Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • September 2002 (Revised January 2003)
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Dimensional Fund Advisors, 2002

By: Randolph B. Cohen
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:21
ShareBar

Abstract

Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) is an investment management firm that prides itself on basing its investment strategies on sound academic research. Many of the best-known finance research papers of the past two decades (especially those by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French, who work closely with DFA) have led to DFA investment strategies. DFA began as a small-stock fund, attempting to take advantage of the "size affect" (excess performance of small stocks) that had been discovered by a number of academic researchers. Later, DFA added "value" strategies to its mix of offerings. After academic research documented superior performance by value stocks in a multitude of countries, DFA began to create a variety of international value-stock and small-stock investment funds. The company was highly successful, despite missing out on the great 1990s growth-stock boom. DFA's assets under management grew from $8 billion to $40 billion between 1991 and 2002. With value stocks having performed well in the first two years of the new decade, DFA is experiencing continued growth of its investor base and is now seeking new areas in which it can add value for investors while continuing to claim to have no special "stock-picking" ability.

Keywords

Knowledge Use and Leverage; Research; Success; Investment; Financial Services Industry

Citation

Cohen, Randolph B. "Dimensional Fund Advisors, 2002." Harvard Business School Case 203-026, September 2002. (Revised January 2003.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Randolph B. Cohen

Finance
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • March 2024 (Revised June 2024)
    • Faculty Research

    The Annenberg Foundation: Promoting Diversity in the Investment Management Industry

    By: Randolph B. Cohen and Johnson Elugbadebo
    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Visions of Vision Pro

    By: Randolph B. Cohen
    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    If 3 Was 9

    By: Randolph B. Cohen
More from the Author
  • The Annenberg Foundation: Promoting Diversity in the Investment Management Industry By: Randolph B. Cohen and Johnson Elugbadebo
  • Visions of Vision Pro By: Randolph B. Cohen
  • If 3 Was 9 By: Randolph B. Cohen
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.