Publications

23 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 23, 2019

process of learning from experience. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55991 forthcoming Organization & Environment Assessing the Impact of CEO Activism By: Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel Abstract—CEO activism refers to... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

November 2005 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Pine Ridge Winery, LLC (A)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Lauren Barley

George Scheppler, president and CEO of Pine Ridge Winery, LLC, (the "Company") sat in his office overlooking the steep hillside vineyards of the Pine Ridge Winery in Napa Valley. It was June 2005, and he was preparing for the upcoming board of managers meeting where he... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Corporate Strategy; Napa Valley

14 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 14

somewhere to stay. Clustering created positive externalities drawing new entrepreneurs into the industry who could also learn from knowledge spillovers. There were downsides to the new industry. The creation of the national image of a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2010
Article

The Emerging Capital Market for Nonprofits

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Allen S. Grossman

Many of our largest and most successful companies today did not exist 50 years ago. During this same time interval, companies that ranked among top in the 1960s have disappeared, been merged out of existence, or become much smaller presences in the U.S. industrial... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Accountability; Management Practices and Processes; Infrastructure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Effectiveness; Nonprofit Organizations

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February 2001 (Revised December 2002)
Case

Marshall Field and the Rise of the Department Store

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Analyzes Marshall Field's efforts to develop a market for mass retailing in late 19th-century Chicago. Examines Chicago's expansion in the 1860s and, within this context, how Field struck out on his own to, build a wholesale and retail business. Concentrates on the... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Industry Growth; Corporate Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Society; Distribution Industry; Retail Industry; Chicago

28 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

While Waiting for Japan’s Recovery, Let’s Enhance Supplier Competitiveness at Home

tapped a new pool of workers that were often highly motivated. The pledges made to the W2W Partnership fit existing corporate activities and could become part of an existing business function—in the case of W2W, human resources. The View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

04 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 4

knowing "who we are" might depend in part on repeatedly remembering to forget "who we were not." The Enabling Role of Social Position in Diverging from the Institutional Status Quo: Evidence from the U.K. National... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2022 (Revised November 2022)
Case

When Should CEOs Speak Out Publicly? The 2021 Georgia Voting Law

By: William W. George, Hubert Joly and Amram Migdal

This case describes the March 2021 passage of a voting and elections law in the U.S. state of Georgia and reactions by corporations and corporate leaders to the law. Included are a brief history of voting rights in the United States and Georgia and an overview of the... View Details

05 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Can Putin Score Olympic Gold?

world. Countries have long used the spotlight the Olympics provide to celebrate their national pride and improve their international image. The first of these was in 1936, when Adolf Hitler used the Olympics in Berlin to try to show that... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Sports; Advertising

2003
Article

BMW Group's Sustainability Management System: Preliminary Results, Ongoing Challenges, and the UN Global Compact

By: Michael W. Toffel, Natalie Hill and Kellie McElhaney

This article describes preliminary results and ongoing challenges faced by Designworks/USA, an industrial design subsidiary of BMW Group, in its sustainability management efforts since it implemented the world's first certified Sustainability Management System (SMS).... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Management Systems; Standards; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Outcome or Result; Auto Industry

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16 Aug 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The International Politics of IFRS Harmonization

Keywords: by Karthik Ramanna; Accounting

March 2018
Article

Global Business over Time

By: Geoffrey Jones

This article explores how business enterprises have been powerful actors in the spread of global capitalism between 1840 and the present day. It also shows how global firms, emerging out of industrialized Western economies, created and co-created markets and ecosystems... View Details

Keywords: Global; Multinational; Business History; Globalization; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Economic Systems

May 14, 2024
Article

One Way to Help Employees Build Emergency Savings

By: Timothy Flacke and Peter Tufano

Intentional cooperation between two organizations — BlackRock, a major asset management firm, and national non-profit, Commonwealth — created the conditions for the nation’s largest payroll processor, multiple U.S. employers, retirement record keepers, and others to... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Personal Finance; Income; Nonprofit Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Partners and Partnerships

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October 2019 (Revised February 2025)
Case

A Conversation with Ellen J. Kullman, Chairman & CEO of DuPont, 2009-2015

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Ellen J. Kullman, the retired Chairman and CEO of DuPont, describes how she guided the storied science and technology company through a contentious proxy battle with activist investor Trian Partners, which acquired DuPont shares in 2013 and sought to break up the... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Institutional Investing; Leadership; Leadership Style; Management; Transformation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chemical Industry; United States

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

inequality typically exhibit less support for government-led redistribution and greater acceptance of wage inequality (e.g., United States versus Western Europe). If individual nations evolve along this pattern, a vicious cycle could form... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

South Pole Carbon Asset Management-Going for Gold?

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Jost Hamschmidt and Mikell Hyman

In late 2008, Christoph Sutter, CEO of South Pole Carbon Asset Management, reflects on his firm's early success at originating carbon credits in developing nations and selling them to governments and firms that seek to offset their greenhouse gas emissions voluntarily... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Non-Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Strategy

February 2004
Case

Czech Mate: CME and Vladimir Zelezny (A)

By: Mihir A. Desai, Alberto Moel and Kathleen Luchs

This case examines how insiders can expropriate value from shareholders in emerging markets when property rights are ill-defined. As such, it provides a platform for considering how institutions and legal rules impact financing patterns and economic outcomes. CME,... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Fairness; Financial Institutions; Corporate Governance; Rights; Ownership Stake