Publications

06 May 2002
Research & Ideas

Profits for Nonprofits: Earning Your Own Way

session was devoted to the topic "Profits for Nonprofits: Challenges of Earning Your Own Way." (Starbuck's CEO Orin Smith addressed a related theme—can for-profit companies integrate non-profit values—in his keynote speech... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

11 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Shrinking the Racial Wealth Gap, One Mortgage at a Time

and approved, but when minority loan officers shepherd those applications, approval rates increase significantly, says Adi Sunderam, the Willard Prescott Smith Professor of Corporate Finance at Harvard Business School, in the working... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

01 Dec 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

How Many U.S. Jobs Are ‘Offshorable’?

determined that between 22 and 29 percent (25.2 to 31.8 million) of all U.S. jobs are potentially offshorable. Those cited included high-paying, high-skill jobs such as financial analyst and microbiologist. Rivkin and former research associate View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

June 2003 (Revised June 2003)
Background Note

M & A Legal Context: Basic Framework for Corporate Governance

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin, Constance E. Bagley and James Quinn

Students are introduced to the basic framework for corporate governance. Begins by describing the complex role of the modern corporation, then proceeds by discussing the fiduciary duties to which a board of trustees is bound (duty of care, duty of loyalty, etc.), and... View Details

Keywords: Framework; Corporate Governance

22 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How Business Strategy Tamed the “Invisible Hand”

outcomes. Instead, in most lines of business—with the exception of a few commodities in which international trade had developed—firms had an incentive to remain small and to employ as little fixed capital as possible. It was in this era that Adam View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

04 Apr 2005
What Do You Think?

Can an Organization’s “Deep Smarts” Be Preserved?

Summing Up This month's column appears to have struck a chord with those who lament the continuing loss of implicit knowledge buried inside the heads of experienced leaders (termed "deep smarts" by Dorothy Leonard and Walter... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

31 May 2017
What Do You Think?

Can Amazon Do What Walmart Couldn’t, Stop the 'Wheel of Retailing'?

In 1997, a young entrepreneur visited a class at Harvard Business School taught by my colleague, Len Schlesinger. The class discussed a case based on the visitor’s fledgling online retailing company that had rapidly expanded sales to $100... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The ABCs of Addressing Climate Change (From a Business Perspective)

It's Climate Week in New York City. The schedule features a UN Climate Summit, a People's Climate March, the Clinton Global Initiative, substantial criticism of the whole endeavor, and plenty of agitated interaction. There is a lot of noise here. How can businesses cut... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Energy; Utilities

03 Nov 2003
What Do You Think?

Can Investors Have Too Much Accounting Transparency?

it, "We cannot look at investor losses as the only benchmark to evaluate the costs of Sarbanes-Oxley. One must also consider the cost of capital if confidence in the markets does not return…Unfortunately, you cannot legislate morality..." This theme was... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

15 Sep 2003
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Cases: Developing the Courage to Act

catalog that professors would employ "an analogous method [to the 'case method' used at the Law School], emphasizing classroom discussion, supplemented by lectures and frequent reports, which may be called the problem method."... View Details

Keywords: by David A. Garvin

July 2020
Case

King's College Hospital in Crisis

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

On December 11, 2017, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (King’s), one of London’s leading teaching hospital groups, was put into “special measures” by NHS Improvement (NHSI), the financial regulator of England’s National Health Service (NHS). The future of... View Details

Keywords: Hospitals; Financing; Health Care and Treatment; Financial Condition; Crisis Management; Organizational Structure; Transformation; Strategic Planning; United Kingdom

10 Mar 2011
What Do You Think?

To What Degree Does the Job Make the Person?

new job. In other words, is there a self-selection bias in studies of the effects of job on a person's chemical makeup? As Stephanie Smith put it, "Perhaps it's a case of either the hormones and natural adaptability of the person... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

17 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Protecting against the Pirates of Bollywood

middle class, and the fact that India's film industry sold 3.2 billion tickets in 2009. “Movie piracy in India is rampant—you can get one online the day after a release” Harvard Business School Associate Professor Lakshmi Iyer, a native of New Delhi, was intrigued... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Motion Pictures & Video

14 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Difficulties for Women Bridging Racial, Generational, and Global Divides

to the participants: What gets in the way of women supporting women? How am I part of the problem? How can I be part of the solution? What perspective am I missing? Raced And Gendered The symposium's keynote speaker was Paula Giddings, E. A. Woodson 1922 Professor of... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

27 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

How Leaders Build Winning Streaks

official responsibility for Continental Airlines' decision to keep flying during the power blackout in August 2003, but that decision was foreordained by the actions of all the other people who claimed leadership on the ground, and knew... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

May 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Cotopaxi: Managing Growth for Good

By: Andy Wu and Laura Huang

Cotopaxi, an innovative outdoor gear business targeting millennials, focuses on profit and social impact. This registered benefit corporation was formed by Davis Smith who coalesced his experiences as a Wharton MBA student along with professional knowledge from an... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Social Venture; Benefit Corporation; B-Corp; Retail; Consumer Products; Apparel; Social Impact; Social Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Product Positioning; Social Enterprise; Mission and Purpose; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry