social enterprise - Publications - Faculty & Research

10 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Hard Numbers on Social Investments

HBS Social Enterprise Initiative executive director Stacey Childress discusses the study and its implications for investors. Salls: Tell us about the study. What did the team set out to do? Childress: A team... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

16 Mar 2016
Video

Testing Your Social Venture: Iterating Based on Market Feedback

09 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Does Misery Love Companies? How Social Performance Pays Off

the empirical quest to link a firm's social investments to its financial returns has preoccupied researchers. Our goal in this paper is to reorient debate and research about social initiatives by business.... View Details

Keywords: by Joshua D. Margolis & James P. Walsh

01 Mar 2014
News

Building Capacity in the Social Sector

"It's nice to seed growth like this. All I've really done is to start the plant." — Ferdinand Thun (MBA 1960) Looking back over the two-decade history of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI), former... View Details

Keywords: SEI; Educational Services

25 Apr 2014
News

Harnessing for-profit strategies for social good

Fran Seegull (MBA 1998) seeks to mobilize the business world to adjust its thinking on socially mindful investing, also known as impact investing, and "use the financial capital markets and for-profit mechanisms to move the dial on the... View Details

03 Feb 2018
Op-Ed

How to Heed BlackRock's Call for Corporate Social Responsibility

enterprises that help train and mentor the long-term unemployed while generating revenue from sales, among many others, I have encountered organizations that have been able to sustainably pursue social and... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Battilana

Web

Investing in Education to Help Meet the Needs of Learners Everywhere: SE Summer Fellow Angel Njenga (MBA 2022) | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

2007
Chapter

Microfinance: Business, Profitability, and the Creation of Social Value

By: Michael Chu

The chapter examines the development of microfinance from its NGO origins to the present stage in which it is characterized by regulated commercial institutions capable of superior financial returns. It then looks at the creation of social value under these... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Investment Return; Profit; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Social Enterprise; Non-Governmental Organizations; Perspective; Value Creation

Citation

15 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprisingly Successful Marriages of Multinationals and Social Brands

that social enterprise is becoming an integral and embedded part of the marketplace and enriching the avenues for businesses to generate simultaneously commercial and social... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

March 2001 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Sustainable Development & Socially Responsible Investing: ABB in 2000

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Several investment firms and mutual funds position themselves as providers or facilitators of opportunities for socially responsible investment. This case addresses the impact of these firms on publicly traded companies. Focuses on managers at ABB, a large... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Social Enterprise; Corporate Governance; Business Strategy; Capital Markets; Management Teams; Business and Community Relations; Trade; Electronics Industry; Switzerland

Citation

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26 Jul 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Can Bombas Reach New Customers while Maintaining Its Social Mission?

Keywords: Consumer Products; Fashion

Article

Las Microfinanzas: Creación simultánea de impacto social y valor comercial

By: Michael Chu

Microfinance is the best known and most successful expression of inclusive business. When the disbursement of financial services in small sizes to enterprising people in the informal sectors of the economy is capable of yielding superior commercial returns, it enables... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Economy; Investment Return; Service Operations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Poverty

Citation

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September 2016
Case

Health Leads: Reaching for Impact (Abridged)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Sarah Appleby

A nonprofit in the healthcare arena explores strategies to achieve system-level impact. Founded in 1996 with a volunteer-staffed help desk at Boston Medical Center connecting low-income patients with basic resources like heating assistance, job training, and childcare... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Social Enterprise; Scaling Social Impact; Health Care Delivery; Health Care Outcomes; Health Care Reform; Nonprofit; Nonprofit Scaling; Social Enterprise; Health Care and Treatment; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; United States

Citation

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23 May 2019
Book

These Entrepreneurs Take a Pragmatic Approach to Solving Social Problems

In 1908, Harvard Business School’s first dean, Edwin Francis Gay, welcomed the School’s inaugural class of 59 students by saying that HBS was challenged with encouraging its students to have the “intellectual respect for business as a profession, with the social... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Green Technology

August 1986 (Revised February 1991)
Supplement

Population Services International: The Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh, Video

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Population Services International, a not-for-profit agency founded to promote family planning information and to market birth control products, had an agreement with the government of Bangladesh to conduct a social marketing program using modern marketing techniques to... View Details

Keywords: Social Marketing; Health; Advertising; Marketing; Nonprofit Organizations; Government and Politics; Agreements and Arrangements; Health Industry; Bangladesh

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28 May 2012
Research & Ideas

A Pragmatic Alternative for Creating a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy

Thousands of large, profitable companies have all the right intentions of giving back to society—and yet a sizable number of them have corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs that provide little benefit to either the community or... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman