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Identify players in an industry on the basis of their accounting ratios, and draw conclusions about their strategies and relative performance.

Describes the role accident has historically played in invention and discovery, and raises questions about the importance of variation in business innovation processes.

Using examples from financial markets, this note examines links among market prices, stated interest rates, and compounding assumptions. The note emphasizes how interest rates are expressions of market prices, and pays particular attention to the role of compounding assumptions. Market prices are converted into stated interest rates for different compounding assumptions. Guidance is offered on how to make intelligent comparisons across markets that use different compounding conventions. The note is useful as background for the study of a wide array of pricing issues in fixed-income and options markets.

This note introduces options (both calls and puts) and their valuation. After covering the history of options and the basic nature of their payoffs, the note provides an intuitive discussion of the determinants of an option's value. The note then introduces and applies the Black-Scholes option-pricing model to real data, using an Excel-based version of the model. Throughout, the emphasis is on the basics of options and their valuation.

This note shows how dividend payments affect option values owing to the effects of dividend payments on share price and resulting investor behavior. In addition to discussing the underlying logic, the note shows how to value options for dividend-paying stocks by adapting the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The note addresses issues of early exercise and the underlying incentives of investors who own call or put options.

This note examines how spot and forward interest rates relate to bond prices and to each other. After defining spot and forward rates, the note shows how to estimate spot rates from data on either zero-coupon bonds or coupon bonds. It also shows how to express these stated rates for different compounding assumptions. The note pays particular attention to understanding how arbitrage forces in markets establish the links between forward and spot rates and how to infer one set of rates from the other. The note deepens understanding of bond pricing, assuming that the reader is already familiar with the basics of present-value techniques. It is a useful springboard for topics (e.g., swaps) that require familiarity with spot and forward rates.

This note is a brief introduction to the logic and practice of using stock options to compensate executives. The Black-Scholes option-pricing model is used to estimate the value of option grants for a company. The note affords the opportunity to apply options valuation in the context of executive compensation, and serves as a companion to introductions to options that expose the reader to the Black-Scholes option-pricing model.

This note discusses the Black-Scholes option-pricing model and then applies the model to call options. The underlying logic of the model is emphasized and illustrated through the use of simple examples. The model is then applied using real data. The note pays particular attention to procedures for estimating the potential for stock-price changes (volatility). It also provides the reader with an appreciation of the economic underpinnings of the model as well as the ability to apply the model to real data.

This note provides an overview of techniques used to value assets, including multiples, arbitrage pricing, and discounted cash flow. The note emphasizes the basic nature of valuation approaches and their logical underpinning, focusing on how techniques are applied to assets that are or might be traded in financial markets. The note sets the stage for specific (and often complicated) applications of the pricing techniques.

Describes how companies engage the political and legal system and the rules and ethics associated with doing so. Focuses on the U.S. political and legal system, but also seeks to familiarize readers with lobbying norms and structures in the European Union and Japan.

Introduces students to the study of corporate strategy, while providing an overview framework for understanding international strategy. Focuses on questions of scope and ownership. Examines both horizontal and vertical integration. Underscores the point that economies of scope, or the existence of relationship-specific investments, are insufficient to explain effective corporate strategy unless there are important obstacles to contractual solutions.

Describes the U.S. FDA with particular emphasis on its role in the development of new drugs, biologic products, and medical devices today. Provides context for the drug approval process by describing the FDA's history and organizational structure.

Technology transfer from U.S. universities to industry has increased dramatically in the last 25 years. Reviews the history of technology transfer with particular emphasis on the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. It then examines how universities responded to Bayh-Dole, the growth of technology transfer offices, and compares how three different universities (MIT, Stanford, and Harvard) approach technology transfer. Provides an overview of the technology transfer process and issues around current practices.

This technical note explores a framework by which entrepreneurs can evaluate their ideas before going forward based on who they are, what they know, and whom they know. Drawing on frameworks presented in textbooks, trade books, journal articles, periodicals, and on Web sites that claim to predict the feasibility and value of new venture ideas. Figure 1 depicts a simple and useful summary of four key concepts at the heart of many of these frameworks: Is it doable? Is it worth doing? Can I do it? Do I want to do it? These questions address feasibility from a technical, market, financial, organizational, and motivational standpoint.

Explains the mission, philosophy, structure, and classroom and grading policies for the second-year MBA elective International Entrepreneurship.

Contains two parts: Part I contains a list of more than 500 acronyms for official institutions and other project finance terms; Part II contains a description of various interest and debt coverage ratios used in the field of project finance.

Examines the structural determinants of industry attractiveness (the Five Forces framework) and the implications of industry structure for strategy.

Introduces the Required Curriculum Strategy course to students at Harvard Business School.

This note outlines portfolio returns and variance calculations for a portfolio of two risky assets. Particular attention is given to developing understanding of the diversification benefit and emphasizing the often misunderstood point that there are diversification benefits even if the returns to the two stocks are positively correlated. The note is designed to be used as a reading to supplement a class where the students implement the equations with real data.

Robert K. Merton wrote a series of papers on the sociology of science in the 1940s and 1950s and is commonly recognized as the founder of the field. Merton laid out four norms that constitute the "ethos" of science: community-wide fundamentals that he proposed were necessary to sustain science as a viable institution.