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- All HBS Web
(884)
- People (1)
- News (169)
- Research (559)
- Multimedia (7)
- Faculty Publications (317)
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- March 2023 (Revised November 2023)
- Module Note
The Social Purpose of the Firm
By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau
The Social Purpose of the Firm (SPF) is a short module designed to explore how, and under what circumstances, business leaders can harness the power of capitalism and markets to “make a difference in the world” – that is, to address a significant societal problem as a... View Details
Keywords: Social Accounting; Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Enterprise; Mission and Purpose; United States; Sweden; Kenya; Netherlands
Spar, Debora L., and Julia M. Comeau. "The Social Purpose of the Firm." Harvard Business School Module Note 323-051, March 2023. (Revised November 2023.)
- Article
The Messy but Essential Pursuit of Purpose
By: Ranjay Gulati
Most forward-thinking executives have embraced the notion that purpose-driven companies can solve social and environmental problems while also generating wealth, creating win-win outcomes that benefit everyone. But ideal solutions are rare. Many purpose-driven... View Details
Keywords: Purpose; Sustainability; Mission and Purpose; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Profit; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Decision Making
Gulati, Ranjay. "The Messy but Essential Pursuit of Purpose." Harvard Business Review 100, no. 2 (March–April 2022): 45–55.
- 2017
- Chapter
Corporate Moral Agency, Positive Duties, and Purpose
By: Nien-hê Hsieh
A long-standing question in business ethics is whether business enterprises are themselves moral agents with distinct moral responsibilities. To date, the debate about corporate moral agency has focused on responsibility for past wrongdoing that involves violating... View Details
Hsieh, Nien-hê. "Corporate Moral Agency, Positive Duties, and Purpose." In The Moral Responsibility of Firms, edited by Eric Orts and N. Craig Smith. Oxford University Press, 2017.
- Editorial
The Type of Purpose That Makes Companies More Profitable
By: George Serafeim and Claudine Gartenberg
Keywords: Corporate Purpose; Middle Management; Vision; Culture; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Profit
Serafeim, George, and Claudine Gartenberg. "The Type of Purpose That Makes Companies More Profitable." Harvard Business Review (website) (October 21, 2016).
- 2022
- Chapter
Corporate Purpose in a Post-COVID World
Salter, Malcolm S. "Corporate Purpose in a Post-COVID World." In A Political Economy of Justice, edited by Danielle Allen, Yochai Benkler, Leah Downey, Rebecca Henderson, and Joshua Simons. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022.
- Article
The Social Contract Model of Corporate Purpose and Responsibility
By: Nien-he Hsieh
Of the many developments in business ethics that Thomas Donaldson has helped pioneer, one is the application of social contract theory to address questions about the responsibilities of business actors. In Corporations and Morality, Donaldson develops one of the... View Details
Hsieh, Nien-he. "The Social Contract Model of Corporate Purpose and Responsibility." Business Ethics Quarterly 25, no. 4 (October 2015): 433–460. (DOI: 10.1017/beq.2016.1.)
- Article
Getting Clear on Corporate Culture: Conceptualisation, Measurement and Operationalisation
By: Nien-he Hsieh, Benjamin Lange, David Rodin and Mira L. A. Wolf-Bauwens
This article provides a review of existing literature on corporate culture, drawing on work from the disciplines of business ethics, management studies, psychology, anthropology, and economics, as well as interviews with business leaders. It surveys different... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Culture; Culture Change; Business Ethics; Corporate Purpose; Corporate Culture Significance; Culture Measurements; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Ethics; Mission and Purpose; Measurement and Metrics
Hsieh, Nien-he, Benjamin Lange, David Rodin, and Mira L. A. Wolf-Bauwens. "Getting Clear on Corporate Culture: Conceptualisation, Measurement and Operationalisation." Journal of the British Academy 6, no. s1 (2018): 155–184. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/006s1.155.)
- 2014
- Chapter
Corporate Social Responsibility and Multinational Corporations
By: Nien-he Hsieh and Florian Wettstein
A central question that arises from the perspective of global ethics is what standards ought to apply to the activities of multinational corporations (MNCs). This chapter surveys the contemporary theoretical literature on this question. The first section provides... View Details
Keywords: Multinational Corporation; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Standards
Hsieh, Nien-he, and Florian Wettstein. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Multinational Corporations." Chap. 19 in The Routledge Handbook of Global Ethics, edited by Darrel Moellendorf and Heather Widdows, 251–266. London: Routledge, 2014.
- August 20, 2019
- Other Article
An Encouraging Step to Reorient Corporate Purpose
By: Peter Tufano
Tufano, Peter. "An Encouraging Step to Reorient Corporate Purpose." LinkedIn Pulse (August 20, 2019).
- 2018
- Working Paper
Cheap Talk vs. Costly Signals: Corporate Purpose and Employee Sorting
By: Hyunjin Kim and Daniel A. Brown
- December 2011
- Case
PepsiCo India: Performance with Purpose
In 2010, PepsiCo India's management is working to translate PepsiCo's new mission, "Performance with Purpose," into practice in the India market. The mission calls for continued financial performance and market leadership, as well as greater emphasis on healthy... View Details
Kanter, Rosabeth M., Rakesh Khurana, Rajiv Lal, and Natalie Kindred. "PepsiCo India: Performance with Purpose." Harvard Business School Case 512-041, December 2011.
- 22 Dec 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
Dove: Maintaining a Brand with Purpose
- April 2021 (Revised December 2023)
- Case
The Mahindra Group: Leading with Purpose
By: Ranjay Gulati and Rachna Tahilyani
India headquartered Mahindra Group is a multibillion-dollar federation of companies operating across the globe. It is ahead of its time in articulating its purpose and mapping its values, something it had first done at inception and then refreshed yet again as ‘Rise’... View Details
Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Communication Strategy; Family Ownership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Revenue; Auto Industry; Financial Services Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; Asia; India; Mumbai; South Korea; Italy; United States
Gulati, Ranjay, and Rachna Tahilyani. "The Mahindra Group: Leading with Purpose." Harvard Business School Case 421-091, April 2021. (Revised December 2023.)
- 20 Sep 2022
- Cold Call Podcast
Larry Fink at BlackRock: Linking Purpose to Profit
- November 2017
- Editorial
Facebook, BlackRock, and the Case for Purpose-Driven Companies
By: George Serafeim
Purpose-driven companies have been shown to outperform their peers over the long term. But purpose-driven companies are also hard to come by. Why is that? Because purpose is costly. At the very least, it requires a credible commitment to that purpose. And credible... View Details
Keywords: Facebook; BlackRock; Purpose; Corporate Purpose; ESG; Short-termism; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Governance; Leadership
Serafeim, George. "Facebook, BlackRock, and the Case for Purpose-Driven Companies." Harvard Business Review (website) (January 16, 2018).
- 2013
- Working Paper
What Do We Know About Corporate Headquarters? A Review, Integration, and Research Agenda
By: Markus Menz, Sven Kunisch and David J. Collis
During the past five decades, scholars have studied the corporate headquarters (CHQ)—the multidivisional firm's central organizational unit. The purpose of this article is to review the diverse and fragmented literature on the CHQ and to identify the variables of... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Headquarters; Corporate Parent; Corporate Center; Multidivisional Firm; Multibusiness Firm; Multinational Corporation; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Strategy; Business Divisions; Business Headquarters
Menz, Markus, Sven Kunisch, and David J. Collis. "What Do We Know About Corporate Headquarters? A Review, Integration, and Research Agenda." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-016, August 2013.
- October 26, 2023
- Article
How to Connect Employees to Your Company’s Purpose
By: Hubert Joly
We know making a noble corporate purpose — that is, one aimed at doing something good in the world — come to life is both important and hard. Emerging practices from leading companies show that the journey is not about top-down messaging. If anything, it’s about... View Details
Joly, Hubert. "How to Connect Employees to Your Company’s Purpose." Harvard Business Review (website) (October 26, 2023).
- March 24, 2020
- Article
A Time to Lead with Purpose and Humanity
By: Hubert Joly
In these unprecedented times, corporate leaders are being put to the test. Many just last summer had signed the Business Roundtable Statement of Purpose that committed their companies to serving all stakeholders. The pandemic is the first test of these principles. The... View Details
Joly, Hubert. "A Time to Lead with Purpose and Humanity." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (March 24, 2020).
- 2015
- Article
The Nobel Prize: The Identity of a Corporate Heritage Brand
By: Mats Urde and Stephen A. Greyser
Purpose—The purpose of this study is to understand the identity of the Nobel Prize as a corporate heritage brand and its management challenges.
Design/methodology/approach—An in-depth case study analysed within a heritage brand model and a corporate... View Details
Design/methodology/approach—An in-depth case study analysed within a heritage brand model and a corporate... View Details
Keywords: Nobel Prize; Brand Stewardship; Corporate Brand Identity; Corporate Heritage Brand; Heritage Brand Identity Process; Networked Brand; Organizations; Brands and Branding
Urde, Mats, and Stephen A. Greyser. "The Nobel Prize: The Identity of a Corporate Heritage Brand." Journal of Product & Brand Management 24, no. 4 (2015): 318–332.
- April 2024
- Case
Michelin in Motion: Putting Purpose to Work
By: Hubert Joly, Nitin Nohria and Emilie Billaud
When he became CEO, facing limited growth prospects, a low valuation, and therefore a stagnating share price, Menegaux and his team launched a set of initiatives to reposition Michelin. These included (1) articulating a clear purpose (“We care about giving people a... View Details
Keywords: Transformation; Talent and Talent Management; Innovation Strategy; Leading Change; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Identity; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Value Creation; Mission and Purpose; Valuation; Manufacturing Industry; Rubber Industry; Transportation Industry; Europe; France
Joly, Hubert, Nitin Nohria, and Emilie Billaud. "Michelin in Motion: Putting Purpose to Work." Harvard Business School Case 324-127, April 2024.