Publications

2022
Working Paper

ESG: Hyperboles and Reality

By: George Serafeim

ESG has rapidly become a household name leading to both confusion about what it means and creating unrealistic expectations about its effects. In this paper, I draw on more than a decade of research to dispel several myths about ESG and provide answers to important... View Details

Keywords: ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Disclosure; ESG Reporting; ESG Ratings; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Performance; Corporate Disclosure; Reports

SSRN

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The ABCs of Addressing Climate Change (From a Business Perspective)

It's Climate Week in New York City. The schedule features a UN Climate Summit, a People's Climate March, the Clinton Global Initiative, substantial criticism of the whole endeavor, and plenty of agitated interaction. There is a lot of noise here. How can businesses cut... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Energy; Utilities

05 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

The Changing Face of American Innovation

declining thereafter. During this period, English and European contributions declined somewhat in magnitude. “Recent trends may be a warning flag.” The increased contribution by Asian ethnicities is evident within many institutions,... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Technology

July 1996 (Revised August 2017)
Case

Continuous Casting Investments at USX Corporation

By: Clayton Christensen

Focuses on the difficulty established companies face when confronted with disruptive technological innovations. The power that their prior asset investments, their cost structures, and their customers have in constraining their investment and innovation decisions are... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Assets; Cost; Investment; Technological Innovation; Problems and Challenges; Mining Industry; Real Estate Industry

Editorial

ESG Returns Eventually Will Win Over Critics

By: George Serafeim

Keywords: ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Reporting; Sustainability; Change; Change Management; Innovation; Environment; Climate Change; Sustainable Finance; Investment

May 1, 2020
Article

COVID-19’s Hard Lessons Might Prepare Business for Climate Change

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Danielle Kost

The coronavirus pandemic caught the business world by surprise, but the catastrophe might force companies to face a crisis that has been unfolding in plain sight: climate change.
We asked faculty members affiliated with the Business and Environment Initiative at... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability

Guest Column

In This Corner, DJSI; and in This Corner, Materiality. Ding!

By: Robert G. Eccles and Tim Youmans

Keywords: Sustainability Reporting; Integrated Corporate Reporting

19 Feb 2019
News

Bank Boards: What Has Changed Since the Financial Crisis?

26 May 2015
Blog Post

5 Ways the Case Method Changes How You Learn

The case method is a staple of the HBS MBA experience. Pioneered by our faculty, we think it’s the best way to prepare our students for the challenges of leadership. So how does it work? And how does it View Details

September 1991
Case

Rethinking the Corporate Workplace: Case Managers at Mutual Benefit Life

By: Robert G. Eccles Jr.

In early 1991, a spirit of innovation and organizational change was in the air at Mutual Benefit Life, with the success of the new "case manager" program its most concrete manifestation. Using powerful computer workstations, case managers could see insurance... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technological Innovation; Change Management; Information Technology; Insurance; Human Resources; Insurance Industry

2002
Book

Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

By: Rakesh Khurana

Corporate CEOs are headline news. Stock prices rise and fall at word of their hiring and firing. Business media debate their merits and defects as if individual leaders determined the health of the economy. Yet we know surprisingly little about how CEOs are selected... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Selection and Staffing; Personal Characteristics; Experience and Expertise; Investment Activism; Corporate Strategy

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May 2015
Teaching Note

Aviva Investors

By: George Serafeim

Keywords: Responsibility; Responsibilities To Society; Sustainability; Sustainability Reporting; Corporate Social Responsibility; Corporate Sustainability; Activist Investors; Investment Management; Investment Strategy; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Environmental Sustainability; Investment Activism

03 Nov 2021
Blog Post

Alumni Viewpoints: Confronting the Climate Change Challenge

question: The data and analysis in the latest IPCC report amplified the reality that climate change is widespread, rapidly intensifying, and attributable to human activity. It... View Details

November 2018
Case

Governance Transition at Anadolu Group

By: Paul M. Healy and Esel Y. Cekin

Kamil Yazici and Izzet Ozilhan founded and built Anadolu Group Holding—a family business that grew into a multi-billion-dollar regional powerhouse. For 57 years they were equal partners in running the company. They then handed over a leadership role to a next... View Details

January 2018
Case

Environmental Technology Fund Partners and E-Leather

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Aldo Sesia

It is 2014 and Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF) Partners, a UK-based venture capital firm, has an opportunity to invest in a privately held UK company that manufactured engineered composition leather extracted from waste leather using an environmentally friendly... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Venture Capital; Investment Strategy; Investment; Strategy; Ownership; Valuation; Energy Conservation; Equity; Technological Innovation; Environmental Sustainability; Performance Efficiency; Manufacturing Industry; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

November 2012
Case

Hillary Clinton & Partners: Leading Global Social Change from the U.S. State Department

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

As U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton acted on a long-standing interest in public-private partnerships to elevate and activate an Office of Global Partnerships reporting directly to her. One major initiative that also addressed her interest in women's... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Partnerships; Global Collaboration; Innovation; Leadership; Leading Change

20 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Fixing Corporate Governance: A Roundtable Discussion at Harvard Business School

With corporate America rocked by revelations of conflict of interest, malfeasance, negligence, and greed, a group of HBS professors recently gathered to review the current crisis. Is it a case of dé jà vu or... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

2022
Book

Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies

By: Ranjay Gulati

This book offers a compelling reassessment and defense of purpose as a management ethos, documenting the vast performance gains and social benefits that become possible when firms manage to get purpose right. Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Performance Effectiveness; Organizational Culture

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