Publications

Register to Read

September 19, 2019
Article

Walmart CEO’s Decision on Guns Is the Kind of Corporate Courage We Need

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Corporate courage is in short supply. CEOs generally avoid controversial public issues lest disgruntled groups strike back. That’s why Walmart’s actions to limit ammunition sales and advocate for new gun safety legislation mark a significant milestone. CEO Doug... View Details

Keywords: Gun Policy; Gun Violence; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Leadership; Change; Policy

October 2013 (Revised August 2016)
Case

NOWaccount

By: Ramana Nanda, William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley

It was September 2013, and NOWaccount Network Corporation (NOW®) co-founders John Hayes and Lara Hodgson were putting the final touches on the presentation deck for their annual shareholders' meeting. Along with co-founder Stacey Abrams, the pair had designed NOW's... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Finance; Entrepreneurship

Editorial

3 Ways Investors Can Pressure Companies to Take Sustainability Seriously

By: Mindy Lubber and George Serafeim

Keywords: Sustainability; Activism; ESG; Shareholder Activism; Investor Behavior; Climate Change; Environment; Diversity; Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability

September 2005
Article

Decolonising Barclays Bank DCO? Corporate Africanisation Programmes in Nigeria, 1945-1969

The reaction of British business to the decolonisation of the Empire has been the focus of much recent research, but few studies have shed light on the continued presence of commercial activities after independence. Barclays Bank DCO in Nigeria began indigenising its... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Foreign Direct Investment; Banks and Banking; Macroeconomics; Banking Industry; Great Britain; Nigeria

26 May 2003
Research & Ideas

Corporate Transparency Improves For Foreign Firms in U.S. Markets

that research. Srinivasan's work with Tarun Khanna and Krishna Palepu furthers the debate regarding the effect of globalization on corporate governance systems. –Ed.Churchwell:... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

March 1993
Teaching Note

Note on U.S. Taxation of Foreign-Source Corporate Income (TN)

By: W. Carl Kester

Teaching Note for (9-292-101). View Details

Keywords: Taxation; United States

July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Vineet Nayar and Sampark Foundation: Frugal Innovation at Scale (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2005, Vineet Nayar, the former CEO and Vice Chairman of HCL Technologies, and his wife, Anupama Nayar, committed $100 million of their personal wealth to found Sampark Foundation—a grant-making philanthropy with a mission to transform learning outcomes for 20... View Details

18 Aug 2016
News

Four Harvard Business School Faculty Members Named to Most Influential Black Corporate Directors List

2020
Working Paper

Cutting the Gordian Knot of Employee Health Care Benefits and Costs: A Corporate Model Built on Employee Choice

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman

The U.S. employer-based health insurance tax exclusion created a system of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) with limited insurance choices and transparency that may lock employed households into health plans that are costlier or different from those they prefer to... View Details

Keywords: After-tax Income; Consumer-driven Health Care; Health Care Costs; Health Insurance; Income Inequality; Tax Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Insurance; Employees; Income; Taxation; Policy; United States

SSRN

2021
Working Paper

The Changing Role of Business in Society

By: Michael E. Porter

Business interaction with the U.S. government, historically based on securing industry or company special interests at the expense of the public good, has enabled and furthered government dysfunction. Gridlock within the American political system has precluded the... View Details

November 2021 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Hitting Home: Amazon and Mary's Place

By: Paul M. Healy, Debora L. Spar and Amy Klopfenstein

In 2020, Amazon, the $386 billion online retail behemoth, built an eight-story shelter for women and families experiencing homelessness on its expanding headquarters in Seattle, Washington. The shelter, operated in partnership with a non-profit organization known as... View Details

Keywords: Business Ethics; Homelessness; Business And Society; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Corporate Accountability; Urban Development; Society; Information Technology; Ethics; Technology Industry; Seattle; United States; North America

07 Oct 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Sovereign Debt Portfolios, Bond Risks, and the Credibility of Monetary Policy

Keywords: by Wenxin Du, Carolin E. Pflueger, and Jesse Schreger

Article

Weak Corporate Insolvency Rules: The Missing Driver of Zombie Lending

By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina

"Zombie lending"—lending to less-productive firms at subsidized rates—can help banks with misaligned incentives in the short run, but it prolongs economic downturns. We propose that inefficient resolution of insolvency is a significant contributor to this problem. We... View Details

Keywords: Zombie Credit; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financing and Loans; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation

Register to Read

September 1991
Case

Rethinking the Corporate Workplace: Case Managers at Mutual Benefit Life

By: Robert G. Eccles Jr.

In early 1991, a spirit of innovation and organizational change was in the air at Mutual Benefit Life, with the success of the new "case manager" program its most concrete manifestation. Using powerful computer workstations, case managers could see insurance... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technological Innovation; Change Management; Information Technology; Insurance; Human Resources; Insurance Industry

2018
Book

Varieties of Green Business: Industries, Nations and Time

By: Geoffrey Jones

Published at a time of ever-increasing warnings that the pace of climate change and other environmental changes risk making the Earth unsustainable within our own lifetimes, this book looks at the past of green business to identify lessons for the future. It provides... View Details

14 Dec 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The State of Small Business Lending: Innovation and Technology and the Implications for Regulation

Keywords: by Karen Gordon Mills and Brayden McCarthy; Financial Services

November 2012 (Revised December 2017)
Case

TerraPower

By: William A. Sahlman, Ramana Nanda, Joseph B. Lassiter III and James McQuade

John Gilleland, CEO of TerraPower, returned to his office after a lengthy meeting with potential investors. It was October 2012, and TerraPower was in the process of raising a $200M Series C round to finance the ongoing development of its next-generation nuclear... View Details

Keywords: Nuclear Power; Entrepreneurial Finance; Financing and Loans; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; United States; China; India