Accounting & Management
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- 2022
- Working Paper
Passing the Mic: Career and Firm Outcomes of Executive Interactions
By: Wei Cai, Ethan Rouen and Yuan ZouWe exploit a unique feature of conference calls to study one type of interaction among executives—directly inviting colleagues to respond to analysts’ questions. We find that the frequency of initiating interaction is positively associated with an executive’s ability, but not associated with firm performance. When new CEOs initiate more interactions than their predecessors, interaction among the rest of the executive team also increases, suggesting a learning effect. Turning to the outcomes of this practice, we find that executives who initiate more interactions than their peers are twice as likely as the average executive to be promoted to CEO. What is more, appointing CEOs who initiate more interactions than their predecessors results in an average three-day abnormal return of 0.9% around the announcement of the appointment. Teams composed of executives who interact with each other more frequently also have greater retention. Lastly, firms in which new CEOs initiate more interactions than their predecessors experience higher growth in Tobin’s Q, a result that is concentrated among growth and R&D-intensive firms.
- 2022
- Working Paper
Passing the Mic: Career and Firm Outcomes of Executive Interactions
By: Wei Cai, Ethan Rouen and Yuan ZouWe exploit a unique feature of conference calls to study one type of interaction among executives—directly inviting colleagues to respond to analysts’ questions. We find that the frequency of initiating interaction is positively associated with an executive’s ability, but not associated with firm performance. When new CEOs initiate more...
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- Article
How Much Should We Trust Staggered Difference-In-Differences Estimates?
By: Andrew C. Baker, David F. Larcker and Charles C.Y. WangDifference-in-differences analysis with staggered treatment timing is frequently used to assess the impact of policy changes on corporate outcomes in academic research. However, recent advances in econometric theory show that such designs are likely to be biased in the presence of treatment effect heterogeneity. Given the pronounced use of staggered treatment designs in applied corporate finance and accounting research, this finding potentially impacts a large swath of prior findings in these fields. We survey the nascent literature and document how and when such bias arises from treatment effect heterogeneity. We apply recently proposed methods to a set of prior published results, and find that correcting for the bias induced by the staggered nature of policy adoption frequently impacts the estimated effect from standard difference-in-difference studies. In many cases, the reported effects in prior research become indistinguishable from zero.
- Article
How Much Should We Trust Staggered Difference-In-Differences Estimates?
By: Andrew C. Baker, David F. Larcker and Charles C.Y. WangDifference-in-differences analysis with staggered treatment timing is frequently used to assess the impact of policy changes on corporate outcomes in academic research. However, recent advances in econometric theory show that such designs are likely to be biased in the presence of treatment effect heterogeneity. Given the pronounced use of...
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- April 2022
- Case
Antler
By: Dennis Campbell and Iuliana MogosanuThe case describes the founding, development, and scaling of Antler, an early-stage investment platform that invests in entrepreneurs pre-team and, in many cases, even pre-idea. The case explores the economics of venture capital investing at such an early stage and the various challenges and opportunities to build a platform that not only systematically selects the right founders, but also allows them to build teams and access resources needed to succeed. The case allows for a detailed look at these issues through the lens of two founding teams that were selected for Antler's early-stage investment programs but have very different assessed quantitative and qualitative factors that may impact their future success. Through analyzing these two opportunities for Antler, important issues are surfaced in how to combine analytics with human judgment as Antler's senior leadership looks to scale their investment platform both in terms of number of founding teams and across multiple countries.
- April 2022
- Case
Antler
By: Dennis Campbell and Iuliana MogosanuThe case describes the founding, development, and scaling of Antler, an early-stage investment platform that invests in entrepreneurs pre-team and, in many cases, even pre-idea. The case explores the economics of venture capital investing at such an early stage and the various challenges and opportunities to build a platform that not only...
About the Unit
The Accounting & Management unit at Harvard Business School strives to be the worldwide leader in research, course development, and teaching on top managements' use of performance measurement systems to:
- Communicate with external investors to ensure that their firms' securities are fairly priced and that they are able to access capital,
- Measure and evaluate their firms' economic performance,
- Improve resource allocation and strategy implementation within their firms, and
- Build accountability for performance through effective external and internal governance.
Unit research, course development, and teaching fall into two broad areas: Financial Reporting and Analysis and Management Accounting. Our research helps scholars and educators understand current best practices for the design and use of performance measurement systems that help managers to build more effective, value-creating organizations. Our teaching materials enable us to bring the results of this research into the classroom, and to practice.
Recent Publications
Passing the Mic: Career and Firm Outcomes of Executive Interactions
- 2022 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
How Much Should We Trust Staggered Difference-In-Differences Estimates?
- Article |
- Journal of Financial Economics
Antler
- April 2022 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Conflicts of Interest at Bell Bank
- April 2022 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
MicroStrategy: Accounting for Cryptocurrency (B)
- April 2022 |
- Supplement |
- Faculty Research
We Need Better Carbon Accounting. Here's How to Get There.
- Article |
- Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
A Career Life-Cycle Perspective on Women's Health and Safety
- Article |
- Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Sustainable Strategies and Net-Zero Goals
- Other Article |
- Strategic Finance
Harvard Business Publishing
Seminars & Conferences
There are no upcoming events.