Publications

2011
Book

The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steve J. Kramer

The most effective managers have the ability to build a cadre of employees who have great inner work lives-consistently positive emotions; strong motivation; and favorable perceptions of the organization, their work, and their colleagues. The worst managers undermine... View Details

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May 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Background Note

Social Enterprise in Latin America

By: Brian L. Trelstad and Karina Souza

This research note provides an overview of the social enterprise ecosystem in Latin America, exploring current dynamics across key markets, including country-specific insights on Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Central America. In a region characterized... View Details

2016
Article

The Dynamic Componential Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations: Making Progress, Making Meaning

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Michael G. Pratt

Leveraging insights gained through a burgeoning research literature over the past 28 years, this paper presents a significant revision of the model of creativity and innovation in organizations published in Research in Organizational Behavior in 1988. This... View Details

Keywords: Progress; Meaningful Work; Affect; Creativity; Organizations; Innovation and Invention; Motivation and Incentives

September 2010 (Revised January 2016)
Case

Grameen Danone Foods Ltd., a Social Business

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee

Grameen Danone is a joint venture between the Grameen Group (a sister company of Grameen Bank) and Groupe Danone, a $2 billion (revenues) French food company. The company's goal was to provide nutritional yogurt (brand name Shoktidoi) for the nearly 50 million... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Food; Distribution; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry; Bangladesh; France

2007
Book

From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession

By: Rakesh Khurana

Is management a profession? Should it be? Can it be? This major work of social and intellectual history reveals how such questions have driven business education and shaped American management and society for more than a century. The book is also a call for reform.... View Details

Keywords: Social History; Business Education; Moral Sensibility; Profit; Leadership; Managerial Roles; United States

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01 Jun 2009
News

Social Enterprise Visionary

retirement as chair of the SEI Advisory Board last January, Whitehead, who will stay on as chair emeritus, noted, “I am very proud of what the School has accomplished with the Social Enterprise Initiative. The View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Social Assistance; Social Assistance; Social Assistance; Social Assistance

July 2015
Article

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Investment Recommendations: Analysts' Perceptions and Shifting Institutional Logics

By: Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

We explore the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings on sell-side analysts' assessments of firms' future financial performance. We suggest that when analysts perceive CSR as an agency cost, due to the prevalence of an agency logic, they produce... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Analysts; Investment Recommendations; Sustainability; Institutional Logics; Environment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Corporate Governance; United States

Fall, 2024
Article

Sixty Years of the Voting Rights Act: Progress and Pitfalls

By: Andrea Bernini, Giovanni Facchini, Marco Tabellini and Cecilia Testa

We review the literature on the effects of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA), which removed formal restrictions to Black political participation. After a brief description of racial discrimination suffered by Black Americans since Reconstruction, we introduce the goals... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Equality and Inequality; Race; Political Elections; Voting; Policy; Outcome or Result; Government Legislation

August 2009 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Whole Foods: Balancing Social Mission and Growth

By: Christopher Marquis, Marya Besharov and Bobbi Thomason

In 2009, Whole Foods stands at a crossroads. Their incredible growth over the past 25 years has vaulted them into the ranks of the largest US supermarkets and they have arguably led to the widespread acceptance of natural and organic foods in the United States. Yet... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; United States

Web

Your Social Entrepreneurship checklist | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Innovation + Change Initiative is a rigorous co-curricular program for change-makers committed to addressing pressing social problems in new and creative ways. The Fellowship... View Details

11 Sep 2014
News

Who Really Benefits from Social Security’s Cost-of-Living Index? Depends How Long You Live

07 May 2014
Video

2014 G&WS: Belle Derks Presents "The Queen Bee Phenomenon: Why Do Senior Women Sometimes Work Against the Progress of Their Female Subordinates?"

Web

Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Meaningful progress on complex social issues depends in part on the entrepreneurial ideas and energy of the next generation. In recent years, we have seen a sustained increase in HBS students launching View Details

May 14, 2014
Editorial

In Terms of Social Progress, America Is Not #1—It's #16

By: Michael E. Porter

As Americans, we like to think of ourselves as a world leader. After all, the United States has the largest economy in the world and is near the very top in GDP per capita. We are used to thinking that we lead on social issues like education, access to information, and... View Details

Keywords: Society

01 Mar 2013
News

Sizing Up Social Impact

nonprofit leaders today," says Associate Professor Alnoor Ebrahim, a member of the School's General Management Unit and Social Enterprise Initiative who focuses on the challenges of performance management, accountability, and governance... 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

2021
Working Paper

The Changing Role of Business in Society

By: Michael E. Porter

Business interaction with the U.S. government, historically based on securing industry or company special interests at the expense of the public good, has enabled and furthered government dysfunction. Gridlock within the American political system has precluded the... View Details