Publications

Professor Toffel is the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management. His research examines how companies are addressing climate change (especially decarbonization) and other environmental and working condition issues in their operations and supply... View Details

Research Summary

Multinational Enterprises and Corporate Responsibility

By: Nien-he Hsieh

Multinational enterprises, especially those operating in developing economies, face wide-ranging demands to help persons whose basic needs are unmet. Pharmaceutical companies, for example, are asked to provide access to life-saving therapies to patients in countries... View Details

Profile

Jeremy Andrus

the building on skateboards. When there’s overnight snow on the slopes of the nearby Wasatch Range, morning meetings are rolled back to accommodate the quest for fresh powder. And if you happen to visit Skullcandy on... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Consumer Products; Entertainment / Media

December 2001 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Compensation at Level 3 Communications

Level 3's unique compensation plan rewarded managers for the firm's performance only if the firm's stock price movement exceeded that of the market. This design was intended to maximize shareholder value by tying manager's performance more closely to that of the firm,... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits; Telecommunications Industry

Every major company is grappling with the meaning and application of sustainability in relation to its geographic location, industry and business model. Similarly, more and more institutional investors are incorporating sustainability into their... View Details

23 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

The Gulf: It’s a Family Affair

struggled to get twenty-five people to the conference. At that conference the academics and consultants came together and created a professional society called the Family Firm Institute (FFI) to develop professionals in the field. Now, when the FFI View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild & Andrea Schulman

05 Jul 2006
Op-Ed

Corporate Governance Activists are Headed in the Wrong Direction

corporations incorporated in a given state—public or private, big or small—are subject to the same statutory framework. State statutes typically specify plurality selection as the default rule for director elections. Most private-enterprise View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Hinsey

February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

OpenInvest

By: Shawn Cole, Boris Vallée and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolios to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Impact Investing; Investment Portfolio; Customization and Personalization; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Financial Services Industry

July 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Post-Crisis Compensation at Credit Suisse (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

On October 20, 2009, Brady Dougan, the CEO of Credit Suisse Group, announced a new compensation plan for the bank. The announcement had followed quickly on the heels of the G-20 meeting the prior month where, in the wake of the financial crisis, the major governments... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Globalized Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Taxation; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture; Business and Shareholder Relations; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Switzerland; United Kingdom

11 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

The Future of Boards

In discussions that continue to swirl in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the question of corporate governance's role is often front and center. In The Future of Boards: Meeting the Governance Challenges of the Twenty-First Century,... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

08 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

Thinking Twice About Supply-Chain Layoffs

it as an obvious way to cut costs. At Ton's research site, in fact, as at other organizations, a manager's evaluation depended in part on meeting or going below the monthly payroll plan. "Of course managers will err on the side of having... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

23 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 23, 2019

offer opportunities for future research. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=56001 Rehabilitating Corporate Purpose By: Salter, Malcolm S. Abstract—In this paper, I address how the ascendance of the theory of View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

11 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

Strategy Execution and the Balanced Scorecard

strategy and operations (or tactics) are both important but they are different. The normal course of events is for companies to focus on day-to-day operations and short-term problem solving. Management meetings focus on fighting fires and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Profile

Ralph Johnson

Why did you want the MBA? After graduating from Hampton University, I went to work with Accenture—I thought I could work across different functions and industries to find my calling. But I ended up working exclusively in healthcare, and I felt I was View Details

Keywords: Consulting

19 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 19, 2008

penalties for failing to meet the analyst consensus estimate are higher for firms that give quarterly earnings guidance and in the post-SOX period. Our evidence suggests that (i) boards appear to react directly to managers' ability to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Eastern Bank: Innovating Through Eastern Labs

By: Karen Mills, Dennis Campbell and Aaron Mukerjee

Eastern Bank is a 200-year-old New England mutual bank with a community focus. Eastern specializes in small business lending, having made strategic investments to become the top SBA lender in New England in the midst of the Great Recession, when other banks were... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Management