Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(120,062)
- Faculty Publications (119)
- 2019
- Working Paper
Understanding and Overcoming Roadblocks to Environmental Sustainability. Past Roads and Future Prospects
By: Ann-Kristin Bergquist, Shawn A. Cole, John Ehrenfeld, Andrew A. King and Auden Schendler
This working paper examines key barriers to business sustainability discussed at a multidisciplinary conference held at the Harvard Business School in 2018. Drawing on perspectives from both the historical and business literatures, speakers debated the historical... View Details
- January 2019
- Article
The ABCs of Financial Education: Experimental Evidence on Attitudes, Behavior, and Cognitive Biases
By: Fenella Carpena, Shawn A. Cole, Jeremy Shapiro and Bilal Zia
This paper uses a large-scale field experiment in India to study attitudinal, behavioral, and cognitive constraints that can stymie the link between financial education and financial outcomes. The study complements financial education with (1) financial incentives on a... View Details
- November 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
Investing in Nature: The Nature Conservancy and NatureVest 2018
By: Shawn A. Cole and Caitlin Reimers Brumme
- October 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
Social Finance, Inc.
By: Shawn Cole and Fanele Mashwama
This case begins in February 2019 as Tracy Palandjian, co-founder and CEO of Social Finance Inc., prepares for a board meeting that will determine the future strategy of the social enterprise. Social Finance is a non-profit in the impact investment space founded in... View Details
- October 2018
- Teaching Plan
Root Capital and the Efficient Impact Frontier
By: Shawn A. Cole and Caitlin Reimers Brumme
- October 2018
- Teaching Note
DBL Partners: Double Bottom Line Venture Capital
By: Mark R. Kramer, Shawn A. Cole and Caitlin Reimers Brumme
- September 2018
- Case
SJF Ventures—Transforming Transportation with TransLoc?
By: Shawn Cole and Caitlin Reimers Brumme
- August 2018
- Teaching Note
Acumen—Managing Towards Impact 2018
By: Shawn Cole
Teaching Note for HBS No. 218-086. View Details
- June 2018 (Revised November 2020)
- Course Overview Note
Investing: Risk, Return & Impact
By: Shawn Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi and Caitlin Reimers Brumme
- April 2018 (Revised September 2024)
- Background Note
Background Note: Managing and Measuring Impact
By: Shawn Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Radhika Kak
- April 2018 (Revised May 2018)
- Case
Goldman Sachs: Making an Imprint in Impact Investing
By: Shawn Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Lynn Schenk
Goldman Sachs acquired Imprint Capital Advisors, a small firm that specialized in advising clients on environmental/social/governance (ESG) and impact investments. The founders sold Imprint with the belief that joining a global financial firm would help to scale impact... View Details
- March 2018 (Revised June 2022)
- Background Note
Background Note: Examining the Case for Sustainable Investing
By: Shawn Cole, Vikram Gandhi and Caitlin Reimers Brumme
- February 2018 (Revised October 2018)
- Case
Wellington Global Impact
By: Shawn Cole and Lynn Schenk
Wellington Global Impact is one of the first public equities impact investing strategies in the market. The case explores how the strategy was developed at Wellington, including an analysis of the culture that supported its development. It also explores the difficulty... View Details
- February 2018
- Case
Root Capital and the Efficient Impact Frontier
By: Shawn Cole and Caitlin Reimers Brumme
In 2015 Root Capital, a pioneer in the impact investing space, began to explore how to more systematically integrate impact and financial management. After much deliberation, Root Capital landed on ex-ante rating system for any potential investment that produced a... View Details
- February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
OpenInvest
By: Shawn Cole, Boris Vallée and Nicole Tempest Keller
Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolios to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting... View Details
- February 2018 (Revised December 2019)
- Case
Meridiam Infrastructure Africa: Madagascar Airports
By: Shawn Cole and Lynn Schenk
- January 2018 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Acumen and Lean Data 2018
By: Shawn Cole, V. Kasturi Rangan, Alnoor Ebrahim and Caitlin Reimers Brumme
- January 2018 (Revised August 2024)
- Background Note
Background Note: Introduction to Sustainable Investing
By: Shawn Cole, Vikram Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Radhika Kak
- 2017
- Article
Agricultural Insurance and Economic Development
By: Shawn A. Cole and Wentao Xiong
This article provides a review of recent research on agricultural insurance (AI) in developing countries. Agricultural producers face a variety of significant risks; historically, only government-subsidized products have achieved widespread adoption. A recent... View Details
- March 2017
- Supplement
Microfinance in India 2010-2016: Crisis and Recovery
By: Shawn Cole, Vikram Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers and Yannick Saleman
SKS, India's leading microfinance firm, is challenged when politicians declaim microfinance as exploitation of the poor and severely restrict business practices. View Details