Publications

October 1981
Case

Tony Santino (A)

A recent MBA without a stable work history in the private sector feels that he is being forced to compromise his personal convictions and professional integrity through a violation of the Robinson-Patman Act. This person is in his mid-thirties, married, and carries... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Personal Development and Career; Laws and Statutes

2012
Working Paper

How Short-Termism Invites Corruption—And What to Do About It

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Researchers and business leaders have long decried short-termism: the excessive focus of executives of publicly traded companies-along with fund managers and other investors-on short-term results. The central concern is that short-termism discourages long-term... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Public Ownership; Performance Expectations; Economy; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Trust; Financial Services Industry; United States

Read Now

25 Jan 2017
HBS Case

How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?

superior to those with darker skin colors, are marketers crossing a line? Cream makers say they are merely meeting a market need, but social activists argue that these companies have an ethical responsibility to avoid marketing products... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Beauty & Cosmetics

February 1994
Case

Kathryn McNeil (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

Charles Foley, vice president of the computer retailing firm Sayer MicroWorld, must decide whether or not to fire his employee, Kathryn McNeil, a 37-year-old product manager who has been unable to work as many hours as her colleagues due to her status as a single... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Employees; Work-Life Balance; Resignation and Termination; Mergers and Acquisitions; Retail Industry

July 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Call of Fiduciary Duty: Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard

By: Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli and James Barnett

In January 2022, Microsoft announces its acquisition of the video game company Activision Blizzard, in a deal valued at $68.7 billion, which would make Microsoft the world’s third largest video game company. The deal came as Activision Blizzard faced gender pay... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Goodwill Accounting; Analysis; Decision Making; Talent and Talent Management; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Ethics; Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Mergers and Acquisitions; Lawsuits and Litigation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Video Game Industry; North America; California

01 May 2019
What Do You Think?

What Should the Leadership of YouTube Do?

YouTube and creators’ sites. On the surface, YouTube’s business model appears to be the work of genius. But it has posed problems. One problem was lack of profitability. Wojcicki, who got to know Google’s founders when she leased her... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Entertainment & Recreation; Media & Broadcasting

January 2022
Case

Bee-ing Better at Bombas

By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Youngme Moon and John Masko

David Heath and Randy Goldberg founded Bombas in 2013 to serve two missions: to deliver the “best socks in the history of feet,” and to donate socks (the most requested item in homeless shelters) to Americans experiencing homelessness. Eight years later, Bombas had... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Distribution; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Quality; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Human Needs; Poverty; Growth and Development Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; New York (city, NY)

November 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Scott Tucker (A): Race to the Top

By: Aiyesha Dey and Amram Migdal

The case tells the story of the rise and fall of Scott Tucker, an entrepreneur, businessman, passionate race car driver, competitor, and owner of a professional racing team. From 1997 to 2012, Tucker built a nationwide network of payday lending businesses, becoming a... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Fairness; Financing and Loans; Personal Finance; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Governance Controls; Financial Services Industry; United States

13 Oct 2009
Research & Ideas

7 Lessons for Navigating the Storm

Authentic Leadership. "Everyone inside and outside the company is watching what they do. It is imperative that they stay focused on their True North as it sets a standard internally for principled business behavior and will make... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2018 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Edward Lewis: Essence Magazine

By: Steven Rogers and Jacqueline Adams

Essence, the first magazine aimed at African-American women, was created by four, young, Black entrepreneurs in the aftermath of massive racial and political upheaval in the United States in 1968. The venture was a financial, branding and cultural success. By 2005, the... View Details

12 Mar 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Firing the CEO

Editor's note: This is part of a series of occasional columns on managing the family business written by Senior Lecturer John A. Davis. In this article, Davis discusses when to make changes at the top. No one needs convincing that the... View Details

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

20 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

How Partisan Politics Play Out in American Boardrooms

result. The findings by Harvard Business School Associate Professor Elisabeth Kempf come at a time of heightened political discord and polarization among Americans. The research sheds new light on how the same dynamics are unfolding in... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

25 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

The Economic Cost of Physician Burnout

sign up for the job to stare at a screen. They are doing this to provide care for people,” says one of the study’s co-authors, Joel Goh, a visiting scholar in the Technology & Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School. “It... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

08 Feb 2021
Book

How to Make the World Better, Not Perfect

It’s a question people often ask Harvard Business School Professor Max Bazerman: Can you meet with my relative or friend who is applying to Harvard? Perhaps they ask with the hope that it might help them in the admissions process.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

14 Apr 2022
Op-Ed

Let’s Move Forward from COVID—Without Forgetting What We’ve Learned

innovation. Organizations consistently applied new metrics to measure performance but used activity and time logged into systems to proxy for the actual value. Forging a new, better workplace Businesses are only as good as their people,... View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and MaShon Wilson

03 Dec 2014
What Do You Think?

Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively?

Summing Up Can the Brilliance of the "Jerk" Be Tapped? The best business problem cases are those that divide a class into groups making two or more persuasive arguments. The questions of whether or not and how to make... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

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

October 1984 (Revised March 1999)
Case

NIKE (B)

Describes Nike's corporate culture and looks closely at individual key senior and middle managers, outlining the processes by which the management group conducts its business and noting the values which bind the management group together. The teaching objective is to... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Management Teams; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry