Publications

Article

The Deception Spiral: Corporate Obfuscation Leads to Perceptions of Immorality and Cheating Behavior

By: D.M. Markowitz, M. Kouchaki, J.T. Hancock and F. Gino

In four studies, we evaluated how corporate misconduct relates to language patterns, perceptions of immorality, and unethical behavior. First, we analyzed nearly 190 codes of conduct from S&P 500 manufacturing companies and observed that corporations with ethics... View Details

Keywords: Obfuscation; Corporate Unethicality; Deception; Deception Spiral; Organizations; Values and Beliefs; Ethics; Perception; Behavior

Find at Harvard

August 2001 (Revised March 2008)
Case

NerveWire, Inc.

By: Nitin Nohria and Anthony Mayo

NerveWire, a management consulting and systems integration provider based in Newton, MA, was closing in on its second anniversary. In the beginning days of NerveWire, the major challenge was recruiting--finding the right people who embodied its values and business... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Behavior; Internet; Newton

March 2001 (Revised February 2009)
Case

HDFC (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Suma Raju

The top management team at India's leading home finance company must decide how to deal with the emergence of intense competition at the end of the 1990s. Having founded the industry and dominated it for nearly 20 years, the well-respected company faces a bevy of new... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Management Style; Management Teams; Competition; Financial Services Industry; India

11 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Economic Jitters Push Pandemic Job Seekers to Big Companies, Not Startups

change,” he says. “So changes in behavior were driven mostly by changing beliefs or changing expectations of the job seekers.” Using cash to weather a talent drought So, what’s a job seeker with dreams of working for a startup to do?... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Value Judgments: Business Ethics Across Borders

terms of not only financial performance but management practices and reputation in the community. The result of her efforts is the MBA elective course Globalization, Culture, and Management. According to Paine, as students examine the values and View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

27 Apr 2021
Blog Post

There Are No HBS People, Just People Who Happen to Go to HBS

and exposed me to more people who were wildly passionate about their careers. Like HBS Professor Youngme Moon who shared with us that she became an Uber driver to better understand the Uber driver experience when writing the Uber case. Or HBS Professor Frances Frei’s... View Details

29 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 29

and behaviors, is also critical. In this review, we document the often large differences between actual levels of inequality and citizens’ (mis)perceptions of those levels. This inaccuracy extends to people’s beliefs about the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2019
News

Alumni and Faculty Books for March 2019

people have become disillusioned in their religious beliefs and are leaving the church in great numbers. They are doing so mainly because they find church dogmas and traditions lack credibility. The church has not maintained pace with... View Details

25 Nov 2009
Working Paper Summaries

The Devil Wears Prada? Effects of Exposure to Luxury Goods on Cognition and Decision Making

Keywords: by Roy Y.J. Chua & Xi Zou; Consumer Products; Retail

September 2021 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Mission edX: Balancing Social Good and Financial Sustainability

By: John J-H Kim, David J. Collis and James Barnett

In March 2021, online education platform edX considers how to achieve financial sustainability without compromising its mission to provide universal access to high-quality education. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Education; Values and Beliefs; Internet and the Web; Financial Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Education Industry; United States

December 2017
Supplement

Globalization Past, 1850–1914 (B)

By: Sophus A. Reinert and Federica Gabrieli

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: The Rise And Fall Of Globalization; World War; The World; Business Cycles; Economic Growth; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Macroeconomics; Trade; Values and Beliefs; Globalization; War

January 2015 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Omar Selim: Building a Values-Based Asset Management Firm (A)

By: George Serafeim, Rebecca Henderson and Shannon Gombos

The sustainable investing market was a recent phenomenon in the first decade of the 21st century. However, an increasing number of investors began to integrated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues in investment decisions. At Barclays Capital, Omar Selim... View Details

September 1994
Case

Leadership Problems at Salomon (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Michael Santoro

Deryck Maughan, a vice chairman and co-head of investment banking at Salomon Brothers, learns that his superiors have been less than candid about their knowledge of bidding improprieties by the firm's government trading desk. He must decide what, if anything, he should... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Decision Choices and Conditions; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Crime and Corruption; Rank and Position; Financial Services Industry

May 2017
Teaching Note

Building a Developmental Culture: The Birth of Deloitte University

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

This Teaching Note is a companion piece to the case, “Building a Developmental Culture: The Birth of Deloitte University,” HBS No. 411-059. View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Problems and Challenges; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Teams; Competency and Skills; Training; Employees; Values and Beliefs; Education Industry; Consulting Industry; United States

March 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

CalPERS' Emerging Equity Markets Principles

By: Robert G. Eccles and Aldo Sesia

The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CaIPERS)—the largest public pension fund in the U.S.—had adopted a new principles-based approach to investing in emerging market equities in November 2007. Previously, CalPERS internal and external money managers were... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Investment Return; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Emerging Markets; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Value; Financial Services Industry; Public Administration Industry; China; California