Throughout the School’s history, a hallmark of HBS faculty research has been its power in practice. Increasingly, this impact extends beyond the management of firms to the large-scale, cross-disciplinary issues that beset society. Research efforts that address these issues take different forms, including sustained, HBS-wide initiatives built upon robust cross-disciplinary research agendas that lead to publications and conferences to broaden the impact of the findings, and multidisciplinary projects to carry out an evolving agenda and make a substantive difference in the world.

• Behavioral Finance and Financial Stability →

  The Behavioral Finance and Financial Stability Project supports research collaborations across Harvard University to understand, predict, and prevent financial instability.

• Business & Environment →

  The Business and Environment Initiative seeks to deepen business leaders' understanding of today’s environmental challenges and to assist them in developing effective solutions.

• Business History →

  The Business History Initiative seeks to facilitate learning from the past through innovative research and course development, employing global and interdisciplinary perspectives.

• Case Method Project →

  The Case Method Project is bringing case method teaching to high schools and colleges in U.S. History, Government, and Civics & Democracy.

• Creating Emerging Markets →

  The Creating Emerging Markets project explores the evolution of business leadership in Africa, Asia, and Latin America throughout recent decades.

• Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard →

  Because AI is only half the answer, the Digital Data Design Institute’s (D^3) global leaders in translational science connect problem owners with problem solvers to invent the future. D^3 is a catalyst for innovation, helping researchers, scientists, business leaders, and entrepreneurs find new and novel applications in digital technology, data science, and design thinking.

• Entrepreneurship →

  The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship supports Harvard Business School's mission to "educate leaders who make a difference in the world" by infusing this leadership perspective with an entrepreneurial point of view.

• Global →

  The Global Initiative builds on a legacy of global engagement by supporting the HBS community of faculty, students, and alumni in their work, encouraging a global outlook in research, study, and practice.

• Health Care →

  The Health Care Initiative serves as a gateway for health care research, educational programs, and collaboration across all sectors of the health care industry.

• Impact Investments →

  The Project on Impact Investments is dedicated to expanding knowledge on the impact investing sector by studying the universe of portfolio companies that seek to generate social benefits alongside financial returns.

• Impact-Weighted Accounts

  The Impact-Weighted Accounts (IWA) Project was established in July of 2019 and concluded in December of 2022. The project was led by faculty Co-Chairs George Serafeim and Ethan Rouen. The mission of the Project was to drive the creation of financial accounts that reflect a company’s financial, social, and environmental performance. The ambition was to create accounting statements that transparently capture external impacts in a way that drives investor and managerial decision making. In 2022 the International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI) grew out of IWA. The research conducted at IWA, and the former IWA team, are now part of IFVI. The Valuation Technical and Practitioner Committee, which guides, reviews, and approves IFVI’s research agenda is currently chaired by Serafeim.

• Institute for Business in Global Society →

  The Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS) exists to help and harness business to address these issues – and to show that business can play an essential role in solving them. BiGS brings together a community of scholars, students, and practitioners to examine those areas where business and society interact and occasionally collide, and to explore how business can help address some of society’s greatest challenges.

• Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness →

  The Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness studies competition and its implications for company strategy; the competitiveness of nations, regions and cities; and solutions to social problems.

• Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard →

  The Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH) is spurring the development of a science of innovation through a systematic program of solving real-world innovation challenges while simultaneously conducting rigorous scientific research and analysis.

• Leadership →

  The Leadership Initiative undertakes cutting-edge research and course development projects about leadership and leadership development, both within HBS and through collaborations with other organizations.

• Managing the Future of Work →

  The Project on Managing the Future of Work pursues research that business and policy leaders can put into action as they grapple with the changing landscape of work and the economy.

• Private Capital Project →

  The Private Capital Project facilitates deeper interaction between academia and practitioners in the Venture Capital and Private Equity industries, to understand the big challenges facing constituents and to work on potential solutions.

• Race, Gender & Equity →

  The Race, Gender & Equity Initiative catalyzes and translates cutting-edge research to transform practice, enable leaders to drive change, and eradicate gender, race, and other forms of inequality in business and society.

• Social Enterprise →

  The Social Enterprise Initiative at HBS applies innovative business practices and managerial disciplines to drive sustained, high-impact social change.

• U.S. Competitiveness →

  The U.S. Competitiveness Project is a research-led effort to understand and improve the competitiveness of the United States. The project is committed to identifying practical steps that business leaders can take to strengthen the U.S. economy.