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- September 20, 2024
- Article
It’s Time to Unbundle ESG
By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel
ESG is at an inflection point. It has come to represent a broad and inchoate aspiration for what business should be doing beyond maximizing shareholder value. With ESG advocates on the defensive, business leaders need a new roadmap to determine which factors to...
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Keywords:
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Ratings;
ESG Reporting;
ESG Disclosure;
Sustainability;
Climate;
Climate Finance;
Climate Risk;
Social Accounting;
Investment;
Governance;
Safety;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Financial Services Industry
- August 2024
- Case
The Walt Disney Company: Management Guidance
By: Joseph Pacelli and James Weber
In November 2023, financial analyst Aurora Fee was forecasting The Walt Disney Company’s earnings and stock price, with the goal of providing an investment recommendation to her clients. Disney, one of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies, had just...
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- August 2024
- Article
Not a One-Trick Pony: Price Impact of Rating Agency Information
By: Michael Machokoto and Anywhere Sikochi
Prior literature on the informational role of credit rating agencies has largely focused on announcements by the rating agencies regarding rating actions. We take a tangent in this paper and examine the relevance of rating agencies' other information disclosures beyond...
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- July 2024
- Case
Jacqueline Cook at Vendasta: Debating an IPO
By: Reza Satchu, Tom Quinn and Andrew Kosc
In May 2021, after a surge in demand for digital services that prompted high valuations for startups across the Canadian tech sector, Saskatchewan-based Vendasta entered the final stages of the initial public offering (IPO) process. COO Jacqueline Cook had invested her...
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Keywords:
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Startups;
Interpersonal Communication;
Cost vs Benefits;
Forecasting and Prediction;
Business Cycles;
Entrepreneurship;
Fairness;
Capital Markets;
Private Equity;
Investment Banking;
Stock Options;
Financial Markets;
Initial Public Offering;
Institutional Investing;
Price Bubble;
Digital Platforms;
Digital Transformation;
Internet and the Web;
Leadership;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Managerial Roles;
Agreements and Arrangements;
Going Public;
Ownership Stake;
Performance Expectations;
Work-Life Balance;
Strategic Planning;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Rank and Position;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Opportunities;
Happiness;
Reputation;
Status and Position;
Well-being;
Information Technology Industry;
Retail Industry;
Canada
- June 2024 (Revised August 2024)
- Case
Cementos Argos in the U.S.: Go Big or Go Home?
By: Jorge Tamayo, Ruth Costas, Pedro Levindo and Karina Souza
In April 2011, Colombian group Cementos Argos had to decide on whether to double down its business in the U.S., amidst the U.S. cement industry’s lowest performance in 30 years. Argos— Colombia’s leading cement producer and one of the “jewels” of Grupo GEA, the...
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Keywords:
Mergers and Acquisitions;
Business Organization;
Business Subsidiaries;
Talent and Talent Management;
Decision Making;
Cost vs Benefits;
Financial Crisis;
Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;
Global Strategy;
Strategy;
Construction Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
Latin America;
South America;
North and Central America;
United States;
Colombia
- 2024
- Working Paper
Winner Take All: Exploiting Asymmetry in Factorial Designs
By: Matthew DosSantos DiSorbo, Iavor I. Bojinov and Fiammetta Menchetti
Researchers and practitioners have embraced factorial experiments to simultaneously test multiple treatments, each with different levels. With the rise of technologies like Generative AI, factorial experimentation has become even more accessible: it is easier than ever...
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- June 2024
- Article
Going Digital: Implications for Firm Value and Performance
By: Wilbur Chen and Suraj Srinivasan
We examine firm value and performance implications of the growing trend of non-technology companies engaging in digital transformation. We measure digital activities in firms based on the disclosure of digital words in the business description section of 10-Ks. Digital...
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- May 2024 (Revised September 2024)
- Case
Hakluyt: from Corporate Intelligence to Trusted Advisors
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Lena Duchene
"Established in 1995 by a group of ex-British intelligence officers, Hakluyt & Company (Hakluyt) was a corporate advisory firm that generated insights by leveraging a unique blend of internal expertise and a global network of well-connected individuals. Since 2019, the...
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Keywords:
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Model;
Talent and Talent Management;
Capital Structure;
Cash Flow;
Corporate Finance;
Equity;
Stock Shares;
Corporate Governance;
Business History;
Compensation and Benefits;
Recruitment;
Leadership Style;
Growth Management;
Management Succession;
Organizational Culture;
Performance Evaluation;
Networks;
Partners and Partnerships;
Business Strategy;
Competitive Advantage;
Consulting Industry;
Europe;
United Kingdom;
England;
London
- 2024
- Working Paper
Does the Case for Private Equity Still Hold?
By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Philipp Chvanov
Private Equity (“PE”) received a 10-fold increase in capital flows since the Great Financial Crisis (“GFC”) Investors sought higher nominal returns relative to those they could obtain in the public capital markets. This paper questions the fundamental assumptions...
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- April–May 2024
- Article
Gone with the Big Data: Institutional Lender Demand for Private Information
By: Jung Koo Kang
I explore whether big-data sources can crowd out the value of private information acquired through lending relationships. Institutional lenders have been shown to exploit their access to borrowers’ private information by trading on it in financial markets. As a shock...
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- March 2024
- Module Note
Accounting Standards for the 21st Century
By: Jonas Heese
Over the past two decades, accounting standards have evolved to meet the demands of a rapidly changing business environment. This module note focuses on understanding the impact of these standards on measuring firm performance and financial position in the context of a...
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- February 2024
- Case
Chime Solutions
Just two years after launching its 10k by 2020 initiative to hire 10,000 employees by 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Chief Executive Officer Mark Wilson to send nearly all of his staff at Chime Solutions (Chime) to work from home. Chime was a customer contact firm...
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- January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Pioneer Natural Resources: Enhancing the Capital Return Strategy with Variable Dividends
In February 2021, Scott Sheffield, the CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources (an independent oil and gas company based in Texas), was considering the possibility of enhancing the firm’s capital return strategy by introducing a variable dividend tied to cash flows in...
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- January 2024
- Supplement
Accounting Red Flags or Red Herrings at Catalent? (B)
By: Joseph Pacelli, ZeSean Ali and Tom Quinn
GlassHouse Research identified accounting red flags at Catalent. Fiat Lux Partners countered most of GlassHouse’s claims. Who was right? This update explores the aftermath of the short seller duel.
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Keywords:
Accounting Audits;
Acquisition;
Budgets and Budgeting;
Business Earnings;
Earnings Management;
Cost Accounting;
Fair Value Accounting;
Financial Reporting;
Revenue Recognition;
Integrated Corporate Reporting;
Fairness;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Government Legislation;
Conflict of Interests;
Announcements;
Blogs;
Debates;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Stocks;
Performance Productivity;
Pharmaceutical Industry;
Accounting Industry;
United States
- December 2023
- Case
Davivienda Bank's Upskilling and Reskilling Strategy in Colombia
By: Jorge Tamayo, Raffaella Sadun and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago
Set in 2022, this case describes the digital transformation strategy of Davivienda— a leading player in Colombia’s commercial banking and one of the companies belonging to Grupo Bolívar, a major Colombian financial conglomerate—and the bank’s upskilling and reskilling...
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Keywords:
Change Management;
Transformation;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Digital Strategy;
Digital Transformation;
Internet and the Web;
Mobile and Wireless Technology;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Business Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Organizational Culture;
Talent and Talent Management;
Training;
Banking Industry;
Latin America;
Central America;
South America;
Colombia
- September 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Case
Forecasting Climate Risks: Aviva’s Climate Calculus
By: Mark Egan and Peter Tufano
In late 2021, Ben Carr, Director of Analytics and Capital Modeling at Aviva Plc (Aviva)—a leading insurer with core operations in the UK, Ireland and Canada,—was preparing for an upcoming presentation before the company's board which included its CEO, Amanda Blanc,...
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- September 2023
- Article
Stock Price Reactions to ESG News: The Role of ESG Ratings and Disagreement
By: George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon
We investigate whether ESG ratings predict future ESG news and the associated market reactions. We find that the consensus rating predicts future news, but its predictive ability diminishes for firms with large disagreement between raters. Relation between news and...
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Keywords:
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Disclosure;
ESG Ratings;
ESG Reporting;
ESG Disclosure Metrics;
Sustainability;
Investments;
Disagreement;
Rating Disagreement;
Ratings;
Environmental Sustainability;
Social Issues;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Performance;
News;
Investment;
Financial Markets;
Stocks;
Price
- 2023
- Working Paper
The Stock Market and Bank Risk-Taking
By: David S. Scharfstein and Antonio Falato
Using confidential supervisory risk ratings, we document that banks increase risk after they go public compared to a control group of banks that filed to go public but withdrew their filings for plausibly exogenous reasons. The increase in risk increases short-term...
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- August 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Supplement
Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (A)
By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Amram Migdal and Susan Pinckney
Arla implemented a data-based price incentive system to measure, track, and influence climate friendly changes to reduce CO2 emissions across the world’s fourth largest dairy cooperative.
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Keywords:
Dairy Industry;
Business Earnings;
Earnings Management;
Environmental Accounting;
Agribusiness;
Animal-Based Agribusiness;
Acquisition;
Mergers and Acquisitions;
Decision Making;
Decisions;
Voting;
Environmental Management;
Climate Change;
Environmental Regulation;
Environmental Sustainability;
Green Technology;
Pollution;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Financial Strategy;
Price;
Profit;
Revenue;
Food;
Geopolitical Units;
Global Strategy;
Ownership Type;
Cooperative Ownership;
Performance Efficiency;
Performance Evaluation;
Problems and Challenges;
Natural Environment;
Science-Based Business;
Business Strategy;
Commercialization;
Cooperation;
Corporate Strategy;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Europe;
United Kingdom;
European Union;
Germany;
Denmark;
Sweden;
Luxembourg;
Belgium
- August 2023 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (A)
By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Susan Pinckney and Amram Migdal
The case describes Arla’s history, in particular its climate change mitigation efforts, and how it implemented a price incentive system to motivate individual farms to implement scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions mitigation measures and receive a higher milk price. The...
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Keywords:
Dairy Industry;
Business Earnings;
Agribusiness;
Animal-Based Agribusiness;
Acquisition;
Mergers and Acquisitions;
Decision Making;
Decisions;
Voting;
Environmental Management;
Climate Change;
Environmental Regulation;
Environmental Sustainability;
Green Technology;
Pollution;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Financial Strategy;
Price;
Profit;
Revenue;
Food;
Geopolitical Units;
Global Strategy;
Ownership Type;
Cooperative Ownership;
Performance Efficiency;
Performance Evaluation;
Problems and Challenges;
Natural Environment;
Science-Based Business;
Business Strategy;
Commercialization;
Cooperation;
Corporate Strategy;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Europe;
United Kingdom;
European Union;
Germany;
Denmark;
Sweden;
Luxembourg;
Belgium