Publications

January 2024
Technical Note

The ICARUS Principles: What It Takes to Tackle the World

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

Over the course of the 20th century, most of the world’s major multinational corporations framed their mission around Milton Friedman’s famous mantra: that the sole purpose of the firm is to maximize its shareholders’ profits. Recently, however, growing numbers of... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Mission; Social Business; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; For-Profit Firms

Research Summary

Papers in progress

“The ‘Carbon Club’: Oil Companies, Climate Change & the Shaping of Public Policy”. Conspiracy theories abound, but the roles of the major oil companies in influencing public policy on climate change remain largely obscure. This... View Details

August 2018
Case

Christine Lagarde (C): Managing the IMF

By: Julie Battilana and Carin-Isabel Knoop

This case covers the career of Christine Lagarde from 2011 to 2018 as she takes the helm of a troubled multilateral organization during a time of deepening economic turmoil. As the first female leader of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and as a non-economist,... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Change Management; Global Range; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Climate Change

Research Summary

Professor Hiatt’s research is aimed at discovering how institutional factors can affect sector growth and technology development and adoption by mediating and moderating uncertainty. His work encompasses two related research questions:

1) How can... View Details

10 Jul 2023
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2023

What books are HBS faculty members reading this summer—and are certain publications especially meaningful to them? Turns out, faculty are interested in a variety of topics, everything from exploring spirituality and confronting View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

10 Jan 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Pay for Environmental Performance: The Effect of Incentive Provision on Carbon Emissions

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles, Ioannis Ioannou, Shelley Xin Li & George Serafeim

September 2024
Case

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

By: Meg Rithmire, Hong Zhang and Salaar A. Shaikh

Since the launch of CPEC, two of Pakistan’s Prime Ministers had been removed from office, one by the Supreme Court and the other in a no confidence vote. Historic floods had underscored the country’s vulnerability to climate change, and the country had agreed to two... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics; Climate Change; Financing and Loans; Government Administration; International Relations; Political Elections; Projects; China; Pakistan

June 10, 2021
Article

How to Be a Purpose-Driven Leader in a Capitalist World

By: Celia Bravard, John Pontillo and Andrew J. Hoffman

Today’s business school education isn’t suited to the big challenges facing the world — climate change, economic inequality and racial injustice — that the leaders of tomorrow will be expected to solve. So, how can students and young professionals succeed in a system... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Mission and Purpose; Social Issues; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Opportunities

Read Now

09 Aug 2010
Research & Ideas

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

hopelessness around climate change and making a major shift to clean energy. A: Technically, it's not hopeless at all. We've hardly started to invest in energy innovation.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

28 Jun 2016
First Look

June 28, 2016

Abstract—Several CEOs are receiving significant media attention for taking public positions on controversial social and environmental issues largely unrelated to their core business, ranging from LGBT rights to race relations to gender... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2021 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Green Hydrogen in Chile

By: Tarun Khanna, Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

In 2020, the Chilean government wants to promote green hydrogen, a technology with high potential to help mitigate climate change. President Sebastián Piñera, aware of the country's advantages to produce green hydrogen competitively, asks Energy Minister Juan Carlos... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Decision Making; Alternative Energy; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Financial Instruments; Energy Policy; Government Administration; Strategy; Government and Politics; Social Issues; Energy Industry; Latin America; South America; Chile

Web

HBS Working Knowledge – Harvard Business School Faculty Research

smiling and nodding toward the speaker. Research by Alison Wood Brooks, Hanne Collins, and colleagues reveals just how prone the mind is to wandering, and sheds light on ways... View Details

September 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Fast Ion Battery

By: Ramana Nanda, Robert F. White and Stephanie Puzio

John Davidson, a partner at Ware Street Capital (WSC) and a board member at Fast Ion Battery, had just received a phone call from Don Lerner at Bluelock Ventures telling him that Bluelock would not participate in the $5M bridge financing for Fast Ion Battery. Lerner's... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Real Options; Term Sheets; Clean Technology; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital

2021
Book

Management as a Calling: Leading Business, Serving Society

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Business leaders have tremendous power to influence our society, how it operates, whether it is fair, and the extent to which it impacts the environment. And yet, we do not recognize or call out the responsibility that comes with that power. This book is meant to... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Power and Influence; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Leadership

18 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Will Global Demand for Oil Peak This Decade?

Is the globe’s thirst for oil finally topping out? A major international energy watcher says yes, predicting last month that demand for global oil for transport will peak around 2026, plateau for all uses by 2028, and possibly hit a zenith by the end of the decade.... View Details

Keywords: by Alvin Powell, Harvard Gazette; Energy; Industrial Products; Auto; Green Technology

12 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: Strength in Numbers

particular climate change. Responses to climate change pit energy providers and manufacturers—for whom the costs of adjustment are likely to be... View Details

Keywords: Re: Gunnar Trumbull

March 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

H2 Green Steel: A Clean-Tech Triple Play?

By: Debora L. Spar, Gunnar Trumbull, Henry Tao and Julia Comeau

At the end of 2023, the Swedish startup H2 Green Steel was mid-way through construction on an integrated steel plant in Northern Sweden that would use abundant local hydro power to create Europe’s first commercial-scale green steel. Their goal was to help European... View Details

Keywords: Steel; Green Business; Green Technology; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Startups; Climate Change; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Renewable Energy; Steel Industry; Sweden