Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(5,042)
- Faculty Publications (848)
- May 2020
- Article
Tackling Climate Change Requires Organizational Purpose
By: Rebecca Henderson and George Serafeim
Unchecked climate change presents a profound threat to economic growth and political stability but despite widespread public concern about the issue, global emissions of greenhouse gases have not declined. Indeed current “business as usual” predictions imply that... View Details
- Article
Believe in Vaccine Bets Like Bill Gates's
Commitment of public or private funds upfront speeds development, production, and distribution. View Details
- March 2020 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
CIAM: Home-Grown Shareholder Activism in France
By: Charles C.Y. Wang, Tonia Labruyere and Vincent Dessain
The case discusses the strategy of CIAM, a French activist investment firm, involved in a case of a buy-out of minority shareholders in the telecommunications sector. Altice NV, an international telecommunications company based in the Netherlands that owned more than... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Novel Risks
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard and Anette Mikes
All organizations practice some form of risk management to identify and assess routine risks in their operations, supply chains, strategy, and external environment. These risk management policies, however, fail in the presence of novelty. Novel risks arise from... View Details
- March 2020 (Revised May 2020)
- Case
Generation Investment Management
By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Sarah Mehta
By January 2020, sustainable investment firm Generation Investment Management (Generation), founded in London in 2004, had grown from a shared vision among seven founders to a 90-person firm managing $27 billion in public and private equity. Throughout its history,... View Details
Keywords: Sustainable Investing; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Finance; Equity; Governance; Private Equity; Public Equity; Financial Markets; Investment; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Institutional Investing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom; England; London
- March–April 2020
- Article
An Institutional Approach to Gender Diversity and Firm Performance
By: Letian Zhang
This study examines data from 35 countries and 24 industries to understand the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance. Previous studies report conflicting evidence: some find that gender-diverse firms experience more positive performance and others... View Details
- March 2020
- Article
Voluntary, Self-Regulatory, and Mandatory Disclosure of Oil and Gas Company Payments to Foreign Governments
By: Paul M. Healy and George Serafeim
Concerns about high rates of government corruption in resource-rich countries have led transparency advocates to urge oil and gas firms to disclose payments to host governments for natural resources. Transparency, they argue, can increase government accountability and... View Details
- February 2020
- Teaching Note
Essential Explorations at MUJI
By: Tomomichi Amano and Das Narayandas
Launched as a private brand in 1980 to counter the increasingly brand-conscious consumer in Japan, MUJI offered beautifully designed, fairly priced, no-frills quality goods. The once modest private label brand with 40 products had expanded significantly by 2019 to more... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
How Do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?
By: Juliane Begenau and Emil Siriwardane
We study how investment fees vary within private-capital funds. Net-of-fee return clustering suggests that most funds have two tiers of fees, and we decompose differences across tiers into both management and performance-based fees. Managers of venture capital funds... View Details
- January 2020 (Revised April 2020)
- Case
Fossil Fuel Divestment
By: Michael W. Toffel and Sarah Gulick
The president of Harvard University is facing growing pressure from students, alumni, and other climate change activists that are urging the university to divest its multi-billion dollar endowment from fossil fuel companies. The case summarizes the arguments for and... View Details
- January 2020
- Case
Terra Nova: A Social Business Trying to Unlock Land Rights for the Urban Poor in Brazil
By: Julie Battilana, Ruth Costas, Marissa Kimsey and Priscilla Zogbi
Brothers André and Daniel Albuquerque founded the company Terra Nova in 2001 to mediate land disputes between poor families illegally living in urban areas and the official landowners—with the aspiration to improve the lives of the poor. A business-led approach to the... View Details
- January 2020
- Case
SK Group: Social Progress Credits
By: George Serafeim, Ethan Rouen and David Freiberg
SK Group was one of the largest companies South Korea. A family-run conglomerate consisting of around 120 subsidiaries and employing more than 100,000, SK was tightly knit into the fabric of Korean society. SK viewed their future success as contingent upon the strength... View Details
Keywords: Impact; Impact Investing; Impact Measurement; Social Value; Social Development; Conglomerates; Measurement Of Purpose; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Capital Markets; Innovation; Environmental Impact; Collaboration; Social Enterprise; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Issues; Measurement and Metrics; Value Creation; Cooperation; Environmental Sustainability; Employment; Accounting; Energy Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Chemical Industry; South Korea
- January 2020
- Background Note
Climate Change in 2020: Implications for Business
By: Rebecca M. Henderson, Sophus A. Reinert and Mariana Oseguera
This note provides general information about climate change and its implications for business. Included is an overview of climate change science and a number of its impacts, including rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and extreme weather, pressure on water... View Details
Keywords: Climate Change; Environmental Accounting; Agribusiness; Economic Growth; Energy Conservation; Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Energy Sources; Non-Renewable Energy; Globalized Markets and Industries; National Security; Government Legislation; Operations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Natural Disasters; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Science-Based Business; Weather; Society; Technology
- December 2019 (Revised January 2021)
- Supplement
The Leveraged Buyout of TXU: (B) Energy Future Holdings
By: Trevor Fetter, Erik Snowberg and Rebecca M. Henderson
This case is designed to support a lively discussion about the relative merits of shareholder vs. stakeholder perspectives in the context of a company that provides a vital public service that has important environmental implications. The 2007 purchase of TXU, the... View Details
- December 2019
- Case
WeWork Files for an IPO
By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz
For the board of The We Company—better known as WeWork—August 14, 2019, promised to be a pivotal day. It was then that WeWork’s IPO prospectus, known as an S-1 filing, would be made public, giving potential investors, the media, and the general public a window into the... View Details
- December 2019 (Revised December 2022)
- Case
TXU (A): Powering the Largest Leveraged Buyout in History
By: Trevor Fetter, Erik Snowberg and Rebecca M. Henderson
This case is designed to support a lively discussion about the relative merits of shareholder vs. stakeholder perspectives in the context of a company that provides a vital public service that has important environmental implications. The 2007 purchase of TXU, the... View Details
Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Transformation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Environmental Sustainability; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Energy Generation; Non-Renewable Energy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; Texas
- Article
A Public Option Can Be a Triple Win for U.S. Healthcare
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Richard Boxer
The United States needs to control healthcare costs and quality while reaching universal coverage. The strongest choice is a public option that allows people to choose between Medicare and private payers. But a public option needs sustainable financing mechanisms that... View Details
- 2019
- Article
The Frequency of Corporate Misconduct: Public Enforcement versus Private Reality
By: Eugene F. Soltes
Perceptions about the frequency of misconduct—among the public, academics and even
regulators—have largely been formed by examining enforcement statistics, which rely on the detection and sanctioning of the misconduct. This study aims to illuminate the real occurrence... View Details
- Article
Toward a Corporate Culture of Health: Results of a National Survey
By: Michael Anne Kyle, Lumumba Seegars, John M. Benson, Robert J. Blendon, Robert S. Huckman and Sara J. Singer
Context: The private sector has a large potential role in advancing health and well-being, but attention to corporate practices around health tends to focus on a narrow range of issues and on large businesses. Systematically describing private sector engagement in... View Details
- November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the Third Place Ideal
By: Francesca Gino, Katherine B. Coffman and Jeff Huizinga
On April 12, 2018, two African American entrepreneurs had scheduled a business meeting at a Starbucks in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. They sat without ordering, waiting for a local businessman to show up for the meeting. The store manager called 911... View Details