Impact Accounting - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2025
Article

Limited Accountability and Awareness of Corporate Emissions Target Outcomes

By: Xiaoyan Jiang, Shawn Kim and Shirley Lu

Firms are increasingly announcing targets to reduce their carbon emissions, but it is unclear whether firms are held accountable for these targets. Here we examine emissions targets that ended in 2020 to investigate the final target outcomes, the transparency of target... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Goals and Objectives; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Accountability; Environmental Sustainability; Public Opinion

Citation

Read Now

01 Mar 2013
News

Sizing Up Social Impact

Ebrahim is delineating a framework that takes into account the inherent uncertainty and complexity of measuring results in the social sector. EBRAHIM: The hard work of measuring impact becomes easier... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Crop Production; Agriculture; Administration of Economic Programs; Government; Administration of Housing Programs, Urban Planning, and Community Development; Government; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities

10 May 2023
Video

Driving Climate Performance Through Accountability and Governance

01 Jan 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Lobbying Behavior of Governmental Entities: Evidence from Public Pension Accounting Rules

Keywords: by Abigail M. Allen & Reining Petacchi

Web

Financial Accounting Online Course | HBS Online

Equation Accounting Principles and Rules Formal Definitions of Accounting Terms Featured Exercise Demonstrate how different transactions impact the View Details

03 Sep 2020
News

How to Measure a Company’s Real Impact

03 Oct 2019
News

At Harvard B-School, lessons for impact investors

21 Dec 2012
News

Robert G. Eccles recognized for impact on corporate governance

March 2021 (Revised January 2023)
Background Note

The Pandemic's Impact on the U.S. Food System

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

This note is intended not as a comprehensive account but as a starting point for discussion about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. food system. Written in late 2020, the note describes, in part through the voices of industry leaders, how the pandemic... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Agribusiness; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Leadership; Change Management; Safety; Health; Health Pandemics; Disruption; Adaptation; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Transportation Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

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Online Finance & Accounting Courses | HBS Online

Certificate Courses (5) Financial Accounting Professor V.G. Narayanan In this accounting fundamentals course, discover what's behind the numbers in financial statements, such as balance sheets and income... View Details

19 Aug 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Globalization of Corporate Environmental Disclosure: Accountability or Greenwashing?

Keywords: by Christopher Marquis & Michael W. Toffel

13 Jul 2020
News

Roles Foundations Play in Shaping Impact Investing

Article

Management Accounting and Control: Lessons for and from the World's Tiniest Businesses

By: Srikant M. Datar, Marc J. Epstein and Kristi Yuthas

The article discusses skills microentrepreneurs need to manage and expand their businesses. After interviewing hundreds of microfinance clients around the globe, the authors were able to identify five tools drawn from management accounting where improved knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Expansion; Business or Company Management; Microfinance; Cost Management; Risk Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Accounting; Opportunities

Citation

Find at Harvard

01 Mar 2017
News

Students Forecast Climate Change’s Impact

14.5% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions are a result of livestock, and beef and dairy production account for 65% of livestock emissions.” Fix: Give Up Beef. “Given Shake Shack’s position as a mission-driven and fast-growing brand, and... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

Web

Our Team - Social Impact Collaboratory

Our Team Our Team Principal Investigators Shawn Cole John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration Shawn Cole is a professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches and conducts research on financial services, social enterprise, and View Details

28 Oct 2020
News

Harvard Business School Collaborates on Impact Investing Data Collection

Research Summary

Of Measurement and Mission: Accounting for Performance in Non-Governmental Organizations

By: Debora L. Spar

As members of civil society NGOs would seem to have a built-in proclivity towards representation: towards working on behalf of some group of people, or toward some specific goal. Yet in practice such moments of accountability are rare. Unlike other social agents,... View Details

14 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Measuring Social Impact

potential for real gain in building trusting, transparent relationships with donors. Accountability isn't a one-way street, either. The downward pressure on nonprofits to demonstrate results and impact puts... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

05 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

How Anchor Investors Help Impact Funds Succeed

so-called impact funds, or funds that hope to create positive social or environmental impact. In Anchors Aweigh: Analysis of Anchor Limited Partner Investors in Impact Investment Funds, the authors describe... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

2021
Working Paper

Corporate Environmental Impact: Measurement, Data and Information

By: David Freiberg, DG Park, George Serafeim and T. Robert Zochowski

As an organization’s environmental impact has become a central societal consideration, thereby affecting industry and organizational competitiveness, interest in measuring and analyzing environmental impact has increased. We develop a methodology to derive comparable... View Details