Publications

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Operational Effectiveness vs. Strategy - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

operational improvements have often been dramatic. Yet many companies have failed to translate those gains into sustainable profitability. Simply improving operational... View Details

01 Jun 2018
News

Sustaining HBS’s Unique Economic Model

School relies on philanthropic revenue from past and current giving to fund over a quarter of its operating expenses. The HBS endowment, built over decades with gifts from alumni and friends, provides crucial funds in the form of an... View Details

2024
Working Paper

Second- versus Third-party Audit Quality: Evidence from Global Supply Chain Monitoring

By: Maria R. Ibanez, Ashley Palmarozzo, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Capitalizing on the superior credibility and flexibility and potential lower cost of external assessments, many global buyers are relying less on their own employee (“second-party”) auditors and more on third-party auditors to monitor and prevent environmental and... View Details

Keywords: Auditing; Audit Quality; Working Conditions; Sustainability; Empirical Operations; Empirical Service Operations; Sustainability Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain Management

SSRN

2019
Working Paper

Improving Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Role of Institutional Environments and Monitoring Program Design

By: Jodi L. Short, Michael W. Toffel and Andrea R. Hugill

Activism seeking to improve labor conditions in global supply chains has led transnational corporations to adopt codes of conduct and monitor suppliers for compliance, but it is unclear whether these formal organizational structures raise labor standards. Drawing on... View Details

SSRN

August 2020
Article

Improving Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Role of Institutional Environments and Monitoring Program Design

By: Jodi L. Short, Michael W. Toffel and Andrea R. Hugill

Activism seeking to improve labor conditions in global supply chains has led many transnational corporations to adopt codes of conduct and monitor suppliers for compliance. Drawing on thousands of audits conducted by a major social auditor, we identify structural... View Details

Keywords: Monitoring; Supplier Relationship; Sustainability; Sustainability Management; Sustainable Operations; Sustainable Supply Chains; NGO; Operations; Supply Chain Management; Governance Compliance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Global Range; Working Conditions

2003
Chapter

Designing Sustainability at BMW Group: The Designworks/USA Experience

By: Michael W. Toffel, Natalie Hill and Kellie McElhaney

This case study describes how an industrial design company developed a Sustainability Management System (SMS) standard, designed and implemented an SMS throughout its business, and then became the first company in the world to achieve third-party SMS certification. The... View Details

Keywords: Design; Governance Compliance; Management Practices and Processes; Standards; Environmental Sustainability; United States

2008
Case

Nike Considered: Getting Traction on Sustainability

By: Rebecca Henderson, C. Reavis, R. Locke and C. Liddy

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Product Design; Environmental Sustainability; Apparel and Accessories Industry

2012
Working Paper

Got Local Food? Understanding the Fresh Produce Supply Chain

By: Baris Ata, Deishin Lee and Mustafa H. Tongarlak

Keywords: Sustainability; Local Food; Operations Management; Local Range; Supply Chain; Environmental Sustainability; Food and Beverage Industry

September 2014
Article

The New Heretics: Hybrid Organizations and the Challenges they Present to Corporate Sustainability

By: Nardia Haigh and Andrew J. Hoffman

Corporate sustainability has become mainstream; reaching into all areas of business management. Yet despite this progress, large-scale social and ecological issues continue to worsen. In this article, we examine how corporate sustainability has been enacted as a... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Mission and Purpose

Find at Harvard

11 Jun 2015
News

Leading the way in sustainable style

pro-environmental policies are not only a social good, she says. They are also money savers that helped Esquel weather the economic downturn. Now she wants to share her company’s successful strategies with the industry through View Details

2012
Chapter

Sustainable Cities: Oxymoron or the Shape of the Future?

By: Robert G. Eccles, Annissa Alusi, Amy C. Edmondson and Tiona Zuzul

Two trends are likely to define the 21st century: threats to the sustainability of the natural environment and dramatic increases in urbanization. This paper reviews the goals, business models, and partnerships involved in eight early "ecocity" projects to begin to... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; City; Urban Development; Infrastructure; Housing; Urban Scope; Business Ventures; Business Model; Green Technology Industry

In the latest paper for the Initiative on 21st Century Capitalism, Rebecca Henderson and Karthik Ramanna, professors at Harvard, look to business leaders to ask the important question: Do managers have a role to play in sustaining free and fair capitalism? The... View Details

2010
Working Paper

Sustainable Cities: Oxymoron or the Shape of the Future?

By: Annissa Alusi, Robert G. Eccles, Amy C. Edmondson and Tiona Zuzul

Two trends are likely to define the 21st century: threats to the sustainability of the natural environment and dramatic increases in urbanization. This paper reviews the goals, business models, and partnerships involved in eight early "ecocity" projects to begin to... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Investment; City; Infrastructure; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Urban Development; Information Technology; Green Technology Industry; Real Estate Industry

06 May 2022
Blog Post

Career Advice: Starting a Sustainable Startup

Career Advice: Starting a Sustainable Startup Tell us a little about what you were doing before HBS and what brought you to HBS. I’ve always found myself drawn to working on products and services that can have a positive impact on the... View Details

11 Sep 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Chief Sustainability Officers: Who Are They and What Do They Do?

Keywords: by Kathleen Miller & George Serafeim

04 Jan 2021
News

How Do We Sustain Organization Diversity?

2022
Chapter

Sustainability Science and Corporate Cleanup in Community Fields: The Translation, Resistance and Integration Process Model

By: P. Devereaux Jennings, Maggie Cascadden and Andrew J. Hoffman

Both practically and theoretically, the sustainability science and corporate operation perspectives often diverge. Overcoming this divergence requires some degree of engagement with organizational field members; not just negotiation, but on-the-ground process work to... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Business Processes; Science-Based Business; Research

March 2007 (Revised April 2007)
Case

McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Jessica Droste Yagan

McDonald's seeks to learn from a successful response to Greenpeace's Amazon deforestation campaign in order to make its supply chain more socially and environmentally responsible. View Details

Keywords: Food; Supply Chain Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Management Systems; Food and Beverage Industry

Educators