Publications

Educators

03 May 2015
News

Why Companies Are Driving Social Change

27 Jun 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Social Norms Versus Social Responsibility: Punishing Transgressions Under Conflicting Obligations

Keywords: by Francesca Gino, Celia Moore & Lamar Pierce

August 2011 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Social Innovation at Salesforce.com

By: Christopher Marquis, Marley C. Kornreich and Bobbi Thomason

Salesforce.com recently implemented an innovative social enterprise business model whereby the Salesforce.com Foundation funds its operations and grant budget by selling discounted salesforce.com software licenses to nonprofits and education clients. The case recounts... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Model; Information Technology; Leading Change; Problems and Challenges

Educators

2024
Chapter

Corporations as the Central Institutions of Society

By: Joseph L. Badaracco

Mark Twain observed that, “Prediction is very difficult—particularly when it involves the future,” and he was right. One way to reduce the risk of becoming an infamous forecaster—like the experts who told us the Internet would quickly collapse, that Apple would never... View Details

Keywords: Trends; Business and Government Relations; Organizations; Power and Influence; Society

September–October 2020
Article

Social-Impact Efforts That Create Real Value

By: George Serafeim

Until the mid-2010s few investors paid attention to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data—information about companies’ carbon footprints, labor policies, board makeup, and so forth. Today the data is widely used by investors. How can organizations create... View Details

Read Now

01 Dec 2014
News

Living Social

average entrepreneur is becoming much more civically engaged and socially minded. They are creating businesses that are deeply invested in the community and are thinking responsibly about how they are making... View Details

Keywords: April White; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

25 Aug 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: After Charlottesville, Where Does a CEO's Responsibility Lie?

strongly pro-Trump Fox News) wrote to all employees that he was donating $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League in reaction to the president’s statements. This issue raises the question, where does a CEO's responsibility lie when... View Details

Keywords: by Gautam Mukunda

08 Jan 2014
What Do You Think?

Do Productivity Increases Contribute to Social Inequality?

Summing Up Does Social Equality Improve Productivity? Inequality in our society is an important and growing issue. It prompted a debate among respondents to this month's column about the causes, specifically the role played by innovation... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 1982 (Revised September 1985)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation

By: Robert J. Dolan

Market leadership and technological innovation have marked Sealed Air's participation in the U.S. protective packaging market. Several small regional producers have introduced products which are less effective than Sealed Air's but similar in appearance and cheaper.... View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Product; Technological Innovation; Supply and Industry; Competitive Advantage; Consumer Products Industry; United States

Educators

June 1998
Article

Boundary Control: The Social Ordering of Work and Family Time in a High-Tech Corporation

By: Leslie Perlow

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Information Technology; Business Ventures

fall 2000
Article

La Table de Cana: A New Model or an Exception in Corporate Social Responsibility?

By: Michel Anteby

21 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

The Geography of Corporate Giving

Why companies support nonprofits and other socially responsible activities is an intriguing question for both academics and practitioners. After all, there is no clear-cut evidence that View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

July 2021
Article

Material Sustainability Information and Stock Price Informativeness

By: Jody Grewal, Clarissa Hauptmann and George Serafeim

As part of the SEC’s revision of Regulation S-K, many investors proposed the mandatory disclosure of sustainability information in the form of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data. However, progress is contingent on collecting evidence regarding which... View Details

Keywords: Voluntary Disclosure; Accounting Standards; Sustainability; Nonfinancial Information; Corporate Social Responsibility; Stock Price Informativeness; Synchronicity; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Accountability; Stocks; Price; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Accounting; Standards

SSRN

August 2015
Teaching Note

Rana Plaza (C): Primark and Victim Compensation

By: John A. Quelch

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Business Ethics; Human Resource Management; Workplace Safety; Safety; Working Conditions; Supply Chain Management; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Human Resources

28 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Responsible Leadership in an Unforgiving World

says Badaracco. "If you don't appear to be making good on those commitments, a lot of your key assets will go out the door." That necessarily means that some constituencies such as the environment or other causes traditionally associated with View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Research Summary

Business Leaders and the Social Sector

By: James E. Austin

This research involed a multifaceted, multi-year study of corporate and business leader involvement in the social sector. This examined: the extent and nature of, and motivation for, Harvard Business School graduates' involvement with nonprofit and social-sector ... View Details

2018
Other Teaching and Training Material

Finance Reading: Corporate Governance

By: John Coates and Suraj Srinivasan

Core Curriculum Readings in Finance cover the fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in finance. This reading presents an overview of corporate governance, focusing on for-profit businesses that are privately owned by dispersed investors—that is, not owned by a... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Corporate Governance; For-Profit Firms; Private Ownership; Conflict of Interests

2021
Article

The Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative in Europe

By: Mark Roe, Holger Spamann, Jesse M. Fried and Charles C.Y. Wang

In July 2020, the European Commission published the “Study on directors’ duties and sustainable corporate governance” by EY. The Report purports to find evidence of debilitating short-termism in EU corporate governance and recommends many changes to support sustainable... View Details

Keywords: Short-termism; Hedge Funds; Shareholder Activism; Securities Regulation; Agency Costs; Political Economy; Payouts; Repurchases; Corporate Governance; Investment Funds; Investment Activism; Research and Development; Investment; European Union

SSRN

2007
Book

From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession

By: Rakesh Khurana

Is management a profession? Should it be? Can it be? This major work of social and intellectual history reveals how such questions have driven business education and shaped American management and society for more than a century. The book is also a call for reform.... View Details

Keywords: Social History; Business Education; Moral Sensibility; Profit; Leadership; Managerial Roles; United States