Government Initiatives - Publications - Faculty & Research

16 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

At the Center of Corporate Scandal Where Do We Go From Here?

appropriate. That's one pole of the continuum. At the other pole, you have people who really believe there's something extremely wrong with the barrel. Thus it's not just a matter of a few bad apples; what we really need is a wholesale revamping of the systems of View Details

Keywords: by Kim B. Clark

November 7, 2019
Article

WeWork’s Saga Is a Cautionary Tale about Golden Parachutes and CEO Pay

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

While the WeWork saga has dealt another blow to already-low public confidence in business, it should also strengthen cries for fundamental changes to a system that offers supersized compensation for undersized performance. View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Change; Compensation and Benefits; Corporate Accountability; Initial Public Offering

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24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Stop Thinking of Climate Change as a Religious or Political Issue

one time we didn't have markets for fish in the sea or trees in the woods: there were few of us and many of them, and it didn't matter which of us owned them. That's not true anymore, so we have markets for fish and timberland. The establishment of markets like these... View Details

Keywords: by Forest Reinhardt; Energy; Utilities

January 2010 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Greenbriar Growth Partners and Microsurgery Devices

Greenbriar Growth Partners (GGP), a venture capital (VC) firm, has been an investor in Microsurgery Devices (MSD) for four-plus years and has come into conflict with the company's founder. Should the Board's nominating committee re-nominate the VC investor, and should... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Governing and Advisory Boards; Conflict of Interests; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

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03 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Everyone Knows Innovation is Essential to Business Success—Except Board Directors

stifle innovation by worrying too much about short-term returns and thwarting management initiatives that require an outlay of investment. “Boards can encourage innovation, but they can kill innovation as well,” he says. If they are to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

24 Nov 2014
Research & Ideas

Corrupting Silence: Companies Must Speak Up Against Bribes

million bribe to secure the $1.3 billion contract to construct the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. The company billed the Quebec government for $191 million in cost overruns, for which it is unlikely to be reimbursed. In... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

03 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa

exception. What they have in common are good reasons for foreign businesses and Western governments to cheer the changes. In Bahrain, the Khalifa family, members of Islam's Sunni sect, rules over a majority Shia population. This kingdom... View Details

Keywords: Re: Deepak Malhotra; Energy; Utilities

06 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Renewable Energy: Winds at Our Back?

When American energy entrepreneur Jim Gordon envisioned the first offshore wind farm lining the horizon a few miles off the coast of the eastern United States, he perhaps did not factor in blowback from almost every angle. Gordon's nearly 10-year battle to gain... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

04 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Is Health Care Making You Better—or Dead?

to maintain just one product. Hospitals want to control the health care delivery system, and they've become oligopolists or monopolists in many markets, thus obviating price and quality competition, and they've become vertically integrated by hiring physicians and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health

25 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

To Pay or Not to Pay: Argentina and the International Debt Market

Back then, Argentina tried to fend off creditors by adopting a hard-line attitude about reducing its debt obligations. When it initiated a bond exchange offer in 2005 and told its creditors to "take it or leave it," the republic... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro

04 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Restructure Conglomerates in Emerging Markets

businesses and governments in emerging economies have all been pressing for a closer convergence of first- and third-world business models for the private sector. The details differ, but the advice boils down to the same thing in... View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu

09 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Does Misery Love Companies? How Social Performance Pays Off

the empirical quest to link a firm's social investments to its financial returns has preoccupied researchers. Our goal in this paper is to reorient debate and research about social initiatives by business. We try to stimulate a fresh... View Details

Keywords: by Joshua D. Margolis & James P. Walsh

16 May 2016
HBS Case

Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer

when more than 50 people in 11 states were sickened by an initial E. coli outbreak. “Do those smaller local organic growers have the experience, resources, and commitment to test their products for various food safety risks?” The chain... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

24 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

Tax Reform is on the Front Burner Again. Here’s Why You Should Care

helping the environment or encouraged to drill for carbon-based fuels? How do we fund government programs such as health care and entitlements? How big should government be? "...it would be constructive... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

21 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Debate Financial Reform Legislation

institutions that did not contribute to the recent crisis? Whatever the impact, regulators also have to be careful not to be "fighting the last war." Today, we face a new battle. The household and government sectors are... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

15 Nov 2016
First Look

November 15, 2016

modified to incorporate quasi-hyperbolic preferences. For reasons of political economy or aggregation of citizens’ preferences, government preferences are present biased, resulting in an over-accumulation of debt. Calibrating this... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 19

firms strategically respond to government signals regarding appropriate corporate activity. We integrate institutional theory and research on corporate political strategy to develop a political dependence model that explains (a) how... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Dec 1999
Research & Ideas

From Spare Change to Real Change: The Social Sector as a Beta Site for Business Innovation

healthy communities. Traditionally, businesses have supported the social sector in two different ways: they contribute their employees' time for volunteer activities, and they support community initiatives with money and gifts in kind.... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

12 Aug 2002
Op-Ed

Using Big Business to Fight Poverty

world's poor live in countries where governments lack either the will or the ability to raise living standards on their own. Financial assistance to such governments, therefore, has often not helped their neediest citizens. In fact, in... View Details

Keywords: by George C. Lodge