Publications

26 Jan 2004
Research & Ideas

What Developing-World Companies Teach Us About Innovation

enduring legacy. An inability to secure credit emerged as a primary obstacle to financing construction projects. The CEMEX team discovered that to raise capital for building, poor Mexicans would organize tandas, lotteries in which a group... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull, Alejandro Ruelas-Gossi & Martin Escobari

25 Aug 2022
News

Harnessing the Tools of the Digital Age

knowledge at the same time. We think there’s room for 15 or 20 large-scale labs exploring a range of issues, from how companies and regulators can use technology to address the climate crisis, to the ways in which View Details

Keywords: April White

20 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Misgovernance at the World Bank

give us some background on the board? A:The Board of Executive Directors answers to the Board of Governors, which is made up of the finance ministers of all the World Bank members. Obviously, having that larger body get into the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2015
News

A Boomtown's Echo

George is the finance director for the Post Carbon Institute, a California think tank dedicated to promoting sustainable energy that recently examined the Bakken in its report Drilling Deeper: A Reality Check on U.S. Government Forecasts... View Details

Keywords: Oil and Gas Extraction; Mining

11 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 11

would not participate in the $5 million bridge financing for Fast Ion Battery. Lerner's call could not have come at a worse time. Fast Ion was running out of cash and needed another round of financing... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Apr 2001
News

New Ventures New Gains

to the first contest. The climate was ripe in 1997. Enrollment in courses like Entrepreneurial Finance and Entrepreneurial Management was way up; the Internet revolution — with its low barriers to entry —... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna and Susan Young; Martin Dubilier (MBA 1952); Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

2020
Article

Research on Corporate Sustainability: Review and Directions for Future Research

By: Jody Grewal and George Serafeim

We review the literature on corporate sustainability and provide directions for future research. Our review focuses on three actions: measuring, managing and communicating corporate sustainability performance. Measurement is the least developed of the three and... View Details

17 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 17

catastrophic threats such as climate changes, natural disasters, technological hazards, and human malevolence. At the crossroads of decision sciences, behavioral and neuro-economics, psychology, management, insurance, and finance, their... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Dec 2018
News

Hard Choices

cofounder of the global investment firm GMO, recently observed in the context of governmental inaction on climate change, “We face a form of capitalism that has hardened its focus to short-term profit maximization with little or no... View Details

Keywords: Seth Klarman (MBA 1982)

23 Jun 2016
Op-Ed

Brexit: Should Britain Stay or Go?

The size and funding of the European Union budget as well as the role of the European Investment Bank and the European Stability Mechanism should be enhanced. The issuance of Eurobonds to finance infrastructure, human capital, and R&D... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey G. Jones & Dante Roscini

14 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Water, Electricity, and Transportation: Preparing for the Population Boom

By 2050, the Earth's population will likely exceed 9 billion people, up 30 percent from 6.9 billion today, according to projections from both the US Census Bureau and the United Nations. What's more, the population in the world's cities is expected to increase by 3... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

January 2020 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Governing PG&E

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

The five commissioners of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) listened intently at a public forum in April 2019 as PG&E Corporation’s out-going chairman Richard Kelly described the company’s proposed new board. PG&E, which provided electricity and natural... View Details

March 2025
Case

Hurtigruten: Sea Zero

By: Christian Kaps and Michael W. Toffel

Hurtigruten was deciding whether the next ship they built should be fully electric. But such a vessel's battery, the size of electric cars, needed to be charged on the ship's multi-day voyage along the Norwegian coast. Before making such a $250 million investment, the... View Details

Keywords: Energy Sources; Alternative Energy; Ship Transportation; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Innovation and Management; Green Technology; Investment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Shipping Industry; Tourism Industry; Transportation Industry; Travel Industry; Battery Industry; Norway; Europe

January 2024
Case

ECOALF: Fashion for the Future

By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Diego Aparicio, Carlota Moniz and María José Satrústegui

ECOALF, a Spanish fashion brand and sustainability pioneer, aimed to tackle the industry's challenges of excessive consumption and production. The brand's mission was to create timeless apparel exclusively from recycled and eco-responsible materials, matching the... View Details

October 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

JSW Steel: Balancing Growth While Decarbonizing

By: Vikram S Gandhi and Radhika Kak

Sajjan Jindal, Chairman & Managing Director of JSW Steel, India's largest steel producer by market capitalization, was facing a dilemma. Steel demand in India was expected to grow exponentially over the next decade. However, given its traditional reliance on carbon,... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Environmental Sustainability; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Growth and Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Pollutants; Pollution; Production; Steel Industry; India