Publications

2009
Chapter

Chinese Railroads, Local Society, and Foreign Presence: The Tianjin-Pukou Line in pre-1949 Shandong

By: Elisabeth Koll

This chapter explores issues of how Chinese railroads improved social mobility and standards of living along major trunk lines, and how foreign investment shaped the integration of the Chinese railroad network from the early 1900s to 1949. As this case study of the... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Business History; Industry Growth; Welfare or Wellbeing; Rail Transportation; Rail Industry; China

September 2010 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Better World Books

By: Michael I. Norton, Fiona Wilson, Jill Avery and Thomas J. Steenburgh

Better World Books, a young start-up, provides a socially conscious alternative to Amazon, collecting and selling used books to keep them out of the waste stream, while donating a portion of their profits to support global literacy efforts. The case presents an... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Online Technology; Retail Industry

June 2022 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Strategic Innovation at the United Nations: A Network of Ecosystems

By: Frank Nagle, Elizabeth J. Altman and Amy Klopfenstein

In 2021, Gina Lucarelli, leader of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Accelerator Labs, prepared for a meeting with UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. The two planned to discuss the future of the Accelerator Labs, a network of social innovation labs located... View Details

Keywords: Change; Disruption; Transformation; Change Management; Education; Learning; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Geography; Geographic Scope; Global Range; Local Range; Geopolitical Units; Country; Human Resources; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Information Technology; Information Management; Innovation and Invention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Dissemination; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Social Enterprise; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Psychology; Social and Collaborative Networks; Society; Social Issues; Welfare; Strategy; Cooperation; Adaptation; Public Administration Industry; North and Central America

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Take a Trim Tab Approach to Climate Change

attention, and thereby educate people to influence the tide of events. Prominent business leaders have a bully pulpit, if they want to take it, on the issue of climate change and environmental sustainability. Today's business leaders have... View Details

Keywords: by Amy C. Edmondson; Energy; Utilities

23 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It’s Effective

environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. The trend of mandatory sustainability reporting picked up steam as consumers, investors, and civil society in general increasingly demonstrated that they value the social... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Person Page

Creating Emerging Markets (Business History)

By: Tarun Khanna

Professor Tarun Khanna is faculty co-chair of the Creating Emerging Markets (CEM) Project. The project provides a unique research and teaching resource on business leadership in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East over recent decades.... View Details

18 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Beyond Heroic Entrepreneurs

experts in the field gathered last year at HBS to discuss such funding issues at a seminar hosted by the School's Social Enterprise Initiative. "If there's such a rise in the hybrid models, as more and more... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

2015
Chapter

Making the Business Case for Environmental Sustainability

By: Rebecca Henderson

Can a business case be made for acting sustainably? This is a difficult question to answer precisely, largely because there is no generally accepted definition of the term "sustainability." Is it acting sustainably to protect the human rights of the firm's workforce?... View Details

March 2005 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Procurement at Betapharm Corp. (A)

Presents a move by Betapharm to centralize procurement and e-sourcing and the many control and incentive issues that arose subsequently. View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Governance Controls; Supply Chain Management; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

20 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

When CEOs Become Activists

Business, Aaron Chatterji, call “CEO activism,” in which corporate executives speak out about social or environmental issues not obviously related to their core businesses. “What prompted this research is... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology; Publishing

2023
Working Paper

Words Can Hurt: How Political Communication Can Change the Pace of an Epidemic

By: Jessica Gagete-Miranda, Lucas Argentieri Mariani and Paula Rettl

While elite-cue effects on public opinion are well-documented, questions remain as to when and why voters use elite cues to inform their opinions and behaviors. Using experimental and observational data from Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic, we study how leader... View Details

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November 2009
Article

Fast or Fair? A Study of Response Times

This paper uses a modified dictator game to investigate the relationship between response times and social preferences. We find that faster subjects more often chose the option with the highest payoff for themselves. Moreover, our within-analysis reveals that, for a... View Details

Keywords: Relationships; Time Management; Social Issues; Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Profit

Find at Harvard

20 Aug 2019
News

Should a Pension Fund Try to Change the World?

The New CEO Activists

CEOs are increasingly taking a stand on divisive social issues that don't directly affect their companies' bottom lines—a dramatic departure from tradition. This Harvard Business Review... View Details

Article

(Mis)perceptions of Inequality

By: Oliver P. Hauser and Michael I. Norton

Inequality is arguably the defining societal issue of the 21st century. The debate over “who gets what’ underlies policy debates ranging from taxation to health care to wages and permeates society at all levels, attracting increasing interest from policymakers,... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Wealth and Poverty; Perception; Society; Policy

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