Publications
Publications
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(1,174)
- Faculty Publications (295)
- January 2024
- Technical Note
The ICARUS Principles: What It Takes to Tackle the World
By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau
Over the course of the 20th century, most of the world’s major multinational corporations framed their mission around Milton Friedman’s famous mantra: that the sole purpose of the firm is to maximize its shareholders’ profits. Recently, however, growing numbers of... View Details
- January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Uncle Nearest: Creating a Legacy
By: Hise Gibson, Archie L. Jones, Nicole Gilmore and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
Fawn Weaver, as a Black woman and industry outsider in a capital-intensive, highly regulated, competitive and male-dominated spirits industry, successfully overcame numerous obstacles to launch a premium American whiskey brand, Uncle Nearest in 2017, which became the... View Details
Keywords: Advertising; Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Age; Ethnicity; Gender; Entrepreneurship; Working Capital; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Intellectual Property; Trademarks; Leadership Style; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Marketing Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Private Ownership; Performance Effectiveness; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Prejudice and Bias; Social Issues; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Entrepreneurial Finance; Food and Beverage Industry; Tourism Industry; United States; Tennessee; France
- November 2023 (Revised July 2024)
- Case
'Care in Every Drop': Ayala Corporation and Manila Water (A)
By: Debora L. Spar, Paul Healy, Tricia Peralta and Julia M. Comeau
Since 1834, eight generations of the Ayala family have used their conglomerate to fund nation-building projects in the Philippines, including investments in tramcars, telecommunications, hospitals, and schools. In 1997, Ayala’s subsidiary, Manila Water, took control of... View Details
- November 2023 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Kickstarter: Crowdfunding for the Arts
By: Rohit Deshpandé and Alexis Lefort
Kickstarter was a virtual crowdfunding platform and community that allowed creators of all kinds to raise funding for creative projects. The executive team was wrestling with a tension in its business model: the organization earned the majority of its revenue from... View Details
- November 2023
- Case
Tata Group in 2021: Pursuing Profits through Purpose
By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Vidhya Muthuram
October 8, 2021: Tata Sons won a bid to acquire India’s national carrier Air India, marking the airline's return to its original owners after 68 long years. The winning bid of $2.4 billion gave Tata Sons full ownership of the airline and its coveted network of 6,200... View Details
- 2023
- Book
How the Harvard Business School Changed the Way We View Organizations
By: Jay W. Lorsch
The story of the field of organizational behavior (which overlaps considerably with the origin story of Harvard Business School) and how it created the “medical model” of systems thinking—anchored in the practices of listening, observing, testing, and only then... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Systems Thinking; Medical Model; Organizations; Behavior; System; History
- October 2023
- Supplement
Rheaply: Circularity For Every Business Supplement 1
By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani
Pitch deck explaining the early vision of the company that was presented by the CEO to potential investors. View Details
- October 2023
- Supplement
Rheaply: Circularity For Every Business Supplement 2
By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani
Pitch deck explaining the later vision of the company that was presented by the CEO to potential investors. View Details
- October 2023 (Revised May 2025)
- Case
Nelson Mandela: Changing the World
By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun
This case traces the rise of Nelson Mandela from his tribal home in South Africa to president of the country. Rejecting expectations that he would be a tribal leader, Mandela instead dedicates his life to fighting Apartheid. After peaceful approaches fail, he joins... View Details
- September 2023 (Revised September 2024)
- Technical Note
Measuring and Managing Social Impact
By: Brian Trelstad, Gerald Chertavian and Susan Pinckney
A brief overview of how to measure social impact at nonprofits, social organizations, and impact investments. View Details
Keywords: Analysis; Change; Transformation; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Public Sector; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Fairness; Entrepreneurial Finance; Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Policy; Innovation and Management; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Practices and Processes; Resource Allocation; Measurement and Metrics; Standards; Strength and Weakness; Mission and Purpose; Success; Performance; Performance Evaluation; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Strategic Planning; Programs; Risk and Uncertainty; Social Enterprise; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Issues; United States
- September 2023
- Teaching Note
Patagonia: 'Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder'
By: Brian Trelstad, Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael Norris and Susan Pinckney
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 323-057. Patagonia’s change of ownership from a privately held company to a perpetual purpose trust and 501(c)(4) nonprofit in order to use the company’s profit to fight the environmental crisis and be a model for future businesses. View Details
Keywords: Trusts; Business Ventures; Business Organization; Family Business; Restructuring; Change; Disruption; Transition; Decision Making; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Finance; Financial Management; Governance; Corporate Governance; Investment Activism; Innovation Leadership; Labor; Law; Common Law; Management; Goals and Objectives; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Ownership; Ownership Type; Family Ownership; Private Ownership; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Society; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Value; Value Creation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States
- September 2023
- Case
Derek Aguirre
By: Leslie Perlow and Hannah Weisman
Derek Aguirre is the executive director of a nonprofit organization in Detroit, Michigan that uses the sport of squash as a vehicle to support young people in low-income urban areas. The case discusses his path to pursue meaningful work and his reflections on the... View Details
- September 2023
- Article
Corporate Purpose in Public and Private Firms
By: Claudine Gartenberg and George Serafeim
Analyzing data from approximately 1.5 million employees across 1,108 established public and private US companies, we find that the strength of employee beliefs related to purpose is weaker in public companies. Among public companies, those beliefs are stronger for... View Details
- August 2023 (Revised February 2024)
- Case
Toby Norman: Is Passion Enough for Simprints to Thrive?
By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Amram Migdal and Max Hancock
As co-founder and CEO of Simprints—a social enterprise with the mission to “transform the way the world fights poverty"—Toby Norman was at a crossroads. His organization had developed ground-breaking technology used to verify aid delivery, reached more than 2.5 million... View Details
- August 2023
- Technical Note
Two Ways of Pursuing a Calling
By: Leslie Perlow and Hannah Weisman
Work can be a means to a financial end, a stepping stone to higher-level jobs, or a meaningful end in itself: a calling. The technical note provides an overview of two different ways people can pursue a calling: with an internal focus or external focus. View Details
- July 2023 (Revised February 2024)
- Case
Clair
By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Marcos Quirno
Clair was founded with a simple mission: to expedite America’s workers access to their hard-earned wages. In the headwinds of the COVID-19 pandemic, the startup had successfully raised a seed round of $4.5 million, and within two years the earned wage access (EWA)... View Details
- July 2023
- Supplement
Reimagining Enel: Enabling Sustainable Progress (A)
By: Michael Tushman and Kerry Herman
This case describes the transformation of Enel from a traditional “brown” or fossil fuel energy firm to a sustainable and green firm focused on renewables, and finally to an energy supplier and integrated energy services firm. It describes a set of capabilities... View Details
- June 2023 (Revised November 2024)
- Case
Albert Einstein: Changing the World
By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun
This case traces the rise of Albert Einstein from a small town in Germany to a towering intellectual leader who revolutionized the field of physics. The case describes his early education and his penchant for individual thinking and non-conformity. A committed... View Details
- June 2023
- Article
Can Purpose Foster Stakeholder Trust in Corporations
By: Ranjay Gulati and Franz Wohlgezogen
As part of institutional changes toward more responsible capitalism, firms increasingly articulate a purpose beyond simply profit as a central tenet of their governance. Management scholarship has noted the potential advantages of such purpose-focus for stakeholder... View Details