Publications

Editorial

Can Index Funds Be a Force for Sustainable Capitalism?

By: George Serafeim

Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainable Development; Sustainable Finance; Social Impact; Indexing; Finance

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20 Nov 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Impact Evaluation Methods in Public Economics: A Brief Introduction to Randomized Evaluations and Comparison with Other Methods

Keywords: by Dina Pomeranz; Public Administration

2021
Working Paper

Measuring Employment Impact: Applications and Cases

By: Katie Panella and George Serafeim

Applying the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative’s employment impact methodology on eight leading companies, we document wide variability in employment impacts as a percentage of salaries paid, ranging between 59 and 80 percent. We identify opportunities for... View Details

Keywords: Impact Measurement; Employee Compensation; Accounting; Employees; Labor; Well-being; Diversity; Wages; Compensation and Benefits

SSRN

14 Oct 2014
News

Making smart investments in companies that solve critical social needs

Lisa Hall (MBA 1993), managing director of impact investing for Anthos Asset Management, talks about her work overseeing a financial portfolio of social enterprises that guarantee a financial return along... View Details

31 Aug 2021
Blog Post

Exploring the Art of Business: Social Enterprise Summer Fellow Felipe Ceron (MBA 2022)

How can someone learn more about your organization? Visit the School's website and Instagram. This story was originally published on the Social Enterprise Impact Insights blog. View Details

March 2017
Article

Entrepreneurial Beacons: The Yale Endowment, Run-ups, and the Growth of Venture Capital

By: Y. Sekou Bermiss, Benjamin J. Hallen, Rory McDonald and Emily Cox Pahnke

This paper investigates the social context of entrepreneurship in organizational sectors. Prior research suggests that firm foundings are driven by collective patterns of activity—that is, by patterns of prior foundings—including support from related markets as well as... View Details

Keywords: Signals; Social Salience; Venture Capital; Higher Education; Organizations; Entrepreneurship; Investment

May 2023
Article

Gentrification and Retail Churn: Theory and Evidence

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca and Erica Moszkowski

How does gentrification transform neighborhood retail amenities? This paper presents a model in which gentrification harms incumbent residents by increasing rental costs and by eliminating distinctive local stores. While rising rents can be offset with targeted... View Details

Keywords: Gentrification; Neighborhoods; Impact; Local Range; Transition; Civil Society or Community; Welfare; Economic Growth

Web

An Educated Investment | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

volunteers between the ages of 16 and 25—to boost enrollment, retention, and learning outcomes for all girls. Since its launch, Educate Girls has expanded to 4,600 villages with 8,500 schools and has impacted 2.8 million children in... View Details

17 Jun 2021
News

Investing in a Post-COVID World; Exploring the Pandemic’s Impact on Gender Equity

women leaders in the HBS alumni community with events, initiatives and social impact scholarships. So when Club President Boris Tsimerinov (PLDA 16) and Stark were planning events for 2021, they decided to... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

December 2006
Article

Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility

By: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer

Keywords: Strategy; Society; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

November 2008
Article

Getting off the Hedonic Treadmill, One Step at a Time: The Impact of Regular Religious Practice and Exercise on Well-Being

By: Daniel Mochon, Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely

Many studies have shown that few events in life have a lasting impact on subjective well-being because of people's tendency to adapt quickly; worse, those events that do have a lasting impact tend to be negative. We suggest that while major events may not provide... View Details

Keywords: Health; Religion; Behavior; Happiness; Welfare

14 Dec 1999
Research & Ideas

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

Despite its long economic boom, America's social problems abound. To ensure future economic success, the country needs dramatic improvement in public schools, more highly skilled workers, jobs with a future for people coming off the... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Web

An Emerging Entrepreneur | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

validating the model before closing the initial investment round, after which he hopes to scale quickly, with the goal of serving 10,000 students in five years. Reflecting on his time at HBS, Bichara cites the case method’s View Details

Web

Hiring at HBS: How Summer Interns Make an Impact at Emerson Collective - Recruiting

connects with prospective candidates by posting internship opportunities in 12twenty, hosting an informational session in January, and networking with relevant student groups like the social impact clubs and... View Details

July 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Magic Bus: From Childhood to Livelihood

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Vikram Gandhi, Anjali Raina and Rachna Chawla

Founded in 1999 by Matthew Spacie to give poor children an opportunity to play, Magic Bus had evolved to a leading social enterprise engaged in sports for development, holistic childhood development, and livelihood training for youth between the ages of 6 to 18. By... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Management; Development; Growth And Scaling; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Management

Educators

2016
Working Paper

Paying (for) Attention: The Impact of Information Processing Costs on Bayesian Inference

By: Scott Duke Kominers, Xiaosheng Mu and Alexander Peysakhovich

Human information processing is often modeled as costless Bayesian inference. However, research in psychology shows that attention is a computationally costly and potentially limited resource. We study a Bayesian individual for whom computing posterior beliefs is... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Economics

October 2009
Teaching Note

Esquel Group: Integrating Business Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Teaching Note for [307076]. View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Integration; Apparel and Accessories Industry; China

20 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

No Place Like Home: America’s Housing Crisis and Its Impact on Business

social services have to be provided, and those costs tend to offset any tax-base revenues gained from housing. By contrast, with light industry, towns get the tax base without having to add a lot of social... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Construction; Real Estate

January 2025
Case

PayJoy: Financing for the Next Billion

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

PayJoy, an impact-driven financial technology company founded in 2015, provides smartphone financing and other financial products to customers who lack access to traditional credit products. As of early 2025, PayJoy had issued $2.5 billion in loans to 13 million... View Details

Educators