Publications

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

October 2017 (Revised October 2022)
Case

JetBlue: Relevant Sustainability Leadership

In 2017, JetBlue, the airline founded on the mission to “bring humanity back to air travel,” was considering becoming one of the first companies to report its sustainability performance according to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards. SASB... View Details

Educators

16 Jul 2020
News

Q&A: Harvard impact investing expert on proposed ESG rule

01 May 2013
News

The Performance Frontier: Innovating for a Sustainable Strategy

2014
Working Paper

Governing Misvalued Firms

By: Dalida Kadyrzhanova and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

Equity overvaluation is thought to create the potential for managerial misbehavior, while monitoring and corporate governance curb misbehavior. We combine these two insights from the literatures on misvaluation and governance to ask, when does governance matter?... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Performance; Corporate Governance

02 Jun 2022
News

Coming Corporate Criminal Liability for ESG Initiatives

01 Jun 2023
News

Bridging the ESG Data Gap

environmental, social, and governance [ESG] performance for long-term value creation.” Murday developed and launched the company in 2020,... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg

Article

Impact-Weighted Financial Accounts: A Paradigm Shift

By: Ethan Rouen and George Serafeim

The last decade has seen an exponential increase in corporate sustainability activities and efforts by investors to use these activities in their portfolio formation, valuation, and stewardship activities. This paper explains the need for a uniform strategy to measure... View Details

Keywords: Impact-Weighted Accounts; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Measurement and Metrics; Standards

Fast Answer

Sustainable investing and ESG resources

regards to ESG), Impact Monitor and Business Involvement Screening Research (BISR) on publically traded companies. S&P Global ESG Scores Environment, social, and View Details

November 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Summa Equity: Building Purpose-Driven Organizations

In 2015, Reynir Indahl left top Nordic private equity firm Altor Equity Partners to found Summa Equity (Summa). After long contemplation following the financial crisis, Indahl was convinced the financial system was producing negative externalities and that the current... View Details

Educators

2022
Book

Purpose + Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World

The roadmap and best practices to reap the enormous value that can emerge when your business prioritizes social and environmental goals—such as climate change, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability—right alongside the pursuit of profit.

We not only... View Details

Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Profitability; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Goals and Objectives; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Value Creation; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Editorial

Companies Must Include Environmental and Social Performance Measures

Keywords: Sustainability; Impact; ESG; Transparency; Accounting

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Governing the Family-Run Business

ideally coordinate their work (we will discuss how later) but they should not overstep into each other's domains. At this point, consider my description of effective governance and assess how well your family enterprise View Details

July–August 2021
Article

Surfacing the Submerged State: Operational Transparency Increases Trust in and Engagement with Government

By: Ryan W. Buell, Ethan Porter and Michael I. Norton

Problem definition: As trust in government reaches historic lows, frustration with government performance approaches record highs. Academic/practical relevance: We propose that in co-productive settings like government services, peoples’ trust and... View Details

Keywords: Government Services; Behavioral Operations; Operational Transparency; Government Administration; Service Operations; Programs; Perception; Attitudes; Behavior; Trust

June 2016
Article

Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation for Corporate Social Responsibility

By: Bryan Hong, Zhichuan (Frank) Li and Dylan B. Minor

We link the corporate governance literature in financial economics to the agency cost perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to derive theoretical predictions about the relationship between corporate governance and the existence of executive compensation... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Incentives For CSR; Non-financial Performance Measures; Agency Costs; Board Independence; Institutional Holdings; Managerial Power; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Executive Compensation; Corporate Governance

October 2018
Supplement

JetBlue: Relevant Sustainability Leadership (B)

By: George Serafeim and David Freiberg

The case outlines JetBlue's decision to disclose according to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards and the ESG metrics they began reporting. Data on resulting changes in institutional ownership are also provided. View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Metrics; Leadership And Change Management; Airlines; Innovation; Purpose; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Sustainability Reporting; Change Management; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Financial Reporting

2022
Working Paper

The Issuance and Design of Sustainability-linked Loans

By: Maria Loumioti and George Serafeim

Sustainability-linked loans (i.e., syndicated loans for which pricing is linked to a sustainability performance indicator) have rapidly evolved into a significant private debt product. We find that sustainability-linked lending has been available mostly to borrowers... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainability Management; Credit Products; Loan Contracts; Loans; Corporate Finance; Credit Risk; Environment; ESG; ESG Ratings; Climate Change; Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Risk and Uncertainty; Credit

SSRN