Publications

October 2013 (Revised June 2014)
Case

Demarketing Soda in New York City

By: John A. Quelch, Margaret L. Rodriguez, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Christine Snively

In 2013, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried and failed to institute a ban on serving sizes of large sugary beverages. Obesity posed a large public health risk to the city. Mayor Bloomberg's proposed ban was one of many attempts to combat the rising threat of... View Details

Keywords: Soda; Public Health; Business And Public Policy; Obesity; Business and Government Relations; Public Sector; Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Marketing; Health; City; Food and Beverage Industry; New York (city, NY)

June 2012
Case

GlaxoSmithKline in Brazil: Public-Private Vaccine Partnerships

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich and Ian McKown Cornell

Three years into a major public-private partnership between GlaxoSmithKline and Fiocuz, Brazil's principal health institute, the company assesses technology transfer and joint research under the agreement. GSK was selling its Synflorix vaccine (against pediatric... View Details

Keywords: Public-Private Partnerships; Business and Government Relations; Foreign Direct Investment; Health Care and Treatment; Globalized Firms and Management; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Brazil

April 2011
Case

Shell Nigeria: The WikiLeaks Cables

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Rebecca M. Henderson and Matthew Preble

In November 2010, WikiLeaks began releasing the first of hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables that it had obtained. Among the thousands of cables published by early 2011, were several that shed light on Royal Dutch Shell's operations in Nigeria and its... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Energy Generation; Operations; Communication Technology; Crime and Corruption; Metals and Minerals; Ethics; Energy Industry; Nigeria

Find at Harvard

May 2011
Article

Consequences and Institutional Determinants of Unregulated Corporate Financial Statements: Evidence from Embedded Value Reporting

By: George Serafeim

I analyze Embedded Value (EV) reporting by firms with life insurance operations to assess the impact of unregulated financial reporting on transparency and to examine the institutional characteristics that promote unregulated reporting. Under EV accounting the present... View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Reporting; Cash Flow; Contracts; Equity; Profit; Value; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Earnings

Find at Harvard

Read Now

02 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 2

These four countries encompassed more than 50% of the world's population in 1910, but remarkably few of their citizens attended any school by the early twentieth century. We present new, comparable data on school inputs and outputs for BRIC drawn from contemporary... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Jul 2024
Blog Post

Climate Story #19: Nicole Neeman Brady (MBA 2008): The Critical Role of Business in Tackling Water Challenges

BEI is delighted to bring you this mini-series on HBS alumni tackling problems related to water and climate change. Emotional and visible connection to a topic is key to driving action. There seem to be few issues and topics that conjure... View Details

15 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

A Mass Crisis Can Overwhelm Health Care. Liberia Found a Solution.

test people, then process the tests and take them to a waiting area.” When Ebola began ravaging the country in 2014, Liberia’s government came knocking on Last Mile Health’s door. The organization helped the View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

01 Dec 2022
News

Educating, Connecting, and Mobilizing Around Climate Change

series focusing on topics such as “Accounting for Climate Change.” “The BEI’s mission is to educate, connect, and mobilize students, faculty, alumni, and other business leaders around climate change and related environmental priorities,”... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

10 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 10

insisting that no one's contribution be marginalized, and framing new information within familiar contexts, teams can escape the performance pressure paradox and keep doing their best work when it matters most. Book:... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

10 Jan 2012
News

The Tender Taxman

Keywords: Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations; Personal Services; Accounting, Tax, Bookkeeping, Payroll Services; Professional Services

October 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

McDonald's Board of Directors (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

In October 2019, the McDonald’s Corporation board of directors, chaired by Enrique Hernandez, Jr., gathered to learn the results of their outside counsel’s investigation into the conduct of the CEO. On the surface, the iconic fast-food chain was thriving as growing... View Details

2010
Comment

'Urgency and Betrayal: Three Attempts to Foster Private Investment in Argentina's Oil Industry,' by Nicolas Gadano

By: Louis T. Wells

Keywords: Investment; Private Sector; Government and Politics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Non-Renewable Energy; Energy Industry; Argentina

September 2017
Teaching Note

The Productivity Decline: Demographics, Robots, or Globalization?

By: Laura Alfaro and Hayley Pallan

In the early 21st century, there was a noticeable trend of declining productivity growth. Despite the persistent decline in productivity growth, a consensus on its explanation had not been reached. Some of the debate focused on the technicalities of productivity... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Measurement and Metrics; Technological Innovation; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Globalization; Business and Government Relations