design-driven innovation is pushed by a firm's vision about possible new product meanings and languages that could diffuse in society. Design-driven innovation, that plays such a crucial role in the innovation strategy of design-intensive firms, has still remained largely unexplored. This article aims at providing a possible direction to fill this empty spot in innovation management literature. In particular, first we propose a meta-model for investigation of design-driven innovation. In this meta-model a manufacturer's ability to understand, anticipate and influence emergence of new product meanings is built by leveraging on external interpreters (designers, firms in other industries, suppliers, schools, artists, the media, etc) who share its same problem: to understand the evolution of socio-cultural models, and propose new visions and meanings. Managing design-driven innovation therefore implies to manage the interaction with these interpreters, in order to access, share and internalize knowledge on product languages and influence shifts in socio-cultural models. Second, we propose a possible direction to scientifically investigate the management of this networked and collective research process. In particular we show that the process of creating breakthrough innovations of meanings partially mirrors the process of creating breakthrough technological innovations. Studies of design-driven innovation may therefore benefit significantly from the existing body of theories in the field of technology management. The analysis of the analogies between these two types of radical innovations (of meanings and technologies) allow to set a research agenda for exploration of design-driven innovation, a relevant as well as underinvestigated phenomenon.

Journal of Product Innovation Management (forthcoming)

Mondialisation: la French Touch

Abdelal, Rawi, and Sophie Meunier
October 2007

Telos, October 2007

Streaming Knowledge - A Hidden History of Codetermination: The Schmalenbach Society and the Dinkelbach School of German Management (pdf)

Fear, Jeffrey
April 2007

This article uncovers a virtuous circular network of people and ideas, between the theories of the Schmalenbach Society and the management practices of the so-called Dinkelbach School that created one of the most influential impulses for post-1945 German political economy and business management. This group remained exceptional for their time, but broke the ice and, over time, paved the way for postwar consensus regarding codetermination (labor representation on supervisory boards). Codetermination has become one of the most important, unique aspects of German political economy and corporate governance. On one hand, this network of people formed an autonomous German management tradition, which introduced allegedly American methods into German business prior to Americanization after 1945. On the other hand, this network of people begins the hidden history of employer acceptance of codetermination in the heart of the reactionary Ruhr. Although most recent literature demonstrates a profound continuity of bourgeois figures and values with the prewar period, the shattering of the war experience also opened a path for a new, non-bourgeois, and Catholic group of individuals dedicated to reinventing German business. As such, the article examines the software of German capitalism rather than its hardware.

Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 06-042, April 2006

Initiating Divergent Organizational Change: The Enabling Role Of Actors' Social Position (pdf)

Battilana, Julie
March 2007

This study addresses the paradox of embedded human agency, or the contradiction between actors' agency and institutional determinism. It helps to resolve this paradox by considering the enabling role of actors' social position. Adopting a relational view of human agency, I model the impact of their social position on the likelihood that actors will initiate changes that diverge from the existing institutions. I test this model using data from 93 change projects conducted by clinical managers at the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. My findings suggest that social position is an important enabling condition for divergent organizational change, and is a determinant as well of the type of divergent organizational change an actor may undertake.

Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 07-053, 2007

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2006

Le Consensus de Paris: la France et les Règles de la Finance Mondiale (pdf)

Abdelal, Rawi
March 2006

Critique Internationale, no. 28, July/September 2005: 87-115

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2005

Functional Change and Bank Strategy in German Corporate Governance

Crane, Dwight B., and Ulrike Schaede
December 2005

International Review of Law and Economics

How to Evaluate Clusters. Special Issue "Pôles de Compétitivité"

Keels, Christian H.M.
October 2005

La Revue Parlementaire, July 2005

Competitiveness Assessment of Stockholm and the Mälardalen-Region

Ketels, Christian H.M.
October 2005

Background Paper for OECD Territorial Analysis Unit Series, Paris, 2005

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