Publications

December 1998
Case

Australian Wheat Board Limited.: Becoming a Grower-owned Corporation

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

In July 1999, the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), a statutory national and international grain marketing organization, would become grower-owned. As a private corporation, the AWB would no longer receive government borrowing guarantees and would have to rely on its own... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Capital Structure; Globalized Markets and Industries; Monopoly; Employee Ownership; Competition

Educators

June 2016 (Revised December 2017)
Case

The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation

By: Rafael Di Tella and Christine Snively

Israel enjoyed the highest concentration of technology start-ups in the world per capita. Despite regional instability, the country maintained strong economic growth and was considered a high-tech powerhouse. But not all Israelis benefited. Between the 1980s and 2010s,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Business Conglomerates; Business Startups; Israel

Educators

spring 2007
Article

Corporate Legitimacy and Advertising: British Companies and the Rhetoric of Development in West Africa, 1950-1970

Around 1960, the first independent African nations emerged, marking the beginning of the momentous political event that, among other things, would change the visual representations and the copy of advertisements. Development, modernity, and industrialization became... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Developing Countries and Economies; Africa; Great Britain

Find at Harvard

2011
Working Paper

Leviathan as a Minority Shareholder: A Study of Equity Purchases by the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES), 1995-2003

By: Sergio G. Lazzarini and Aldo Musacchio

There is a growing literature comparing the performance of private vs. state-owned companies. Yet, there is little work examining the effects of having the government as a minority shareholder of private companies. We conduct such a study using data for 296 publicly... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Ownership Stake; State Ownership; Private Ownership; Performance Evaluation; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Banking Industry; Brazil

June 2016
Teaching Note

The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation

By: Rafael Di Tella and Christine Snively

Israel enjoyed the highest concentration of technology start-ups in the world per capita. Despite regional instability, the country maintained strong economic growth and was considered a high-tech powerhouse. But not all Israelis benefited. Between the 1980s and 2010s,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Business Conglomerates; Business Startups; Israel

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

Greed, Fear, and The System Hinder Corporate Reform

people were willing to be tempted. Basic fear. Barry R. Goldsmith, executive vice president of enforcement for the National Association of Securities Dealers, who has worked in enforcement for eighteen years, suggested that enforcement by... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

16 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

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

Harvard Business School Dean Kim B. Clark made these remarks to the National Press Club on February 26.What I'd like to do is talk about a topic that I think touches the very heart of our society: the issue of View Details

Keywords: by Kim B. Clark

24 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Link Between Language and Corporate Responsibility

company's native language can affect its policies.Photo: iStockPhoto "It seemed to me to be an amazing finding if it were true," Marquis says. "We asked, what are some other tests that could be done in a business context?" The research team had the perfect testing... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

2011
Article

Regulatory Uncertainty and Corporate Responses to Environmental Protection in China

By: Christopher Marquis, Jianjun Zhang and Yanhua Zhou

We develop a framework to analyze the closing gap between regulation and enforcement of environmental protection in China and present a number of resulting implications for doing business there. We identify three major dimensions that characterize change in regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Framework; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Law Enforcement; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Business Ventures; Alignment; Risk and Uncertainty; Natural Environment; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Competitive Strategy; China

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Article

Governments as Owners: State-Owned Multinational Companies

By: Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra, Andrew Inkpen, Aldo Musacchio and Kannan Ramaswamy

The globalization of state-owned multinational companies (SOMNCs) has become an important phenomenon in international business (IB), yet it has received scant attention in the literature. We explain how the analysis of SOMNCs can help advance the literature by... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Corporation; State-owned Enterprises; State Capitalism; FDI; Internationalization; Government And Business; National Oil Companies; State Ownership; Multinational Firms and Management; Business Subsidiaries; Acquisition; Pharmaceutical Industry; Energy Industry; China; India; Europe

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05 Jun 2013
Op-Ed

Corporate Leaders Need to Step Up on Climate Change

Green initiatives are ubiquitous these days, implemented with zeal at companies like Dupont, IBM, Walmart, and Walt Disney. The programs being rolled out—lighting retrofits, zero-waste factories, and carpool incentives—save money and provide a green glow. Most large... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Toffel & Auden Schendler

2012
Other Unpublished Work

Environmental corporate strategy and advancements in enhanced oil recovery technology among U.S. firms

By: Shon R. Hiatt

This study seeks to address how collective actors can affect technology development and adoption among organizations by creating regulatory uncertainty. Empirically, this paper focuses on the influence of environmental organizations concerned about climate change on... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Technology Adoption; Natural Environment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Strategy; United States

December 2017 (Revised January 2019)
Case

In the Eye of a Geopolitical Storm: South Korea's Lotte Group, China and the U.S. THAAD Missile Defense System (A)

By: Andy Zelleke and Brian Tilley

By late 2016 and early 2017, Lotte Group, a South Korean chaebol (large family-controlled business group) had become embroiled not only in the domestic political turmoil surrounding President Park Geun-hye, but also—uncomfortably—in a four-country geopolitical storm. ... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Politics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; National Security; International Relations; Decision Making; Government and Politics; Leadership; South Korea; China; Japan

Educators

2016
Working Paper

Signaling without Certification: The Critical Role of Civil Society Scrutiny

By: Susan A. Kayser, John W. Maxwell and Michael W. Toffel

In response to stakeholders' growing concerns, companies are joining voluntary environmental programs to signal their superior environmental management capabilities. In contrast to the literature's focus on certification programs that require a third-party audit, we... View Details

Keywords: United Nations; Labor Standards; Supplier Relationship; Procurement; Sustainability; Sustainability Management; Quality And Safety; Risk; Globalization; Globalized Markets and Industries; Governance; Working Conditions; Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Quality; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Reputation

SSRN

Research Summary

Overview

My research lies at the intersection of strategic management and international business, with a focus on how firms’ heterogeneous national environments affect competition, corporate strategy, and firm performance. View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Emerging Markets; Corporate Strategy; Competitiveness; Competitive Dynamics; United States; Brazil; Africa

09 Apr 2024
Research & Ideas

When Climate Goals, Housing Policy, and Corporate R&D Collide, Social Good Can Emerge

For almost four years, Omar Asensio and his colleagues have been studying the impact of federal energy programs on low-income neighborhoods. The intersection of technology—artificial intelligence, in particular—and public policy has long been an area of focus for... View Details

Keywords: by Glen Justice

29 Jan 1994
Lecture

Multinational Governance in Global Companies: The Conflict Between Companies that Have Become Global and Boards that are Still National

By: W. Carl Kester

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Global Range; Local Range; Conflict and Resolution