Publications

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

embedded in the product. When you look at a rug, for example, you can't tell whether bonded or child labor were used to create it. Most of these programs have been initiated by industry associations, standards bodies like ISO, or NGOs.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

July 2021
Case

Amazon HQ2

By: James K. Sebenius and Ben Cook

Amazon’s failed bid for a second headquarters location (“HQ2”) in Long Island City, New York offers many lessons for negotiators looking to avoid similar high-profile defeats in strategically important deals. The company’s project – which promised to bring billions of... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Negotiation; Public Opinion; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Problems and Challenges

31 Aug 2021
Book

Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate

power really works." In many ways, the book comes across as a sort of modern update of Machiavelli’s classic political treatise on power, but with plenty of non-Machiavellian twists. Instead of talking about how princes, plutocrats, and View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

10 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

High Commitment, High Performance Management

firms are able to avoid defensiveness and resulting blindness. HCHP firms institutionalize what I call Learning and Governance Systems, a means for having honest, collective, and public conversations with key people at lower levels about... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

February 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Coca-Cola on Facebook

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

In late 2008, executives at Coca-Cola had to decide what to do with a fan-created page on Facebook that had amassed over one million followers in three months. From a legal point of view the fan-created page was in violation of Facebook's terms of service as a... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Governance Controls; Policy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Social and Collaborative Networks; Food and Beverage Industry

January 2025 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Creating Value by Splitting Aster: Can One Minus One Equal Two?

By: V.G. Narayanan and Kairavi Dey

Aster DM Healthcare (Aster), founded by Dr. Azad Moopen in 1987, is a prominent healthcare conglomerate with operations spanning hospitals, clinics, retail pharmacies, and diagnostic centers across India and the GCC. After its 2018 listing on India’s National Stock... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Leadership; Change Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Restructuring; Negotiation; Valuation; Health Industry; Asia; India; Middle East; United Arab Emirates

August 2009 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Pandora: Royalties Kill the Web Radio Star? (A)

By: Robert C. Pozen and Alex Curtis Rosenfeld

Joe Kennedy, president and CEO of Pandora, one of the largest and most popular web (Internet) radio broadcasters, had just received bad news. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) had announced its decision to increase the royalties required to be paid by the web radio... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Copyright; Laws and Statutes; Rights; Internet and the Web; Media and Broadcasting Industry

20 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

Panama Canal: Troubled History, Astounding Turnaround

relationship that many scholars have claimed could greatly improve governance in many third world nations: the United States ran the currency, provided aid, posted an official inside the Panamanian government, and operated one of the... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Transportation

22 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 22, 2008

initial step, China Netcom's Chairman, Zhang Chunjiang, began a program that sought to further develop the company's corporate governance practices to meet international corporate View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2020
Working Paper

Mission-Oriented Research in a National Emergency: Lessons from the Office of Scientific Research and Development in World War II

By: Daniel P. Gross and Bhaven N. Sampat

Since the beginning of the present COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers, researchers, and journalists have made repeated comparisons to World War II. In ongoing research, we have been studying the effects of the World War II research effort, which included a major medical... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Problems and Challenges; War; History; Government Administration; United States

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

June 2013 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Ensina!

By: John J-H Kim, Alejandra Meraz Velasco and Christine An

In 2011, a group of passionate social entrepreneurs in Rio de Janeiro, with the support and encouragement of several prominent philanthropists and members of government, launch Ensina!, seizing Brazil's unprecedented economic growth and national commitment to... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Teaching; Business and Government Relations; Education Industry; Brazil

25 Jan 2021
Book

In a Nutshell, Why American Capitalism Succeeded

History Initiative and a lecturer at Harvard Business School. Sean Silverthorne: Tell me a little about the book. Walter Friedman: My assignment was to write a narrative history, stretching roughly from the arrival of European merchants... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing

2013
Comment

Fairness and Redistribution: Comment

By: Rafael Di Tella and Juan Dubra

In an influential paper, Alesina and Angeletos (2005)—henceforth, AA—argued that a preference for fairness could lead two identical societies to choose different economic systems. In particular, two equilibria might arise: one with low taxes and a belief that the... View Details

Keywords: Taxes; Beliefs; Economic Systems; Values and Beliefs; Fairness; Taxation

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March 2025
Article

Limited Accountability and Awareness of Corporate Emissions Target Outcomes

By: Xiaoyan Jiang, Shawn Kim and Shirley Lu

Firms are increasingly announcing targets to reduce their carbon emissions, but it is unclear whether firms are held accountable for these targets. Here we examine emissions targets that ended in 2020 to investigate the final target outcomes, the transparency of target... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Goals and Objectives; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Accountability; Environmental Sustainability; Public Opinion