Publications

2024
Working Paper

The Fading Light of Democratic Capitalism: How Pervasive Cronyism and Restricted Suffrage Are Destroying Democratic Capitalism as a National Ideal…and What to Do about It

By: Malcolm S. Salter

What are we to do about declining public trust and confidence in democratic capitalism, which many citizens consider a cornerstone of our national ideology and identity? While the answer is not entirely clear, I argue in this essay that any effort aimed at restoring... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Economic Systems; Trust; United States

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07 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Giving Back: Consumers Care More About How Companies Donate Than How Much

over others.” Keenan studied corporate donations with Leslie John, professor of business administration at HBS, and Anne Wilson, a lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Their findings will appear in a forthcoming issue of View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

2024
Working Paper

Moral Incoherence During Category Emergence: The Contentious Case of Connected Toys

By: Ryann Noe

Through a longitudinal study of the emergence of connected toys – physical toys that interact with digital devices – I build theory about moral incoherence: when competing views about the moral worth of a category persist over time. During the course of their... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; Moral Sensibility; Market Entry and Exit; Consumer Behavior

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29 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

A Manager’s Moral Obligation to Preserve Capitalism

for instance, might argue that capitalism ignores issues of fairness in outcomes—but they can't say that it doesn't exist. “Our task is not to take immoral people and make them moral. Our task is to add texture to the dominant ethical... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Article

Repairing the Damage: The Effect of Price Knowledge and Gender on Auto-Repair Price Quotes

By: Meghan Busse, Ayelet Israeli and Florian Zettelmeyer

In this paper we investigate whether sellers treat consumers differently on the basis of how well informed consumers appear to be. We implement a large-scale field experiment in which callers request price quotes from automotive repair shops. We show that sellers alter... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Price Discrimination; Automobiles; Field Experiment; Information; Fairness; Price; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Internet and the Web; Gender; Service Industry; Auto Industry

Find at Harvard

April 1998 (Revised June 1999)
Case

Bausch & Lomb, Inc.: Pressure to Perform

By: Robert L. Simons, Alex C. Sapir '97 and Indra Reinbergs

Bausch & Lomb is the subject of press attacks and experiences a sharp fall in stock price when management practices are exposed. Aggressive goal setting, supported by financial market expectations, is discussed as a precursor to a series of events that results in... View Details

Keywords: Performance Expectations; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Financial Markets; Financial Statements; Business and Shareholder Relations

10 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 10, 2017

How did he do these deals? What strategies and tactics worked and what failed? Why and under what conditions? What ethical challenges does this approach present? Is there an underlying logic and method to his approach that, well beyond... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2018
Case

Feeding America (A)

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Alan Lam

This case describes how Feeding America, the third-largest nonprofit organization in the U.S., designed a marketplace for allocating donated food across its network of food banks. It considers the promises and pitfalls of using market-based allocation in the context of... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Food; Resource Allocation; Fairness; Performance Efficiency; United States

February 2010
Case

Burt's Bees: Balancing Growth and Sustainability (Multimedia)

By: Christopher Marquis

The case examines sustainability initiatives at Burt's Bees, with video segments that detail the company's history, leadership, and implementation of ambitious 2020 sustainability goals. The company traces its roots to 1984, when Roxanne Quinby and Burt Schavitz teamed... View Details

Keywords: Balance and Stability; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Business or Company Management; Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Mergers and Acquisitions; Social Enterprise; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Ethics

01 Sep 2023
News

Money Does Grow on (Family) Trees

For 17 years, Andre Kearns (MBA 1999) has been tracing his family tree. One by one, he has added branches, grounding himself in a long and sometimes complicated lineage. Through family stories, forgotten heirlooms, and vital records, Kearns has traveled back through... View Details

Keywords: April White; Illustrations by Fabio Consoli; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

17 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 17, 2009

Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial, we examine whether access to, and marketing of, an individually held commitment... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Web

Policies, Rules & Guidelines | About

student statements made in class. Commercial Videotaping & Photography Commercial videotaping and still photography on the Harvard Business School campus and within its buildings by outside agencies is not allowed without permission from the School’s View Details

December 2016
Article

Deal Process Design in Management Buyouts

By: Guhan Subramanian

Management buyouts (MBOs) are an economically and legally significant class of transaction: not only do they account for more than $10 billion in deal volume per year, on average, but they also play an important role in defining the relationship between inside and... View Details

Keywords: Management Buyout; Deal Structuring; Acquisition; Design; Fairness

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08 Dec 2022
HBS Case

The War in Ukraine and Nestlé’s Moral Dilemma: Stay or Leave Russia?

that might be different from other forms of political corporate engagement,” says Hsieh, about the challenges of maintaining customers’ trust in an international fishbowl. A pressure play Based in Switzerland—a country that prides itself on remaining politically... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consumer Products

June 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Case

What Went Wrong with Boeing's 737 Max?

By: William W. George and Amram Migdal

This case describes the development of the Boeing 737 Max airplane model and the events leading up to two tragic plane crashes, in which a total of 346 people died: the crash of Lion Air flight 610 on October 29, 2018, in Indonesia, and the crash of Ethiopian Airlines... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Communication Intention and Meaning; Communication Strategy; Forms of Communication; Announcements; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Globalization; Global Strategy; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Governance Controls; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Leadership; Leadership Style; Management; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Systems; Risk Management; Time Management; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Digital Platforms; Supply and Industry; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Industry Structures; Operations; Product Development; Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Outcome or Result; Failure; Success; Planning; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Strategy; Transportation; Air Transportation; Aerospace Industry; Air Transportation Industry; Africa; Ethiopia; Asia; Indonesia; North and Central America; United States; Seattle; Chicago

Web

Human Behavior & Decision-Making - Faculty & Research

that implicitly activating the construct of time, rather than money, leads individuals to behave more ethically by cheating less. We further found that priming time reduces cheating by making people reflect on who they are. Implications... View Details

26 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 26

Publications International Marketing Review Achievement Motivation, Strategic Orientations and Business Performance in Entrepreneurial Firms: How Different Are Japanese and American Founders? By: Deshpandé, Rohit, Amir Grinstein, Elie... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2003 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Sheila Mason & Craig Shepherd

Describes a marketing executive and an engineer who are starting a company together. Each is still at his/her former employer, and each has signed a different employment agreement that, on paper, may prohibit soliciting customers or employees. Focuses on how... View Details

Keywords: Resignation and Termination; Intellectual Property; Contracts; Legal Liability; Entrepreneurship; Ethics

2011
Other Unpublished Work

Pioneers in Finance: An Interview with Michael C. Jensen - Part 2

By: Michael C. Jensen and Ralph A. Walkling

This interview is Part 2 of a two-part series in which Professor Ralph Walkling, the Stratakis Chair in Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Center for Corporate Governance at Drexel University, interviews Professor Michael C. Jensen, Jesse Isidor Straus... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Ethics; Research; Markets; Leadership