Publications

November 2014
Article

The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance

By: Robert G. Eccles, Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

We investigate the effect of corporate sustainability on organizational processes and performance. Using a matched sample of 180 U.S. companies, we find that corporations that voluntarily adopted sustainability policies by 1993—termed as High Sustainability... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainability Management; Sustainability Research; Sustainability Reporting; Sustainability Targets; Corporate Social Responsibility; Corporate Accountability; Reporting; Corporate Governance; Investor Clientele; Investor Communication; Stock Market; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Performance; United States

August 2020
Teaching Note

Sesame Workshop (B): Celebrating 50 Years of Helping Kids Grow Smarter, Stronger, and Kinder

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joyce J. Kim

Teaching Note for Case No. 321-015. In 2019, Sesame Workshop celebrated its 50th anniversary while on a winning streak of social impact, innovation, and peak media and financial results. Over the past four years, CEO Jeff Dunn and his turnaround team exhibited... View Details

Keywords: Social Impact; Innovation; Television; Children; Media; Television Entertainment; Education; Innovation and Invention; Change Management; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Education Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

Web

Driving Social Change | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

the students at have changed—they’re asking themselves more questions. I see more and more students at HBS who are interested in Social Enterprise. Julie Battilana Job Title Associate Professor, Harvard Business School Location Boston,... View Details

16 Jan 2018
News

Celebrating the Impact of Nonprofits

participants develop a network of support for their organizations, the reunion at the Social Enterprise Greenhouse in Providence included a social hour and a panel featuring the club’s four 2017 SPNM... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

11 Jan 2021
Working Paper Summaries

Accounting for Product Impact in the Airlines Industry

Keywords: by George Serafeim and Katie Trinh; Air Transportation; Transportation

06 Apr 2017
Blog Post

3 Lessons I Learned as a Social Enterprise Summer Fellow

I came to HBS with an interest in social impact but without any specific career convictions. Over the past year, the Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) has been especially... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

April 14, 2015
Article

The Type of Socially Responsible Investments That Make Firms More Profitable

By: George Serafeim

Keywords: Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility; Corporate Sustainability; Investing; Investment Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Profit; Investment; Environmental Sustainability

Read Now

14 Sep 2015
News

Helping Investors Have an Impact

getting people to cross-connect and cross-pollinate our ideas. It enables philanthropic funders, whether they are philanthropists giving money or they are institutional investors who want to actually deploy their assets via venture philanthropy or View Details

13 Aug 2021
Blog Post

Exploring Racial Justice with the Scaling Minority Businesses Course

Nimisha Ganesh is a Class of 2021 MBA graduate from Harvard Business School and the Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of GenUnity, a civic leadership startup. Prior to HBS, she worked at Goldman Sachs and Kitamba, a U.S.-based View Details

January 2025
Case

PayJoy: Financing for the Next Billion

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

PayJoy, an impact-driven financial technology company founded in 2015, provides smartphone financing and other financial products to customers who lack access to traditional credit products. As of early 2025, PayJoy had issued $2.5 billion in loans to 13 million... View Details

September 2011 (Revised February 2013)
Case

Trucost: Valuing Corporate Environmental Impacts

By: Michael W. Toffel and Stephanie van Sice

Trucost provided corporate environmental performance data and analysis to institutional investors and corporate managers, but after operating for a decade had yet to achieve profitability. Trucost was struggling to effectively differentiate its high quality products... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Distribution Channels; Investment; Measurement and Metrics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Information; Value; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Services Industry

August 2020
Background Note

US Private Equity Firms: ESG and Impact (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Holly Fetter

This Note has two parts. The first part (A) explores how U.S. private equity firms are incorporating ESG (Environmental, Social, & Governance) factors and impact objectives into their investment strategies and firm practices. It is based on publicly available... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Financial Services Industry; United States

April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Ariadne Labs: Building Impactful Partnerships

By: Ariel D. Stern and Sarah Mehta

In September 2018, the executive team at Ariadne Labs (Ariadne), a Boston-based organization dedicated to improving health systems through the discovery and implementation of simple tools, faced a number of strategic decisions. Chief among them, the seven-year-old... View Details

Keywords: Health; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Partners and Partnerships; Health Industry; Boston