Publications

October 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Wilderness Safaris: Impact Investing and Ecotourism Conservation in Africa

By: James E. Austin, Megan Epler Wood and Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard

In 2018 the majority ownership of publicly owned Wilderness Safaris, the leading high-end ecotourism company in Africa with safari operations in eight countries, was acquired by The Rise Fund, one of the world’s largest private social impact investing funds, and by FS... View Details

July 1996 (Revised December 2001)
Case

Becton Dickinson--Designing the New Strategic, Operational, and Financial Planning Process

By: Robert L. Simons, Antonio Davila and Afroze A Mohammed

Describes management's attempts to design and install a sophisticated planning and control system in an international company as it changes its strategy. Issues of strategy implementation, accountability, and performance measurement are at the core of the analysis, as... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Business or Company Management; Corporate Accountability; Governance Controls; System; Performance Evaluation

24 Jul 2018
Op-Ed

4 Ways Managers Can Exercise Their 'Agency' to Change the World

harness the power of business to address some of society’s most significant problems, not as a separate part of employees’ lives—businessperson by day, volunteer by night—but as an integrated whole, working in a profitable company that... View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

July 2022
Case

General Mills: Responding to the Killing of George Floyd (A)

By: Debora L. Spar and Alicia Dadlani

Jeff Harmening, CEO of General Mills, one of the world's largest manufacturers of breakfast cereals and packaged foods, was deeply disturbed and instantly aware that he and General Mills would need to respond. George Floyd, an African-American man who had been accused... View Details

Keywords: Race; Decisions; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Minneapolis; Minnesota; United States

01 Dec 1999
News

African-American Alumni Conference Considers Success and the Bottom Line

industrial North to create better lives for themselves, their families, and the community." Powell applauded the many African-American HBS graduates whose support for the... View Details

Keywords: Mary Ellen Gardner

Article

Turnkey or Tailored? Relational Pluralism, Institutional Complexity, and the Organizational Adoption of More or Less Customized Practices

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Mary Ann Glynn

We examine how the organizational adoption of new practices is influenced by relational pluralism, i.e., an organization's multiple ties to actors inside and outside its industry. We theorize that institutional mechanisms of practice diffusion underlying relational... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Processes; Adoption; Customization and Personalization

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2019
Working Paper

Voting Trusts and Antitrust: Rethinking the Role of Shareholder Rights and Private Litigation in Public Regulation, 1880s to 1930s

By: Naomi R. Lamoreaux and Laura Phillips Sawyer

Scholars have long recognized that the states’ authority to charter corporations bolstered their antitrust powers in ways that were not available to the federal government. But they have also argued that the growth of large-scale enterprises operating in national and... View Details

Keywords: Voting Trusts; Antitrust; Business and Shareholder Relations; Lawsuits and Litigation; History; United States

Read Now

June 2013 (Revised September 2016)
Supplement

Governance and Sustainability at Nike (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Nien-he Hsieh and Lara Adamsons

Two members of Nike's executive team must decide what sustainability targets to propose to Nike's CEO and to the corporate responsibility committee of Nike's board of directors. Set in 2012, the case traces the evolution of Nike's approach to environmental and social... View Details

Keywords: Nike; Hannah Jones; Mark Parker; Phil Knight; Philip Knight; Eric Sprunk; Jill Ker Conway; Phyllis Wise; Don Blair; Sustainable Business And Innovation; SB＆I; Flyknit; DyeCoo; Footwear; Athletic Footwear; Apparel; Athletic Apparel; Sustainability; Greenpeace; Detox Campaign; Dirty Laundry; Water; Water Use; Water Pollution; Water Resources; Corporate Responsibility Committee; Judgment; Board Of Directors; Board Committees; Environmental And Social Sustainability; Footwear Industry; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Ethics; Fairness; Globalized Firms and Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance; Alignment; Supply Chain; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Judgments; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Asia; China; United States; Oregon; Portland

24 Feb 2022
Blog Post

African American Student Union Spotlight on the Public Sector

leveraged your unique professional experience in the public sector at HBS? My unique professional experience in the public sector has enabled me to become a passionate voice for View Details

03 Feb 2011
What Do You Think?

Are We Going “Back to the Future” In Researching Management?

Citing corporate scandals of the past ten years, Andrew MacLennan said that " in the last 10 years there has been a growing recognition of View Details

Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett

Web

Photography and Print Advertising - The High Art of Photographic Advertising - Baker Library | Bloomberg Center

the vast array of manufactured goods. As Elspeth Brown notes in The Corporate Eye: Photography and the Rationalization of American Commercial... View Details

July 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Shell’s Balancing Act: Resource Allocation and the Green Transition (Abridged)

By: David Collis and Haisley Wert

In mid-2023, amid pressure from climate change activists, shareholder activists, and confronting enormous uncertainty about the future demand for and price of fossil fuels, new Shell CEO Wael Sawan (Harvard MBA 2003) announced a change in strategy for the U.K. oil... View Details

Keywords: Oil ＆ Gas; Renewables; Forecasting Demand; Strategy; Energy; Climate Change; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Investment Activism; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Energy Industry

January 2010
Article

Buy Local? The Geography of Successful Venture Capital Expansion

By: Henry Chen, Paul A. Gompers, Anna Kovner and Josh Lerner

We document geographic concentration by both venture capital firms and venture capital-financed companies in three metropolitan areas: San Francisco, Boston, and New York. We find that venture capital firms locate in regions with high success rates of venture... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Expansion; Success; Capital; Geographic Location; Business Units; Corporate Accountability; Business Offices; Goals and Objectives; Mission and Purpose; Investment Funds; Corporate Governance; Boston; New York (state, US); San Francisco

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01 Nov 1999
Lessons from the Classroom

What’s Next & So What? Leading in the 21st Century

industries that can be anybody, anywhere. While some observers have dismissed the phenomenon as exclusive to "a few crazy Internet companies in California," the reality is this: View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 Dec 1996
News

Organizations and Markets: A Challenging View of the World

psychology, and neuroscience are integrated and applied to problems in human resource management, labor economics, organizational behavior, finance, governance, and corporate control. Jensen taught the first... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

February 2010
Case

Foxwoods: Turning Data into Insights in the Hospitality Industry

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Deborah L. Soule

This case describes how an IT director identified an opportunity and implemented an innovative business solution designed to enable line managers and executives to convert data to information to insights. The case also details how the company partnered with an emerging... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Connecticut

Web

Buy Now, Pay Later: Credit, Information, and the Courts

Writers’ Guide (1918), p. 5. Dun & Bradstreet Corporation Records, Box 18, Folder 13. 15 James H. Madison, “The Evolution of Commercial Credit Reporting Agencies in Nineteenth-Century America,” The Business... View Details

01 Apr 2002
News

Urban Evolution - HBS Research on the Inner City

social-sector problems. The success of the conference led Kanter to develop a video series as well as an MBA elective seminar with the same title. One area where Kanter has... View Details

Keywords: Paul Grogan; Peter Tufano; David Crockett; Diana Barrett; Real Estate

May 2025
Case

'Net Zero in Action': Impact Investing at the McKnight Foundation

By: Lauren Cohen, Christina R. Wing and Sophia Pan

Elizabeth McGeveran, Vice President of Investments at the McKnight Foundation, reflected on how to effectively advance the organization’s net-zero strategy. The foundation had committed 10% of its endowment to building a portfolio of impact investments and was among... View Details