Publications

Article

The Price of Equality: Suboptimal Resource Allocations across Social Categories

By: Stephen M. Garcia, Max Bazerman, Shirli Kopelman, Avishalom Tor and Dale T. Miller

This paper explores the influence of social categories on the perceived trade-off between relatively bad but equal distribution of resources between two parties and profit maximizing, yet asymmetric, payoffs. Studies 1 and 2 show that people prefer to maximize profits... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Resource Allocation; Societal Protocols; Profit; Decision Making; Prejudice and Bias; Market Transactions; Ethics; Power and Influence; Distribution; Organizations

10 Jul 2024
Video

Inequality in the Digital Age | An interview with Mahzarin Banaji from Harvard University

Web

Student Life - MBA

match your particular interests. A Vital Community A Vital Community Leadership & Values The teaching of ethics here is explicit, not implicit, and our community values of respect, honesty, integrity, and accountability are reinforced... View Details

Article

Is the Moral Domain Unique?: A Social Influence Perspective for the Study of Moral Cognition

By: J. Lees and F. Gino

The nature of the cognitive processes that give rise to moral judgment and behavior has been a central question of psychology for decades. In this paper, we suggest that an often ignored yet fruitful stream of research for informing current debates on the nature of... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Social Psychology

December 2021
Case

Whistleblowing at Veolia: A Technology Solution

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese, Christian Godwin and James Weber

In 2019, Bruno Masson, the vice chairman of Veolia’s Ethics Committee, was preparing for a meeting on a rollout plan for a new whistleblowing system to more countries. Veolia, a global supplier of water, waste, and energy services, had recently gone through several... View Details

Keywords: Whistleblowing; Corporate Misconduct; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Crime and Corruption; Values and Beliefs; Trust; Employee Relationship Management; Utilities Industry

Lynn Sharp Paine is a Baker Foundation Professor and John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration, Emerita, at Harvard Business School. A member and former chair of the General Management unit, she has served in numerous leadership positions including Senior... View Details

November 2007
Case

Antegren: A Beacon of Hope

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Thomas J. DeLong and Terence Heymann

The CEO of Biogen Idec faces a set of difficult decisions regarding a promising drug for Multiple Sclerosis that is headed for early approval by the FDA. The first in a series focuses on operational decisions triggered by the drive for early approval. Sparks discussion... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Leadership; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Decision Choices and Conditions; Crisis Management; Health Testing and Trials; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

February 2015 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Delhaize Group: Developing Leaders

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Delhaize Group, the Belgian-based global food retailer, was focused on competing in the food retailing industry by developing leading positions in key markets via localized retailing strategies. Delhaize was committed to offering its customers superior value while... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Organizational Alignment; Talent Management; Leadership Development; Globalized Firms and Management; Human Capital; Talent and Talent Management; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Culture; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Belgium

June 2013 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa

By: Geoffrey Jones and Elliot R. Benton

This case considers the strategies of Charles W. Engelhard, an American mining magnate who made large investments in apartheid-era South Africa. Engelhard was widely believed to have been the model for the James Bond villan Auric Goldfinger. During the 1950s and 1960s... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; Business History; FDI; Corporate Social Responsibility And Impact; South Africa; Mining; Ethics; Globalization; Government and Politics; History; Mining Industry; Africa; South Africa

September 2004
Article

Trust in Agency

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell

Existing models of the principal-agent relationship assume the agent works only under extrinsic incentives. However, many observed agency contracts take the form of a fixed payment. For such contracts to succeed, the principal must trust the agent to work in the... View Details

Keywords: Trust; Agency Theory; Relationships; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Contracts; Business Model; Emotions; Forecasting and Prediction; Ethics; Standards; Risk and Uncertainty

David G. Fubini is a Senior Lecturer in the Organizational Behavior Unit and leader of the Leading Professional Services Firm and Mergers & Acquisitions Programs for Harvard Business School’s Executive Education. His MBA teaching has concentrated on teaching the... View Details

Stephen A. Greyser

Stephen A. Greyser is Richard P. Chapman Professor (Marketing/Communications) Emeritus, of the Harvard Business School, specializes in brand marketing, advertising, corporate communications, the business of sports, and nonprofit management. A... View Details

Keywords: sports

W. Earl Sasser

Earl Sasser is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and has been a member of the faculty there since 1969. He received a B.A. in Mathematics from Duke University in 1965, an MBA from the University of North Carolina in 1967, and a Ph.D. in... View Details

November 2010
Case

Esquel Group: Building a Sustainable Partnership with Cotton Farmers in Xinjiang (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Jason Cheng Qian

Esquel Group, leading manufacturer of quality shirts, sought to negotiate long-term partnerships with often-exploited farmers in Xinjiang (western China) to procure a superior cotton variety. Seeking to secure a large supply of specialty cotton in an ethical and... View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Leasing; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Hong Kong; Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu

03 Jul 2017
News

Will shareholder pressure reshape company policies?

2017
Working Paper

A Welfarist Role for Nonwelfarist Rules: An Example with Envy

By: Matthew Weinzierl

I propose and formalize an argument for why economists working in the welfarist normative tradition should include nonwelfarist principles in how they judge economic policy. The key idea behind this argument is that the world is too complex, and our ability to model it... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Policy; Economics

SSRN

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10 Jul 2023
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2023

What books are HBS faculty members reading this summer—and are certain publications especially meaningful to them? Turns out, faculty are interested in a variety of topics, everything from exploring spirituality and confronting climate change to losing themselves in... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

May 2013
Article

Sweatshop Labor Is Wrong Unless the Shoes Are Cute: Cognition Can Both Hurt and Help Motivated Moral Reasoning

By: Neeru Paharia, Kathleen Vohs and Rohit Deshpandé

The present research investigated the dual role of cognition as either an enabler of moral reasoning or self-interested motivated reasoning for endorsing sweatshop labor. Experiment 1A showed motivated reasoning: participants were more likely to endorse the use of... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Motivation and Incentives; Working Conditions; Cognition and Thinking