Publications

07 Dec 1999
Research & Ideas

Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century

brand of the Anchor Pickle and Vinegar Works," a business writer noted at the time, "is known to consumers throughout the country as a guarantee of a first-class quality of goods." 51 Heinz... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn

2012
Chapter

Institutional Pressures and Organizational Characteristics: Implications for Environmental Strategy

By: Magali A. Delmas and Michael W. Toffel

A broad literature has emerged over the past decades demonstrating that firms' environmental strategies and practices are influenced by stakeholders and institutional pressures. Such findings are consistent with institutional sociology, which emphasizes the importance... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Natural Environment; Business Strategy

Find at Harvard

Summer 2018
Article

CSR needs CPR: Corporate Sustainability and Politics

By: Thomas Lyon, Magali A. Delmas, John W. Maxwell, Pratima Bansal, Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline, Patricia Crifo, Rodolphe Durand, Jean-Pascal Gond, Andrew King, Michael Lenox, Michael W. Toffel, David Vogel and Frank Wijen

Corporate sustainability has gone mainstream, and many companies have taken meaningful steps to improve their own environmental performance. But while corporate political actions such as lobbying can have a greater impact on environmental quality, they are ignored in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Communication; Policy; Business and Government Relations

Find at Harvard

March 2011
Supplement

H Partners and Six Flags (B)

By: Robin Greenwood and Michael Gorzynski

Rehan Jaffer, the founder of hedge fund H Partners, is considering what to do with his investment in Six Flags. H Partners had invested a significant amount of the firm's capital in the senior bonds of U.S.-based Six Flags, following that company's bankruptcy filing. View Details

Keywords: Equity; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Price; Acquisition; Decisions; Borrowing and Debt; Investment Funds; Opportunities; Bonds; Investment Activism; Financial Services Industry; United States

Web

Visionary, Innovator, Educator - Georges F. Doriot : Educating Leaders, Building Companies, Baker Library, Harvard Business School

played in our affairs and for the distinction which your fine Army record and vigorous business leadership have brought to our programs over a period of more than forty years.... View Details

26 Apr 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Assessing the Quality of Quality Assessment: The Role of Scheduling

Keywords: by Maria Ibanez and Michael W. Toffel; Service; Food & Beverage

November 2017
Case

Passion and Strategy: Novozymes' Embrace of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

By: Andy Zelleke and Emilie Billaud

This case explores the sustainability efforts at Novozymes, the world's largest and oldest producer of industrial enzymes. In 2015, the Danish company became the world’s first company known to have crafted a new corporate strategy based on the United Nations... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Transformation; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business Strategy; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Biotechnology Industry; Europe; Denmark

Web

Financing New Ideas - Georges F. Doriot : Educating Leaders, Building Companies, Baker Library, Harvard Business School

my definition of the word—constructive. I am building men and companies." Georges F. Doriot, in "General Doriot"s Dream Factory," Fortune , August 1967 50 Doriot also championed a global community of venture... View Details

December 2021
Article

Negativity Spreads More Than Positivity on Twitter after Both Positive and Negative Political Situations

By: Jonas Paul Schöne, Brian Parkinson and Amit Goldenberg

What type of emotional language spreads further in political discourses on social media? Previous research has focused on situations that primarily elicited negative emotions, showing that negative language tended to spread further. The current project extends existing... View Details

Keywords: Negative Emotions; Emotional Influence; Emotional Resonance; Political Discourse; Emotion Contagion; Intergroup; Interactive Communication; Emotions; Government and Politics; Social Media

January 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Case

TopCoder (A): Developing Software through Crowdsourcing

By: Karim R. Lakhani, David A. Garvin and Eric Lonstein

TopCoder's crowdsourcing-based business model, in which software is developed through online tournaments, is presented. The case highlights how TopCoder has created a unique two-sided innovation platform consisting of a global community of over 225,000 developers who... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Two-Sided Platforms; Motivation and Incentives; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Software; Technology Industry

April 2014
Article

Golden Parachutes and the Wealth of Shareholders

By: Lucian A. Bebchuk, Alma Cohen and Charles C.Y. Wang

Golden parachutes (GPs) have attracted substantial attention from investors and public officials for more than two decades. We find that GPs are associated with higher expected acquisition premiums and that this association is at least partly due to the effect of GPs... View Details

Keywords: Golden Parachute; Acquisitions; Takeovers; Acquisition Takeover; Acquisition Likelihood; Acquisition Premiums; Agency Costs; Managerial Slack; Dodd-Frank; Executive Compensation; Acquisition; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations

2021
Working Paper

Proxy Advisory Firms and Corporate Shareholder Engagement

By: Aiyesha Dey, Joshua White and Austin Starkweather

We examine the influence of proxy advisors on firms’ shareholder engagement behavior. Our analyses exploit a quasi-natural experiment using Say-On-Pay voting outcomes near a threshold that triggers a review of engagement activities by Institutional Shareholder Services... View Details

Keywords: Proxy Advisors; ISS; Shareholder Engagement; Disclosure; Business and Shareholder Relations; Executive Compensation; Corporate Disclosure

SSRN

April 2025
Supplement

Joe Mazzulla and the Boston Celtics (B)

By: Linda A. Hill, James I. Cash and Lydia Begag

This case is a supplement to “Joe Mazzulla and the Boston Celtics” (A) and is set against the backdrop of the 2024 NBA Finals. It describes the impact of Mazzulla’s decision to rally his team with an aggressive “go for the kill” mindset instead of choosing language... View Details

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

their daily shift meetings. Communication intentionally involved a variety of channels to make sure everyone could be reached, including companywide messages, Zoom meetings, WhatsApp messaging, and video... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

2015
Working Paper

Executives' Financial Preferences and Shareholder Tax Outcomes

By: Gerardo Pérez Cavazos and Andreya M. Perez-Silva

We demonstrate that executives’ personal financial preferences impact both layers of shareholder taxes, corporate taxes and corporate payouts. We reconstruct executives’ insider equity portfolios to quantify their personal incentives and analyze stock sales that reveal... View Details

Keywords: Executives; Capital Gain; Dividends; Effective Tax Rate; Tax Avoidance; Taxation; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations

SSRN

March 2009
Background Note

Evaluating M&A Deals: Floors, Caps, and Collars

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

As equity consideration has become more popular in acquisitions, so has the use of the "pricing-protection" mechanisms, such as floors, caps, and collars. These contractual devices provide insurance to the shareholders of the target and may protect the buyer as well.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Equity; Price; Contracts; Business and Shareholder Relations

01 Mar 2018
News

March 2018 Alumni and Faculty Books

an in-depth analysis of the opportunities and challenges, both traditional and contemporary, of doing business in India. Great Service Made Simple by Frederic B. Sargent (OPM... View Details

February 2016
Case

Banking and Politics in Antebellum New York

By: David Moss and Colin Donovan

After a long period of solid Democratic control, Whigs secured a majority of seats in the New York State Assembly in 1837, the same year that a major financial panic had crippled the banking system and shaken public confidence in the state's governance. The next year,... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Central Banking; Ethics; Laws and Statutes; Business and Government Relations; Government and Politics; History; New York (state, US)

2010
Working Paper

Boundary Spanning in a For-profit Research Lab: An Exploration of the Interface Between Commerce and Academe

By: Christopher C. Liu and Toby E. Stuart

In innovative industries, private-sector companies increasingly are participants in open communities of science and technology. To participate in the system of exchange in such communities, firms often publicly disclose what would otherwise remain private discoveries.... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Higher Education; Information Publishing; Innovation and Invention; Science-Based Business; Social and Collaborative Networks; Boundaries; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry