Publications

24 Jul 2017
Research & Ideas

People Have an Irrational Need to Complete 'Sets' of Things

Credit: Martin Barraud Here’s a tip for persuading people to finish more tasks, buy more products, or donate more money: Simply present assignments, requests, or items as arbitrary sets, rather than as individual units. New research... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

13 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

The Tricky Business of Nonprofit Brands

the case of the Red Cross, the negative impact extended to other Red Cross organizations located in Europe that registered a decline in donations even though they had been in no way implicated. Q: You cite a... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

January 2020
Case

SK Group: Social Progress Credits

By: George Serafeim, Ethan Rouen and David Freiberg

SK Group was one of the largest companies South Korea. A family-run conglomerate consisting of around 120 subsidiaries and employing more than 100,000, SK was tightly knit into the fabric of Korean society. SK viewed their future success as contingent upon the strength... View Details

September 2010 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Better World Books

By: Michael I. Norton, Fiona Wilson, Jill Avery and Thomas J. Steenburgh

Better World Books, a young start-up, provides a socially conscious alternative to Amazon, collecting and selling used books to keep them out of the waste stream, while donating a portion of their profits to support global literacy efforts. The case presents an... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Online Technology; Retail Industry

04 Jun 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance

Keywords: by Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, Elizabeth W. Dunn & Jordi Quoidbach

26 Apr 2022
Book

What Does Your Business Stand For? Why Building Trust Starts with Purpose

principles into every aspect of the organization. This purpose serves as a compass to guide all decisions, but also as an operating system that shapes all facets of the business, including its strategy, culture, and its public relations. It enables the View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

Article

Forgoing Earned Incentives to Signal Pure Motives

By: Erika L. Kirgios, Edward H. Chang, Emma E. Levine, Katherine L. Milkman and Judd B. Kessler

Policy makers, employers, and insurers often provide financial incentives to encourage citizens, employees, and customers to take actions that are good for them or for society (e.g., energy conservation, healthy living, safe driving). Although financial incentives are... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Motivation Laundering; Self-signaling; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Perception

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31 Jan 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Behavioral Decision Research, Legislation, and Society: Three Cases

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman

16 Sep 2020
Blog Post

Turning a Moment into a Movement: Interview with Anti-Racism Fund Co-Founders Kenneth and Kevin Chenault

attention. “People we knew were coming to us wanting to know how they could offer support, where they should donate, and how to make an impact, and we were wondering that ourselves,” said Kenneth. “To provide one answer, we decided to start a GoFundMe page that would... View Details

November 1999 (Revised July 2001)
Case

New Profit Inc.: Governing the Nonprofit Enterprise

By: Robert S. Kaplan

New Profit, Inc. (NPI) is an innovative venture philanthropy fund. Founded by social entrepreneur Venessa Kirsch, NPI intends to raise large donations from individuals who wish to invest in nonprofit enterprises that could have a significant social impact and the... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Nonprofit Organizations; Venture Capital; Social Entrepreneurship; Corporate Governance; Performance Evaluation; Financial Statements; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Service Industry

April 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Teaching Note

BuildingBlocks International

BuildingBlocks International (BBI) plans to accomplish its mission to help children in developing countries succeed in school by bringing management expertise to local organizations. Two years after founding BBI, however, the team hasn't figured out exactly how to make... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Developing Countries and Economies; Sales

11 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 11, 2018

markets in organizations. Purchase this case:https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/718487-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 818-130 Feeding America (A) This case describes how Feeding America, the third-largest nonprofit organization in the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

June 2014 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Kathy Giusti and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Joshua D. Margolis and Matthew G. Preble

What do you do when your rising professional career is cut short by an unexpected cancer diagnosis? Kathy Giusti shifted careers, built a new organization that transformed how cancer research is done, and now faces the challenge of sustaining the organization and its... View Details

2019
Working Paper

Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good

By: Karen Huang, Joshua D. Greene and Max Bazerman

The “veil of ignorance” is a moral reasoning device designed to promote impartial decision-making by denying decision-makers access to potentially biasing information about who will benefit most or least from the available options. Veil-of-ignorance reasoning was... View Details

Keywords: Policy-making; Procedural Justice; Ethics; Decision Making; Fairness

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November 26, 2019
Article

Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good

By: Karen Huang, Joshua D. Greene and Max Bazerman

The “veil of ignorance” is a moral reasoning device designed to promote impartial decision-making by denying decision-makers access to potentially biasing information about who will benefit most or least from the available options. Veil-of-ignorance reasoning was... View Details

Keywords: Policy Making; Procedural Justice; Ethics; Decision Making; Policy; Fairness

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The “veil of ignorance” is a moral reasoning device designed to promote impartial decision-making by denying decision-makers access to potentially biasing information about who will benefit most or least from the available options. Veil-of-ignorance reasoning was... View Details

October 2021 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Project Maji: Pricing Water in Sub-Saharan Africa

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Esel Çekin

In July 2021, Sunil Lalvani, founder and CEO of Project Maji, a non-profit social enterprise headquartered in Dubai that had already provided sustainable, clean water solutions to 80,000 people living in rural communities across Ghana and Kenya, was facing an important... View Details

Keywords: Water; Pricing; Nonprofit Organizations; Projects; Price; Decision Making; Social Enterprise; Growth and Development Strategy; Equity; Green Technology; Social and Collaborative Networks; Africa; Dubai

09 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

The Need for (Long) Chains in Kidney Exchange

Keywords: by Itai Ashlagi, David Gamarnik, Michael A. Rees & Alvin E. Roth; Health

2011
Working Paper

Memory Lane and Morality: How Childhood Memories Promote Prosocial Behavior

By: Francesca Gino and Sreedhari D. Desai

Four experiments demonstrated that recalling memories from one's own childhood lead people to experience feelings of moral purity and to behave prosocially. In Experiment 1, participants instructed to recall memories from their childhood were more likely to help the... View Details

Keywords: Judgments; Moral Sensibility; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Organizational Culture; Behavior; Emotions; Personal Characteristics; Welfare