Publications

17 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Navigating Tradeoffs: How Purpose Becomes a Company's ‘Lighthouse in the Storm’

unpackaged greens and toward locally-grown packaged greens, which are cleaner, retain their quality, and are safer to eat. After extensive research, the team perceived the inherent tension between environmentally friendly packaging and... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

06 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 6

strategy to educate the marketplace and pursue new distribution channels. Increased investor interest in environmental issues-and an ever growing number of corporate View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2010
Case

Amyris Biotechnologies: Commercializing Biofuel

By: Gary P. Pisano and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

In 2009, Amyris Biotechnologies was building a plant in Brazil that used synthetic biology to convert sugarcane into both renewable fuels and renewable chemicals. The Amyris' marketing team was investigating the commercial interest for both types of products, while the... View Details

Keywords: Renewable Energy; Chemicals; Risk Management; Product Marketing; Product Development; Production; Environmental Sustainability; Commercialization; Biotechnology Industry; Brazil

June 2012 (Revised February 2014)
Case

Low-Carbon, Indigenous Innovation in China

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

For the past seven years or so, the Chinese government has been powering ahead with industrial policies to promote low-carbon energy technologies—wind, solar, electric batteries and vehicles, nuclear power, and even carbon capture and sequestration. In 2009, the... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Renewables; Carbon; Environment; Industrial Policy; Competitiveness; Environmental Sustainability; Policy; Renewable Energy; Competition; Globalized Markets and Industries; Energy Industry; China

December 2016 (Revised April 2017)
Case

BASF: Co-Creating Innovation (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2016, BASF's chief executive officer and chief technology officer reflected on the co-creation innovation program started almost 18 months ago as part of BASF's 150th anniversary celebration. Five hundred project ideas had been created, of which 100 had already... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Knowledge Sharing; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Chemicals; Environmental Sustainability; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

06 Sep 2016
First Look

September 6, 2016

the degradation of the natural environment. However, the strategies that environmental organizations choose to employ are sometimes starkly different. This case compares the models of two dissimilar View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

17 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 17, 2018

Spring 2018 Journal of Cold War Studies The Enemy of My Enemy: The Soviet Union, East Germany, and the Iranian Tudeh Party's Support for Ayatollah Khomeini By: Friedman, Jeremy Abstract—This article examines the strategy of the Iranian... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

21 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 21

transparency while masking their true performance; other firms' disclosures, in contrast, are more representative of their environmental performance. What deters selective disclosure? We hypothesize that selective disclosure, a novel... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Link Between Language and Corporate Responsibility

liberal. To double check, the researchers ran the numbers excluding Scandinavia and found they still held up. “The idea that language affects a business strategy is pretty fundamental to our results” Furthermore, they performed a unique... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

03 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 3, 2018

to be depleted in “bad” times. Instead, issuing domestic debt while accumulating reserves acts as a hedge against external shocks. A quantitative exercise of the Brazilian economy suggests this strategy to be effective for smoothing... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

16 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Data.gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation

"Second, to explore the organizational constraints and resistance to an open-data approach. All agencies will have issues, of course, about making data available, because historically they may have not. "Third, to probe issues of View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

November 2024
Case

Polish Agro: Where Do We Grow From Here?

By: Willy C. Shih, Lena Duchene and Daniela Beyersdorfer

By July 2024, Polish Agro had grown into one of Poland’s fastest-growing agribusinesses, with €230 million in revenue, 82 employees, and operations across Northern Poland. The company supported farmers with essential agricultural inputs like fertilizers and seeds,... View Details

01 Sep 2020
Cold Call Podcast

How to Launch a New Biosciences Product: Start Small or Dive in?

Keywords: Re: Jeffrey J. Bussgang; Pharmaceutical; Biotechnology

08 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

How to Negotiate “Yes” Across Cultural Boundaries

environmental groups. Had Stone taken into account the history of strained relationships between Honduras and the U.S. government and multinationals, as well as the fragile status of the presidency in this fledgling democracy, it could... View Details

Keywords: by James K. Sebenius

October 2007
Article

Opinion: Place Your Bets on the Future You Want

By: Forest Reinhardt

This piece posits that success in a carbon-constrained world will be determined by innovation and acumen, requiring companies to make bold moves. View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Success; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Competitive Advantage

Find at Harvard

August 2009 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Whole Foods: Balancing Social Mission and Growth

By: Christopher Marquis, Marya Besharov and Bobbi Thomason

In 2009, Whole Foods stands at a crossroads. Their incredible growth over the past 25 years has vaulted them into the ranks of the largest US supermarkets and they have arguably led to the widespread acceptance of natural and organic foods in the United States. Yet... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; United States

May 2010
Article

Modern Management: Good for the Environment or Just Hot Air?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Christos Genakos, Ralf Martin and Raffaella Sadun

We use an innovative methodology to measure management practices in over 300 manufacturing firms in the U.K. We then match this management data to production and energy usage information for establishments owned by these firms. We find that establishments in better... View Details

Keywords: Energy Conservation; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Productivity; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Manufacturing Industry; United Kingdom

2024
Article

Financial Constraints and Short-term Planning are Linked to Flood Risk Adaptation Gaps in U.S. cities

By: Shirley Lu and Anya Nakhmurina

Adaptation is critical in reducing the inevitable impact of climate change. Here we study cities’ adaptation to elevated flood risk by introducing a linguistic measure of adaptation extracted from financial disclosures of 431 US cities over 2013–2020. While cities with... View Details

Keywords: City; Natural Disasters; Climate Change; Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategic Planning