Publications

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Employment | Harvard Business School

What is the dress code at Harvard Business School? When should I be prepared to speak about compensation ? Where can I search for jobs across all of Harvard? How can I learn... View Details

18 Jun 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Evaluating the Impact of SA 8000 Certification

Keywords: by Michael J. Hiscox, Claire Schwartz & Michael W. Toffel

January 2020 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Governing PG&E

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

The five commissioners of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) listened intently at a public forum in April 2019 as PG&E Corporation’s out-going chairman Richard Kelly described the company’s proposed new board. PG&E, which provided electricity and natural... View Details

Educators

Article

The Deception Spiral: Corporate Obfuscation Leads to Perceptions of Immorality and Cheating Behavior

By: D.M. Markowitz, M. Kouchaki, J.T. Hancock and F. Gino

In four studies, we evaluated how corporate misconduct relates to language patterns, perceptions of immorality, and unethical behavior. First, we analyzed nearly 190 codes of conduct from S&P 500 manufacturing companies and observed that corporations with ethics... View Details

Keywords: Obfuscation; Corporate Unethicality; Deception; Deception Spiral; Organizations; Values and Beliefs; Ethics; Perception; Behavior

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June 2024
Article

Oral History and Business History in Emerging Markets

By: Geoffrey Jones

This article describes the motivation, structure and use of the Creating Emerging Markets (CEM) oral history-based project at the Harvard Business School. The project consists of lengthy interviews with business leaders from emerging markets. By June 2024 183... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Economies; Oral History; Emerging Markets; Business History; Research

2019
Working Paper

Rehabilitating Corporate Purpose

By: Malcolm S. Salter

In this paper, I address how the ascendance of the theory of shareholder value maximization into the central consciousness of public corporations and its canonization as the only legitimate expression of corporate purpose has contributed to both a widening breach... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Justice; Corporate Purpose; Shareholder Value Maximization; Ethical Reciprocity; Economic Systems; Business Ventures; Mission and Purpose; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

SSRN

February 2009 (Revised September 2011)
Background Note

Business and Human Rights

By: Lynn S. Paine and Lara Adamsons

This note addresses some of the most frequently asked questions about the relation between human rights and business. Topics include the definition of human rights, the business leader's role regarding human rights, and legal liability of companies and executives for... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Human Capital; Legal Liability; Rights; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

Educators

Web

Events - Business History

Entrepreneurial History," co-organized by Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski. Oct 27 27 Oct 2025 Business History Seminar David Smith (Wilfrid Laurier University), "Reimagining the Mid-Century American Corporation: Spirituality, View Details

winter 1988
Article

Management Buyouts and Managerial Efforts

By: Robert F. Bruner and Lynn S. Paine

Management buyouts, which have played an important role in the recent wave of corporate restructurings, have been criticized from several directions. This article addresses the problems created by management's conflict of interest. As members of the buyout team,... View Details

Keywords: Buyout; Ethical Decision Making; Management; Leveraged Buyouts; Ethics; Decision Making

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01 Jun 2002
News

Profile: The Invisible Hand - Robert Massie and God's Green Earth

Stobaugh of the Doctoral Program sent me over to see Matthews.” Matthews, who taught at HBS for 42 years, was widely considered a pioneer in the field of business View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; management; ethics

13 Jan 2017
News

A Harvard business professor explains a legal form of 'insider trading' in America

25 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

A Gentler Capitalism: Black Business Leadership in the New South Africa

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill & Maria Farkas; Communications; Telecommunications

2020
Working Paper

How ESG Issues Become Financially Material to Corporations and Their Investors

By: George Serafeim

Management and disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have received substantial interest over the last decade. In this paper, we outline a framework of how ESG issues become financially material, affecting corporate profitability and valuation.... View Details

SSRN

July 2017
Article

Business Responsibilities for Human Rights: A Commentary on Arnold

By: Nien-hê Hsieh

Human rights have come to play a prominent role in debates about the responsibilities of business. In the business ethics literature, there are two approaches to the question of whether businesses have human rights obligations. The “moral” approach conceives of human... View Details

Keywords: Rights; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Society

April 2017
Teaching Note

Golden Rule

By: Andrew Wasynczuk

Jim Golden wants to radically change how catastrophic trucking accident lawsuit claims are handled by his trucking company. He wants to “do the right thing” for both the claimant and his company. Golden is a former litigator with 16 years of experience defending... View Details

Keywords: Business Ethics; Business Law; Law; Executives; Management Education; Management; Negotiator's Dilemma; Negotiations; Value; Moral Compass; Moral Leadership; Lawsuits and Litigation; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Corporate Accountability; Negotiation; Conflict and Resolution; Value Creation

2021
White Paper

Report on Racial Inclusion in the Boardroom: A Workshop Convened by Harvard Business School's Leadership Initiative and Board Leadership Project

By: James I. Cash, Linda A. Hill, Hubert Joly, Lynn S. Paine and Suraj Srinivasan

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Inclusion; Organization Culture; Corporate Governance; Diversity; Equity; Governing and Advisory Boards; Race; Fairness; Organizational Culture

2022
Book

A Political Economy of Justice

By: Danielle Allen, Yochai Benkler, Leah Downey, Rebecca Henderson and Joshua Simons

Defining a just economy in a tenuous social-political time.
If we can agree that our current social-political moment is tenuous and unsustainable—and indeed, that may be the only thing we can agree on right now—then how do markets, governments, and people... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; Social Justice; Capitalism; Business And Society; Economy; Society; Fairness; Economic Systems; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; United States

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