Publications

18 Aug 2022
Op-Ed

Your Best Employees Are Burning Out: A Framework for Retaining Talent

bolstered through strong union protection. Plus, employers were focused on maintaining a more competitive minimum wage, making sure their employees could actually live on these paychecks, and ensuring the amount increased with inflation. All of these View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson and MaShon Wilson

19 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

dedicated to environmental sustainability with a broad social vision. Q: How much does the industry influence our notions of beauty, and how much do accepted or popular notions of beauty influence product development? A: The human desire... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics

October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

KOKO Networks: Bridging Energy Transition and Affordability with Carbon Financing

By: George Serafeim, Siko Sikochi and Namrata Arora

The problem was massive: two million hectares of African forests were lost annually to charcoal production for cooking, an area equivalent to 13 times Greater London, resulting in one billion tons of carbon emissions yearly. At the same time, an estimated 700,000... View Details

Keywords: Clean Tech; Digital; Carbon Credits; Carbon Offsetting; Climate Change; Entrepreneurship; Energy Sources; Environmental Sustainability; Health; Market Design; Business Startups; Transition; Environmental Regulation; Policy; Energy Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Africa; Kenya; Rwanda

10 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 10

patterns with the calorie labeling present. These findings highlight the potential importance of portion control interventions that specifically activate consumers' self-control. Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

06 May 2021
HBS Case

How Four Women Made Miami More Equitable for Startups

Despite widespread investment in entrepreneurship in cities across America, venture capital-funded startups still tend to be founded by white men in Silicon Valley. In contrast, businesses led by women are 63 percent less likely to... View Details

Keywords: by Carolyn DiPaolo

25 Aug 2014
HBS Case

Starbucks Reinvented

Administration. "As a brand, leadership, and entrepreneurship scholar, I've been dogging Starbucks for a long time." On a 1995 trip to Seattle, Koehn visited a Starbucks store for the first time and was struck by what she saw... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

05 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

How Anchor Investors Help Impact Funds Succeed

so-called impact funds, or funds that hope to create positive social or environmental impact. In Anchors Aweigh: Analysis of Anchor Limited Partner Investors in Impact Investment Funds, the authors describe anchors as “generally the first... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

17 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 17

research had taken root. Over the past 35 years, examination of social and environmental influences on creativity has become increasingly vigorous, with broad implications for the psychology of human performance, and with applications to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2024
Case

From “BIG” Ideas to Sustainable Impact at ICL Group (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

In the summer of 2023, Eduard (“Eddie”) Croitoru, Vice President (VP) of ICL Group (“ICL”) Corporate Initiatives, was reflecting on ICL’s internal ideation program, the Business Innovation for Growth (BIG) Accelerator. When Raviv Zoller became the CEO of ICL in 2018,... View Details

21 Jun 2017
Book

Meet the Oddball Entrepreneurs Who Invented Green Businesses

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Green Technology

September 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Algramo

By: Michael Chu, Monica Silva and Mariana Cal

Founded in 2013 by José Manuel Moller in Chile, Algramo first became known for addressing the “poverty tax” (the surcharge paid by lower income families for staples sold in smaller sizes) through specially-designed dispensers in low-income neighborhood grocery stores... View Details

Keywords: Packaging-as-a-wallet; Plastic Waste; Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Reusable Packaging; Alliances With FMCGs To Meet ESG Goals; Social Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Value Creation; Goals and Objectives; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Latin America; South America; Chile

November 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

'Care in Every Drop': Ayala Corporation and Manila Water (A)

By: Debora L. Spar, Paul Healy, Tricia Peralta and Julia M. Comeau

Since 1834, eight generations of the Ayala family have used their conglomerate to fund nation-building projects in the Philippines, including investments in tramcars, telecommunications, hospitals, and schools. In 1997, Ayala’s subsidiary, Manila Water, took control of... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Economic Growth; Social Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Natural Resources; Crisis Management; Failure; Privatization; Social Issues; Urban Development; Adaptation; Public Opinion; Mission and Purpose; Utilities Industry; Asia; Philippines

26 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 26

paper integrates the role of entrepreneurship and firms into debates on why Asia, Latin America, and Africa were slow to catch up with the West following the Industrial Revolution and the advent of modern economic growth. It argues that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2013 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Carbon Engineering

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Sid Misra

Dr. David Keith, President of Carbon Engineering, a company based in Calgary, Alberta, is commercializing a technology to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. The company plans to market the captured CO2 to produce low carbon transportation fuels in... View Details

10 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

How to Get Companies to Make Investments That Benefit Everyone

activity and put in place collective governance. By contrast, Nagle argues, the Amazon rainforest is subject to control by a gatekeeper—Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, who must weigh national politics with environmental protections... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

January 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Elon Musk at Tesla

By: George Serafeim and Amram Migdal

This case gives an overview of Elon Musk’s career arc through the lens of the 2003 founding of Tesla and its growth through 2022. Background information is included on Tesla’s unique strategic decisions, its operational and reputational struggles and successes, and the... View Details

January 2022 (Revised January 2024)
Case

ReNew Power: Leading the Energy Transition in India

By: Gunnar Trumbull and Malini Sen

Founder-CEO of one of India’s largest clean energy companies, ReNew Power, which develops, builds, and operates utility-scale wind and solar energy projects, has to decide the way forward for the company as the country and the world stand poised at the cusp of an... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Energy Sources; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Forecasting and Prediction; Trends; Transformation; Private Ownership; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; India; Asia