Filter Results
:
(248)
Show Results For
-
All HBS Web
(1,269)
- Faculty Publications (248)
Show Results For
-
All HBS Web
(1,269)
- Faculty Publications (248)
- September 2022
- Background Note
On CUE: The Quest for Optimal Customer Unit Economics
By: Elie Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller
Startups are often evaluated by how well they perform on unit economics, defined as the ratio of a customer’s lifetime value (LTV) to acquisition costs (CAC). A common target for unit economics, advocated by many VCs and analysts, is 3:1 (i.e., LTV/CAC=3). While there...
View Details
Keywords:
Unit Economics;
Business Startups;
Performance Evaluation;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Customer Relationship Management;
Analysis
Ofek, Elie, Barak Libai, and Eitan Muller. "On CUE: The Quest for Optimal Customer Unit Economics." Harvard Business School Background Note 523-050, September 2022.
- August 2022 (Revised March 2023)
- Exercise
How Should Netflix Add an Ad-Supported Tier?
By: Elie Ofek and Olivier Toubia
In the summer of 2022, it became clear that Netflix would introduce an ad-supported tier alongside its existing subscription plans in the near future. Speculation abounded as to the details of the new tier: How many minutes of advertising would it include? What picture...
View Details
Keywords:
Pricing;
Television Industry;
Price;
Marketing Strategy;
Digital Platforms;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Competitive Strategy;
Customer Satisfaction;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry
Ofek, Elie, and Olivier Toubia. "How Should Netflix Add an Ad-Supported Tier?" Harvard Business School Exercise 523-033, August 2022. (Revised March 2023.)
- 2022
- Article
Data Poisoning Attacks on Off-Policy Evaluation Methods
By: Elita Lobo, Harvineet Singh, Marek Petrik, Cynthia Rudin and Himabindu Lakkaraju
Off-policy Evaluation (OPE) methods are a crucial tool for evaluating policies in high-stakes domains such as healthcare, where exploration is often infeasible, unethical, or expensive. However, the extent to which such methods can be trusted under adversarial threats...
View Details
Lobo, Elita, Harvineet Singh, Marek Petrik, Cynthia Rudin, and Himabindu Lakkaraju. "Data Poisoning Attacks on Off-Policy Evaluation Methods." Proceedings of the Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI) 38th (2022): 1264–1274.
- 2024
- Working Paper
Do Collusive Norms Maximize Profits? Evidence From A Vegetable Market Experiment in India
By: Abhijit Banerjee, Greg Fischer, Dean Karlan, Matt Lowe and Benjamin N. Roth
Social norms have been shown to facilitate anti-competitive behavior in decentralized markets.
We demonstrate that these norms can also reduce aggregate profits. First, we present
descriptive evidence of competition-suppressing norms in Kolkata vegetable markets....
View Details
Banerjee, Abhijit, Greg Fischer, Dean Karlan, Matt Lowe, and Benjamin N. Roth. "Do Collusive Norms Maximize Profits? Evidence From A Vegetable Market Experiment in India." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-006, July 2022.
- July 2022
- Article
Private Equity and COVID-19
By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov
We survey more than 200 private equity (PE) managers from firms with $1.9 trillion of assets under management (AUM) about their portfolio performance, decisionmaking and activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Given that PE managers have significant incentives to...
View Details
Keywords:
COVID-19 Pandemic;
Health Pandemics;
Private Equity;
Management;
Investment Portfolio;
Performance;
Decision Making;
Value Creation
Gompers, Paul A., Steven N. Kaplan, and Vladimir Mukharlyamov. "Private Equity and COVID-19." Journal of Financial Intermediation 51 (July 2022).
- June 2022 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Sustainability Reporting at Dollar Tree, Inc.
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni
The cases discusses the ESG strategy of Dollar Tree Inc., a U.S. Fortune 500 company in the deep discount retail industry and the and shareholder pressure faced by the company. In 2022, the company faced a shareholder resolution from a renowned shareholder advocacy...
View Details
Keywords:
ESG;
Sustainability;
Shareholder Activism;
Dollar Tree;
Sustainability Reporting;
ESG Reporting;
Board Of Directors;
Shareholder Engagement;
GHG;
Environmental Accounting;
Integrated Corporate Reporting;
Trends;
Communication;
Announcements;
Voting;
Environmental Management;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Values and Beliefs;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Disclosure;
Corporate Governance;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Policy;
Reports;
Business or Company Management;
Risk Management;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Outcome or Result;
Strategic Planning;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Situation or Environment;
Opportunities;
Civil Society or Community;
Social Issues;
Public Opinion;
Strategy;
Adaptation;
Alignment;
Business Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Value Creation;
Retail Industry;
United States;
Virginia
Srinivasan, Suraj, and Li-Kuan Ni. "Sustainability Reporting at Dollar Tree, Inc." Harvard Business School Case 122-044, June 2022. (Revised August 2022.)
- March 2022 (Revised January 2023)
- Case
Clara Wu Tsai and Brooklyn Loan Innovation
Philanthropist Clara Wu Tsai is committed to racial equity and investing in Brooklyn-based minority business owners. In the wake of the George Floyd murder, she decides to create a new initiative called the Social Justice Fund and commit an initial $50 million over 10...
View Details
- January 2022 (Revised February 2022)
- Case
Introducing EVA at ISS: A Better Way to Evaluate CEO Performance and Compensation?
By: Jonas Heese, Charles C.Y. Wang and James Weber
In early 2019, Anthony Campagna, the global director of fundamental research at ISS EVA, a unit of the proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), was preparing to release ISS's analyses of public company performance and CEO compensation ahead of Say...
View Details
Keywords:
Jobs and Positions;
Compensation and Benefits;
Performance;
Performance Productivity;
Measurement and Metrics;
Analytics and Data Science;
Value;
Business or Company Management;
Performance Evaluation;
Business and Shareholder Relations
Heese, Jonas, Charles C.Y. Wang, and James Weber. "Introducing EVA at ISS: A Better Way to Evaluate CEO Performance and Compensation?" Harvard Business School Case 122-061, January 2022. (Revised February 2022.)
- December 2021
- Supplement
Bed Bath & Beyond: The New Strategy to Drive Shareholder Value
By: Benjamin C. Esty
- December 2021 (Revised February 2022)
- Case
Bed Bath & Beyond: The New Strategy to Drive Shareholder Value
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher
At one time, Bed Bath & Beyond was one of the most successful specialty retailers in the United States—its growth and profit margins far exceeded both peer retailers in the home goods market as well as many other discount retailers. But in 2014, its stock price peaked,...
View Details
Keywords:
Competitive Strategy;
Competitive Advantage;
Value Creation;
Diversification;
Corporate Governance;
Leading Change;
Performance Evaluation;
Valuation;
Investment Activism;
Retail Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
United States
Esty, Benjamin C., and Daniel W. Fisher. "Bed Bath & Beyond: The New Strategy to Drive Shareholder Value." Harvard Business School Case 722-408, December 2021. (Revised February 2022.)
- 2021
- Working Paper
Stock Investors' Returns Are Exaggerated
By: Jesse M. Fried, Paul Ma and Charles C.Y. Wang
The stock market generates less wealth than it appears. We show that total shareholder return (TSR), the standard measure of stock investor performance, substantially exaggerates returns earned by these investors in aggregate, and thus by most investors. The main...
View Details
Keywords:
All-shareholder Returns;
Capital Flows;
Dividend Reinvestment;
Equity Premium;
Total Shareholder Returns;
Stocks;
Investment Return;
Market Timing
Fried, Jesse M., Paul Ma, and Charles C.Y. Wang. "Stock Investors' Returns Are Exaggerated." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-036, November 2021.
- Article
A Prescriptive Analytics Framework for Optimal Policy Deployment Using Heterogeneous Treatment Effects
By: Edward McFowland III, Sandeep Gangarapu, Ravi Bapna and Tianshu Sun
We define a prescriptive analytics framework that addresses the needs of a constrained decision-maker facing, ex ante, unknown costs and benefits of multiple policy levers. The framework is general in nature and can be deployed in any utility maximizing context, public...
View Details
Keywords:
Prescriptive Analytics;
Heterogeneous Treatment Effects;
Optimization;
Observed Rank Utility Condition (OUR);
Between-treatment Heterogeneity;
Machine Learning;
Decision Making;
Analysis;
Mathematical Methods
McFowland III, Edward, Sandeep Gangarapu, Ravi Bapna, and Tianshu Sun. "A Prescriptive Analytics Framework for Optimal Policy Deployment Using Heterogeneous Treatment Effects." MIS Quarterly 45, no. 4 (December 2021): 1807–1832.
- October 28, 2021
- Article
Creating a Meaningful Corporate Purpose
By: Hubert Joly
Today, most company leaders believe that their companies’ larger purpose is to make a positive difference in the world—not just to maximize shareholder value. Defining a corporate why and making sure it guides decisions and operations has therefore become a cornerstone...
View Details
Keywords:
Corporations;
Purpose;
Meaningfulness;
Organizations;
Mission and Purpose;
Organizational Change and Adaptation
Joly, Hubert. "Creating a Meaningful Corporate Purpose." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (October 28, 2021).
- October 2021 (Revised May 2023)
- Case
Engine No. 1: An Impact Investing Firm Engages with ExxonMobil
By: Mark Kramer, Shawn Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi and T. Robert Zochowski
ExxonMobil, the world's fifth largest source of carbon emissions, remained committed to aggressively expanding its oil & gas business despite global warming. During the COVID pandemic this strategy resulted in massive losses as the price and demand for oil declined. ...
View Details
Keywords:
Carbon Emissions;
Global Warming;
Impact Investment Funds;
Hedge Fund Activism;
Leadership Development;
Business Model;
Renewable Energy;
Resource Allocation;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Governing and Advisory Boards
Kramer, Mark, Shawn Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi, and T. Robert Zochowski. "Engine No. 1: An Impact Investing Firm Engages with ExxonMobil." Harvard Business School Case 222-028, October 2021. (Revised May 2023.)
- October 2021
- Article
Overcoming the Cold Start Problem of CRM Using a Probabilistic Machine Learning Approach
By: Nicolas Padilla and Eva Ascarza
The success of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs ultimately depends on the firm's ability to understand consumers' preferences and precisely capture how these preferences may differ across customers. Only by understanding customer heterogeneity, firms can...
View Details
Keywords:
Customer Management;
Targeting;
Deep Exponential Families;
Probabilistic Machine Learning;
Cold Start Problem;
Customer Relationship Management;
Programs;
Consumer Behavior;
Analysis
Padilla, Nicolas, and Eva Ascarza. "Overcoming the Cold Start Problem of CRM Using a Probabilistic Machine Learning Approach." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 58, no. 5 (October 2021): 981–1006.
- October 2021
- Article
Shareholder Activism and Firms' Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks
By: Caroline Flammer, Michael W. Toffel and Kala Viswanathan
This paper examines whether—in the absence of mandated disclosure requirements—shareholder activism can elicit greater disclosure of firms’ exposure to climate change risks. We find that environmental shareholder activism increases the voluntary disclosure of climate...
View Details
Keywords:
Transparency;
Reporting;
Shareholder Engagement;
Shareholder Activism;
Climate Change;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Environmental Management;
Investment Activism;
Corporate Disclosure;
Communication Strategy;
Information Publishing;
Measurement and Metrics;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Problems and Challenges;
United States
Flammer, Caroline, Michael W. Toffel, and Kala Viswanathan. "Shareholder Activism and Firms' Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks." Strategic Management Journal 42, no. 10 (October 2021): 1850–1879. (Featured in Harvard Business Review.)
- September 2021 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Community Solutions
By: Brian Trelstad and Tom Quinn
Community Solutions was an anti-homelessness nonprofit founded in 2011 after protagonist Rosanne Haggerty grew frustrated with the limited impact of traditional housing and outreach strategies. It set an ambitious goal, reached in some partner communities, of ending...
View Details
Keywords:
Change;
Change Management;
Disruption;
Transformation;
Communication;
Communication Strategy;
Decision Making;
Cost vs Benefits;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Decisions;
Forecasting and Prediction;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Ethics;
Values and Beliefs;
Capital Budgeting;
Capital Markets;
Country;
Government Administration;
Government Legislation;
Housing;
Disruptive Innovation;
Innovation and Invention;
Innovation Strategy;
Knowledge Sharing;
Leading Change;
Resource Allocation;
Mission and Purpose;
Performance Evaluation;
Performance Improvement;
Philanthropy and Charitable Giving;
Opportunities;
Social Enterprise;
Nonprofit Organizations;
Human Needs;
Public Opinion;
Social Issues;
Societal Protocols;
Poverty;
Welfare;
Well-being;
System;
Equality and Inequality;
Consulting Industry;
Real Estate Industry;
United States;
New York (city, NY);
Florida;
Texas
Trelstad, Brian, and Tom Quinn. "Community Solutions." Harvard Business School Case 322-021, September 2021. (Revised November 2022.)
- 2021
- Working Paper
Governance Transparency and Firm Value: Evidence from Korean Chaebols
By: Akash Chattopadhyay, Sa-Pyung Sean Shin and Charles C.Y. Wang
We examine Korean business groups' transition from circular-shareholding structures to (relatively simple) pyramidal-shareholding structures between 2011 and 2018. When firms were removed from ownership loops, chaebol families' control or incentive conflicts in them...
View Details
Keywords:
Business Groups;
Cross Shareholding;
Circular Shareholding;
Pyramidal Ownership;
Governance Transparency;
Ownership Transparency;
Earnings Response Coefficient;
Business Conglomerates;
Corporate Governance;
Valuation;
Business Earnings
Chattopadhyay, Akash, Sa-Pyung Sean Shin, and Charles C.Y. Wang. "Governance Transparency and Firm Value: Evidence from Korean Chaebols." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-012, September 2021. (Revised November 2021.)
- July 2021
- Supplement
CIAM: Home-Grown Shareholder Activism in France (B)
By: Charles C.Y. Wang, Tonia Labruyere and Vincent Dessain
This case is a complement to CIAM: Home-Grown Shareholder Activism in France (A) and describes the events after CIAM learned about a potential misuse of corporate assets at Altice/SFR.
View Details
Keywords:
Corporate Governance;
Valuation;
Investment Activism;
Accounting;
Strategy;
Financial Services Industry;
France
Wang, Charles C.Y., Tonia Labruyere, and Vincent Dessain. "CIAM: Home-Grown Shareholder Activism in France (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 121-078, July 2021.
- 2021
- Working Paper
The Changing Role of Business in Society
Business interaction with the U.S. government, historically based on securing industry or company special interests at the expense of the public good, has enabled and furthered government dysfunction. Gridlock within the American political system has precluded the...
View Details
Keywords:
Politics;
Shared Value;
Social Progress Index;
Competitiveness;
Walmart;
BlackRock;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG;
Transparency;
Campaign Contributions;
Campaign Finance;
Lobbying;
Revolving Door;
Political Ideology;
Political Parties;
Political Partisanship;
Government And Business;
Government Innovation;
Elections;
Democracy;
Capitalism;
Stakeholder Capitalism;
Shareholder Engagement;
Competition;
Strategy;
Government and Politics;
Society;
Social Issues;
Human Needs;
Wealth and Poverty;
Business and Community Relations;
Business and Government Relations;
Corporate Accountability;
Financial Services Industry;
Banking Industry;
United States
Porter, Michael E. "The Changing Role of Business in Society." Working Paper, July 2021.