Publications

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Summer 2020
Article

Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn

By: Josh Lerner and Ramana Nanda

Venture capital is associated with some of the most high-growth and influential firms in the world. Academics and practitioners have effectively articulated the strengths of the venture model. At the same time, venture capital financing also has real limitations in its... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Financing; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Technological Innovation

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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

22 May 2021
News

This Neighborhood Badly Needs A Grocery Store. A Medical Device Maker Will Build One

2017
Working Paper

Why and How Investors Use ESG Information: Evidence from a Global Survey

By: Georgios Serafeim

Using survey data from a sample of senior investment professionals from mainstream (i.e., not SRI funds) investment organizations, we provide insights into why and how investors use reported environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. The primary reason... View Details

Keywords: Investment Management; Sustainability; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Investment Fund; Investment Strategy; Corporate Accountability; Activist Shareholder; Engagement; Environment; Climate Change; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Employee Engagement; Global Warming; Investment; Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability; Performance Expectations

SSRN

February 2009 (Revised September 2011)
Background Note

Business and Human Rights

By: Lynn S. Paine and Lara Adamsons

This note addresses some of the most frequently asked questions about the relation between human rights and business. Topics include the definition of human rights, the business leader's role regarding human rights, and legal liability of companies and executives for... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Human Capital; Legal Liability; Rights; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Dutch Leonard

Professor Leonard teaches about leadership and strategy for both private sector and social organizations. Topics covered in his courses include leadership and the design of strategy for social-mission organizations (including the corporate social responsibility efforts... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Strategy; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Risk Management; Crisis Management; Innovation and Management; Decision Making

06 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, March 6, 2018

their businesses to shareholders through stock buybacks and dividends rather than invest for the long term, undermining job growth and putting the country’s economic future at risk, often pointing to the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 1990 (Revised June 2004)
Case

McDonald's and the Environment

McDonald's decides to withdraw its polystyrene plastic packaging for sandwiches and hamburgers after years of defending itself against environmental critics. The decision occurs in the midst of a six-month Joint Task Force study, with the nonprofit Environmental... View Details

Keywords: Announcements; Change Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

01 Jun 2024
News

Alumni and Faculty Books

Edited by Margie Kelley Alumni Books Debunking Teenagers: 200 Research-Based Parenting Strategies to Help Your Adolescent Successfully Navigate the “Tempteen” Years By Daphne Adler (MBA 2004) Independently Published Why are teenagers constantly tempted to behave... View Details

August 2021
Case

Danone S.A.: Becoming a Mission-Driven Company (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Emilie Billaud

Emmanuel Faber became CEO of Danone SA, the French food and beverage company, in 2014. Right from the start, he ran the company with a dual commitment to both profit and purpose (i.e., ESG objectives). In fact, in 2018, he said, “It’s time to make sustainable business... View Details

Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Environmental Sustainability; Goals and Objectives; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; France; Europe

August 1989
Case

Ethics, Responsibility, and Ideology

By: George C. Lodge

Keywords: Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

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11 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

Strategy Execution and the Balanced Scorecard

a company? A: The OSM is analogous to a military general's chief of staff. The general is responsible and accountable for developing the strategy to win wars and battles. But a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Jun 2009
News

Crisis and Creativity

Texas Instruments were also launched during this time. In fact, the odds on the success of an appropriately directed new venture during a downturn may be higher than in a competitive boom. Entrepreneurs — inside and outside of View Details

Keywords: Bhaskar Chakravorti

March 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Kerry Herman

Deals with approaches to alleviating poverty and how firms, governments, and NGOs are able to work together to accomplish these goals. View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Nutrition; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Non-Governmental Organizations; Poverty; Welfare

January 2003 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Heineken NV: Workplace HIV/AIDS Programs in Africa (C)

Third in a three-part series that explores the multifaceted organizational and strategic choices that companies now face as a result of the global AIDS epidemic. Heineken is considering becoming one of the first companies to offer AIDS drugs (antiretroviral therapy) to... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Employees; Food and Beverage Industry; Africa

March 2015 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Putting the Guiding Principles into Action: Human Rights at Barrick Gold (A)

By: Rebecca Henderson and Nien-he Hsieh

In 2010, Human Rights Watch, a well-regarded international NGO, approached Barrick Gold asserting that members of the company’s security force at the Porgera Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea had on multiple occasions raped women who were trespassing onto the mine’s waste... View Details

Keywords: Human Rights; Business And Society; Rights; Policy; Leading Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations

March 2017 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells and Carole A. Winkler

In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016 had triggered a national storm of protests, and many attributed Trump’s victory to... View Details