society - Publications - Faculty & Research

February 2022
Case

Toraya

By: Lauren Cohen and Akiko Kanno

Mitsuharu Kurokawa was the 18th generation leader of a family firm that produced and sold premium Japanese sweets, Toraya Confectionery Co., Ltd. He had succeeded the business from his father, Mitsuhiro Kurokawa who had led the firm for thirty years. Mitsuharu was... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Luxury Brand; Succession; Family Business; Management Succession; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Marketing; Expansion; Globalization; Innovation and Invention; Customer Satisfaction; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; Japan

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09 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Leadership Lessons of the Great Recession: Options for Economic Downturns

Accountability, a required course for first-year MBA students that examines the responsibilities business leaders have to their shareholders, customers, employees, and to society Click Here Cote visited Boston for the occasion, sitting in... View Details

Keywords: by Sandra Sucher & Susan Winterberg; Aerospace; Electronics

February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

OpenInvest

By: Shawn Cole, Boris Vallée and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolios to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Impact Investing; Investment Portfolio; Customization and Personalization; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Financial Services Industry

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Research Summary

Overview

By: Feng Zhu

Professor Zhu’s research focuses on the design of platform business models and its impact on platform performance. Platforms have become central to our economy. A platform is a product or service that enables two or more customer groups to interact. For example,... View Details

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

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Research Summary

Markets of Progress: Coffee, Commerce, and Community in the Soconusco, Chiapas, 1867-1920

Markets of Progress presents a new holistic story of rural development in Mexico at the turn of the century. In the Soconusco, as in regions throughout the world, the accelerating circulation of commodities and capital, ideas and immigrants reshaped society... View Details

Keywords: Commodities; Coffee; Mexico; Foreign Investment; Institutions; Immigration; Developing Agriculture; Development; Export Crop; Emerging Market; Property Rights; Labor History; History; Capital Markets; Business History; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Latin America; Mexico; Central America

Research Summary

Capitalism as a System of Governance

My research interest is in further exploration of the analytic utility of an original conception of capitalism as an indirect, three level system of governance for the economic relationships within political entities, and mostly within nation states. This three level... View Details

12 Jun 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: Lawrence Summers on Market Capitalism’s Historic Opportunity

requiring decisive action. This includes both near-term action to deal with the current financial crisis, and decisions on three broad issues that hold enormous ramifications for American society and the world at large. These issues are:... View Details

26 Jun 2000
Research & Ideas

Three Countries, Three Choices in Post-Soviet Eurasia

National identities vary from society to society in two ways, says Abdelal: in their content and contestation. Content means self-understandings and goals that are cultural, political and economic.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

02 Feb 2002
What Do You Think?

Will the Societal Effects of Enron Exceed Those of September 11?

that each did to levels of trust in our society was substantial. As a result, their implications for us are of comparable magnitude, suggesting that Enron be of more than passing interest. If so, what kinds of responses, especially to the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

24 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Five Questions for Debora L. Spar

privacy online, and their property as well. So even though the technology may change, it doesn't necessarily bring everything in society along with it. Q: Is there anything about the Internet that is different from past innovations such... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

05 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

Business and the Global Poor

2005 on business solutions for alleviating poverty. The work combines chapters from a variety of perspectives—business, academic, government, nonprofit—to examine the nature of poverty, how the poor can become producers as well as consumers, and the roles to be played... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

05 Jan 2011
Op-Ed

Funding Unpredictability Around Stem-Cell Research Inflicts Heavy Cost on Scientific Progress

people won't do the kind of work that is necessary to make progress on our most intractable challenges. Society pays a high price for randomization of research support--a fact that, sadly, is not recognized by the public, the media, or... View Details

Keywords: by William Sahlman; Biotechnology; Health; Pharmaceutical

21 Jul 2006
Op-Ed

Enron Jury Sent the Right Message

opposite side is the clear light of right-doing—things which are so generally appealing to the conscience of all that no mistake could be made, no matter how complicated the business. The area of difficulty for business lies in the penumbra between the two."... View Details

Keywords: by Malcolm S. Salter

14 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

New Agenda for Corporate Accountability Reporting

how it affects social value in society at large. That could soon start to change. Karthik Ramanna, an associate professor at Harvard Business School who studies the political economy of corporate accountability and financial reporting,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Accounting; Energy; Utilities

08 Jan 2014
What Do You Think?

Do Productivity Increases Contribute to Social Inequality?

Summing Up Does Social Equality Improve Productivity? Inequality in our society is an important and growing issue. It prompted a debate among respondents to this month's column about the causes, specifically the role played by innovation... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Research Summary

The Value of Family Ownership, Control, and Management

In collaboration with Professor Raphael Amit of Wharton, Belén Villalonga is investigating how family ownership, control, and management affect firm value. Their forthcoming Journal of Financial... View Details