Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(4,423)
- Faculty Publications (864)
- January 2025
- Case
A Tiger in the Tank: Exxon Sues Investors
By: Clayton S. Rose, Sarah Sasso and James Weber
In June 2024, investors were trying to make sense of ExxonMobil’s (Exxon) lawsuit against two impact investors, Arjuna Capital (Arjuna) and Follow This, that had just been dismissed by the U.S. District Court of Northern Texas. Exxon’s suit challenged the rights of two... View Details
Keywords: Disruption; Talent and Talent Management; Customer Satisfaction; Decision Making; Demographics; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Leadership; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Adaptation; Investment Activism; Lawsuits and Litigation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; Energy Industry; United States; Netherlands; Norway
- January 2025
- Case
Shifting Winds: DEI in Corporate America
By: Clayton S. Rose, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and David Lane
In the 2020s, intense and conflicting social and political pressures challenged organizational leaders around the world. Prominent among these were powerful competing views on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI) in the United States. Public... View Details
Keywords: Disruption; Leadership; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Talent and Talent Management; Customer Satisfaction; Diversity; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Employees; Retention; Recruitment; Adaptation; Programs; Consulting Industry; Auto Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Motorcycle Industry; Technology Industry; Education Industry; United States; Massachusetts; Maryland; Tennessee; District of Columbia
- December 2024
- Supplement
Northvolt: Building Batteries to Fight Climate Change (B)
The (B) case explores Northvolt’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on November 21, 2024, highlighting the company’s
struggles to scale operations amid a global EV market slowdown and internal production challenges. While the (A) case detailed
Northvolt’s ambitious... View Details
Keywords: Batteries; Electric Vehicles; Climate Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Energy; Green Technology; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Investment; Technological Innovation; Risk Management; Failure; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Transportation; Green Technology Industry; Europe; Sweden
- December 2024 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Balancing Returns and Responsibilities at Raya Partners
By: Arthur Segel, Ephraim Mernick, Derek C. M. van Bever and Olivia Barba
Raya Partners, a private equity firm, faces a crucial decision regarding Asa Specialty Coatings Company (ASCC). The dilemma involves shifting ASCC's manufacturing operations to Mexico, a move that would boost profitability and reduce emissions but result in significant... View Details
- November–December 2024
- Article
How Robust Is Your Climate Governance?
By: Lynn S. Paine and Suraj Srinivasan
During the past few years, as evidence of climate change and its effects has mounted, many corporate boards have added climate governance to their agendas. But the maturity of boards’ climate-oversight processes and activities varies widely.
To better... View Details
To better... View Details
- November 2024 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Balancing Impact: Modeling the Future at British International Investment
By: Shawn Cole and Jonah Zahnd
In 2022, British International Investment (BII), the £8.1 billion development finance arm of the British government, implemented a new impact measurement system called the Impact Score to align its financial and impact objectives systematically. The tool was designed... View Details
- 2024
- Working Paper
Catalysts for Climate Solutions: Corporate Responses to Venture Capital Financing of Climate-tech Startups
By: Shirley Lu, George Serafeim and Simon Xu
We study whether incumbent firms increase their product focus on climate solutions in response to venture capital (VC) financing of climate-tech startups. Using large language models to measure a firm's focus on climate solutions, we find that incumbents in similar... View Details
- October 2024
- Case
GLIN Impact Capital
By: Ethan Rouen and Akiko Saito
In 2024, the co-founders of the venture capital fund GLIN Impact Capital face a critical inflection point as they consider launching a second, significantly larger impact investment fund in Japan. Founded in 2021 by the three Harvard Business School alumni, GLIN is one... View Details
- Fall 2024
- Article
The Case for Climate Alliances
By: Matteo Gasparini, Knut Haanaes, Emily Tedards and Peter Tufano
Business leaders are under pressure to address the climate crisis, but they can’t do so alone. Climate alliances can help leaders and firms be more ambitious, responsible, and effective in driving the systems change necessary to save the planet. View Details
- September 26, 2024
- Article
A Better Way to Measure Social Impact
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Constance Spitzer
All impact investors report the financial returns from their funds and investments, and many provide metrics on intended social outcomes, such as numbers of individuals served, or quality jobs created. But investors do not supply metrics about their impacts on... View Details
- September 20, 2024
- Article
It’s Time to Unbundle ESG
By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel
ESG is at an inflection point. It has come to represent a broad and inchoate aspiration for what business should be doing beyond maximizing shareholder value. With ESG advocates on the defensive, business leaders need a new roadmap to determine which factors to... View Details
Keywords: ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Ratings; ESG Reporting; ESG Disclosure; Sustainability; Climate; Climate Finance; Climate Risk; Social Accounting; Investment; Governance; Safety; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Services Industry
- September 2024
- Supplement
Revenue Solutions, LLC (A)
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
Pre-Abstract: Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.
Abstract: Ari Wasserman and Nick esayian were both dissatisfied with their future prospects in their current careers. Wasserman,... View Details
Abstract: Ari Wasserman and Nick esayian were both dissatisfied with their future prospects in their current careers. Wasserman,... View Details
- September 2024
- Supplement
Revenue Solutions, LLC (B)
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
Pre-abstract: Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.
Abstract: This (B) case supplement is designed for use by faculty only to support classroom instruction in conjunction with... View Details
Abstract: This (B) case supplement is designed for use by faculty only to support classroom instruction in conjunction with... View Details
- September 2024
- Case
Topaz: Navigating Governance, Legacy, and Change
By: Christina R. Wing and Carla Larangeira
Since its founding in 2011, the Garza Sada brothers and their father positioned Topaz among leading family offices in Monterrey, Mexico, with several assets under management. Topaz aspired to have a transformative impact across multiple Mexican industries. An industry... View Details
Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Family Business; Governing and Advisory Boards; Managerial Roles; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Adoption; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Education Industry; Energy Industry; Latin America; Mexico
- September 2024
- Module Note
Governance for Non-Profit Social Enterprises
By: Brian Trelstad, Gerald Chertavian and Alexis Lefort
An overview of the various roles a non-profit board of directors plays, including the board’s principal responsibilities and how those evolve as organizations grow and scale. Looks closely at the overall role in setting the mission of the organization; supervising and... View Details
- August 2024 (Revised February 2025)
- Case
Novo Nordisk Foundation
By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau
In 2024, Novo Nordisk A/S was one of the most profitable firms in the world, thanks largely to just two GLP-1-based drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy. Unusually, this incredibly profitable firm was controlled not by individual private shareholders, but by a non-profit... View Details
Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Diabetes; Obesity; Foundation; Non-profit Management; Profit; Corporate Governance; Business or Company Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Expansion; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Nonprofit Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Denmark; Europe
- 2024
- Working Paper
The Wade Test: Generative AI and CEO Communication
By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Bart S. Vanneste and Amirhossein Zohrehvand
Can generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) transform the role of the CEO? This study investigates
whether Gen-AI can mimic a human CEO and whether employees display aversion to Gen-AI
communication. We present a framework of Gen-AI aversion that distinguishes... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
“In That Crucible, You Find Innovation”: Public Safety Transformation in Albuquerque
By: Hise O. Gibson and Antonio Manuel Oftelie
“In That Crucible, You Find Innovation”: Public Safety Transformation in Albuquerque" centers on Mayor Tim Keller’s leadership during the social justice protests in 2020 and his efforts to reinvent Albuquerque’s public safety model. Faced with both a federal consent... View Details
- July–August 2024
- Article
Disclosing Downstream Emissions
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna
An increasing number of companies are using the E-liability carbon-accounting method as an important tool for tracking progress toward reducing global emissions in their supply chains. The system does not require formal accounting for downstream emissions—those... View Details
- May 14, 2024
- Article
One Way to Help Employees Build Emergency Savings
By: Timothy Flacke and Peter Tufano
Intentional cooperation between two organizations — BlackRock, a major asset management firm, and national non-profit, Commonwealth — created the conditions for the nation’s largest payroll processor, multiple U.S. employers, retirement record keepers, and others to... View Details