Publications

June 1992 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Concordia Casting Company

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Describes five years of development in a centralized data processing activity serving a highly decentralized corporation. Data processing manager discovers that a major software system conversion is a full year behind schedule, and subsequently makes several managerial... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Applications and Software; System; Information Technology; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Human Resources; Conflict and Resolution; Supply Chain Management; Accounting; Auto Industry

January 2025
Case

A Tiger in the Tank: Exxon Sues Investors

By: Clayton S. Rose, Sarah Sasso and James Weber

In June 2024, investors were trying to make sense of ExxonMobil’s (Exxon) lawsuit against two impact investors, Arjuna Capital (Arjuna) and Follow This, that had just been dismissed by the U.S. District Court of Northern Texas. Exxon’s suit challenged the rights of two... View Details

November 2009
Article

Responding to Public and Private Politics: Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Strategies

By: Erin Marie Reid and Michael W. Toffel

The challenges associated with climate change will require governments, citizens, and firms to work collaboratively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a task that requires information on companies' emissions levels, risks, and reduction opportunities. This paper... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Problems and Challenges; Pollutants; Risk and Uncertainty; Business and Shareholder Relations; Management Practices and Processes; Social Issues; Corporate Disclosure; Values and Beliefs; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics

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June 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Case

Team Rubicon: Bridging the Gap from Startup to National Organization

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Dan Nidess

Team Rubicon, a military veteran volunteer disaster relief organization, has experienced significant success in attracting attention and support in its first four years of operation. The challenges of managing the volunteer base, the cost of responding to disasters,... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy And Execution; Disaster Relief; NGO; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Non-Governmental Organizations

July 2004 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Digitas (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Ashley Robertson

Raises issues about how the nature and function of a board changes as its company moves from ownership by its employees (including the founder) to ownership by a private equity firm, Hellman & Friedman, to public ownership. Teaching Purpose: To consider changes in... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Governing and Advisory Boards; Behavior; Organizations; Employee Ownership; Public Ownership

January–February 2018
Article

The New CEO Activists

By: Aaron K Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

Though corporations have been lobbying the government and making campaign donations for a long time now, in recent years a dramatic new trend has emerged in U.S. politics: CEOs are taking very public stands on thorny political issues that have nothing to do with their... View Details

Keywords: Government Policy; Rights; Leadership & Corporate Accountability; Sustainability; Leadership; Corporate Accountability; Policy; Social Issues; Communication Intention and Meaning; United States

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09 Nov 2023
HBS Case

What Will It Take to Confront the Invisible Mental Health Crisis in Business?

the common misperceptions around mental health that contribute to the stigma: A person’s mental health issue is just an “excuse.” “It’s going to be a burden to our business or organization if we take on this person who has a mental health... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Health

March 2007
Case

Ascent Media Group (A)

Ascent Media races to adapt to the changes resulting from increasing digitalization of its business, from creative post-production services to warehousing and repurposing of old media content. Raises issues of how technology interacts with creative processes and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technology; Management; Creativity

Web

The “Hawthorne Effect” – The Human Relations Movement – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

through the lens of their own times and particular biases. 12 Paul R. Lawrence, ca. 1960 HBS Archives Photograph Collection Mayo and Roethlisberger helped define a new curriculum focus, one in alliance with Dean Donham’s desire to address View Details

July 2018
Teaching Note

Cumplo.com

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-039. Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-039. Cumplo is a Chilean-based fin-tech startup that provides investors and small businesses with opportunities to access loans and investments in ways distinct from traditional financial institutions in... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Alternative Finance; Crowdfunding; Crowdlending; Marketing Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Entrepreneurship; Expansion; Financial Services Industry; Latin America; South America; Chile

23 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 23

and informally ensure its members embrace proper business standards? Relying on his faculty experience, Michel Anteby takes readers inside the School to draw vivid parallels between the socialization of faculty and of students. In an era... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2009 (Revised September 2012)
Case

United Way

By: Allen S. Grossman and Cathy Ross

After United Way CEO Brian Gallagher began shifting the organization's focus from old-school fundraising to community impact, Gallagher and local leaders like Elise Bulk, CEO of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, faced a series of challenges regarding how to best... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Business or Company Management; Problems and Challenges; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Alignment; Los Angeles

23 May 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Board Games: Timing of Independent Directors’ Dissent in China

Keywords: by Juan Ma & Tarun Khanna

2021
Comment

Willpower Is a Form of, but Not Synonymous with, Self-control

By: Ariella S. Kristal and Julian Zlatev

We build on Ainslie's discussion of willpower by highlighting another common misconception in the literature: the conflation of self-control and willpower. In our commentary, we identify this issue and discuss the importance of recognizing willpower not as synonymous... View Details

Keywords: Self-control; Willpower; Personal Characteristics

17 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

opportunity to recognize this issue as a pinch point, so they can do something about it.” DeCelles co-authored a September 2016 article about the two-year study in Administrative Science Quarterly called Whitened Resumes: Race and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

February 2007 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Punjab and Kerala: Regional Development in India

By: Lakshmi Iyer

Between 2000 and 2004, India's economy grew by 6.35%. Focuses on the states of Punjab and Kerala, which emphasized sharply different development strategies. The states had to decide whether to focus their investment efforts on physical capital or improving social... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Capital; Investment; Policy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Social Issues; Kerala; Punjab

01 Sep 2023
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Announces 2023 Goldsmith Fellows

agencies with cumulative budgets of $2 billion and 3,000 employees. At the beginning of COVID, she focused on the state’s emergency response, sourcing, vetting, and purchasing PPE and medical supplies. She said, “The Goldsmith Fellowship presents the opportunity to... View Details

May 1986 (Revised January 1989)
Case

Gillette Co.: Dry Idea Advertising (A), The Creative Problem

Presents the first of two cases describing the struggle to solve creative problems on the Dry Idea antiperspirant brand introduced in 1978 by the Gillette Co. and its advertising agency (Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborne). Provides company and industry background plus... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Advertising; Product Marketing; Consumer Products Industry; United States