Publications

25 Feb 2020
News

Profits and Purpose

second-year MBA course Reimagining Capitalism in 2012, Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor, has been helping students explore the roles that the corporation View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint

04 Feb 2020
Video

Francis Okomo-Okello

Francis Okomo-Okello, chair of a leading Kenyan luxury hotel group and of the subsidiary of a major foreign bank, discusses his approach to corporate social responsibility programs based on full understanding... View Details

21 Oct 2013
News

Built to Last

Keywords: capitalism

31 Aug 2020
What Do You Think?

Why Don’t More Organizations Understand the Power of Diversity and Inclusion?

organizations in the study are pulling away from the other two-thirds in diversity and inclusion, registering increasingly higher probabilities of being the most profitable. They are exhibiting progress in achieving greater gender View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

22 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 22, 2018

Claudine, Andrea Prat, and George Serafeim Abstract—We construct a measure of corporate purpose within a sample of U.S. companies based on approximately 500,000 survey View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

22 Mar 2010
Research & Ideas

One Strategy: Aligning Planning and Execution

comes to creating new ones? A: Answering this question goes back to our definition of innovation. Innovation is invention times impact. Invention is nice, but if it has no economic or social impact it is... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

October 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Arlan Hamilton and Backstage Capital

By: Laura Huang and Sarah Mehta

Frustrated by an inability to convince existing venture capital firms to invest in companies led by women, people of color, and LGBT founders, Arlan Hamilton started her own firm, Backstage Capital, in 2015. Hamilton understood the untapped potential of companies run... View Details

Keywords: Black Leadership; LGBTQ; Women; People Of Color; Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Venture Capital; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Identity; Personal Characteristics; Prejudice and Bias; Social Issues; Diversity; Gender; Race

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

2009
Working Paper

Anger and Regulation

By: Rafael Di Tella and Juan Dubra

We propose a model where voters experience an emotional cost when they observe a firm that has displayed insufficient concern for other people's welfare (altruism) in the process of making high profits. Even with few truly altruistic firms, an equilibrium may emerge... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Consumer Behavior; Monopoly; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Emotions; Welfare

Video

Vimal Shah

Vimal Shah, Co-Founder and Chairman of Kenya-based Bidco Africa, explains the ethical and economic basis for the group’s commitment to waste minimization, rejecting what he refers to as superficial Corporate Social Responsibility to instead foster opportunities across... 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

Keywords: Networks; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Processes; Adoption; Customization and Personalization

Find at Harvard

04 Dec 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Intelligent Design of Inclusive Growth Strategies

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan, George Serafeim, and Eduardo Tugendhat

01 Dec 2003
News

HIV/AIDS and Business

social and financial cost of inaction is so high that standing by is not an option, particularly for multinational corporations doing business in countries with high infection... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

01 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

Companies, Cultures and the Transformation to the Transnational

of doing things" and shape its international organization structure and processes. Business historian Alfred Chandler has traced the influence of the cultural values and... View Details

Keywords: by Christopher A. Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal

January 2012 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Tough Decisions at Marks and Spencer

By: George Serafeim

In 2007, under the leadership of CEO Stuart Rose, the iconic British retailer Marks and Spencer, with great fanfare, announced its "Plan A" initiative. Based on the five essential pillars of climate change, waste, sustainable materials, fair partnership, and health,... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry

Program

Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation

Summary Today's leaders are evolving their approaches to leadership and innovation in response to quantum shifts in how we work and live. In the midst of economic, societal,... View Details

September 2010 (Revised December 2011)
Case

Southwest Airlines One ReportTM

By: Robert G. Eccles, Beiting Cheng and Susan Thyne

In 2009, Southwest Airlines produced its first integrated annual report, the Southwest Airlines One Report, combing financial and nonfinancial performance information. This case examines Southwest's environmental and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Accounting; Financial Reporting; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Innovation and Invention; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Air Transportation Industry; United States

14 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Understaffed and Overworked: What Now?

Meet Cheryl Andrus: Manager. Survivor. A vice president responsible for corporate and product marketing at FranklinCovey in Salt Lake City, Andrus was asked in August 2002 to... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Michelman

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

PortageBay and ESG Analytics

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Radhika Kak

In 2023, sustainable investors faced several challenges. The first was the lack of access to standardized and vetted environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data, and equally, the interpretation of this data into investment-useful insights. Reducing reliance on... View Details

Keywords: ESG Ratings; Investment Funds; Governance; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact