Publications

December 2012
Article

The Microwork Solution: A New Approach to Outsourcing Can Support Economic Development—and Add to Your Bottom Line

By: Francesca Gino and Bradely R. Staats

What's the best way to lift people out of poverty? The social entrepreneurs in the new "impact sourcing" industry believe the answer is providing work, not aid. Their organizations hire people at the bottom of the pyramid to perform digital tasks such as transcribing... View Details

Keywords: Outsourcing; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Nonprofit Organizations; Partners and Partnerships; Development Economics; Social Entrepreneurship; Welfare; Cooperation; San Francisco

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September 2003
Case

Nelson Mandela, Turnaround Leader

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Euvin Naidoo

Nelson Mandela was the first democratically elected president of South Africa. He had to shift the culture of a country after the end of the apartheid regime, which enforced separation of the races and stifled freedom of the press. He established more open dialogue,... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Government and Politics; Governance; Policy; Political Elections; Culture; Communication Intention and Meaning; Relationships; Leadership Style; Welfare; South Africa

July 2012
Case

Generation Investment Management

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Matthew Preble

Examines the investment process of Generation Investment Management, a "sustainable" investing firm established in 2004 by David Blood and U.S. Vice President Al Gore. Places students in the position of David Lowish, director of global industrials, who must decide... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Energy Generation; Investment; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Welfare; Financial Services Industry; India; United Kingdom

06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

discriminate, and that piracy may even result in higher profits to Microsoft! Finally, the paper investigates the societal welfare consequences of OSS availability by comparing different industry structures (monopoly and duopoly). We find... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

April 2007 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Aid, Debt Relief, and Trade: An Agenda for Fighting World Poverty (A)

By: Laura Alfaro, Eric D. Werker and Renee Kim

At the 2005 Group of Eight summit, world leaders agreed to relieve the world's poorest countries' debt burdens and double aid to Africa by 2010. The announcement raised questions whether debt relief would really help the poor. By examining past aid trends and policies... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; International Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Poverty; Welfare; Africa

03 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

How Companies Can Increase Market Rewards for Sustainability Efforts

flavijus For the first time, a link has been drawn between public sentiment about a company’s sustainability practices and how that company is valued in the market. The results are important both for investors searching for under-valued, socially responsible companies,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

22 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Social Capital Markets: Creating Value in the Nonprofit World

track how that cost structure changes due to the nonprofit's intervention. "If employees go off welfare and start earning wages and paying taxes, there's an inverse relationship. They end up contributing to society," he says.... View Details

Keywords: by Anne Kavanagh

02 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 2

welfare enhancing. In this case, the net cost of both contracting directly on an aggregate measure and exploiting career incentives based on disaggregated measures is smaller than the cost of contracting directly on disaggregate measures.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

11 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 11

identify the change to welfare when demand-enhancing effects are considered generally. Finally, we present some solutions to the challenge of identifying welfare effects, and we suggest guidelines for future... View Details

14 Jun 2016
First Look

June 14, 2016

parameter is calibrated to local interest rates. A quantitative exercise calibrated to Brazil finds welfare gains of the optimal fiscal policy to be economically substantial, and the optimal rule to not entail a countercyclical fiscal... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 17, 2007

addressed by recent studies. They argue that business groups are responses to different economic conditions and that, from a welfare standpoint, they can sometimes be "paragons" and, at other times, "parasites." The... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2008 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of St. Luke

By: Anthony Mayo and Shandi Onise Smith

As America struggled to regain its balance in the aftermath of the American Civil War, Maggie Lena Walker did her best to actively effect change by finding solutions to the social and economic problems facing blacks and especially black women. Taking charge of the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Ethnicity; Race; Social Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Welfare; Business and Community Relations; Gender; Banks and Banking

18 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 18, 2009

efficiency benefits of market transactions Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-091.pdf Leveraging Waste: Implications for Competition and Welfare (revised) Author:Deishin Lee Abstract We study the competitive and View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Aug 2016
What Do You Think?

How Can We Hold the “Leadership Industry” Accountable?

continue to thrive? What do you think? Original Column Jeffrey Pfeffer is tired of seeing billions spent on leadership programs that are taught with the usual small number of examples that extol the leadership virtues of “modesty, authenticity, truthfulness,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

July 2005 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Japan: Deficits, Demography, and Deflation

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

By 2005, Japan's debt had risen to 163% of GDP. For more than a decade, the government had run huge deficits, trying unsuccessfully to stimulate economic growth. Interest rates, meanwhile, had been zero for years. But with slow growth and banks in crisis, nothing had... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Economic Growth; Demographics; Financial Condition; Inflation and Deflation; Banks and Banking; Borrowing and Debt; Macroeconomics; Policy; Government and Politics; Welfare; Health Care and Treatment; Japan