Publications

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02 Aug 2017
What Do You Think?

Summing Up: Why Can’t Organizations Engage Their Employees?

anything less than excellence; treat everyone with respect; provide training and role models; and reinforce the right behaviors and hold people accountable for the wrong behaviors. David Wittenberg offered advice on measurement: “It’s better to measure effects, such as... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Value Shift

Today, corporate accountability is as vital to the bottom line as an effective business model. Value Shift makes a strong case for the merits of corporate responsibility and shows how a value-positive orientation contributes to superior performance through... View Details

05 Jun 2020
Blog Post

Developing Black Talent for Leadership

For too long companies and governments in the U.S. have under-funded and under-resourced the anti-racist organizations leveling the playing field for the black communities we stand in solidarity with today. 100+ Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) like... View Details

12 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Using the Law to Strategic Advantage

Most managers think the legal department is that office down the hall where they go to keep out of trouble or write a binding patent agreement. And that's shortsighted, says Harvard Business School professor Constance Bagley. A company that makes proactive use of the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Legal Services

2007
Working Paper

Taxes and Portfolio Choice: Evidence from JGTRRA's Treatment of International Dividends

By: Mihir A. Desai and Dhammika Dharmapala

This paper investigates how taxes influence portfolio choices by exploring the response to the distinctive treatment of foreign dividends in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (JGTRRA). JGTRRA lowered the dividend tax rate to 15% for American equities... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Financial Markets; International Finance; Investment Portfolio; Government Legislation; Taxation; United States

15 May 2020
News

Five ESG Implications from COVID-19

08 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

The Death of the Global Manager

and its efforts to establish Humanitarian Assistance for Neglected Diseases (HAND), a corporate social responsibility program focused on treatments for diseases that typically affect too small a population... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

Stephen A. Greyser

Stephen A. Greyser is Richard P. Chapman Professor (Marketing/Communications) Emeritus, of the Harvard Business School, specializes in brand marketing, advertising, corporate communications, the business of sports, and nonprofit management. A... View Details

Keywords: sports

2013
Working Paper

Managers and Market Capitalism

By: Rebecca Henderson and Karthik Ramanna

In a capitalist system based on free markets, do managers have responsibilities to the system itself? If they do, should these responsibilities shape their behavior when they are engaging in the political process in an attempt to structure the institutions of... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Economic Systems; Managerial Roles; Government and Politics

Read Now

April 2005 (Revised November 2008)
Case

Banco Real: Banking on Sustainability

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

ABN AMRO REAL made corporate social responsibility central to its brand, adding to customer focus and reflecting its values. Leaders developed the Bank of Value theme and implemented it through activities such as microfinance in poor communities, environmentally... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage

October 1982 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Johnson & Johnson: The Tylenol Tragedy

By: Stephen A. Greyser

In October 1982, Johnson & Johnson was confronted with a major crisis when seven deaths were attributed to poisoned Tylenol. The case reviews the facts as known a week after the incident occurred, and raises a wide range of questions regarding consumer behavior,... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competitive Strategy; Crisis Management; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry

Benjamin Esty is the Roy and Elizabeth Simmons Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Over the years, he has taught a variety of courses ranging from advanced corporate finance and project finance to competitive strategy and leadership. He... View Details

Keywords: banking; asset management; investment banking industry; consumer products; shipping; wine; financial services

March 2001 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Ginzel et al v. Kolcraft Enterprises et al (A)

By: Michael A. Wheeler

Examines the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of an infant who died after a portable crib collapsed. The manufacturer, Kolcraft, licensed the Playskool brand name from the co-defendant, Hasbro Industries. Raises difficult questions about what the two... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Product; Negotiation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Lawsuits and Litigation; Legal Liability; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; United States

More and more companies recognize the importance of corporate responsibility to their long-term success—and yet the matter gets short shrift in most boardrooms, consistently ranking at the bottom of some two dozen possible priorities. Many years ago labor conditions... View Details

26 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

The Office of Strategy Management

surrounding the success that organizations have in executing strategy is low. Our article, "The Office of Strategy Management," using data from a Bain Consulting study, notes that seven out of eight companies in a global sample of 1,854 large View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

22 Mar 2018
News

Sustainability: A New Way of Doing Business

June 2014
Case

Starbucks Coffee Company: Transformation and Renewal

By: Nancy F. Koehn, Kelly McNamara, Nora N. Khan and Elizabeth Legris

Starbucks Coffee Company: Transformation and Renewal analyzes the turnaround and reconstruction of Starbucks Coffee Company from 2008 to 2014 as led by CEO and co-founder Howard Schultz. The case offers executives and students an opportunity to examine in depth how... View Details