First Look: September 18, 2007
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-06-07 06:32:22
ideas and frameworks of microcredit have captured the public eye not least since Muhammad Yunus founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh won the Nobel Peace consider in 2006. But commercial microfinance has been around some 30 years. While banks can generate good economic returns by extending small loans to people otherwise too poor to qualify for commercial loans the impact of microfinance on reducing global poverty is still unclear.
A new book chapter by HBS professor Michael Chu an expert on social enterprise looks at issues surrounding economic determine in tandem with social benefits. His chapter. "Microfinance: Business. Profitability and the Creation of Social Value," is part of a volume.
Most models currently used to determine optimal foreign keep back holdings take the aim of international debt as given. However given the sovereign's willingness-to-pay incentive problems reserve accumulation may decrease sustainable debt levels. In addition assuming constant debt levels does not accept addressing one of the puzzles behind using reserves as a means to avoid the negative effects of crisis: why don't sovereign countries decrease their sovereign debt instead? To chew over the joint decision of holding sovereign debt and reserves we construct a stochastic dynamic equilibrium model calibrated to a sample of emerging markets. We obtain that the reserve accumulation does not play a quantitative important role in this model. In fact we sight the optimal policy is not to hold reserves at all. This finding is robust to considering interest rate shocks sudden stops contingent reserves and reserve dependent output costs.
This paper constructs a unified theory of the location of transactions and the boundaries of firms. It proposes that systems of production can be viewed as networks of tasks. Transactions defined as mutually agreed-upon transfers with compensation are located within the task network and serve to separate one set of tasks from another. Placing a transaction in a particular location in move requires work to be count (or decide) and pay for the transacted objects. The costs of this work (labeled mundane transaction costs) are generally low at module boundaries and high in their interiors.
Several novel implications arise from this work. Among these: Modularizations create new module boundaries hence new transaction locations where entry and competition can arise. Areas in the task network where transfers are dense and complex should not be modularized. Instead these areas should be located in transaction-free zones so that the costs of transacting do not overburden the system. The boundaries of transaction-free zones constitute breakpoints where firms and industries may split apart.
SFAS 142 requires firms to use fair-value estimates to cause goodwill impairments. Watts (2003) and Ramanna (2007) lay out the unverifiable nature of those fair-value estimates gives firms discretion to bring home the bacon impairments. We test this argument in a consume of firms with merchandise indications of impairment (firms with book goodwill and market-to-book ratio below one). We find that the frequency of non-impairment in this consume is about 71% and that non-impairment is increasing in financial characteristics predicted to be associated with greater unverifiable fair-value-based discretion. To analyse whether non-impairment is associated with managers producing on add up better estimates of goodwill than the merchandise we test whether non-impairment increases in industries with higher average information asymmetries. We disappoint to sight bear witness consistent with this proposition.
Given the importance of proximity for knowledge spillovers we investigate firms' location choices expecting differences in firms' strategies. Firms ordain locate to increase their net spillovers as a function of locations' knowledge activity their own capabilities and competitors' anticipated actions. Using new entrants into the United States from 1985 to 1994 we find that firms favor locations with academic innovative activity. Other results highlight differences in firms' location strategies suggesting that firms consider not only gains from inward knowledge spillovers but also the possible cost of outward spillovers. While less technologically advanced firms favor locations with high levels of industrial innovative activity technologically advanced firms choose only locations with high levels of academic activity and avoid locations with industrial activity to distance themselves from competitors.
After thirty years of development commercial microfinance in the developing world—the provision of financial services to low income populations on a financially-sustainable basis—is an example with many lessons applicable to the study of business and the global poor. In recent years there has been ample evidence both in the literature and in capital markets of the ability of leading microfinance institutions particularly in Latin America and Asia to generate superior economic returns. The air is less clear in terms of the contribution successful microfinance makes to the reduction of global poverty. This paper seeks to address aspects of the creation of economic value and social value in microfinance which the compose believes contains insights applicable to all endeavors that seek to address the needs of the poor on a commercial basis.
This study explores the systematic variation in inventory record inaccuracy (IRI) observed both within and across stores. Traditional inventory models with a few exceptions do not account for the existence of IRI and those that do interact record inaccuracy as random. Examining nearly 370,000 list records from 37 stores of one retailer we open 65% to be inaccurate. That is the recorded inventory quantity of an item fails to match the quantity found in the store. We determine factors associated with this inaccuracy that are stock keeping unit- (SKU) and store-specific. SKU-specific factors such as item cost selling quantity and method of distribution account for the observed variation in IRI within stores. Store-specific factors such as the density and variety of list observed at each store be for the variation in IRI across stores.
In the past 15 years the IBM Company has undergone a remarkable transformation from a struggling seller of hardware to a successful broad range solutions provider. Underlying this change is a story of foresighted strategy and disciplined execution—of connecting knowing to doing. In strategic terms the IBM transformation illustrates the ideas behind dynamic capabilities showing how the company has been able to sense changes in the marketplace and to seize these opportunities by reconfiguring existing assets and competencies. We review the literature on dynamic capabilities and using IBM as a inspect example show how their strategy process permits them both to investigate new markets and technologies (e g. life sciences pervasive computing) as come up as to exploit mature products and markets (e g. mainframe computers middleware).
An examination of the role of investigate in business. The authors argue that scholars producing investigate in business fields are subject to stricter research standards due to the fact that they must produce work that is both rigorous and relevant and that this is why business research is so important. They suggest that researchers in disciplinary fields are not held to the same standards of relevance requiring them to produce work based on real-world problems that business academics are.
In January 2006. Andrew Banks and Royce Yudkoff were considering raising a 5th fund for their media-focused private equity tighten. ABRY Partners. ABRY had a strong track record that the co-founders attributed to their group's deep knowledge of the media industry and relationships with media lenders coupled with a client-service approach to working with Limited Partners. For the fund. Banks and Yudkoff had intended to raise $1 billion and act their existing strategy but potential Limited Partners had indicated that they would be willing to act up to $4 billion. Banks and Yudkoff had to decide whether or not to quadruple the capital in their latest fund.
Union Square Ventures a private equity firm founded in 2003 filled a trademark infringement suit against Union form Partners another private equity firm founded in November 2006. Examines the possible impact that public litigation will undergo on the two firms. The impact of the litigation will be different for each firm because they are at dissimilar development stages and plan to employ distinct investment strategies. Also examines possible resolutions available to the management of the two funds.
In May 2006. Dawn Ostroff president of entertainment of the newly formed CW Television communicate was faced with the task of choosing the final set of programs for the 2006 fall schedule which she would present to advertisers at the annual "upfront" market in New York one week later. Only four months earlier. CBS Corp and measure Warner Inc had announced they would change state their UPN and The WB networks and run the CW as a joint venture. This unusual partnership a first in the history of communicate television had created a unique contend for executives: an unprecedented number of existing shows would undergo to be cancelled. Ostroff and her colleagues—who had received thousands of letters petitions and gifts from desperate fans begging for the renewal of their favorite shows—had filled the empty slots. The final decision was the toughest: although four popular shows were still in contention—
—there was only room for three. Which show would be the last to be axed? And what would be the best time slots for the three last additions to the line-up? Allows for an in-depth examination of marketing issues in launching and operating a study broadcast television network in particular making programming and scheduling decisions and managing relationships with audiences and advertisers. Provides unique insights into the open of a network—a rare enterprise—and the associated marketing and branding campaign. Also contains rich television ratings data that can create the basis for a discussion on product portfolio management in particular continuation and pruning decisions (i e. series renewals and cancellations). Finally can be used to facilitate an assessment of challenges and opportunities in developing sustainable businesses in a rapidly changing media environment.
Examines the corporate strategy of German energy giant E. ON. The firm is vertically integrated horizontally diversified across electricity and natural gas and active in numerous countries in Europe as well as in the United States. Explores the costs and benefits of the company's choices about its vertical horizontal and geographical scope. Considers the risks of economic regulation increasing concerns about environmental externalities from carbon emissions and nuclear cater and political and price risks in upstream markets for fossil fuels.
Focuses on the buyout of HCA by three private equity firms: Bain Capital. KKR and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity. It provides an opportunity to discuss a variety of issues related to leveraged buyouts including the process the role of private equity the incentives of the participants the benefits to conflicting shareholders and the valuation of the buyout.
When Vineet Nayar became president of HCL Technologies a global IT services business in April 2005 he knew the company needed drastic change. Since its founding as a hardware affiliate in the 1970s. HCL had grown into an enterprise with $3.7 billion in revenues and a market capitalization of $5.1 billion. The company had 41,000 employees in 11 countries but it was ill-prepared for the increasingly competitive merchandise. With the shift from hardware to software and services. HCL had slipped behind its Indian competitors and multinational companies. Details the first phase of the transformation Nayar led in hopes of rejuvenating the industry innovate. The tagline for this arrange was "Employee First. Customer Second."
Describes the history of clinical computing at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital and the development since the 1996 merger to form the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical bear on of an information system designed to support the delivery of patient compassionate. The hospitals' CIO. John Halamka. MD has overseen the development of an information system that places physicians at its bear on. Describes the design and function of five study components of the system: the On-Line Medical Record ePrescribing. Physician Order Entry the Emergency Department "dashboard," and the Performance Manager. Provides students with an opportunity to identify key design principles for health care information systems and to discuss the unique implementation challenges that the health care delivery setting raises for CIOs and CEOs.
Explores the Mozilla Foundation's decisions leading up to the open of Firefox 1.0 including its default browser managing corporate partnerships managing product development and moving toward a revenue-based model. Mitchell Baker president of the Mozilla Foundation is faced with a crucial question in the impending hours of the Firefox 1.0 open. Firefox the reincarnation of the Netscape Mozilla browser has had tremendous success despite Mozilla's loss of the Browser Wars to Internet Explorer years before. After AOL acquired Netscape the Mozilla team had been unsure of their future but they recently gained their independence with a new independent nonprofit foundation. What partners should Firefox include as their default examine partners? Should this relationship be commercial?
NatuRi Corporation was a go away up founded in 2005 aiming to make a cholesterol-lowering drug made from the byproducts of rice bran oil production. With operations split between Chennai. India and Boston. Massachusetts. NatuRi faced several challenges including securing funding for the organization. NatuRi had captured the attention of at least four potential investors willing to furnish an investment. Its managers were challenged to measure their options and to cause which of the four potential investors currently interested in their venture would be most appropriate for NatuRi's future growth. In addition the founders had only a short period of time to decide whether or not to accept a disgorge and Series A term sheet from a well known venture capital firm. Poses the challenge of how the company's financing should be structured and how much equity the founders should relinquish in exchange for the start-up capital.
After Hurricane Katrina the New Orleans Public School System is faced with rebuilding from the ground up. The challenge is enormous as is the opportunity to remake the lowest performing public school system in Louisiana and one of the lowest performing in the nation. A variety of public officials politicians and entrepreneurs are engaged in the rebuilding affect. Also explores the tensions that emerge as the community faces both the rebuilding assign and conflicting visions of what the future should look like.
Provides an overview of the retail sector within the United States as online shopping captures an increased percentage of consumer spending. The role of enabling technologies and applications including comparison shopping sites and recommendation systems are covered. Additionally the strategies specifically the evolution of multi-channeling sell are discussed.
Stimulates discussion of entrepreneurship in emerging economies especially for entrepreneurs returning to their home countries to go away businesses with global technologies and partners. Focuses on the partnership tensions between global firms and local family-dominated conglomerates. Addresses new go financing in an asset-intensive business through the assembly of strategic contrasts. More broadly highlights the opportunities and challenges for returnee entrepreneurs.
Investigates the challenges that Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer confronted in seeking to create organizational change at the largest integrated health care system in North America the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Kizer was appointed as the Under Secretary of Health to administer the VHA in 1994. Upon Kizer's arrival it was immediately apparent that the management style that pervaded the VHA was ineffective and out of go out. At the same time the VHA faced inefficient health care delivery systems coupled with a steadily increasing be of patients. Kizer started to make plans to change the VHA into a modern responsive efficient and effective health care organization. However success in executing on his plans would require challenging a bureaucratic system with a long history. Documents develop including organizational efficiencies gained that include consolidation of health care facilities and illuminates leadership actions that facilitate this progress. Clearly many challenges still lie ahead. Near the end of the case. Dr. Kizer awaits news from Congress on his reappointment for another four-year term. [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/rss/5775.html
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