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Article

How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?

By: Aaron K. Chatterji, David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel

Ratings of corporations' environmental activities and capabilities influence billions of dollars of "socially responsible" investments as well as some consumers, activists, and potential employees. In one of the first studies to assess these ratings, we examine how... View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Measurement and Metrics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Effectiveness; Natural Environment; Pollutants

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09 Jul 2019
News

The Road to Impact

made a leap of faith. If he could just find a management position at a nonprofit, he figured, he could help direct social change. “That was my thesis,” he recalls. Since he made that jump, he’s proved that thesis correct several times... View Details

Keywords: Lisa Scanlon Mogolov; Health, Social Assistance; Health, Social Assistance; Health, Social Assistance; Health, Social Assistance

October 2023 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Ӧzyeğin Social Investments: A Legacy of Giving

By: Christina R. Wing, Zeshan Gondal and Brittany L. Logan

This case explores the work of Özyeğin Social Investments, founded by Hüsnü Özyeğin, one of Turkey's most successful entrepreneurs. With a focus on education, health, gender equality, rural development, and disaster relief in Turkey, Özyeğin Social Investments and the... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Family Business; Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Enterprise; Turkey

February 2012 (Revised July 2012)
Background Note

The Promise of Impact Investing

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Sarah Appleby and Laura Moon

This note outlines the segments of a potential $500 billion social investment market; sectors such as housing, microfinance, health and education. The note sketches the roles of the various players and summarizes their investment perspectives. View Details

Keywords: Investment

Video

Chavan and Banerji-Social Impact

Dr. Rukmini Banerji, Chief Executive Officer of Pratham Education Foundation, relates how the organization has sought to implement simple educational tools and models for others to follow. View Details

February 2009 (Revised August 2012)
Background Note

Note on Socially Responsible Investing

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Ian McKown Cornell

This note describes Socially Responsible Investing, providing a brief history, description of different socially responsible investing approaches, and overview of selected players and institutions involved in the socially responsible investing field. It has been... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability

03 Jun 2021
Blog Post

HBS Pilots First Impact Investing Fund

Fund). Ambitions to Scale The team looks forward to incorporating learnings and improvements from the past year into its second iteration. They hope to raise a significantly larger fund to be disbursed over the next 7-10 years as well as... View Details

01 Mar 2012
News

Social Investing Pioneers

high-quality transactions to the United States to demonstrate the promise of this instrument,” Palandjian adds. “Social impact bonds have the potential to improve social outcomes at reduced taxpayer expense;... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Social Assistance; Social Assistance; Social Assistance; Social Assistance

16 Oct 2019
News

The Road to Impact

education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity for the citizens of 80 countries. Founded in 1958, EDC designs, implements, and evaluates programs that range from early childhood education to suicide prevention to distance learning. Offensend is focused on... View Details

October 2013 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Bridges Ventures

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Sarah Appleby

Bridges Ventures, a UK-based impact investor with double-digit returns on its investments, is reflecting on its social impact and pondering its future course. View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; United Kingdom; Financial And Social Return; Social Enterprise; Investment Portfolio; Transportation Industry; Retail Industry; Real Estate Industry; United Kingdom

Web

Our Team - Impact Investments

Our Team Our Team Principal Investigators Shawn Cole John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration Shawn Cole is a professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches and conducts research on financial services, View Details

Web

Field Course: Scaling Minority Businesses - Course Catalog

the opportunity to create and scale impactful business enterprises. However, Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) face economic, sociocultural, and institutional barriers across all phases of... View Details

March 2018 (Revised March 2018)
Teaching Note

OpenInvest

By: Boris Vallee and Caitlin Reimers Brumme

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolio to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapon manufacturers stocks or overweighting LGBTQ... View Details

Keywords: Socially Responsible Investing; Investing For Impact; Robo-advisors; Investment; Values and Beliefs; Customization and Personalization; Technology; Financial Services Industry

27 Oct 2015
News

The Role of Business in Collective Impact

27 Aug 2021
News

Vanguard Companies Tap Their Firm’s Collective Intelligence to Achieve Social Impact and Financial Success: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Article

Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Survey

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

This paper surveys recent empirical studies on the economic impacts of immigration. The survey first examines the magnitude of immigration as an economic phenomenon in various host countries. The second part deals with the assimilation of immigrant workers into... View Details

Keywords: Surveys; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Immigration; Economic Systems; Human Capital; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Fluctuation; Situation or Environment; Labor and Management Relations; United States; Europe