Publications

The “veil of ignorance” is a moral reasoning device designed to promote impartial decision-making by denying decision-makers access to potentially biasing information about who will benefit most or least from the available options. Veil-of-ignorance reasoning was... View Details

Article

The Right and Wrong Way to Do ‘CEO Activism’

By: Aaron K Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

CEO activism—where leaders take public stands on controversial social and political issues that aren’t related to their company’s bottom line—has become increasingly common. CEO activism has attracted favorable media attention, but has also resulted in backlash and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Social Issues; Communication Strategy; Performance Effectiveness

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Profile

Tim Nicolette

and management skills in the service of nonprofits in the social sector. What influence did HBS have on your ambitions? I came to HBS for two reasons. First, in my nonprofit work, I noticed that effective organizations were led by... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit; Nonprofit / Government

September 2023
Technical Note

Note on Difficult Conversations in the Family Enterprise

By: Christina R. Wing

The best time to have a difficult conversation is, ideally, as soon as possible. Engaging in challenging conversations early can produce beneficial results for several reasons, such as resolving issues, improving communication, preserving relationships, and increasing... View Details

Keywords: Conversation; Family Business; Interpersonal Communication; Conflict and Resolution

Educators

15 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

A New Model for Business: The Museum

Groupon's success is borne of the careful way the company presents wares to its customers: providing a very limited amount of choices at a time, along with a brief, engaging description of each offering. To that end, Weaver is exploring... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

16 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Nonprofit Networking: The New Way to Grow

Whether their mission is to protect wildlife, help disabled people, or offer financial services in developing countries, nonprofit organizations often believe they need to grow big before they can achieve significant social impact. HBS... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

June 2007 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Thomas J. Watson, IBM and Nazi Germany

By: Geoffrey Jones, Grace Ballor and Adrian Brown

Considers the strategy of U.S.-owned IBM, then a manufacturer of punch cards, in Nazi Germany before 1937. Opens with IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson meeting Adolf Hitler in his capacity as President of the International Chamber of Commerce. IBM had acquired a German company... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Values and Beliefs; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Business and Government Relations; Germany; United States

Educators

30 Oct 2018
News

The Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Language of Dieting

Other Article

Sidestepping Some of the Partisan Debate: An Interview with Max Stier

By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

Whereas some organizational leaders are engaging in CEO activism by speaking out on social and political issues not directly related to their bottom line, some leaders want to avoid doing so. Some, in fact, hold neutrality as a core component of their strategy. But... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Government and Politics; Leadership; Communication Strategy

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2016
Teaching Note

Advanced Leadership Pathways: David Weinstein and Write the World

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Tessa Natanay Hamilton and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Teaching Note for Case 314-030. Following a successful career as a lawyer, Chief Administrative Officer of Fidelity Investments, and law school instructor, David Weinstein became a 2011 Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University. During his Advanced Leadership... View Details

Keywords: Writing; Online Platform; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Internet and the Web; Competency and Skills; Leadership; Change Management

01 Apr 2022
Blog Post

The Africa Business Conference at HBS: Reimagining the Road Ahead

Business School. This past weekend, the Africa Business Club had the immense privilege of hosting 1,000 participants at our annual Conference. Co-organizing the Conference in the capacity of CFO and Conference Lead was a huge labor of love, and I cannot overstate how... View Details

2021
Working Paper

CEO Activism, Consumer Polarization, and Firm Performance

By: Young Hou and Christopher W. Poliquin

CEOs are increasingly engaging in activism on controversial social and political issues that do not directly affect their businesses. Simultaneously, the general public is increasingly polarized. We examine how CEO support for gun control after two mass shootings... View Details

Keywords: CEO Activism; Guns; Polarization; Non-market Strategy; Social Issues; Leadership; Consumer Behavior; Performance

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25 Feb 2015
HBS Seminar

Beril Toktay, Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology

October 2024
Article

Racial Inequality in Organizations: A Systems Psychodynamic Perspective

By: Sanaz Mobasseri, William A. Kahn and Robin J. Ely

This paper uses systems psychodynamic concepts to develop theory about the persistence of racial inequality in U.S. organizations and to inform an approach for disrupting it. We treat White men as the dominant group and Black people as the archetypal subordinate group... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Race; Prejudice and Bias; Organizational Culture; Gender; Power and Influence; Employees; Attitudes

2022
Book

Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies

By: Ranjay Gulati

This book offers a compelling reassessment and defense of purpose as a management ethos, documenting the vast performance gains and social benefits that become possible when firms manage to get purpose right. Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Performance Effectiveness; Organizational Culture

16 May 2018
News

Spotify's 'Hateful Conduct' Policy Drags The Music Industry Into The #MeToo Moment

Research Summary

Overview

My research examines the processes, mechanisms and institutions that influence the effectiveness of organizational interactions between societal sectors (business, government and civil society). My work is motivated by the belief that more study of what makes... View Details

2022
Working Paper

ESG Performance and Voluntary ESG Disclosure: Mind the (Gender Pay) Gap

By: June Huang and Shirley Lu

We study if firms with better ESG performance are more likely to provide voluntary ESG disclosure, an assumption embedded in many ESG ratings. We focus on gender diversity and proxy for performance using a firm's gender pay gap ("GPG") disclosed under a UK disclosure... View Details

Keywords: Pay Gap; Gender; Wages; Equality and Inequality; Corporate Disclosure; Policy; Diversity