Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
Filter Results: (452) Arrow Down

FinanceRemove Finance →

New research on finance from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including corporate investment, governance, and accounting management.
Page 1 of 452 Results →

How Entrepreneurs Can Turn Lead Into Gold

by Michael Blanding

Innovative about creating new products, entrepreneurs often lose imagination when it comes to funding their dreams. Andy Wu reveals alternatives beyond friends and family. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Fintech's Game-Changing Opportunities for Small Business

by Martha Lagace

In the new book Fintech, Small Business, & the American Dream, Karen Mills describes how technology is opening up new capital for entrepreneurs. Around the corner: The transformative benefits of AI and big data. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Does Our Bias Against Federal Deficits Need Rethinking?

by James Heskett

Not everyone thinks federal budget deficits are bad. Say hello to Modern Monetary Theory, where red ink primes the economic engine and underwrites social good. Or does it? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Impacts of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment

by Donald Ngwe, Kris J. Ferreira, and Thales Teixeira

This paper challenges the logic that making it easier for consumers to search across a wide assortment of products is the best strategy for online retailers. Experiments show that adding extra search costs to find discounted items can improve gross margins and sales by increasing the number of items inspected and serving as a self-selecting price discrimination mechanism among customers.

Diagnostic Bubbles

by Pedro Bordalo, Nicola Gennaioli, Spencer Yongwook Kwon, and Andrei Shleifer

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 revived academic interest in price bubbles but many conceptual questions remain open. This paper generates insights into the structure of asset price bubbles by modeling beliefs from fundamental psychological assumptions, and combining this with standard neoclassical mechanisms, such as learning from prices and speculation.

Does Public Ownership and Accountability Increase Diversity? Evidence from IPOs

by Rembrand Koning and John-Paul Ferguson

Going public has no effect on workforce diversity, according to this study comparing changes in firms’ ownership type with longitudinal data on employment. For workforce diversity, the time to make a difference is probably not after an initial public offering but rather in the years just after firm founding.

'Green Bonds' May Be Our Best Bet for Environmental Damage Control

by Michael Blanding

The popularity of green bonds as a way to finance environmentally friendly projects is on the upswing, say Malcolm Baker and George Serafeim. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Corporate Sustainability: A Strategy?

by Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

Between 2012 and 2017, companies within most industries adopted an increasingly similar set of sustainability practices. This study examines the interplay between common and strategic practices. This dynamic distinction helps for understanding whether and how sustainability practices can help companies establish a competitive advantage over time.

The Creation and Evolution of Entrepreneurial Public Markets

by Shai Bernstein, Abhishek Dev, and Josh Lerner

Since 1990, new stock exchanges geared toward fast-growing, entrepreneurial companies have proliferated around the world. This analysis shows that exchanges in countries with better shareholder protection allowed younger and less profitable companies to raise more capital. These markets alone cannot boost entrepreneurial activity but need enabling institutions.

Financing the Response to Climate Change: The Pricing and Ownership of US Green Bonds

by Malcolm Baker, Daniel Bergstresser, George Serafeim, and Jeffrey Wurgler

Green bonds are used for environmentally friendly purposes like renewable energy. Complementing previous research, this paper explores the US corporate and municipal green bond and shows that a subset of investors is willing to give up some return to hold green bonds.

Using Fintech to Disrupt Eastern Bank from Within

Re: Karen Mills

When Eastern Bank decided to battle a threat from new competitors, it hired a fintech executive to set up Eastern Labs and start innovating. Karen Mills discusses her case study on what happened next. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

New Year, New Habits

by Sean Silverthorne

You are resolved to turn over a new leaf in 2019. Maybe become a better boss or crank up the productivity. What are the best ways to put these good intentions into practice? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Companies Can Increase Market Rewards for Sustainability Efforts

by Rachel Layne

There is a connection between public sentiment about a company and how the market rewards its corporate social performance, according to George Serafeim. Is your company undervalued? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Lazy Prices

by Lauren Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy, and Quoc Nguyen

The most comprehensive information windows that firms provide to the markets—in the form of their mandated annual and quarterly filings—have changed dramatically over time, becoming significantly longer and more complex. When firms break from their routine phrasing and content, this action contains rich information for future firm stock returns and outcomes.

Do Fire Sales Create Externalities?

by Sergey Chernenko and Adi Sunderam

This paper contributes to our understanding of the role of large institutional investors in securities markets, providing evidence that the structure of the mutual fund industry increases the risks of costly "fire sales."

Public Sentiment and the Price of Corporate Sustainability

by George Serafeim

Public opinions from industry experts are important in the economy but it has not been clear how they affect the valuation of and returns to corporate activities. Using big data and machine learning, this paper analyzes how public sentiment influences the market pricing of firms’ sustainability activities and thereby the future stock returns of portfolios that integrate environmental, social, and governance data.

Opportunistic Returns and Dynamic Pricing: Empirical Evidence from Online Retailing in Emerging Markets

by Chaithanya Bandi, Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe, and Zhiji Xu

Dynamic pricing is widely applied in industries like airline ticketing, ride-sharing, and online retailing. This paper identifies two downsides of dynamic pricing: opportunistic returns and strategic choice of payment method. The impact can be significant and has implications for managers and researchers.

Shipping Fees and Product Assortment in Online Retail

by Chaoqun Chen and Donald Ngwe

This study highlights a strong link between an online retailer’s product assortment decisions and shipping policies in determining purchase outcomes and profits. Consumers are less sensitive to shipping fees than to product prices, but free shipping for orders above the minimum is a strong motivator for increasing average basket sizes.

Diversity Boosts Profits in Venture Capital Firms

by Michael Blanding

VC firms that score high in diversity among their partners also tend to be more profitable, according to Paul Gompers. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Cost Accounting is Improving Healthcare in Rural Haiti

by Carmen Nobel

The cost of healthcare in rural Haiti was found to vary widely, even inside the same health organization. A pioneering cost accounting system co-developed by Robert Kaplan was called in to determine the cause. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.