Publications

21 Dec 2009
Research & Ideas

Good Banks, Bad Banks, and Government’s Role as Fixer

agency to resolve the problem. So you get the best of both worlds. The Fed does what it's best at, macro risk monitoring. And the agencies with the deepest expertise in the relevant financial area would be... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Banking; Financial Services

15 Sep 2021
News

Impact Investing’s Next Challenge

April 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Background Note

An Economic Framework for Assessing Development Impact

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Frank J. Lysy and Carrie Ferman

Discusses the differences between private and social returns and describes an economic framework for assessing a project's social return [known as the economic rate of return (ERR)]. The framework begins by analyzing the impact of a new project on private financiers... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Microeconomics; Investment Return; Framework; Projects; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Valuation

Educators

September 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Teaching Note

Roche: Innovation and Access to Healthcare

By: George Serafeim

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-075. In May 2022, Roche Group, one of the largest healthcare companies in the world, hosted its first investor event focused exclusively on its efforts to impact access to healthcare. While Roche had recently set an ambitious goal to... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Access To Care; Healthcare; Healthcare Access; Innovation; Social Impact; Affordable; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Resource Allocation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Industry

Research Summary

The Role of IT in Firm Scope Choice: Diversification or Specialization?

The use of IT can have two, actually opposing, effects on product diversification depending on how technologies are used by the firm. On the one hand, some uses of IT can increase specialization because they allow customers to research and order products remotely,... View Details

April 2025
Article

The Impact of Minority Representation at Mortgage Lenders

By: W. Scott Frame, Ruidi Huang, Erica Jiang, Yeonjoon Lee, Will Liu, Erik J. Mayer and Adi Sunderam

We study links between the labor market for loan officers and access to mortgage credit. Using novel data matching the (near) universe of mortgage applications to loan officers, we find that minorities are significantly underrepresented among loan officers. Minority... View Details

Keywords: Household Finance; Demographic Economics; Financial Institutions; Diversity; Prejudice and Bias; Mortgages; Personal Finance

2007
Working Paper

Team Familiarity, Role Experience, and Performance: Evidence from Indian Software Services

By: Robert S. Huckman, Bradley R. Staats and David M. Upton

Much of the literature on team learning views experience as a unidimensional concept captured by the cumulative production volume of, or the number of projects completed by, a team. Implicit in this approach is the assumption that teams are stable in their membership... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Performance Improvement; Projects; Groups and Teams; Familiarity; Information Technology Industry; India

April 2010 (Revised September 2011)
Case

The Dannon Company: Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility (A)

By: Christopher Marquis, Pooja Mehta Shah, Amanda Elizabeth Tolleson and Bobbi Thomason

At the end of 2009, The Dannon Company was considering pro actively communicating its CSR efforts to consumers. With the strong connection between Dannon's production of health foods and its commitment to health and nutrition-based CSR activities, communicating these... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Nutrition; Marketing Communications; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Natural Environment; Food and Beverage Industry

Educators

2024
Working Paper

Bounded Solidarity: The Role of Migrants in Shaping Entrepreneurial Ventures

By: Astrid Marinoni and Prithwiraj Choudhury

We explore a previously unexamined aspect of migrants’ contributions to local entrepreneurial ecosystems: the value created by cooperative interactions between migrants and locals in entrepreneurial ventures. Specifically, we analyze whether mixed teams composed of... View Details

Keywords: Migration; Mobility; Entrepreneurship; Immigration; Demographics; Groups and Teams

SSRN

13 Mar 2013
News

Let's Be Realistic About Measuring Impact

summer 2008
Article

Corporate Social Responsibility Through an Economic Lens

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Robert N. Stavins and Richard H.K. Vietor

Business leaders, government officials, and academics are focusing considerable attention on the concept of "corporate social responsibility" (CSR), particularly in the realm of environmental protection. Beyond complete compliance with environmental regulations, do... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Shareholder Relations; Environmental Sustainability

Find at Harvard

2003
Chapter

Influencing Governmental Decision Making: The Role of Corporate Leadership

Keywords: Decision Making; Power and Influence; Government and Politics; Policy; Leadership; Business and Government Relations

15 Aug 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Competition and Social Identity in the Workplace: Evidence from a Chinese Textile Firm

Keywords: by Takao Kato & Pian Shu

2009
Working Paper

Firsthand Experience and the Subsequent Role of Reflected Knowledge in Cultivating Trust in Global Collaboration

By: Mark Mortensen and T. B. Neeley

While scholars contend that firsthand experience—time spent onsite observing the people, places, and norms of a distant locale—is crucial in globally distributed collaboration, how such experience actually affects interpersonal dynamics is poorly understood. Based on... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Experience and Expertise; Globalized Firms and Management; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Trust

March 2006 (Revised April 2008)
Module Note

Conceptualizing the Customer Operating Role

By: Frances X. Frei

The module introduces students to the concept and implications of a customer operating role. Building on the first year operations curriculum in which only employees' and machines' operating roles are considered, it provides the additional perspectives needed to bring... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Performance Efficiency; Perspective; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Service Operations

Article

Megastudies Improve the Impact of Applied Behavioural Science

By: Katherine L. Milkman, Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Pepi Pandiloski, Yeji Park, Aneesh Rai, Max Bazerman, John Beshears, Lauri Bonacorsi, Colin Camerer, Edward Chang, Gretchen Chapman, Robert Cialdini, Hengchen Dai, Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Ayelet Fishbach, James J. Gross, Samantha Horn, Alexa Hubbard, Steven J. Jones, Dean Karlan, Tim Kautz, Erika Kirgios, Joowon Klusowski, Ariella Kristal, Rahul Ladhania, Jens Ludwig, George Loewenstein, Barbara Mellers, Sendhil Mullainathan, Silvia Saccardo, Jann Spiess, Gaurav Suri, Joachim H. Talloen, Jamie Taxer, Yaacov Trope, Lyle Ungar, Kevin G. Volpp, Ashley V. Whillans, Jonathan Zinman and Angela L. Duckworth

Policy-makers are increasingly turning to behavioural science for insights about how to improve citizens’ decisions and outcomes. Typically, different scientists test different intervention ideas in different samples using different outcomes over different time... View Details

Keywords: Policy Making; Behavioral Science; Behavior; Change; Decision Making; Policy

Find at Harvard