Publications

April 1, 2020
Article

Coronavirus Is Putting Corporate Social Responsibility to the Test

By: Mark R. Kramer

A great many large companies talk about their values, or about how much they care for their employees and other stakeholders. The coronavirus crisis is the time for them to make good on that commitment. The author offers some things that corporations can do to help... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

Article

The Impact of Penalties for Wrong Answers on the Gender Gap in Test Scores

By: Katherine B. Coffman and David Klinowski

Multiple-choice exams play a critical role in university admissions across the world. A key question is whether imposing penalties for wrong answers on these exams deters guessing from women more than men, disadvantaging female test-takers. We consider data from a... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Standardized Testing; Gender; Higher Education; Prejudice and Bias

Find at Harvard

2009
Working Paper

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

By: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin

Female "empowerment" has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Microfinance; Personal Finance; Decision Making; Microeconomics; Gender; Power and Influence; Philippines

Read Now

August 2022 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Sweet Teez Bakery: Projecting the Dough's Rise

By: Emily R. McComb, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein

In 2021, the HBS Impact Investment Fund student team met with entrepreneur Teresa Maynard, who had applied for a $25,000 impact investment loan. The students thought the former Harvard Data Scientist’s bakery business, Sweet Teez Bakery, showed promise. Maynard had... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investment; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Investment; Goods and Commodities; Financial Reporting; Small Business; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Massachusetts

Web

Accelerating Innovation | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Competition Impact Stories A Catalyst for Commitment Abigail Falik MBA 2008 A Life’s Work Gerald Chertavian MBA 1992 Breaking the Cycle of Intergenerational Poverty Andrea Silbert 841 teams participating in View Details

20 Oct 2020
Blog Post

Exploring Technology and Public Impact Through the HBS/HKS Joint Degree Program

undergraduate degree. I spent my first couple of years at the company in the San Francisco Bay area and London in roles across the Marketing organization, including working on brand, reputation, and social responsibility initiatives. In... View Details

Web

Past Projects | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

leadership among the business community by founding the Ebola Private Sector Mobilization Group (EPSMG). Our project evaluated the role that AM and EPSMG played during the Ebola crisis in Liberia. Measuring the "Impact" in Impact... View Details

Web

Influencing Practice | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

One of the primary interfaces between the Social Enterprise Initiative and practitioners is through our open enrollment and custom Executive Education programs offered each year. 1_0fzgdmtm Strategic Perspectives In Nonprofit Management... View Details

01 Jun 2000
News

Social Capital Markets: Creating Value in the Nonprofit World

For years, money given to nonprofits has been thought of as charity, says Jed Emerson, the School's Bloomberg Senior Research Fellow in Philanthropy. But a new perspective is emerging: These dollars, while charitable, are still capital investments of precious... View Details

Keywords: Anne Kavanagh

August 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Supplement

The Dannon Company: Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility (B)

By: Christopher Marquis and Bobbi Thomason

Details Dannon's decision to initiate a cause marketing program focused on breast cancer to directly compete with Yoplait. View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry

September 2016 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Pi Investments

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Tony L. He

Pi was a large family office pioneering the concept of 100% portfolio impact investing. Tasked with preserving capital, generating moderate returns and advancing the family’s social justice goals – Pi’s Managing Directors had to identify appropriate products across... View Details

Keywords: Investment Fund; Impact Investing; Investment Portfolio; Investment Funds

20 Nov 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Impact Evaluation Methods in Public Economics: A Brief Introduction to Randomized Evaluations and Comparison with Other Methods

Keywords: by Dina Pomeranz; Public Administration

Web

Leadership Collaborative | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

A Peer Group of Mission Driven Leaders A new program of the Social Enterprise Initiative, the Leadership Collaborative is designed to connect and support alumni deeply engaged in social View Details

17 Jun 2021
News

Investing in a Post-COVID World; Exploring the Pandemic’s Impact on Gender Equity

women leaders in the HBS alumni community with events, initiatives and social impact scholarships. So when Club President Boris Tsimerinov (PLDA 16) and Stark were planning events for 2021, they decided to... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

February 2021 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Marie Curie: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case describes the rise of Marie Curie from a poor family in Poland to the pinnacle of scientific fame. The case describes how Curie, as a young woman interested in science, found a way to earn a doctorate at the Sorbonne and perform pathbreaking research on... View Details

Keywords: Legacy; Impact; Science; Research; Personal Characteristics; Mission and Purpose; Success; Work-Life Balance; Higher Education; Personal Development and Career

04 Apr 2023
Book

Two Centuries of Business Leaders Who Took a Stand on Social Issues

While shareholders still reign supreme at many companies, a widespread shift toward more responsible business practices is driving more leaders to take a stand on social and environmental issues today, says Harvard Business School Professor Geoffrey Jones. Jones... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Consumer Products; Fashion; Retail; Green Technology

October 2002 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Welfare State and its Impact on Business Competitiveness, The: Sweden Inc. for Sale?

By: Huw Pill, Petter Johnsson, Ola Nordquist and Ingrid Vogel

The Swedish Model--sometimes presented as a third way between savage capitalism and unrealistic socialism--was much lauded in the 1960s. It was viewed as a strategy that addressed social concerns while supporting economic growth. However, the financial and currency... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Welfare; Government and Politics; Taxation; Competition; Public Administration Industry; Sweden