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March 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Making Impact Investing Markets: IFC (A)

By: Shawn A. Cole, John Masko and T. Robert Zochowski

In 2017, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) faced the first big investment decision in its new Scaling Solar project. Founded in 1956, IFC was an international investment body with national governments as shareholders, whose mission was to promote economic... View Details

Research Summary

National Innovation Systems in the Life Sciences

This is an international comparative study of how institutional contexts shape the process by which science is leveraged into commercial technology. The study explores how variance in corporate governance systems, knowledge- and skill-formation systems, and... View Details

May 2016
Case

Revitalizing State Bank of India

By: Srikant M. Datar, N. M. Bhatta, Rishikesha T. Krishnan and Rachna Tahilyani

State Bank of India is India’s oldest and largest bank with the government of India as its majority shareholder. Arundhati Bhattacharya, a 35-year veteran of the bank, is appointed as its chairman in October 2013. Her appointment coincides with Moody’s downgrading the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Communication Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change And Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility And Impact; Human Resources; Employees; Compensation And Benefits; Recruiting; Capital Markets; Performance Expectations; Financial Services Industry; Asia; India

April 2025
Background Note

Climate Change Adaptation with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

By: Michael W. Toffel and Nabig Chaudhry

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have emerged as powerful tools to address climate change. This note summarizes a wide range of the uses of AI/ML to drive climate change adaptation and resilience, the measures organizations and governments are... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Adaptation

2025
Chapter

Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change

By: Ann-Kristin Bergquist and Geoffrey Jones

This chapter explores when and why private regulatory governance systems became the primary form of global environmental governance. The chapter explores two different historical paths in such private regulation and how they came about. The first path involved... View Details

Keywords: Institutional Entrepreneurship; Environment; Climate Change; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Environmental Regulation; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

11 Jan 2016
News

Is Group Loyalty a Force for Good or Evil?

04 Mar 2015
What Do You Think?

Can a Laissez-Faire Approach Fix Labor Market Inequality?

redress of the imbalance of returns to labor, capital, and consumers is needed in many parts of the world. What is the answer? Is it government action through such things as minimum wage legislation? Is it new legislation to enable labor... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

November 2007 (Revised September 2010)
Background Note

The Rong Family: A Chinese Business History

By: Elisabeth Koll

Provides the complex historical background to understanding the development of family businesses in China from the late 19th century to the present. Using the example of the Rong family, China's most prominent industrialist family in pre-1949 China, analyzes the... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Business History; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Alliances; Business and Government Relations; Social and Collaborative Networks; China

February 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Korea Venture Investment Corporation

By: Paul A. Gompers and Billy Chan

Financial service sector Korea Venture Investment Corporation (KVIC) is the venture capital arm of the Korean government with a founding mission to build a domestic startup ecosystem that would be as competitive as Silicon Valley. KVIC manages a basket of... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Society; Investment; Venture Capital; Mission and Purpose; State Ownership; Financial Services Industry; Asia; South Korea

JOSEPH L. BOWER, Donald K. David Professor Emeritus, has been a leader in general management at Harvard Business School for 51 years. He also served on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School during its first decade. He has served in many administrative roles... View Details

Keywords: banking; chemical; electronics; financial services; home appliances; hotels ＆ motels; information technology industry; insurance industry; private equity (LBO funds); retailing

14 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Andy Grove on the Confident Leader

to the interests of the company, and the whole organization works a lot better. So when you look at the use of stock options, and you look at companies that give 50 percent of their options to the top five officers, you get one picture.... View Details

Keywords: by Walter Kiechel; Technology

12 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 12

We explore which organizations are particularly likely to resist, or acquiesce to, new institutional pressures that arise from mandatory information disclosure regulations. We hypothesize that when information is disclosed about... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Germany’s Pioneering Corporate Managers

by such great managers as August Thyssen, Alfred Krupp, and Werner Siemens. Professor Jeffrey Fear's book Organizing Control: August Thyssen and the Construction of German Corporate Management overturns some of our preconceptions of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

April 13, 2021
Article

Misinformation about Science in the Public Sphere

By: Dietram A. Scheufele, Andrew J. Hoffman, Liz Neely and Czerne M. Reid

This is an introduction to a special issue on a colloquium of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine titled, “Advancing the science and practice of science communication: Misinformation about science in the public sphere.” This event was the... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Dissemination; Communication Strategy; Science; Information

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October 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Toyota Recalls (A): Hitting the Skids

By: John A. Quelch, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Ryan Johnson

In the fall of 2009, Toyota Motor Corporation, once revered for its commitment to quality and reliability, faced a highly publicized series of recalls in the United States representing approximately a year's worth of sales in one of its most important markets. While... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Crisis Management; Brands and Branding; Quality; Public Opinion; Auto Industry; Japan; United States

Research Summary

Overview

I am an ethnographer and field researcher studying how people experience and interpret their work and cultural contexts, as well as how this shapes inequality and organizational outcomes like normative control. I specialize in utilizing in-depth, inductive field... View Details

January 2022
Article

Why is Corporate Virtue in the Eye of The Beholder? The Case of ESG Ratings

By: Dane Christensen, George Serafeim and Anywhere Sikochi

Despite the rising use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, there is substantial disagreement across rating agencies regarding what rating to give to individual firms. As what drives this disagreement is unclear, we examine whether a firm’s ESG... View Details

Keywords: ESG Ratings; Rating Agency Disagreement; ESG Disclosure; Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Disclosure