Publications

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May 2020 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Michael Ku and Global Clinical Supply at Pfizer Inc.: Bringing Hope to Patients (A)

By: Linda A. Hill, Allison J. Wigen and Emily Tedards

Michael Ku joined Pfizer in 2011, after the company had undergone three large-scale mergers and acquisitions. His mission was to drive the digital transformation of the company’s clinical supply chain, but he knew he had to start with the culture. Over the next eight... View Details

January 2019
Case

AIME High: A Social Entrepreneur's Moon Shot

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the entrepreneurial leadership of Jack Manning Bancroft (JMB), a young Indigenous Australian university student who created the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), a nonprofit organization he formed to respond to the problem of Indigenous high... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Mission; Organization Culture; Non-profit; NGO; Social Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Global Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Secondary Education; Organizational Culture; Education Industry; Service Industry; Australia; United States

21 Aug 2019
News

What to watch for now that CEOs have rewritten the purpose of the corporation

December 2, 2021
Article

Former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly: Empowering Workers to Create ‘Magic’

By: Hubert Joly and Adi Ignatius

Hubert Joly was behind an amazing turnaround at Best Buy. While everybody was saying he should lay people off to solve the company’s problems, Joly instead listened to the people working for him and found solutions that didn’t involve people losing their jobs.... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Meaningful Work; Employee Empowerment; Mission and Purpose; Employees; Organizational Culture; Leadership

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Research Summary

Monetary and Non-monetary Incentives

By: Susanna Gallani

In this line of research, Prof. Gallani explores the interplay between monetary and non-monetary incentives in organization. In particular, she explores the effectiveness of non-monetary motivation mechanisms, including mission statements and company values, feedback,... View Details

Keywords: Non-monetary Rewards; Rewards And Penalties; Feedback; Span Of Support; Social Pressure

March 2014 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Teach For China and the Chinese Nonprofit Sector

By: William C. Kirby and Erica M. Zendell

Teach For China was founded in 2008 with the mission of expanding educational opportunity across China. By 2013, Andrea Pasinetti's lofty dream had taken flight: over 300 graduates from top American and Chinese universities were participating in its 2-year teaching... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit; China; Business And Government Relations; Business And Poverty; Business And Society; Emerging Market Entrepreneurship; Emerging Market; NGO; Education; Entrepreneurship; Social Enterprise; Emerging Markets; Non-Governmental Organizations; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry; China

July–August 2021
Article

SPACs: What You Need to Know

By: Max Bazerman and Paresh Patel

Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, have been around in various forms for decades, but during the past two years they’ve taken off in the United States. In 2019, 59 were created, with $13 billion invested; in 2020, 247 were created, with $80 billion... View Details

Keywords: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies; SPACs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Going Public; Investment

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Editorial

How Laws and Culture Hold Back Socially Minded Companies

By: George Serafeim, Daniela Saltzman and Bronagh Ward

Keywords: Corporate Purpose; Benefit Corporation; Short-termism; Culture; Corporate Law; Shareholder Activism

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October 2017 (Revised October 2022)
Case

JetBlue: Relevant Sustainability Leadership

By: George Serafeim

In 2017, JetBlue, the airline founded on the mission to “bring humanity back to air travel,” was considering becoming one of the first companies to report its sustainability performance according to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards. SASB... View Details

04 May 2021
News

The Purpose of Business Isn’t Making Money – Hubert Joly Former CEO of Best Buy

January 2017
Supplement

Medtronic: Making the Big Leap Forward (B)

By: William W. George and Monica Baraldi

On December 1, 2014, Medtronic announced that it had completed a $17 billion bond sale to finance the Covidien acquisition, officially completed on January 26, 2015. Medtronic’s legal headquarters moved to Ireland, while its operational headquarters remained in... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Medtronic; Covidien; Mission; Tax Inversion; Business Strategy; Leadership; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Pharmaceutical Industry; Republic of Ireland; Europe; Minnesota; United States

01 Jul 2022
Video

Live from Klarman Hall - 6/17/2022 - From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

01 Sep 2023
News

Turning Point: Listen to the Music

Marnie Tattersall: (MBA 1972) (Illustration by Gisela Goppel) Marnie Tattersall: (MBA 1972) (Illustration by Gisela Goppel) I was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and came to the United States in 1958 with my parents and my brother because my parents thought it was... View Details

Keywords: music; film; purpose; career

June 2021
Technical Note

SPAC Space

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2020, over half of all initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United States were special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), blank-check companies that typically had two years to find a business to take public, usually through a reverse merger. Together, 248... View Details

Keywords: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies; SPACs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Going Public; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Strategy

First Quarter 2018
Article

Beyond Engagement

By: Roger Hallowell, Hervé Coyco and Randall White

Keywords: Engagement; Motivation; Purpose

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October 2014
Case

CreditEase: Providing Credit and Financial Services for China's Underclass

By: Lena G. Goldberg, Paul Healy and Nancy Hua Dai

In 2013 Ning Tang, who in 2006 founded CreditEase as a broker of P2P loans to unbanked individuals and small businesses in China, confronts the challenges of rapid growth and expansion in a changing regulatory environment. CreditEase needs to develop technology to... View Details

Keywords: P2P Lending; HNW Products And Services; Business Growth; Business Start-ups; Government Regulation; Change Management; Credit; Microcredit; Banking; Innovation And Management; Developing Countries And Economies; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Law; Financing and Loans; Change; China

1989
Chapter

Minguo shiqi Zhongwai jingji jishu hezuo: Meigo zhanshi shengchan quwentuan huan Hua, 1944-1946 [Sino-foreign Economic and Technical Cooporation in Republican China: The U.S. War Production Mission to China, 1944-46]

By: William C. Kirby

Keywords: History; International Finance; International Relations; Cooperation; Developing Countries and Economies; China; United States

20 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Fame, Faith, and Social Activism: Business Lessons from Bono

and shake hands with the Pope John Paul II if he's not a rock-and-roll roll star." A leader's mission is not static; it evolves. Bono continuously sets new goals around several related global challenges. For... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

January 2023 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Nick Saban: Embracing 'The Process' of Sustaining Success

By: Ranjay Gulati and Eppa Rixey

Nick Saban, head coach of the University of Alabama football team from 2007-2022, fielded teams that won 183 of 208 games (88%), including a record-tying six national championships. Saban’s approach to coaching, known to many as “The Process,” and the consistent... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Leadership And Managing People; Football; Recruiting; Talent Acquisition; Talent And Talent Management; Talent Development And Retention; Organization Change And Adaptation; Organizational Behavior; Sports; Leadership; Leadership Development; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sports Industry; United States