Publications

The microfinance revolution has transformed access to financial services for low-income populations worldwide. As a result, it has become one of the most talked about innovations in global development in recent decades. However, its expansion has not been without... View Details

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

$15 Billion in Five Years: What Data Tells Us About MacKenzie Scott’s Philanthropy

analysis was tax filings made with the US Internal Revenue Service, which is the most comprehensive and reliable source of nonprofit financial information. Our financial data reflects the year prior to the... View Details

Keywords: by Matthew Lee, Brian Trelstad, and Ethan Tran

October 2009 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Tengion: Bringing Regenerative Medicine to Life

By: Elie Ofek and Polly Ross Ribatt

Tengion is a young biotech company that is at the frontier of regenerative medicine—a nascent field that seeks to promote the creation of new cells and tissue to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to age, disease, damage, or congenital defects. In late... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Product Development; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; United States

06 Oct 2016
HBS Seminar

Edward Fertik, Yale University

February 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Creating and Measuring Purpose at Viega

By: Ethan Rouen, Suraj Srinivasan and James Barnett

At its headquarters in Attendorn, Germany, Viega’s chairwoman Anna Viegener gathered the company’s leadership team to discuss their progress on formalizing purpose-driven leadership as a strategic driver within the organization. Viega manufactured and distributed... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Employee Relationship Management; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Expansion; Measurement and Metrics; Germany

20 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 20, 2008

parties than reliance on financial incentives alone. In particular, many individuals place high value on such character virtues as honesty and integrity for their own sake and are more than willing to sacrifice material gain to maintain... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2003 (Revised March 2008)
Case

India on the Move

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Emily Thompson

By 2003, India had been growing at almost 6% annually since 1992, after it suffered a financial collapse, abandoned import substitution, and moved gradually to adopt the Washington Consensus. Now, financial controls and competition barriers are less burdensome,... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Foreign Direct Investment; Business and Government Relations; India

04 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Restructure Conglomerates in Emerging Markets

Western corporate strategies have long been held up as role models for businesses in emerging markets. The reaction to recent financial crises in Asia and Latin America has only served to reinforce this practice. The multilateral View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu

March 2008
Supplement

Ujjivan: A Microfinance Institution at a Crossroads (B)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Pamela Freed

Case (B) of "Ujjivan: A Microfinance Institution at a Crossroads" addresses some of the actions Ujjivan, a microfinance provider in Bangalore, has taken with regard to issues raised in the (A) case, particularly regarding fraud and establishing financial... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Microfinance; Crime and Corruption; Accounting Audits; Product Development; Financial Services Industry; Bangalore

2012
Chapter

Integrated Reporting Requires Integrated Assurance

By: Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus and Liv A. Watson

In the wake of the recent financial crisis, increasing the effectiveness of auditing has weighed heavily on the minds of those responsible for governance. When a business is profitable and paying healthy dividends to its stockholders, fraudulent activities and... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Crime and Corruption; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Governance Compliance; Organizational Culture; Management Systems; Laws and Statutes; Information Management; Accounting Audits; Financial Crisis

George Serafeim is the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he co-leads the Climate and Sustainability Impact Lab in the Digital, Data, and Design Institute. He teaches the course "Risks, Opportunities and... View Details

Keywords: asset management; insurance industry; automobiles; industrial goods; fashion; food; green technology

29 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 29

opportunities—led to vastly increased systemic risk in the financial system. Individually, each of these trends is benign, but when they occur simultaneously, as they did over the past decade, they impose an unintentional synchronization... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2008 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Laurence Longren: End Game

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Shirley M. Spence

This case examines a successful 64-year old as he considers his goals, and how he should be spending his time, at this stage of his life. It briefly recounts his life story, and provides a special focus on personal financial planning and wealth management issues. View Details

Keywords: Age; Financial Management; Time Management; Personal Development and Career; Planning

16 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 16

clear; 4) Taking the wrong approach to performance assessment. Milestones relevant to each stage of an initiative's development should be established, and key assumptions in the business plan should be linked to the View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

30 Jul 2008
Op-Ed

Why the U.S. Should Encourage FDI

Last year, foreign investors set new records for their acquisition activity in the United States. And 2008 began with nearly daily stories of American financial executives courting foreign direct investors, particularly sovereign wealth... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir A. Desai

January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Rural Taobao: Alibaba's Expansion into Rural E-Commerce

By: Tarun Khanna, Ryan Allen, Adam Frost and Wesley Koo

Alibaba's Rural Taobao initiative had been launched in 2014 as a public service initiative to increase e-commerce adoption in China’s remote rural areas. In the first two iterations of the initiative, dubbed “1.0” and “2.0,” Alibaba had partnered with local businesses... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business Growth; Ecommerce; Corporate Social Responsibility; Business And Government; Emerging Market; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Emerging Markets; Rural Scope; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Decision Making; E-commerce; China