Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(6,467)
- Faculty Publications (1,485)
- 2021
- Working Paper
Accounting for Product Impact in the Water Utilities Industry
By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the water utilities industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates of water... View Details
Keywords: Product Innovation; Impact; Impact Investing; Impact Measurement; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Ratings; Social Corporate Responsibility; Corporate Social Responsibility; Social Impact; Water; Utilities; Product Design; Product Positioning; Society; Product; Environmental Sustainability; Measurement and Metrics; Framework; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Utilities Industry
- 2021
- Working Paper
Cognitive Biases: Mistakes or Missing Stakes?
By: Benjamin Enke, Uri Gneezy, Brian Hall, David Martin, Vadim Nelidov, Theo Offerman and Jeroen van de Ven
Despite decades of research on heuristics and biases, empirical evidence on the effect of large incentives—as present in relevant economic decisions—on cognitive biases is scant. This paper tests the effect of incentives on four widely documented biases: base rate... View Details
- March 2021 (Revised October 2021)
- Case
Aligning Mission and Margin at Southern Bancorp
By: Rebecca M. Henderson, Brian Trelstad and Eren Kuzucu
In October 2020, after spending almost a decade to turnaround Southern Bancorp, an Arkansan bank founded with the mission to provide financial services to rural, underserved communities, CEO Darrin Williams is wondering how Southern Bancorp should continue to grow.... View Details
- March 2021 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
Making Impact Investing Markets: IFC (A)
By: Shawn A. Cole, John Masko and T. Robert Zochowski
In 2017, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) faced the first big investment decision in its new Scaling Solar project. Founded in 1956, IFC was an international investment body with national governments as shareholders, whose mission was to promote economic... View Details
Keywords: Impact Investing; Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Equity; Bonds; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development; Emerging Markets; Non-Governmental Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry; Energy Industry; Zambia
- March 2021
- Supplement
Making Impact Investing Markets: IFC (B)
By: Shawn A. Cole, John Masko and T. Robert Zochowski
In 2018, Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya (known as Krungsri), was considering whether to participate in the first issue of a new financial instrument from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), known as a gender bond. Building on the success of the Green Bond program... View Details
Keywords: Impact Investment; Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Equity; Bonds; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development; Emerging Markets; Non-Governmental Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Instruments; Gender; Financial Services Industry; Thailand
- March 2021 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Blue Meridian Partners (A): Scaling for Impact
In 2018, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation in a bold move transferred all its assets to a fund pooled with other General Partners and Limited Partners, called Blue Meridian Partners, to focus substantial long range investments in a few carefully chosen nonprofits.The... View Details
- March 2021 (Revised May 2021)
- Supplement
Blue Meridian Partners (B): Pivoting in a Crisis
The (B) case situated in 2020 describes the many quick decisions taken by the fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the calls for social justice, and raises the question of whether and how these decisions are aligned with the long range strategy of the fund. View Details
- March 2021 (Revised December 2021)
- Case
Cedar Environmental: Innovation vs. Corruption in Lebanon?
By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Youssef Abdel Aal
The case follows Ziad Abi Chaker, founder and CEO of Cedar Environmental, as he weighs options for how to grow the company in the face of growing economic and political instability in Lebanon in 2019.
Founded after the Lebanese civil war, Cedar... View Details
Founded after the Lebanese civil war, Cedar... View Details
Keywords: Waste Management; Recycling; Corruption; Leadership & Corporate Accountability; Business And Government; Social Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Pollution; Entrepreneurship; Business and Government Relations; Crime and Corruption; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Expansion; Corporate Accountability; Green Technology Industry; Middle East; Lebanon
- March 2021
- Article
Bayesian Signatures of Confidence and Central Tendency in Perceptual Judgment
By: Yang Xiang, Thomas Graeber, Benjamin Enke and Samuel Gershman
This paper theoretically and empirically investigates the role of Bayesian noisy cognition in perceptual judgment, focusing on the central tendency effect: the well-known empirical regularity that perceptual judgments are biased towards the center of the... View Details
- March 2021
- Case
Dasra: From Strategic Philanthropy to Field Building
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tanya Bijlani
Dasra, a pioneer in the Indian Strategic Philanthropy space founded by a husband and wife team, had grown and evolved with the fast changing philanthropy scene in India. By 2017 it had managed to raise nearly $100 million of new capital for NGOs and Nonprofits in... View Details
- March 2021
- Article
The Crowd Emotion Amplification Effect
By: Amit Goldenberg, Erika Weisz, Timothy D. Sweeney, Mina Cikara and James Gross
How do people go about reading a room or taking the temperature of a crowd? When people catch a brief glimpse of an array of faces, they can only focus their attention on some of the faces. We propose that perceivers preferentially attend to faces exhibiting strong... View Details
- February 2021
- Case
Measuring Impact at JUST Capital
By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Ethan Rouen
JUST Capital is a nonprofit organization that seeks to make public companies more "just" by measuring and ranking their overall impact on society, based on the priorities most important to the average American. This case examines JUST's strategy for influencing... View Details
- February 2021
- Case
Apple: Privacy vs. Safety (A)
By: Henry McGee, Nien-hê Hsieh, Sarah McAra and Christian Godwin
In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook debuted the iPhone 6S with enhanced security measures that enflamed a debate on privacy and public safety around the world. The iPhone 6S, amid a heightened concern for privacy following the 2013 revelation of clandestine U.S. surveillance... View Details
Keywords: Iphone; Encryption; Data Privacy; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Globalized Firms and Management; Government and Politics; National Security; Law; Law Enforcement; Leadership; Markets; Safety; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Civil Society or Community; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Technology Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Electronics Industry; United States; China; Hong Kong
- February 2021 (Revised April 2024)
- Case
Shopify: The Conquest for Chinese E-Commerce
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Avani Patel, Samantha Lin and Ariel Yang
In mid-2020, Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify, faced a critical decision on how to time potential expansion into the China market. Over the prior 15 years, his Canadian software-as-a-service company had grown from a small e-commerce solutions provider to a full service... View Details
Keywords: Timing; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Service Operations; Business Model; Organizational Design; Change Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Health Pandemics; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Digital Platforms; Alliances; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Internet and the Web; E-commerce; United States; Canada; China
- February 2021
- Case
The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations
By: Mihir Desai, Ruth Page, Suzanne Antoniou and Leanne Fan
How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government... View Details
Keywords: Costs And Consequences; Decisions; Judgment And Decision-making; Lawsuit; Leading Change; Conflict Resolution; Perspective Taking; Prejudice; Bias; Reparations; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost vs Benefits; Judgments; Race; Ethics; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Conflict Management; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government and Politics; Government Legislation; History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Legal Liability; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Motivation and Incentives; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Oklahoma; Tulsa; United States
- February 2021
- Article
How Transparency into Internal and External Responsibility Initiatives Influences Consumer Choice
By: Ryan W. Buell and Basak Kalkanci
Amid growing calls for transparency and social and environmental responsibility, companies are employing different strategies to improve consumer perceptions of their brands. Some pursue internal initiatives that reduce their negative social or environmental impacts... View Details
- 2021
- Article
The Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative in Europe
By: Mark Roe, Holger Spamann, Jesse M. Fried and Charles C.Y. Wang
In July 2020, the European Commission published the “Study on directors’ duties and sustainable corporate governance” by EY. The Report purports to find evidence of debilitating short-termism in EU corporate governance and recommends many changes to support sustainable... View Details
- 2021
- Working Paper
Status and Mortality: Is There a Whitehall Effect in the United States?
By: Tom Nicholas
Do white collar workers with lower social status in the occupational hierarchy die younger? The influential Whitehall studies of British civil servants identified a strong inverse relationship between employment rank and mortality, but we do not know if this effect... View Details
- January 2021
- Case
Toyota and Its Labor Union in Argentina (A)
By: Jorge Tamayo, Erik Snowberg and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago
In 2011, Daniel Herrero, CEO of Toyota Argentina (TASA) since 2010, was about to meet with the Secretary-General of the union representing automotive industry workers in the country. The company produced vehicles in Argentina since 1997 at their plant at Zárate, and,... View Details
- January 2021 (Revised January 2022)
- Case
Dick's Sporting Goods: Getting Out Of The Gun Business (A)
By: George A. Riedel
Dick's Sporting Goods was one of the top five retailers of a range of firearms in the US. Over the last several years and specifically following the Parkland shooting of 2018, Ed Stack, the CEO and chairman, had wrestled with the question of their role as a leading... View Details