Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(8,258)
- Faculty Publications (1,210)
- 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
- 2014
- Working Paper
Don't Take 'No' for an Answer: An Experiment with Actual Organ Donor Registrations
By: Judd B. Kessler and Alvin E. Roth
Over 10,000 people in the U.S. die each year while waiting for an organ. Attempts to increase organ transplantation have focused on changing the registration question from an opt-in frame to an active choice frame. We analyze this change in California and show it... View Details
- August 2014
- Article
Mortgage Convexity
By: Samuel G. Hanson
Most home mortgages in the United States are fixed-rate loans with an embedded prepayment option. When long-term rates decline, the effective duration of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) falls due to heightened refinancing expectations. I show that these changes in MBS... View Details
- Article
The (Perceived) Meaning of Spontaneous Thoughts
By: Carey K. Morewedge, Colleen Giblin and Michael I. Norton
Spontaneous thoughts, the output of a broad category of uncontrolled and inaccessible higher-order mental processes, arise frequently in everyday life. The seeming randomness by which spontaneous thoughts arise might give people good reason to dismiss them as... View Details
- July–August 2014
- Article
Sustainability in the Boardroom: Lessons from Nike's Playbook
By: Lynn S. Paine
One surprising role of Nike's corporate responsibility committee is to provide support for innovation. More and more companies recognize the importance of corporate responsibility to their long-term success—and yet the matter gets short shrift in most boardrooms,... View Details
- 2014
- Article
Unequality: Who Gets What and Why It Matters
Who should get what, and what are the consequences? Economic inequality in the United States has been rising for decades, yet only recently have behavioral scientists explored two central questions surrounding the optimal level of inequality. First, what are the... View Details
- June 16, 2014
- Article
Working With Your In-Laws Isn't Always a Terrible Idea
By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer
This article delves into the complex dynamics involving in-laws within family-owned enterprises. In-laws often face a challenging dual role as they must conform to the same professional standards as non-family employees while concurrently grappling with perceptions of... View Details
- June 2014
- Article
Informal Peer Interaction and Practice Type as Predictors of Physician Performance on Maintenance of Certification Examinations
By: Melissa A. Valentine, S. Barsade, Amy C. Edmondson, A. Gal and R. Rhodes
Context: Physicians can demonstrate mastery of the knowledge that supports continued clinical competence by passing a Maintenance of Certification exam. Exam performance depends on professional learning and development, which may be enhanced by informal routine... View Details
- May 2014
- Case
Health Care Accountability: Examples in Cancer Treatment
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred
This case is designed to support a discussion of the importance of outcomes evidence in empowering the public to make better health care decisions, the desired level of transparency and accountability for health care providers, and the issues with current measuring and... View Details
Keywords: Accountability; Health Care; Cancer; Cancer Treatment; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Cancer Treatment Centers Of America; Vantage Oncology; Radiology; Risk Adjustment; Treatment Outcomes; Health Care Outcomes; Prostate Cancer; Transparency; Health Care and Treatment; Risk Management; Outcome or Result; Health Industry; United States
- May 2014
- Article
How to Outsmart Activist Investors
By: Bill George and Jay W. Lorsch
We offer opinions on how management and corporate boards of directors can best manage investor relations with activist stockholders such as hedge funds who are demanding major changes within a corporation to improve stockholder return. Beverage industry firm PepsiCo is... View Details
Keywords: Investment Activism
- Article
Making 'Green Giants': Environment Sustainability in the German Chemical Industry, 1950s–1980s
By: Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski
This article examines the evolution of corporate environmentalism in the West German chemical industry between the 1950s and the 1980s. It focuses on two companies, Bayer and Henkel, that have been identified as "green giants," and traces the evolution of their... View Details
- Article
The Effect of Institutional Factors on the Value of Corporate Diversification
By: Venkat Kuppuswamy, George Serafeim and Belen Villalonga
Using a large sample of diversified firms from 38 countries we investigate the influence of several national-level institutional factors or 'institutional voids' on the value of corporate diversification. Specifically, we explore whether the presence of frictions in a... View Details
- April 2014
- Teaching Plan
Beidahuang
By: Ray A. Goldberg and David Lane
This teaching plan is designed to support the teaching of Beidahuang, HBS No. 914-412, rev. March 2014. Beidahuang is a major new Chinese player in global grain trading that in 2013 is seeking access to grain both to help assure China's food security and in pursuit of... View Details
- 2014
- Chapter
Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
By: Aaron Chatterji, Edward Glaeser and William R. Kerr
This chapter reviews recent academic work on the spatial concentration of entrepreneurship and innovation in the United States. We discuss rationales for the agglomeration of these activities and the economic consequences of clusters. We identify and discuss policies... View Details
- April–June 2014
- Article
Firmes mondialisées et imaginaire de la beauté
By: G. Jones
This article highlights the role of business enterprises as influences on ideals of human beauty. The homogenization of such ideals has been one of the most noteworthy features of globalization over the last two centuries. This study suggests that firms were both... View Details
- Article
Turnkey or Tailored? Relational Pluralism, Institutional Complexity, and the Organizational Adoption of More or Less Customized Practices
By: Ryan Raffaelli and Mary Ann Glynn
We examine how the organizational adoption of new practices is influenced by relational pluralism, i.e., an organization's multiple ties to actors inside and outside its industry. We theorize that institutional mechanisms of practice diffusion underlying relational... View Details
- March 2014
- Teaching Note
The Weather Company
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
New CEO David Kenny transformed The Weather Company in less than two years from a primary identity as a cable television channel to a multi-platform digital company innovating in the uses of weather data. He assesses progress and considers strategic choices and... View Details
- March 2014 (Revised May 2014)
- Teaching Note
The TELUS Share Conversion Proposal
By: Lucy White and Benjamin C. Esty
On February 21, 2013, TELUS announced a proposal to convert the firm's non-voting shares into voting shares on a one-to-one basis, thereby eliminating the firm's dual class structure. Shareholders were scheduled to vote on the proposal at the firm's annual general... View Details
Keywords: Proxy Contest; Proxy Battle; Proxy Advisor; ISS; Glass Lewis ＆ Co.; Hedge Fund; Short Selling; Share Lending; Telecommunications; Voting Rights; Empty Voting; Equity Decoupling; Share Unification; Dual Class Shares; Canada; Exchange Ratio; Shareholder Activism; Shareholder Votes; Investment Activism; Public Equity; Capital Structure; Investment Return; Corporate Governance; Corporate Finance; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations; Valuation; Telecommunications Industry; Canada; British Columbia; United States; New York (city, NY)
- March 2014 (Revised May 2016)
- Technical Note
Angel Investments in Europe and Recent Developments in Crowdfunding
By: Lynda Applegate, Vincent Dessain, Emilie Billaud and Daniela Beyersdorfer
This technical note provides information on the evolution and current state of angel investing in Europe. The note first describes the role and types of angel investors, focusing on their investment preferences and practices. It then details the new trends in the... View Details
- 2014
- Working Paper
Bio-Piracy or Prospering Together? Fuzzy Set and Qualitative Analysis of Herbal Patenting by Firms
By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Tarun Khanna
Since the 1990s, several Western firms have filed patents based on medicinal herbs from emerging markets, evoking protests from local stakeholders against 'bio-piracy'. We explore conditions under which firms and local stakeholders share rents from such patents. Our... View Details
Keywords: Rents From New Technology; Local Stakeholders; Herbal Patents; QCA; Fuzzy Set Analysis; Qualitative Case Studies; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Patents; Emerging Markets; Health Care and Treatment; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry