Publications

April 2020 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism

By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski

In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied directly to one primary resource—in this case... View Details

Keywords: Place Making; Non-profit; Hotel; Economic Development; Tourism; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Economic Systems; Tourism Industry; Canada

10 Dec 2007
HBS Case

One Laptop per Child

anticipated to nudge governments from polite handshakes to cash commitments. One problem: the price. Although originally envisioned as the "$100 PC," OLPC has struggled to bring the price below $175. And now it faces competition... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Computer

01 Jan 2007
News

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, MBA 1987

successful. Ayala has shown strong growth over the past decade despite fluctuations in the Asian economy. Recent initiatives, such as a public-private partnership with the Philippine government to distribute water; a global portfolio of... View Details

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

13 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: September 13

capital flows—both debt and equity—into public and private components and study their relationship with productivity growth. This exercise reveals that international capital flows are mainly shaped by government decisions and sovereign to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Jan 2008
Working Paper Summaries

What Do Non-Governmental Organizations Do?

Keywords: by Eric D. Werker & Faisal Z. Ahmed

April 1990 (Revised November 1992)
Case

Population Services International: The Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh (Abridged)

By: James E. Austin

Population Services International (PSI) was a not-for-profit agency founded to disseminate family planning information and to market birth control products, primarily in less developed countries seeking to curb their population explosions. In 1976, PSI concluded an... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Developing Countries and Economies; Information Publishing; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Agreements and Arrangements; Product; Nonprofit Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Bangladesh; Washington (state, US)

06 Jul 2023
News

Home Economics

In a remote village in the Mexican state of Chiapas, 13 women gather in an open-air community space. Each has arrived at their weekly meeting with a small deposit for El Banco—“the bank”—as the women have named the savings club they’ve formed with the assistance of... View Details

Keywords: April White

March 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

ALDDN: Advancing Local Dairy Development in Nigeria

By: Meg Rithmire and Debora L. Spar

In 2020, Ndidi Nwuneli, founder and CEO of Sahel Consulting in Nigeria, faced a thorny set of problems. Her firm partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in a large project to develop the local dairy industry as a way to facilitate equitable growth and... View Details

Keywords: Animal-Based Agribusiness; Food; Rural Scope; Growth and Development; Nonprofit Organizations; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business and Government Relations; Equality and Inequality; Food and Beverage Industry; Consulting Industry; Nigeria

Web

HBS - The year in Review

Management Seth Neel Technology & Operations Management Charlotte L. Robertson Business, Government & the International Economy Marco Sammon Finance Lumumba B. Seegars Organizational Behavior Faculty Promotions Two faculty members were... View Details

01 Feb 2001
News

What Makes a Good Leader

in Nonprofit Management (Executive Education) Recent book: Evolve!: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow On change: "Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation." Regarding vision: "A vision is not just a picture of... View Details

Keywords: Management

Web

Impact Stories | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Filter Results: (52) Submit People Alumni Executive Education Faculty MBA Students Topics Business for Social Impact Impact Investing K-12 Education Nonprofit Strategy & Governance Public Sector Social... View Details

Web

Faculty - Creating Emerging Markets

distribution , corporate accountability , electronic commerce , moral leadership , nonprofit governance Interviews Dr. Elizabeth Mary Okelo Ritu Kumar Dr. Manu Chandaria Francis Okomo-Okello Nii Narku... View Details

September 2022
Case

HPP: Tapping the Netherlands’ Potential

By: Brian Trelstad and Idelès Kaandorp

Stichting Het Potentieel Pakken (HPP) was launched to solve a systemic problem in the Dutch Labor Market: gender inequity that was leading to a large number of women to work part-time in fields that were in desperately short supply of labor, like health care, child... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Grants; Scaling And Growth; Nonprofit Organizations; Opportunities; Gender; Income; Employment; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Mission and Purpose; Motivation and Incentives; Growth and Development Strategy; Employment Industry; Health Industry; Education Industry; Consulting Industry; Europe; Netherlands

August 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Novo Nordisk Foundation

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

In 2024, Novo Nordisk A/S was one of the most profitable firms in the world, thanks largely to just two GLP-1-based drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy. Unusually, this incredibly profitable firm was controlled not by individual private shareholders, but by a non-profit... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Diabetes; Obesity; Foundation; Non-profit Management; Profit; Corporate Governance; Business or Company Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Expansion; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Nonprofit Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Denmark; Europe