Publications

December 2016
Article

Selective Regulator Decoupling and Organizations' Strategic Responses

By: Jonas Heese, Ranjani Krishnan and Frank Moers

Organizations often respond to institutional pressures by symbolically adopting policies and procedures but decoupling them from actual practice. Literature has examined why organizations decouple from regulatory pressures. In this study, we argue that decoupling... View Details

Keywords: Regulator Leniency; Beneficence; Mispricing; Upcoding; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Care and Treatment; Revenue; Health Industry

SSRN

03 Oct 2007
Working Paper Summaries

The Causes and Consequences of Industry Self-Policing

Keywords: by Jodi L. Short & Michael W. Toffel

13 Oct 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Coerced Confessions: Self-Policing in the Shadow of the Regulator

Keywords: by Jodi L. Short & Michael W. Toffel

Article

Cash-for-Information Whistleblower Programs: Effects on Whistleblowing and Consequences for Whistleblowers

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and Gerardo Pérez Cavazos

Cash-for-information whistleblower programs have gained momentum as a regulatory tool to enforce corporate misconduct. Yet, little is known about how financial incentives affect whistleblowers’ decisions to report potential misconduct to authorities. Similarly, there... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Whistleblowers; Financial Incentives; Ethics; Governance Compliance; Lawsuits and Litigation

18 Aug 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring

Keywords: by Lamar Pierce & Michael W. Toffel

March 2021
Article

The Effectiveness of White-Collar Crime Enforcement: Evidence from the War on Terror

By: Trung Nguyen

This paper analyzes the impact of changes in regulatory priorities and resource allocation on criminal enforcement of white‐collar criminal activities. Using the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a shock to the FBI's priorities and allocation of investigative resources, as... View Details

Keywords: White-collar Crime; Government Regulation; Financial Fraud; Securities Fraud; Insider Trading; Crime and Corruption; Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Law Enforcement

Research Summary

Self-Regulation by Japanese Trade Associations

Ulrike Schaede has recently finished a book manuscript on Japanese trade associations. As a results of recent deregulation and the recession of the 1990s, Japanese industries are assuming increasingly important regulatory functions. They do this through autonomous... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Data Governance, Interoperability and Standardization: Organizational Adaptation to Privacy Regulation

By: Sam (Ruiqing) Cao and Marco Iansiti

The increasing availability of data can afford dynamic competitive advantages among data-intensive corporations, but governance bottlenecks hinder data-driven value creation and increase regulatory risks. We analyze the role of two technological features of data... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Information Technology; Performance Productivity; Growth and Development; Transformation

SSRN

12 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

Regulators Ease Up on Companies Generating Political Benefits

of the financial scandals that propelled the recent economic collapse, Heese looked at enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission, asking why regulators were so amiss at monitoring firms' compliance with accounting standards.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September 2010
Article

Making Self-Regulation More Than Merely Symbolic: The Critical Role of the Legal Environment

By: Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Using data from a sample of U.S. industrial facilities subject to the federal Clean Air Act from 1993 to 2003, this article theorizes and tests the conditions under which organizations' symbolic commitments to self-regulate are particularly likely to result in improved... View Details

Keywords: Adoption; Code Law; Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Organizations; Governance Compliance; Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; United States

September–October 2013
Article

The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring

By: Lamar Pierce and Michael W. Toffel

Governments and other organizations often outsource activities to achieve cost savings from market competition. Yet such benefits are often accompanied by poor quality resulting from moral hazard, which can be particularly onerous when outsourcing the monitoring and... View Details

2000
Chapter

Anticipating Greener Supply Chain Demands: One Singapore Company's Journey to ISO 14001

By: Michael W. Toffel

One major benefit of Jebsen & Jessen Packaging Pte Ltd (JJPS’s) implementation of ISO 14001 is that it acquired a third-party 'seal of approval' that will be used in its marketing efforts to meet the growing environmental concern of its customers within the electronics... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Standards; Environmental Sustainability; Singapore

04 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 4

organizational processes among corporations and nonprofits. Read the paper: http://www.people.hbs.edu/cmarquis/GolfingAlone_FINAL.pdf Regulatory Uncertainty and Corporate Response: How China's Environmental View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 May 2012
Research & Ideas

OSHA Inspections: Protecting Employees or Killing Jobs?

killing jobs at a time when the United States can ill afford to lose them. Few regulatory agencies have a more direct effect on businesses than the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency responsible for... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

16 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 16, 2008

requires that students consider sources of competitive advantage that arise from the companies' markedly different business models. Purchase this case: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/ b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=709409 International View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Where Could More Regulation Help Small Businesses? Online Lending.

players tend to offer. The problem is that lending to small businesses falls through the regulatory cracks, specifically on borrower protections. As a case in point, safeguards such as the Truth in Lending Act afford consumers... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills and Brayden McCarthy; Financial Services

08 Mar 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Customer-Driven Misconduct: How Competition Corrupts Business Practices

Keywords: by Victor Manuel Bennett, Lamar Pierce, Jason A. Snyder & Michael W. Toffel; Auto

09 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

Who Sways the USDA on GMO Approvals?

it's less clear how companies sway the regulatory agencies that enforce them, which are more isolated from the direct effects of money or persuasion. “If a company can get enough farmers to support the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Biotechnology; Agriculture & Agribusiness

2023
Article

Towards Bridging the Gaps between the Right to Explanation and the Right to Be Forgotten

By: Himabindu Lakkaraju, Satyapriya Krishna and Jiaqi Ma

The Right to Explanation and the Right to be Forgotten are two important principles outlined to regulate algorithmic decision making and data usage in real-world applications. While the right to explanation allows individuals to request an actionable explanation for an... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; AI and Machine Learning; Decision Making; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms