Publications

2019
Working Paper

Stewardship Codes and Shareholder Voting on Disputed Ballot Measures

By: Trang T. Nguyen and Charles CY Wang

This study examines the impact of stewardship codes on investor voting behavior in disputed ballot measures-- where ISS's recommendation differs from management's recommendation-- across nine countries. U.S. institutional investors' voting behavior in adopting country... View Details

Keywords: Stewardship Codes; Investment; Voting; Behavior

06 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

Does Hybrid Work Actually Work? Insights from 30,000 Emails

and quality of work product—the hybrid group members outranked their peers. “The new working paper may be the first to generate data on the impact of hybrid work schedules on enterprise communication patterns and work quality.” Hybrid... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

December 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Teaching Note

The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations

By: Mihir A. Desai and Suzanne Antoniou

How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government... View Details

16 May 2023
In Practice

After Silicon Valley Bank's Flameout, What's Next for Entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurship Jeffrey Bussgang: Expect R&D investment to be curtailed The SVB collapse had a profound impact on the startup ecosystem. SVB has been a trusted and beloved partner to startup founders and VCs for 40 years. My firm,... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Technology; Financial Services

2022
Chapter

Sustainability for People and the Planet: Placing Workers at the Center of Sustainability Research

By: Julie Yen, Julie Battilana and Emilie Aguirre

Though workers face a series of critical challenges in contemporary work organizations, they are often overlooked in conversations about sustainable business. In this chapter, we argue that prioritizing the rights and well-being of workers is a core dimension of... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Employees; Well-being; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Structure; Social Issues

02 Feb 2021
Blog Post

Finding My Focus in Health care Amidst a Global Pandemic

decade, legislators have passed countless health care policies that impact how hospitals, insurance companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers deliver services to patients. Even more, the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has uncovered major... View Details

12 Dec 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Can Sustainability Drive Innovation at Ferrari?

Keywords: Re: Raffaella Sadun; Auto

26 Dec 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Reinforcing Regulatory Regimes: How States, Civil Society, and Codes of Conduct Promote Adherence to Global Labor Standards

Keywords: by Michael W. Toffel, Jodi L. Short & Melissa Ouellet

October 2005 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Bennie Wiley at The Partnership, Inc.

Benaree Wiley, an African American, female HBS graduate (class of 1972), was appointed CEO and president in 1991 of The Partnership, a Boston-based nonprofit dedicated to developing leadership potential in professionals of color and in increasing their representation... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Leading Change; Nonprofit Organizations; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; Boston

1998
Working Paper

CEO Incentives and Firm Size

By: Brian Hall and George P. Baker

What determines CEO incentives? A confusion exists among both academics and practitioners about how to measure the strength of CEO incentives, and how to reconcile the enormous differences in pay sensitivities between executives in large and small firms. We show that... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Motivation and Incentives; Executive Compensation; Size; Management Systems

Read Now

11 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

The High Risks of Short-Term Management

investor base. For example, adoption of integrated reporting could be a step in this direction. Integrated reporting provides a holistic picture of the business describing the economic, environmental, and social performance of the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

August 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Novo Nordisk Foundation

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

In 2024, Novo Nordisk A/S was one of the most profitable firms in the world, thanks largely to just two GLP-1-based drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy. Unusually, this incredibly profitable firm was controlled not by individual private shareholders, but by a non-profit... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Diabetes; Obesity; Foundation; Non-profit Management; Profit; Corporate Governance; Business or Company Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Expansion; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Nonprofit Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Denmark; Europe

2024
Working Paper

Second- versus Third-party Audit Quality: Evidence from Global Supply Chain Monitoring

By: Maria R. Ibanez, Ashley Palmarozzo, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Capitalizing on the superior credibility and flexibility and potential lower cost of external assessments, many global buyers are relying less on their own employee (“second-party”) auditors and more on third-party auditors to monitor and prevent environmental and... View Details

Keywords: Auditing; Audit Quality; Working Conditions; Sustainability; Empirical Operations; Empirical Service Operations; Sustainability Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain Management

SSRN

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19 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

dedicated to environmental sustainability with a broad social vision. Q: How much does the industry influence our notions of beauty, and how much do accepted or popular notions of beauty influence product development? A: The human desire... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

bankruptcy proceeding can have difficulty restructuring their public bonds. If such bonds are widely held, individual bondholders may be unwilling to make concessions, preferring to free ride off the concessions of others. Thus it will be... View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

June 2007 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Thomas J. Watson, IBM and Nazi Germany

By: Geoffrey Jones, Grace Ballor and Adrian Brown

Considers the strategy of U.S.-owned IBM, then a manufacturer of punch cards, in Nazi Germany before 1937. Opens with IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson meeting Adolf Hitler in his capacity as President of the International Chamber of Commerce. IBM had acquired a German company... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Values and Beliefs; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Business and Government Relations; Germany; United States

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

of Inspire Brands, which owns Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby’s, Jimmy John’s and Sonic Drive-In, explained that with 11,000 restaurants in its portfolio, Inspire is seeing very different impacts across the brands driven primarily by their... View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

November 2023
Article

Knowledge About the Source of Emotion Predicts Emotion-Regulation Attempts, Strategies, and Perceived Emotion-Regulation Success

By: Yael Millgram, Matthew K. Nock, David D. Bailey and Amit Goldenberg

People’s ability to regulate emotions is crucial to healthy emotional functioning. One overlooked aspect in emotion-regulation research is that knowledge about the source of emotions can vary across situations and individuals, which could impact people’s ability to... View Details

Keywords: Emotions; Personal Characteristics; Well-being