Publications

Find at Harvard

28 Jun 2022
Book

The Moral Enterprise: How Two Companies Profit with Purpose

How can government and business work together in this fractious political moment, when finding solutions to pressing problems like inequality and climate change are more urgent than ever? Rebecca Henderson, Harvard University’s John and Natty McArthur University... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

10 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

How to Get Companies to Make Investments That Benefit Everyone

solutions in a new Stanford Social Innovation Review article, The Problem of Social Benefit. “We talk less about how we can encourage positive spillovers.” A virtuous cycle of View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

June 2017
Article

Conspicuous Consumption of Time: When Busyness and Lack of Leisure Time Become a Status Symbol

By: Silvia Bellezza, Neeru Paharia and Anat Keinan

While research on conspicuous consumption has typically analyzed how people spend money on products that signal status, we investigate conspicuous consumption in relation to time. We argue that a busy and overworked lifestyle, rather than a leisurely lifestyle, has... View Details

Keywords: Status and Position; Perspective; North America; Europe

Find at Harvard

Research Summary

Professor Wei-Skillern's research is focused in the field of Social Enterprise. Her research examines the creation of social value in both commercial and nonprofit organizations. In the former stream of research on corporate social responsibility, she has studied... View Details

Aug 2017
Conference Presentation

To Highlight or Downplay Differences? A Threat-Matching Model for Crafting Diversity Approaches

By: J. Lees and E. Apfelbaum

We integrate organizational and psychological scholarship to devise the threat matching model, a contingency theory that illustrates when, how, and which diversity approaches—frameworks leaders provide employees to understand and respond to diversity—promote... View Details

Keywords: Race And Ethnicity; Inclusion; Diversity; Gender; Race; Ethnicity; Equality and Inequality; Leadership

31 May 2018
News

Starbucks’ racial bias training has another goal

28 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 28

Authors:Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim Publication:Business Strategy Review (May 2011) Abstract We are exploring the value of forcing corporations to issue sustainability reports, which provide information about corporate performance... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Dutch Leonard

Herman B. ("Dutch") Leonard is Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and the George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Sector Management at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In... View Details

Keywords: education industry; federal government; health care; nonprofit industry; state government

23 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons on Life, Graffiti, and Value: 'It's in That Darkness That You Can Actually Develop and Evolve'

liberating, creatively and personally. “We had this charismatic appeal, this raw authenticity, but we didn’t have the cultural or social capital to access those worlds and people weren’t exactly excited about opening the doors for us, for... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

26 Apr 2022
Book

What Does Your Business Stand For? Why Building Trust Starts with Purpose

purpose” as a way to build trust and in so doing achieve both impressive economic results and positive social impact. The book demonstrates how purpose-driven business leaders find success by clearly articulating a purpose for the... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

May 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

SKS Microfinance

By: Shawn A. Cole and Theresa Chen

Vikram Akula, CEO of SKS Microfinance, seeks a venture capital investment to fund his firm. SKS, one of the largest and fastest growing microfinance institutions in India, is a profitable, for-profit institution with a social mission. In what is one of the first... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Venture Capital; Microfinance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Valuation; Financial Services Industry; India

February 2018 (Revised August 2019)
Case

The Rise Fund: TPG Bets Big on Impact

By: Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Sarah Mehta

It is March 2017, and TPG, a global alternative investment firm with $74 billion assets under management, has recently launched its inaugural impact-investing fund—the $2 billion Rise Fund. In an effort to “take the religion out of impact investing,” Maya Chorengel,... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Impact Measurement; Equity; Investment; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Services Industry; California; San Francisco

24 Jan 2011
HBS Case

Terror at the Taj

outstanding service are selected for inclusion in the Managing Directors Club and recognized across the organization. Such incentives aren't so unusual, of course. But interviews with senior management demonstrate how seriously the task of building a customer-centric... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Accommodations

20 Apr 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Why Every Company Needs a CSR Strategy and How to Build It

Keywords: by Kash Rangan, Lisa A. Chase & Sohel Karim

20 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com

Click HereIndependent bookstores provide a story of hope by focusing on core values that include community, curation, and convening. (Video by Amelia Kunhardt) When Amazon.com burst onto the nascent online retail scene in 1995, the future... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel (with video by Amelia Kunhardt); Retail

March 2001 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, The

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Stacy McManus

In just seven days, the Ritz-Carlton transforms newly hired employees into "Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen." The case details a new hotel launch, focusing on the unique blend of leadership, quality processes, and values of self-respect and dignity,... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Service Operations; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Quality; Status and Position; Culture; Value Creation; Accommodations Industry; Service Industry

September 2009 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Western Union: Our World, Our Family®

By: Christopher Marquis

In 2006, Western Union spun-off from its former parent, First Data Corporation, and began the process of defining itself as a stand-alone organization. Part of that effort was the creation of a strategic corporate social responsibility program called Our World, Our... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Programs; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Alignment; Value