Publications

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February 2016
Article

A Structured Approach to Managing Stakeholders in Lean Six Sigma Projects: Role Call!

By: Vijaya Sunder and Shashank Shah

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May 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Case

Airbnb During the Pandemic: Stakeholder Capitalism Faces a Critical Test

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison Ciechanover

As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Digital Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Service Industry; United States

July 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Airbnb Emerges from the Pandemic: Lessons for Stakeholder Governance (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison M. Ciechanover

As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details

Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Two-Sided Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Service Industry; United States

2018
Dictionary Entry

Communicating about Climate Change with Corporate Leaders and Stakeholders

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Within the corporate sector, climate change represents an unfolding market shift, one that is driven by policy but also by pressures from a variety of market constituents such as consumers, suppliers, buyers, insurance companies, banks, and others. The shift takes... View Details

Keywords: Adaptation; Climate Change; Transition; Innovation Strategy; Markets

Web

Key Stakeholders - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Health Care Health Care Value-Based Health Care Health Care Courses Fast Facts Value-Based Health Care Value-Based Health Care Cases & Teaching Notes Key Concepts Key Stakeholders Publications Team Work With Us Presentations Key... View Details

03 Sep 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Supply Chain Screening Without Certification: The Critical Role of Stakeholder Pressure

Keywords: by Susan A. Kayser, John W. Maxwell & Michael W. Toffel

01 Oct 2020
What Do You Think?

Are CEOs the Wrong Leaders for Stakeholder Capitalism?

Interorganizational management in a channel of distribution is a complex matter. But it doesn’t hold a candle to the complexity of stakeholder capitalism, as suggested by responses to this month’s column on... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Uber and Stakeholders: Managing a New Way of Riding

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Daniel Fox

By 2015, technological innovations—the smartphone and the advanced data connectivity that enabled it—created new opportunities for people to move around cities quickly and conveniently without owning a car, via car-sharing services like Zipcar or new ride-sharing... View Details

Keywords: Uber; Ride-sharing; Sharing Economy; Transportation Network Company; Leadership And Change Management; Stakeholder Management; Managing Change; Leadership; Regulation; Smartphones; Web-enabled Application; Disruptive Technology; Startup Management; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Transportation; Mobile Technology; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry

June 2025
Article

Outcome and Process Frames: Strategic Renewal and Capability Reprioritization at the Federal Bureau of Investigation

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati and Jan Rivkin

[Research Summary]: Framing is critical for leaders who must build support for strategic renewal. While research has concentrated on renewal that replaces one set of capabilities with another, we explore a distinctive challenge: how leaders persuade stakeholders to... View Details

Keywords: Framing; Stakeholder Management; Capabilities; Transformation; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Resource Allocation; Government and Politics; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Public Administration Industry

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September–October 2020
Article

When It's Time to Pivot, What's Your Story?: How to Sell Stakeholders on a New Strategy

By: Rory McDonald and Robert Bremner

To succeed, a new company must rally investors, staff, customers, and the media around a good story. But often that narrative turns out to be wrong, and entrepreneurs realize they need to change direction. How that shift is communicated can have a huge impact on a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Strategy; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Communication Strategy; Business and Stakeholder Relations

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2015
Chapter

Leading Socially Responsible, Value-Creating Corporations

By: Daniel A Brown, Rakesh Khurana and James O'Toole

We explore the role of the corporate leader in creating value for stakeholders throughout three eras: one of naïve idealism, one of naïve cynicism, and an emerging era of rugged idealism. We explain how the role of the corporate leader and society's perceptions of this... View Details

Keywords: Stakeholder Management; Value; Shared Value; Institution; Business School; Stakeholder Engagement; Value Creation; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Alignment; Business Education; Business and Stakeholder Relations

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Article

181 Top CEOs Have Realized Companies Need a Purpose Beyond Profit

By: Claudine Gartenberg and George Serafeim

On August 19, 2019, the Business Roundtable (BR) issued a memo entitled “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.” The Business Roundtable, one of the most preeminent business lobbies in the United States, includes 192 CEOs of leading U.S. companies from Apple to... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Corporate Purpose; Stakeholder Management; CEO; Mission and Purpose; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Strategy

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Research Summary

Overview

In the light of multiple corporate debacles, financial crises and environmental disasters across the globe, the need for corporate goals to transition from simply maximizing shareholder wealth to optimizing stakeholder welfare is being echoed in various quarters. Dr.... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Responsibility; Stakeholder Management; Social Enterprise; Inclusive Growth; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; India

October 2021
Supplement

Engine No. 1: An Activist Hedge Fund Pursues Stakeholder Capitalism (B)

By: Mark Kramer

Engine Number 1's proxy fight succeeded in part because Exxon shareholders had lost money in the preceding years and because climate change was a high-profile issue. The B case raises the question of whether Engine No. 1's next target should be Facebook, where social... View Details

Keywords: Proxy Fight; Hedge Fund Activism; Social Impact; Business and Shareholder Relations; Climate Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Goals and Objectives

18 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

How New Managers Become Great Managers

Linda Hill's book for the star performer-turned-new-manager, Becoming a Manager: Mastery of a New Identity appeared a decade ago to much acclaim. Much of the original book is still fresh today. But a new edition, Becoming a Manager: How New View Details

Keywords: by Linda Hill

February 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Freeport Mine, Irian Jaya, Indonesia, The: "Tailings & Failings" - Stakeholder Analysis

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Arthur McCaffrey

Chronicles the development of Freeport's nearly 30 years of mining operations in Indonesia. Building on a mining concession awarded by the country's government, headed by General Suharto, in 1973, Freeport steadily built its mining output to nearly 200,000 cubic... View Details

Keywords: History; Situation or Environment; Private Sector; Economic Growth; Power and Influence; Business and Government Relations; Growth and Development Strategy; Mining Industry; Indonesia

October 2014 (Revised December 2018)
Background Note

Leading and Managing Change

By: Ryan Raffaelli

Managing change is consistently ranked as one of the most critical and difficult tasks that leaders face. This note outlines the key choices that leaders must make when engineering change. It is organized into four sections, offering guidance on how to 1) diagnose the... View Details

Keywords: Change Leadership; Leading Change; Change Management