Publications

Educators

August 2011 (Revised December 2013)
Case

Albert 'Jack' Stanley in Nigeria (A)

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Chad M. Carr

The international joint venture that successfully bid for $6 billion in contracts to build LNG trains on Nigeria's Bonny Island became entangled in a widening bribery and corruption probe triggered by an unrelated accusation against an employee of one of the JV... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Globalization; Governance Compliance; Energy Industry; Nigeria; Europe; United States

Educators

2023
Working Paper

Much Ado About Nothing? Overreaction to Random Regulatory Audits

By: Samuel Antill and Joseph Kalmenovitz

Regulators often audit firms to detect non-compliance. Exploiting a natural experiment in the lobbying industry, we show that firms overreact to audits and this response distorts prices and reduces welfare. Each year, federal regulators audit a random sample of... View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Price

SSRN

October 2010
Supplement

Belco Global Foods: Spreadsheet Supplement (CW)

By: C. Fritz Foley and Matthew Johnson

This case introduces students to the fundamental issues that managers face when deciding what international trade finance terms to use when transacting with other firms. In late 2009, Pam Arnold, the Head of Global Credit at Belco Global Foods must decide which trade... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Decisions; Trade; Financial Strategy; Governance Compliance; Managerial Roles; Market Transactions

Article

Designing Sustainability at BMW Group: The Designworks/USA Experience

By: Kellie McElhaney, Michael W. Toffel and Natalie Hill

This case study describes how an industrial design company developed a sustainability management system (SMS) standard, designed and implemented an SMS throughout its business, and then became the first company in the world to achieve third-party SMS certification by a... View Details

Keywords: Design; Governance Compliance; Management Practices and Processes; Standards; Environmental Sustainability; Auto Industry; United States

Read Now

2013
Article

Where Not to Eat? Improving Public Policy by Predicting Hygiene Inspections Using Online Reviews

By: Jun Seok Kang, Polina Kuznetsova, Yejin Choi and Michael Luca

Restaurant hygiene inspections are often cited as a success story of public disclosure. Hygiene grades influence customer decisions and serve as an accountability system for restaurants. However, cities (which are responsible for inspections) have limited resources to... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Food; Governance Compliance; Mathematical Methods; Applications and Software; Public Administration Industry; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

Read Now

December 2006 (Revised April 2008)
Case

China and the WTO: What Price Membership?

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Julia Galef

China has been a member of the WTO for more than five years. Its implementation of requirements has been a mixed bag. While China's growth is still spectacular, many institutional problems remain. And there is a new problem--a spectacular trade asymmetry with the... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Governance Compliance; International Relations; Problems and Challenges; China; United States

Educators

2018
Working Paper

It is Easy to be Brave From a Safe Distance: Proximity to the SEC and Insider Trading

By: Trung Nguyen and Quoc H. Nguyen

We use hand-collected data from SEC’s litigation releases for insider trading violations to examine the effect of geographic distance on its enforcement activities and insider trading activities. First, we find that the SEC is more likely to investigate companies that... View Details

Keywords: SEC; Enforcement; Financial Misconduct; Insider Trading; Geographic Proximity; Governance Compliance; Law Enforcement; Geographic Location; Finance; Crime and Corruption

SSRN

2015
Article

Regulator Leniency and Mispricing in Beneficent Nonprofits

By: Jonas Heese, Ranjani Krishnan and Frank Moers

We posit that nonprofits that provide a greater supply of unprofitable services (beneficent nonprofits) face lenient regulatory enforcement for mispricing in price-regulated markets. Consequently, beneficent nonprofits exploit such regulatory leniency and exhibit... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Business Earnings; Fairness; Governance Compliance

November 3, 2020
Article

Gender Differences in COVID-19 Attitudes and Behavior: Panel Evidence from Eight Countries

By: Vincenzo Galasso, Vincent Pons, Paola Profeta, Michael Becher, Sylvain Brouard and Martial Foucault

Using original data from two waves of a survey conducted in March and April 2020 in eight OECD countries (N = 21,649), we show that women are more likely to see COVID-19 as a very serious health problem, to agree with restraining public policy measures adopted in... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Attitudes; Behavior; Gender; Policy; Governance Compliance

Read Now

16 Jul 2008
Op-Ed

What Should Employers Do about Health Care?

ignored health care altogether, leaving it to government or dutifully paying their mandated health contributions. Many U.S. employers are dropping health benefits or hoping for reforms that will transfer responsibility for health... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Elizabeth O. Teisberg & Scott Wallace; Health

11 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Building a Better Board

When Stephen Kaufman took the helm at Arrow Electronics in 1982, it was de rigueur for CEOs to sit on the boards of several other companies in addition to running their own. Back then, serving as a board member didn't require much of a time commitment, and View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

10 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 10

article theorizes and tests empirically the conditions under which organizations' internal compliance structures are particularly likely to shape their compliance practices and outcomes. We argue that the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2017 (Revised June 2017)
Supplement

ExxonMobil: Business as Usual? (B)

By: George Serafeim, Shiva Rajgopal and David Freiberg

The case presents ExxonMobil's response to growing pressure to disclose how climate change will impact their business. This includes multiple asset impairments and losing a proxy vote to shareholders to increase climate change related reporting. Supplements the (B)... View Details

Keywords: Oil ＆ Gas; Oil Prices; Oil Companies; Asset Impairment; Predictive Analytics; Sustainability; Environmental Impact; Innovation; Disclosure; Accounting; Valuation; Energy Sources; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Governance Compliance; Climate Change; Financial Reporting; Energy Industry; United States

October 2005
Background Note

Tax Impropriety: Judicial Sanctions and Professional Repercussions

By: Henry B. Reiling, Catherine M. Conneely, Frank Bruno and Kevin Wall

Examines the case histories of high-profile individuals who failed to meet their tax obligations, the judicial sanctions carried out against them, and the repercussions on their professional and personal lives. View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Taxation; Courts and Trials; Personal Development and Career

Web

FERPA Information | HBS Online

behalf of Harvard Business School Online, Harvard Business School or the University; and members of Harvard's governing boards. Student Rights Under FERPA Under Harvard Business School Online policy and FERPA to the extent that it... View Details

August 1995 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Hutton Branch Manager (C)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Jane Palley Katz

Centers on the company's plea of guilty to 2,000 counts of mail and wire fraud in response to the U.S. government's challenge to its cash management practices. Describes the Justice Department's investigations as well as the findings and recommendations of former... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Management; Governance Controls; Crime and Corruption; Governance Compliance; Law Enforcement; Financial Services Industry; United States

01 Jun 2017
News

Supercharged

promise of better charging infrastructure, and evolving trends in foreign markets all indicate that EVs are approaching a global tipping point. But with political winds imperiling government incentives in the United States and China... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; illustrations by Tavis Coburn

01 Mar 2011
News

Faculty Books

how we act unethically without meaning to. They demonstrate how ethical standards shift, how we neglect to notice and act on the unethical behavior of others, and how compliance initiatives can actually promote unethical behavior.... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

December 1992 (Revised September 1995)
Exercise

Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: General Background Information

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Designed to teach students about the trade-offs faced by firms exploring alternative approaches to complying with pollution control regulations. The setting is the U.S. electric utility industry in 1993. In accordance with the provisions of the 1990 Clean Air Act,... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Pollutants; Laws and Statutes; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governance Compliance; Utilities Industry; United States