Publications

23 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It’s Effective

sample of 42 others that didn't. The researchers focused on several measures that capture socially responsible management practices including the social responsibility of business leaders, sustainable development, employee training,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

April 2019 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Sears: The Demise of an American Icon

By: Kristin Mugford and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2019, ESL Investments’ $5.2 billion offer to purchase Sears Holdings out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, was accepted, despite opposition from the company's unsecured creditors and other parties. ESL, which was led by Eddie Lampert, had acquired a stake in Sears following... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Reorganization; Bonds; Restructuring; Business Divisions; Transformation; Fairness; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Motivation and Incentives; Retail Industry; United States

November 2013 (Revised August 2023)
Case

'These People are Fiduciaries...'

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Amy W. Schulman

The fiduciary duties of loyalty and care, the corporate opportunity doctrine and the business judgment rule are introduced in the context of three vignettes drawn from decided cases that explore: a classic test of loyalty when one partner elects to take advantage of an... View Details

Keywords: Fiduciaries; Fiduciary Duties; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Business Processes

October 2022
Case

Cost Plus Drugs

By: Alexander MacKay and James Barnett

In September 2022, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Company CEO Alex Oshmyansky considered the future of the company. Cost Plus Drugs was a retailer for more than 340 generic oral medications, selling their drugs at significantly lower prices than typical pharmacies.... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Health; Markets; Social Enterprise; Society; Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Business Divisions; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Texas

06 Nov 2008
Op-Ed

Selling Out The American Dream

Editor's Note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge. The current... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

16 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist?

activity. Q: What do you think Adam Smith's advice to business leaders would be concerning corporate ethics given what he writes about trust? A: This is a great question. Smith believed that there were... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

17 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

Resisting the Seductions of Success

York family and practiced estate law in New York City. In his spare time, he wrote scores of well-regarded novels and short stories about characters who inevitably reflected the men and women—successful lawyers, bankers, and business... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

27 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets

the rough-and-tumble of business everywhere, let alone in conditions of turbulence where corruption may be the norm and not the exception, it may seem almost counterintuitive to believe that maintaining the highest standards, including... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

02 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

George C. Lodge

In 1961, at the invitation of Dean Stanley F. Teele, George Lodge came to Harvard Business School to complete his first book, Spearheads of Democracy: Labor in the Developing Countries. He didn't have a master's or a Ph.D. and never... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

09 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 9, 2019

April 4, 2019 Palgrave Macmillan Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream: How Technology Is Transforming Lending and Shaping a New Era of Small Business Opportunity By: Mills, Karen G.... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

23 Jan 2007
First Look

First Look: January 23, 2007

ethical analysis of management decisions, policies, and plans of action. Purchase this note: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=307059 Infosys in India: Building a Software Giant in a Corrupt Environment... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2004 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Li Ka-Shing

By: Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler

From his humble beginnings in China as a teacher's son, a refugee, and later as a salesman, Li provides a lesson in integrity and adaptability. Through hard work, and a reputation for remaining true to his internal moral compass, he was able to build a business empire... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Success; Business Conglomerates; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; China

06 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Are You a Level-Six Leader?

morning after he finishes his prayers is to ask himself, "How can I help to make the world better today?" Imagine if our senior political and business leaders started their day by asking that question and acting on the answer.... View Details

Keywords: by Mitch Maidique

October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance

By: David Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook based on the idea that connecting people was a fundamentally good thing—and a way to turn a handsome profit. But from the beginning, Facebook received criticism both for how it handled user privacy and how it curated user-generated... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Governance; Privacy; Internet and the Web; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Business and Government Relations; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Web Services Industry

08 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

How Centuries of Restrictions on Women Shed Light on Today's Abortion Debate

education, or economic development, finds Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Anke Becker in a recent working paper called “On the Economic Origins of Restricting Women’s Promiscuity.” Her research investigates the origin of... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

June 2013
Teaching Note

A Politician in a Leather Suit and the Paradox of Japanese Capitalism

By: Karthik Ramanna

Two lost decades later, capitalism in Japan embodies peculiar contradictions—preserving wealth and social stability in the face of declining economic power. Scant transparency in Japanese corporate practices plays an important role in this phenomenon. Sometimes... View Details

Keywords: Japan; Tokyo; Economic Systems; Corporate Accountability; Values and Beliefs; Fairness; Crime and Corruption; Civil Society or Community; Corporate Governance; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Tokyo

December 2020
Case

Tokio Marine Group (A)

By: David J. Collis, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

Tokio Marine, Japan's leading insurance company, has spent nearly two decades building a global footprint in different insurance businesses around the world. As the company becomes majority non-domestic it has to make a choice of what organisation structure to adopt to... View Details

Keywords: Organisational Design; Culture; Values; Global Strategy; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Values and Beliefs; Insurance Industry; Japan

03 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 3

PublicationsThe Power of Small Wins Authors:Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer Publication:Harvard Business Review 89, no. 5 (May 2011) Abstract What is the best way to motivate employees to do creative work? Help them take a step... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 1993
Case

Analyst's Dilemma (A), The

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem

A young investment banker returns home one night to find that her roommate and best friend has been laid off from Universal Bank because Universal is shutting down its capital finance group. Her roommate makes her promise to keep this information confidential because... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Leveraged Buyouts; Conflict of Interests; Decision Choices and Conditions; Risk and Uncertainty