Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,131)
- Faculty Publications (460)
- August 2017 (Revised December 2018)
- Case
Tamarin App: Natural Language Processing
By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler
In this case, students explore the challenges of using sentiment analysis to monitor and understand public perception around a software application, Tamarin SEO App. Technical topics include building a filtering classifier using naive Bayes and sentiment analysis This... View Details
- August 2017
- Article
Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?
By: Shlomo Benartzi, John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman, Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler, Maya Shankar, Will Tucker-Ray, William J. Congdon and Steven Galing
Governments are increasingly adopting behavioral science techniques for changing individual behavior in pursuit of policy objectives. The types of “nudge” interventions that governments are now adopting alter people’s decisions without coercion or significant changes... View Details
Keywords: Nudge; Nudge Unit; Choice Architecture; Behavioral Science; Behavioral Economics; Savings; Pension Plan; Education; College Enrollment; Energy; Electricity Usage; Preventive Health; Influenza Vaccination; Flu Shot; Open Materials; Behavior; Governance; Economics; Policy; Power and Influence
- 2017
- Book
Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship
By: Geoffrey Jones
This book explores whether profits and environmental sustainability are compatible through the lens of a global history of green entrepreneurship between the nineteenth century and today. It tells the story of the extraordinary and often eccentric men and women who... View Details
Keywords: Environmental Entrepreneurship; Green Business; Sustainability; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Business History; Religion; Environmental Sustainability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Banking Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Alternative Energy Industry; Financial Services Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Green Technology Industry; Tourism Industry; Africa; Asia; Europe; Latin America; North and Central America; Oceania
- 2017
- Mimeo
Science for Society: Science and Technology Based Social Entrepreneurship
By: Tarun Khanna, Shashank Shah and Kundan Madireddy
This publication is an outcome of the team's research, engagement and interactions with over 25 science and technology-based social enterprises in India. It provides details on the research process, insightful outcomes and innovative impact.
Throughout the... View Details
Throughout the... View Details
- Article
Statistical Physics of Human Cooperation
By: Matjaž Perc, Jillian J. Jordan, David G. Rand, Zhen Wang, Stefano Boccaletti and Attila Szolnoki
Extensive cooperation among unrelated individuals is unique to humans, who often sacrifice personal benefits for the common good and work together to achieve what they are unable to execute alone. The evolutionary success of our species is indeed due, to a large... View Details
- Article
Social Recycling Transforms Unwanted Goods into Happiness
By: Grant Edward Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Rebecca Walker Reczek and Michael I. Norton
Consumers are often surrounded by resources that once offered meaning or happiness but that have lost this subjective value over time—even as they retain their objective utility. We explore the potential for social recycling—disposing of used goods by allowing other... View Details
- November 2016
- Case
But, It's For a Good Cause
By: Elizabeth Keenan and John Gourville
Companies have long tried to enhance consumers’ perceptions of their firms and the products they sell in a variety of ways. Such efforts include the development of a brand image that the public views favorably, as in the case of Apple. It extends to the development of... View Details
- 2016
- Working Paper
Alternative Paths of Green Entrepreneurship: The Environmental Legacies of The North Face's Doug Tompkins and Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard
By: Geoffrey Jones and Ben Gettinger
This working paper examines the impact of two entrepreneurs who offered alternative paths to reach their shared goal of a more sustainable world. Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins were respective founders of the prominent outdoor apparel brands Patagonia and The North... View Details
- Article
ESG Integration in Investment Management: Myths and Realities
By: Sakis Kotsantonis, Christopher Pinney and George Serafeim
The authors’ aim in this article is to set the record straight on the financial performance of sustainable investing while also correcting a number of other widespread misconceptions about this rapidly growing set of principles and methods.
Myth Number 1:... View Details
- 2016
- Working Paper
Shareholder Activism on Sustainability Issues
By: Jody Grewal, George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon
Shareholder activism on sustainability issues has become increasingly prevalent over the years, with the number of proposals filed doubling from 1999 to 2013. We use recent innovations in accounting standard setting to classify 2,665 shareholder proposals that address... View Details
Keywords: Sustainability; Activism; Activist Investors; Activist Shareholder; Corporate Social Responsibility; Environment; Corporate Performance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Investment Activism
- June 2016 (Revised January 2018)
- Case
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jordan Mitchell
Nearly all environmental organizations have a similar aim: to stop the degradation of the natural environment. However, the strategies that environmental organizations choose to employ are sometimes starkly different. This case compares the models of two dissimilar... View Details
- 2016
- Book
Antonio Serra and the Economics of Good Government
By: Rosario Patalano and Sophus A. Reinert
Little is known of Antonio Serra except that he wrote his extraordinary 1613 Short Treatise on the Causes That Make Kingdoms Abound in Gold and Silver even in the Absence of Mines in a Neapolitan jail and that he died there soon afterwards. However, the... View Details
- March 22, 2016
- Article
The Globalization of Corporate Environmental Disclosure: Accountability or Greenwashing?
By: Christopher Marquis, Michael W. Toffel and Yanhua Zhou
This article is a layman summary of "Scrutiny, Norms, and Selective Disclosure: A Global Study of Greenwashing," published in Organization Science 27, no. 2 (March–April 2016): 483–504. View Details
- March 2016 (Revised April 2019)
- Technical Note
ESG Metrics: Reshaping Capitalism?
By: George Serafeim
In the past twenty-five years, the world had seen an exponential growth in the number of companies reporting environmental, social and governance (ESG) data. Investor interest in ESG data also grew rapidly. A growing belief that increasing levels of social inequality... View Details
Keywords: Capitalism; Sustainability; Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility; Responsibilities To Society; Environment; Social Impact Investment; ESG; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Measurement and Metrics; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Corporate Accountability; Accounting; Economic Systems
- February 2016 (Revised October 2017)
- Case
Nuclear Energy: An Answer to Climate Change?
By: Michael W. Toffel, Glen W. S. Dowell and James Weber
Environmental activist groups have traditionally opposed nuclear energy. However, the growing environmental problems associated with global climate change require major changes to reduce the carbon intensity of electricity generation. Should environmental groups... View Details
- February 2016 (Revised May 2016)
- Case
Environmental Health
By: John A. Quelch and Emily C. Boudreau
- February 2016 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Greening Walmart: Progress and Controversy
By: Rebecca Henderson and James Weber
In 2005, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, launched a sustainability initiative aimed at reducing waste and making the company more environmentally and socially conscious. By 2015, the company had made progress on multiple dimensions: energy efficiency in its... View Details
- January 2016
- Teaching Note
Groom Energy Solutions: Selling Efficiency
By: Michael W. Toffel, Kira Fabrizio and Stephanie van Sice
This case examines a start-up service provider that helps clients improve the energy efficiency of their factories, warehouses, and commercial and office spaces by integrating and installing lighting, heating, and cooling technologies. The company seeks to double... View Details
- November 2015 (Revised August 2016)
- Case
Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability
In January 2009, when Paul Polman was appointed CEO of Unilever, he inherited a company in long-term decline at the beginning of a major global financial crisis. As the first outsider ever recruited to lead the company, Polman lost little time in challenging the... View Details