Social Protest - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

How Systemic Racism Can Threaten National Security

the social apparatus may not work well because of discrimination." “The government and the bureaucracy and the social apparatus may not work well because of discrimination,” he says. “The state might be in... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

25 Jan 2017
HBS Case

How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?

Stay beautiful”—went viral on social media in 2013. (See illustration below) Campaign ad featuring Indian actress Nandita Das protesting skin-lightening creams. Source: Women of Worth, courtesy Rohit... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Beauty & Cosmetics

04 Apr 2022
What Do You Think?

As Disney Board Chair, What Would You Advise CEO Bob Chapek Regarding 'Don’t Say Gay'?

parks—responsible for spreading “pixie dust” for Disney’s “guests”—were supporters of these groups. Within Disney, employees were protesting on social media and organizing walkouts from company theme parks... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

13 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

just one of four Black CEOs leading a Fortune 500 company. Frazier is also outspoken, having resigned from President Trump’s American Manufacturing Council to make a clear statement against “hatred, bigotry and group supremacy” that surfaced in View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Pharmaceutical

30 Apr 2020
Book

Fighting Climate Change Requires a New Capitalism

Rebecca Henderson spent her young adult years living two lives. At work, she preached the risks of resisting change to MBA students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, drawing on lessons she learned while watching factories close as a management consultant.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Energy

08 Sep 2008
HBS Case

The Value of Environmental Activists

There are many methods, most financial, to measure the success of companies in meeting goals. But the question becomes a lot harder at Harvard Business School when MBAs are challenged to measure the efforts of environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the World... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

02 Mar 2021
HBS Case

The Tulsa Massacre: Is Racial Justice Possible 100 Years Later?

American history, yet descendants of residents harmed by the attack note that government officials have never made reparations for those killed or for homes and businesses that were destroyed. The killing of George Floyd by a police officer last summer and the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

02 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

Negotiating in Three Dimensions

intellectual property, or getting Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland to come to terms. By spending intensive time with these great negotiators, writing cases on their most challenging deals, and relentlessly probing their... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

17 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 17

under the Rug: How Unethical Actions Lead to Forgetting of Moral Rules Authors:Lisa L. Shu and Francesca Gino Publication:Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (in press) Abstract Dishonest behavior can have various psychological... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

22 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

When Protestors Knock at Your Door

LaMure (HBS MBA '02), is that targeted corporate executives who decide to ignore NGO protests do so at their own peril. Spar and LaMure recently detailed the rising power of NGOs and corporate responses in "The Power of Activism:... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

20 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

How Consumers Value Global Brands

Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984, the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, the outcry over Shell's plan to sink its Brent Spar oil rig and the protests at its Nigerian facilities in 1995—people have become convinced that global brands have a special... View Details

Keywords: by Douglas B. Holt, John A. Quelch & Earl L. Taylor

24 May 2004
Research & Ideas

The Watsons: IBM’s Troubled Legacy

humor in the idea of the man they labeled "a dirty Talmud Jew," lodged a protest with the State Department, and refused to participate in the festivities. The IBM is not merely an organization of men; it is an institution that... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow

08 Jan 2007
Research & Ideas

Who Rises to Power in American Business?

century, social networks played a significant role in who had access to power in business. Social networks were defined by who you were (your race and gender), where you were born, what religion you... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

The Legacy of Boaty McBoatface: Beware of Customers Who Vote

McBoatface. Overruling the public’s wishes, NERC named the craft after British naturalist Sir David Attenborough. The public was outraged; newspaper editorials decried the lack of democracy, and citizens protested the unfairness of it all... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

17 Feb 2015
HBS Case

HBS Cases: The Battle for San Francisco

celebrate. The influx of wealthier professionals has driven up housing costs, increased the pace of gentrification, and threatened the city's rich racial and socioeconomic diversity. Tensions came to a head in December 2013, when a group of angry View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

19 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 19

met to debate how to engage the unprecedented protests against Vladimir Putin's corrupt government, which had erupted in Russia in response to alleged fraud in the recent parliamentary elections. A notable figure in the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

Professional Networks in China and America

because American managers typically separate their social and work lives, possibly reflecting the influence of the Protestant work ethic tradition of separating the personal from the professional. Chinese... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

The Negotiator’s Secret: More Than Merely Effective

Palestinians, Bosnian Muslims and the Serbs, or Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. Partisan perceptions can easily become self-fulfilling prophecies. Experiments testing the effects of teachers' expectations of students,... View Details

Keywords: by James K. Sebenius

15 Feb 2012
Op-Ed

Occupy Wall Street Protestors Have a Point

because its benefits are not distributed widely. That is what our business leaders said—and that seems to be what the protesters are saying as well. Rather than dismiss them for not being able to understand or provide solutions for the... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower, Herman B. Leonard & Lynn S. Paine

04 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 4

activists (e.g., social movement organizations vs. religious groups and activist investors) rely on dissimilar tactics (e.g., boycotts and protests vs. lawsuits and proxy votes). Further, we show how View Details