Computational Social Science - Publications - Faculty & Research

November 1990 (Revised June 2004)
Case

McDonald's and the Environment

McDonald's decides to withdraw its polystyrene plastic packaging for sandwiches and hamburgers after years of defending itself against environmental critics. The decision occurs in the midst of a six-month Joint Task Force study, with the nonprofit Environmental... View Details

Keywords: Announcements; Change Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

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02 Jun 2021
Blog Post

Paul’s Sabbatical Story: Hypothesis-Testing by Sabbaticals

commercializing social science research to create organizations which positively impact the world. DiDonna founded The Sabbatical Project to explore when and why sabbaticals lead to positive outcomes for... View Details

07 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 7

once a very secretive industry, to take increasingly public stances on the risk of human-induced climate change and the need to take urgent action to contain it. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52170 November 2016 Management View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July–August 2024
Article

Disclosing Downstream Emissions

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

An increasing number of companies are using the E-liability carbon-accounting method as an important tool for tracking progress toward reducing global emissions in their supply chains. The system does not require formal accounting for downstream emissions—those... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Environmental Accounting; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Disclosure; Environmental Sustainability

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19 Dec 2008
News

WHBS, 820 on Your Dial

engineering. After an initial grant of $350 from the Student Association, the station paid its operating expenses through advertising. Besides providing business and technical experience, WHBS’s stated goals were to give students information, promote faculty-student... View Details

Keywords: Keith Larson; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

06 Dec 2021
News

Ink: Talking Shop

Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life By Rory Sutherland “This book points out that data is driving too much decision-making and that executives have lost the art of management. Sutherland’s main argument—that for a... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

October 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Case

C16 Biosciences: Lab-Grown Palm Oil

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull

Synthetic biology start-up C16 Biosciences wants to solve a big problem: replace palm oil, a major contributor to deforestation and climate change, with a lab-grown substitute. CEO Shara Ticku has ambitious plans to supply her lab-grown palm oil to food manufacturers,... View Details

Keywords: Science-Based Business; Environmental Sustainability; Social Entrepreneurship; Product Development; Product Positioning; Venture Capital; Strategy; Decision Making; Food and Beverage Industry; Consumer Products Industry

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December 2019
Supplement

Mãe Terra and Unilever (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Ruth Costas and Mariana Cal

Unilever is making strides to integrate the operations of Mãe Terra—one of Brazil's leading brands for packaged organic foods—into its own structures, after acquiring the company in 2017. Mãe Terra’s CEO, Alexandre Borges, must decide whether to implement his original... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Sustainability; Mergers and Acquisitions; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Environmental Sustainability; Organizational Culture; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Brazil; Latin America

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October 2015
Case

Clearwater Seafoods

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Clearwater sought to market value-added shellfish products in a traditionally commodities based industry, while facing supply uncertainties and regulatory, environmental, and foreign exchange challenges. Clearwater harvested lobsters, clams, scallops, shrimp, and other... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Profit; Goods and Commodities; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Product Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Canada

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September 2010
Article

Making Self-Regulation More Than Merely Symbolic: The Critical Role of the Legal Environment

By: Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Using data from a sample of U.S. industrial facilities subject to the federal Clean Air Act from 1993 to 2003, this article theorizes and tests the conditions under which organizations' symbolic commitments to self-regulate are particularly likely to result in improved... View Details

Keywords: Adoption; Code Law; Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Organizations; Governance Compliance; Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; United States

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16 Jul 2013
News

Embracing Chaos

circumstances. Last year, he launched Social Venture Partners (SVP) India is a spin-off of the Seattle-based nonprofit that pools philanthropic activities in a local area, in order to focus financial power on effectively solving local... View Details

Keywords: Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

31 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Improving Fairness in Flight Delays

congestion at airports and in the air. In Equitable and Efficient Coordination in Traffic Flow Management, a paper recently accepted for publication in Transportation Science and coauthored with Cynthia Barnhart of MIT and Dimitris... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Entertainment & Recreation; Air Transportation

23 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 23

of capital, causing them to shrink and possibly exit the market. The strategy was used by Sun Microsystems in the 1980s and Dell Computer in the 1990s. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-063.pdf The Determinants of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2015
Working Paper

Online Word of Mouth and Product Review Disagreement

By: Frank Nagle and Christoph Riedl

Studies of online word of mouth have frequently posited―but never systematically conceptualized and explored―that the level of disagreement between existing product reviews can impact the volume and the valence of future reviews. In this study we develop a theoretical... View Details

Keywords: Online Word Of Mouth; Online Communities; Viral Marketing; Online Product Reviews; Quality; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Reference Programs; Social and Collaborative Networks; Digital Marketing; Analytics and Data Science

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18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

landscape. Book: http://hbr.org/product/harder-than-i-thought-adventures-of-a-twenty-first/an/10332-HBK-ENG Breaking Them In or Revealing Their Best? Reframing Socialization Around Newcomer Self-expression Authors:Cable, Daniel M.,... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

01 Mar 2015
News

New Idea: State of the Art

2006, he cofounded Behance, a networked portfolio website for artists. Six years later, it was acquired by Adobe, where Belsky now oversees products related to social networking and mobile apps. The overlap between his nine-to-five and... View Details

Keywords: Francis Storrs; Adobe; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services

01 Mar 2025
News

Alumni and Faculty Books

impressions; methods for optimizing communication productivity; how to build strong relationships at a distance; ways to win negotiations and solve conflicts from behind a screen, and more. With enlightening stories, interviews with top business leaders, and Brodsky’s... View Details

05 Aug 2016
News

Accelerating Change on Medicine’s Final Frontier

entrepreneurial spirit from my mother.” Amadio became interested in medicine as a boy. He felt a calling to help other people and it led him to pursue a mix of science and computer classes and activities.... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley