Publications

June 2007 (Revised December 2007)
Case

AFL-CIO: Office of Investment and Home Depot

By: Rakesh Khurana and James Weber

Describes the AFL-CIO: Office of Investments activities in their campaign to improve governance at Home Depot by calling attention to Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli's compensation package and the company's poor performance. The AFL-CIO Office of Investments advocates... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Labor Unions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Shareholder Relations

Web

Publications - Faculty & Research

broad range of corporate actions from a nonpecuniary perspective. Our core findings, based on large-scale online surveys, are that (i) self-reported nonpecuniary concerns are large, both for stock... View Details Keywords: Public Opinion ; Corporate Social View Details

May 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Case

Airbnb During the Pandemic: Stakeholder Capitalism Faces a Critical Test

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison Ciechanover

As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Digital Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Service Industry; United States

04 Apr 2008
What Do You Think?

Who Owns Intellectual Property?

remarkable results. But whose work is it? Who owns the result? While pondering these questions, I visited the website of the branding consultancy Wolff Olins, responsible for creating the branding for (RED), which raises money for The... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

March 2022
Case

In Data We Trust: Be Mobile Africa and Furthering Financial Inclusion Across the African Continent

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Pierre Marchesseault

To Cédric Jeannot, leveraging technology to promote financial inclusion was personal. After no established financial institution would accept his technology platform to lower transaction costs for free, Jeannot launched FinTech company Be Mobile Africa in May 2020.... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Fintech; Emerging Market; Fundraising; Financial Inclusion; Strategy; Expansion; Management; Entrepreneurship; Personal Finance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Africa; Togo; Nigeria; Ghana

August 2015
Case

Building an e-Commerce Brand at Wayfair

By: Thales Teixeira and Elizabeth Anne Watkins

Wayfair, Inc. comprised five home goods, furniture, and décor e-commerce brands. Wayfair.com, the main brand, which was responsible for the majority of sales, targeted the mass-middle home-goods market. AllModern, DwellStudio, Joss & Main, and Birch Lane were niche... View Details

14 Dec 2016
HBS Seminar

Siobhan O'Mahony and Rebecca Karp, Boston University

August 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Unifying Divisions: Joro's Mission to Preserve the Planet

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Marilyn Morgan Westner

The case focuses on the initial startup team and Founders’ agreements. In March 2018, Sanchali Pal proposed renegotiating the informal founders’ agreement and equity split she and her co-founders had drafted the previous spring. They had been working together for over... View Details

Keywords: Founders' Agreements; Business Startups; Climate Change; Agreements and Arrangements; Conflict Management

Forest L. Reinhardt is the John D. Black Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and HBS’s Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Promotions and Tenure.

Professor Reinhardt is interested in the relationships between market and nonmarket... View Details

Keywords: agribusiness; agriculture; beverage; biotechnology; chemical; energy; federal government; food; food processing; forest products; nonprofit industry; oil ＆ gas; paper; petroleum; tourism; transportation

November 2014
Case

Nestlé SA, 2014

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2014, Nestlé was the largest producer of packaged foods and beverages in the world. 2013 revenues were $103.7 billion and operating profits $16.1 billion (15.5% of sales). The company owned 29 mega brands, each generating more than Euro 1 billion ($1.25 billion).... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products; Acquisitions; Strategy; Goods and Commodities; Nutrition; Emerging Markets; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

28 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 28

mechanisms of value infusion in the institutionalization of organizations. Publisher's link: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/S0733-558X20150000044011 April 2015 Harvard Business Review The Type of Socially Responsible... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2018 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Morgan Stanley: Building Long-Term Sustainability

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Lynn Schenk

This case focuses on the 10-year journey of one of the world's largest global financial institutions developing a sustainability strategy and integrating it across all of its business units. The case provides a deep dive into the challenges and successes of trying to... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Sustainability; Green Bonds; ESG; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Business Units; Integration; Financial Institutions