Publications

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Corporate accountability is never far from the front page and Harvard Business School trains many future business leaders. But how does HBS formally and informally ensure its members embrace proper business standards? Relying on his first-hand faculty... View Details

25 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

How Chapter 11 Saved the US Economy

accounted for $124 billion corporate assets filing for Chapter 11, including CIT Group, Six Flags, Lear Corp., and Charter Communications," Gilson writes.) In a prenegotiated Chapter 11, firms don't... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Financial Services

14 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

Creating a Global Business Code

The turn of the 21st century has been laden with high-profile corporate scandals, prompting widespread concern about the standards of conduct followed by big business. Intrigued by the complexity of managing View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

November 22, 2022
Article

Why Startups Should Embrace Radical Transparency

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang

After high-profile startup failures like FTX or Theranos, investors, employees, customers, and policymakers all ask what might have been done differently to ensure accountability and prevent mismanagement. But startup founders should join that list: It’s in their... View Details

Keywords: Start-up; Business Startups; Entrepreneurial Finance; Corporate Accountability

Register to Read

04 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 4

examine the link between corporations and community by showing how corporate density interacts with the local social and cultural infrastructure to affect the growth and decline of the number of local... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Feb 2021
Working Paper Summaries

Measuring Employment Impact: Applications and Cases

Keywords: by Katie Panella and George Serafeim

15 Aug 2014
News

Getting a handle on inversion

21 Nov 2006
First Look

First Look: November 21, 2006

Garry Twite Abstract U.S. corporations hold significant amounts of cash on their balance sheets, and these cash holdings have been justified in the existing empirical literature by transaction costs and precautionary motives. An... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Sep 2016
News

No More Excuses: Candidates Need to Address Tax Reform

November 2005 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Bally Total Fitness (A): The Rise, 1962–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

From a single, modest club in 1962, Bally Total Fitness had grown to become—in management’s words—the “largest and only nationwide commercial operator of fitness centers” in the United States in 2004. Bally had faced its share of challenges, but the last couple of... View Details

Keywords: Bally Total Fitness; Fitness; Gyms; Health Clubs; Chain; Securities And Exchange Commission; Paul Toback; Weight Loss; Exercise; Contracts; Personal Training; Retention; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Accrual Accounting; Finance; Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Revenue Recognition; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Trends; Cost Management; Profit; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Five Forces Framework; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

March 2011 (Revised October 2011)
Case

If We Ran the World

By: Hanna Halaburda, Radka Dohnalova and Aldo Sesia

Cindy Gallop launched IfWeRanTheWorld (IWRTW) in February 2010, as what the tech world called minimum viable product, in order to real-world test Gallop's "business of the future" concept while development was ongoing. IWRTW was conceived to bring together human good... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Outcome or Result; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Network Effects

01 Apr 2013
News

Corporate-Tax Reform Without Tears

March 2018
Module Note

Module Note for Instructors: Responsibilities to Society

By: Nien-hê Hsieh

This note outlines a framework to help managers discern and deliver on their responsibilities to society that has been taught in the “Responsibilities to Society” module in Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA), a semester-long, first-year required course for... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Leadership; Society

2012
Chapter

Social Entrepreneurs, Socialization Processes, and Social Change: The Case of Sekem

By: Tomislav Rimac, Johanna Mair and Julie Battilana

How can application of a positive lens to understanding social change and organizations enrich and elaborate theory and practice? This is the core question that inspired this book. It is a question that brought together a diverse and talented group of researchers... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Social Psychology; Social Issues; Organizations; Business and Community Relations

02 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 2

corporate directors' fiduciary duties in that state. This change limited incentives to take actions favoring equity over debt. We show that, as predicted, this increased the likelihood of equity issues, increased investment, and reduced... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

How Companies Can Increase Market Rewards for Sustainability Efforts

from the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board,” Serafeim says. Others are trying to derive an environmental profit and loss account, or social balance sheet. “The question is not only how do those View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

March 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Swvl: Smart Mobility for the Masses

By: Krishna Palepu, Esel Çekin and Menna Hassan

The case focuses on strategy and governance issues at Swvl, a tech-enabled mass mobility marketplace. It describes the journey of CEO and Chairman Mostafa Kandil on his journey from founding the company to its listing on Nasdaq. Since its founding in Egypt in 2017,... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Growth and Development Strategy; Initial Public Offering; Innovation and Invention; Business Startups; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry; Middle East; North Africa

February 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Theranos: The Unicorn That Wasn't

By: Joseph B. Fuller and John Masko

In 2003, 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes founded a startup dedicated to making blood testing easier and more affordable. By 2015, her company, Theranos, was worth $9 billion. It boasted a star-studded board and contracts with national pharmacy and supermarket chains... View Details

Keywords: Theranos; Blood; Lab Testing; Fraud; Holmes; Balwani; Shultz; Carreyrou; Securities And Exchange Commission; Food And Drug Administration; FDA; SEC; Health Testing and Trials; Corporate Accountability; Organizational Culture; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry