Public Goods - Publications - Faculty & Research

Research Summary

Profitable Souls: Foreign Investment and the Fate of Human Rights

This is a project about foreign investment, about what happens when big multinational firms invest in small, poor, and often nasty places. Typically, most observers assume that this is a largely negative relationship: that multinationals exploit the local population,... View Details

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2023 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

movement. Join alumni experts to discuss impact investing innovations across asset classes, hot button topics like the anti-ESG movement, and critical public policy intersections. Alumni will leave this session with a better understanding... View Details

16 Feb 2023
HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services

03 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

When Showing Know-How Backfires for Women Managers

Sometimes, trying to prove yourself in one task takes away time from doing other important tasks. “Women experience the fear that people are going to think they’re not good at, competent in, or capable in their roles.” Especially women... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Retail; Consumer Products

02 Mar 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is the Government’s Role in US Health Care?

the problem. He has put his finger on the two main obstacles to major change in the current system, insurance company opposition and higher taxes. He suggests that insurance companies, who have acted in good faith to respond to incentives... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

16 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Seven Tips for Managing Price Increases

sticker shock? 1. Understand Your Customers. There are at least four ways in which customers can respond to higher gas prices: downgrade from premium to regular; take fewer trips by car, consolidate errands, switch to public... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

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Business History - Faculty & Research

conducted with business leaders in 34 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Selected interviewees needed at least three decades of experience in business, and they must be assessed as highly impactful. The CEM project was conceived from the... View Details

29 Nov 2010
HBS Case

United Breaks Guitars

Tweets are in the air we breathe. Most of us know that "friend" can also be a verb. Social media are part of the public discourse now, whether or not we're active users of them. A new case coauthored by HBS marketing professor... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

01 Sep 2023
News

That Was Then, This Is Now

It started with a question. But before that, it started in the classroom. Tony Deifell (MBA 2002) loved the discussions in his LEAD course, taught by Professor (and now former Dean) Nitin Nohria; wanting to make them more tangible, Deifell adapted the idea of... View Details

Keywords: Photographed by Tony Deifell (MBA 2002); edited by Julia Hanna. Above: Heidi Brooks, photographed in 2003 and 2023.; life experience; family; leadership

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Finance - Faculty & Research

financial institutions, markets, and instruments contribute to this process. Our approach to research is distinguished by its unique combination of theory, empirical analysis, mathematical modeling, and field observations at companies. Recent View Details

29 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Is There a Method to Musk’s Madness on Twitter?

that Musk and his co-investors like Peter Thiel and others really wanted to build and protect a vision of Twitter as a public forum or a town square for free speech. Their preconception of free speech is politically and ideologically... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Technology

12 Sep 2023
What Do You Think?

Who Gets the Loudest Voice in DEI Decisions?

social, and governance issues at the heart of so-called “stakeholder capitalism.” Corporations that become too visible in support of stakeholder capitalism run the risk of losing public investors, such as pension funds in states in which... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

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Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

Industries (8) Goals and Objectives (18) Going Public (36) Goods and Commodities (7) Governance Compliance (4) Governance Controls (76) Governance (268) Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms (72)... View Details

31 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 31, 2018

Shankar MD, Suptendra N. Sarbadhikari PhD, Barbara Bierer, Kenneth D. Mandl MD, Sanjay Mehendale MD, MPH, and Tarun Khanna Abstract—In February 2018, the Government of India announced a massive public health insurance scheme extending... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

21 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

People Trust Business, But Expect CEOs to Drive Social Change

Public trust in business remains relatively unshaken amid economic turbulence and a lingering pandemic, even as faith in the media and government falters, but leaders could do more to address social issues, a new global opinion survey shows. However, not everyone... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

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Human Behavior & Decision-Making - Faculty & Research

The seeming randomness by which spontaneous thoughts arise might give people good reason to dismiss them as meaningless. We suggest that it is precisely the lack of control over and access to the processes by which they arise that leads... View Details

04 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Navigating Consumer Data Privacy in an AI World

be forgotten.” So, if someone asks a company to delete their records because they don't want to be part of any data analysis or algorithms, the company needs to act fast and get it done. Sticking to the usual way of doing things isn't a View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

17 Jan 2023
In Practice

8 Trends to Watch in 2023

As 2023 begins, businesses and employees face an uncertain economy and labor market, as the twin dilemmas of inflation and interest rates weigh on forecasts. Harvard Business School faculty share the top trends that they believe will shape the workplace and markets... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Is Government Just Stupid? How Bad Decisions Are Made

wealthier. The American government currently subsidizes timber and paper companies for chopping down national forests. A business that operated as the government does would quickly go out of business. The government provides welfare to the timber industry because the... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, Jonathan Baron & Katherine Shonk

09 Dec 2014
First Look

First Look: December 9

Publications December 2014 Academy of Management Journal Harnessing Productive Tensions in Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Work Integration Social Enterprises By: Battilana, Julie, Metin Sengul, Anne-claire Pache, and Jacob Model... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Publications