Publications

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September 1997
Case

Information at the World Bank: In Search of a Technology Solution (A)

By: W. Earl Sasser, Josep Valor and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Information Technology Services Director Mohamed Muhsin planned to restructure the World Bank's information technology in response to President Jim Wolfensohn's call to build a knowledge bank. Several reorganization efforts taken by the bank in the 1980s led to a... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Information; Knowledge Management; Mission and Purpose; Technology; Public Administration Industry

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28 Aug 2017
Research & Ideas

Should Industry Competitors Cooperate More to Solve World Problems?

over-application and excess chemicals leaching into water systems. Wet processing is also particularly impactful. The World Bank estimates that 17–20 percent of industrial water pollution worldwide comes... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Manufacturing; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Mining

March 2013 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Laurence A. Green

Beginning in 1994, a series of articles and public disclosures indicated that Swiss banks may have retained assets belonging to victims of the Holocaust, and also may have engaged in long term attempts to block survivors' ability to recover those assets after World War... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Banking And Insurance; U.s. History; Germany; Europe; Governance; History; Negotiation; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; Germany; United States; Switzerland

26 Jun 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Inventory Management for Mobile Money Agents in the Developing World

Keywords: by Karthik Balasubramanian, David F. Drake, and Douglas Fearing; Banking; Banking

April 2018
Case

Bretton Woods and the Liberal World Order

By: Sophus A. Reinert and Jonathan Schlefer

Keywords: Bretton Woods; Gold Standard; IMF; Banking Industry; Vermont

02 Mar 2017
What Do You Think?

Is China About to Overtake the US for World Trade Leadership?

reluctance to open up the banking system and promote the yuan as a global reserve currency. These were the conclusions of nearly all respondents to this month’s column. Nevertheless, there was an undertone to the comments suggesting that... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2008
Book

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

By: Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson traces the historical evolution of the financial system, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls "Planet Finance." In doing so, he reveals financial history as the essential backstory behind all history, from the... View Details

Keywords: Financial History; Money; Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Investment; Globalization

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

As economies reopen after forced shutdowns caused by COVID-19, managers around the world are faced with a dual challenge: keep the workforce safe while preserving business viability in an evolving and volatile market. How should... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

28 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

It’s India Above China in New World Order

professor of strategy at HBS. It is also important because the two countries have embraced very different models of development. The biggest source of worry is the state of China's banking sector, which is technically insolvent.—Yasheng... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

December 2016
Article

Corporate Sponsorship in Culture—A Case of Collaborative Marketing by a Global Bank and a Major Art Museum

By: Ragnar Lund and Stephen A. Greyser

This paper examines cultural sponsorship from a partnership perspective. It studies the collaboration between two international institutions, a bank and a museum, and their value co-creation with customers and audiences. This in-depth case study of a sponsorship... View Details

Keywords: Sponsorship; Co-marketing; Partnerships; International Marketing; Arts Marketing; Relationship Marketing; Museums; Resource Integration; Marketing; Partners and Partnerships; Financial Institutions; Arts

2013
Book

Entrepreneurship and Multinationals: Global Business and the Making of the Modern World

By: Geoffrey Jones

This book examines the history of entrepreneurship and multinationals in the making of the modern world. In recent years economists, historians, and political scientists have written extensively on the history of globalization and patterns of global wealth and poverty,... View Details

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05 Nov 2021
Op-Ed

Is the Business World Finally Ready for the Wisdom of Shibusawa?

The business system that emerged in Japan after World War II, influenced by the American occupation forces’ breakup of the zaibatsu, featured extensive cross-shareholdings, heavy bank influence, lifetime... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones and Rei Morimoto; Financial Services; Retail

December 2013 (Revised April 2014)
Case

Seeding Growth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

By: Ray Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Djordjija Petkoski

By 2013, the agricultural sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had long suffered from war, political instability, and dilapidated infrastructure. A country with 75 million inhabitants and the second lowest GDP per capita in the world in 2011, the DRC's... View Details

Keywords: National Agricultural Investment Plan (PNIA); Developing Agriculture; World Bank; Poverty Reduction; Special Economic Zones (SEZs); Small-scale Farmers; Agricultural Business Parks; Agriculture Reform; Agribusiness; Economic Growth; Infrastructure; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa; Congo, Democratic Republic of the

24 Jul 2018
Op-Ed

4 Ways Managers Can Exercise Their 'Agency' to Change the World

harness the power of business to address some of society’s most significant problems, not as a separate part of employees’ lives—businessperson by day, volunteer by night—but as an integrated whole, working in a profitable company that also does the View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

2012
Working Paper

Leviathan in Business: Varieties of State Capitalism and Their Implications for Economic Performance

By: Aldo Musacchio and Sergio G. Lazzarini

In this paper we document the extent and reach of state capitalism around the world and explore its economic implications. We focus on governmental provision of capital to corporations—either equity or debt—as a defining feature of state capitalism. We present a... View Details

Keywords: State Capitalism; State-owned Enterprises; Development Banks; Sovereign Wealth Funds; Economic Systems; State Ownership; Sovereign Finance; Business and Government Relations; Investment

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2009
Comment

Testimony on 'The World Bank's Disclosure Policy Review, and the Role of Democratic Participatory Processes in Achieving Successful Development Outcomes'

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Policy; Success; Growth and Development; Outcome or Result

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February 1996
Background Note

International Institutions

By: David A. Moss, Louis T. Wells Jr. and Lakshmi Gopalan

Describes the IMF, the World Bank Group, the regional development banks, the Bank of International Settlements, the OECD, and the Group of 7. View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Banks and Banking; International Finance; Trade; International Relations; Banking Industry

10 May 2016
Other Presentation

Shared Value: A New Global Agenda

By: Michael E. Porter

Harvard Business School's Michael Porter introduces and engages World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in conversation on partnering with the private sector for delivering on global development goals. View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Collective Impact; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Value; Business and Community Relations; Cooperation; Society