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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(4,934)
- People (21)
- News (961)
- Research (2,692)
- Events (18)
- Multimedia (33)
- Faculty Publications (1,742)
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- March 2021 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Blue Meridian Partners (A): Scaling for Impact
In 2018, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation in a bold move transferred all its assets to a fund pooled with other General Partners and Limited Partners, called Blue Meridian Partners, to focus substantial long range investments in a few carefully chosen nonprofits.The... View Details
Keywords: Venture Philanthropy; Scaling; COVID-19 Pandemic; Social Justice; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Venture Capital; Business Model; Social Issues; Poverty; Values and Beliefs; Decisions; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Investment Portfolio
Rangan, V. Kasturi. "Blue Meridian Partners (A): Scaling for Impact." Harvard Business School Case 521-090, March 2021. (Revised November 2022.)
- Article
The Social Purpose of Corporations
By: Nien-he Hsieh, Marco Meyer, David Rodin and Jens van ‘t Klooster
To think about the purpose of corporations is to think about what corporations are for. In this article, we argue that the concept of a purpose has an important role in thinking about the moral evaluation of corporations. We make three contributions. First, we... View Details
Keywords: Social Purpose; Corporate Purpose; The Corporation; Market Failures; Measurement Of Purpose; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Ethics
Hsieh, Nien-he, Marco Meyer, David Rodin, and Jens van ‘t Klooster. "The Social Purpose of Corporations." Journal of the British Academy 6, no. s1 (2018): 49–73. ( DOI: https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/006s1.049.)
- 2019
- Article
CEO Materialism and Corporate Social Responsibility
By: Robert Davidson, Aiyesha Dey and Abbie Smith
We study the role of individual CEOs in explaining corporate social responsibility (CSR) scores. We find that CEO fixed effects explain 59% of the variation in CSR scores, whereas firm fixed effects explain 2% of the variation in CSR scores. Specifically, firms led by... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Firm Performance; CEOs; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizations; Performance
Davidson, Robert, Aiyesha Dey, and Abbie Smith. "CEO Materialism and Corporate Social Responsibility." Accounting Review 94, no. 1 (January 2019): 101–126.
- June 2016 (Revised April 2018)
- Case
Boys & Girls Clubs of America: Driving Impact
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Lisa C. Cox
With $1.8 billion in 2015 revenues, Boys & Girls Club of America had evolved over its 155-year-old history to occupy the lead position in the Youth Development space in the United States. Its new CEO Jim Clark had initiated yet another change process in 2015 to ensure... View Details
Keywords: Nonprofit Strategy; Planning Process; Transformative Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Strategic Planning; Change Management; Growth Management
Rangan, V. Kasturi, and Lisa C. Cox. "Boys & Girls Clubs of America: Driving Impact." Harvard Business School Case 516-078, June 2016. (Revised April 2018.)
- May 2025
- Case
'Net Zero in Action': Impact Investing at the McKnight Foundation
By: Lauren Cohen, Christina R. Wing and Sophia Pan
Elizabeth McGeveran, Vice President of Investments at the McKnight Foundation, reflected on how to effectively advance the organization’s net-zero strategy. The foundation had committed 10% of its endowment to building a portfolio of impact investments and was among... View Details
Keywords: Investment Fund; Philanthropy; Charitable Donations; Sustainability; Foundation; Impact Investing; ESG; Family Business; Forecasting and Prediction; Private Sector; Renewable Energy; Social Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Institutional Investing; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Private Ownership; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Social Issues; Sustainable Cities; Financial Services Industry; Minnesota; United States
- 2014
- Chapter
The Elusive Quest for Impact: The Evolving Practice of Social Impact Measurement
By: Brian Trelstad
Trelstad, Brian. "The Elusive Quest for Impact: The Evolving Practice of Social Impact Measurement." Chap. 22 in New Frontiers of Philanthropy: A Guide to the New Tools and New Actors that Are Reshaping Global Philanthropy and Social Investing, edited by Lester M. Salamon, 583–603. Oxford University Press, 2014.
- 2019
- Working Paper
The Impact of Technology Procurement Regulations on Social Value and National Competitiveness
By: Frank Nagle
- October 2024
- Case
GLIN Impact Capital
By: Ethan Rouen and Akiko Saito
In 2024, the co-founders of the venture capital fund GLIN Impact Capital face a critical inflection point as they consider launching a second, significantly larger impact investment fund in Japan. Founded in 2021 by the three Harvard Business School alumni, GLIN is one... View Details
Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Power and Influence; Japan
Rouen, Ethan, and Akiko Saito. "GLIN Impact Capital." Harvard Business School Case 125-053, October 2024.
- 2019
- Article
Reflections on 25 Years of Building Social Enterprise Education
By: James E. Austin and V. Kasturi Rangan
Purpose—This paper aims to reflect on 25 years of the Social Enterprise Initiative at the Harvard Business School, examining the processes and thinking involved at key stages of this pioneering Initiative’s implementation and... View Details
Keywords: Social Enterprise Initiative; Harvard Business School; Social Enterprise; Education; Programs
Austin, James E., and V. Kasturi Rangan. "Reflections on 25 Years of Building Social Enterprise Education." Social Enterprise Journal 15, no. 1 (2019): 2–21.
- November 2007 (Revised September 2010)
- Exercise
Social Identity Profile
By: Sandra J. Sucher
This survey asks students to identify their various social identities and the impact these identities have on how they behave and are treated in HBS and in other settings. View Details
Sucher, Sandra J. "Social Identity Profile." Harvard Business School Exercise 608-091, November 2007. (Revised September 2010.)
- December 2012
- Article
What Drives Corporate Social Performance? The Role of Nation-level Institutions
By: Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim
Based on Whitley's "National Business Systems" (NBS) institutional framework (Whitley 1997, 1999), we theorize about and empirically investigate the impact of nation-level institutions on firms' corporate social performance (CSP). Using a sample of firms from 42... View Details
Keywords: Environment; Environmental Performance; Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Institutions; Institutional Theory; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Governance
Ioannou, Ioannis, and George Serafeim. "What Drives Corporate Social Performance? The Role of Nation-level Institutions." Journal of International Business Studies 43, no. 9 (December 2012): 834–864.
- Editorial
Companies Must Include Environmental and Social Performance Measures
By: George Serafeim
Serafeim, George. "Companies Must Include Environmental and Social Performance Measures." Financial Times (February 24, 2020).
- January 2018
- Technical Note
Business at the Base of the Pyramid: Understanding Impact and Impact Evaluations
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg
Unlike financial success, there is no clear consensus regarding how best to define and measure social impact. This HBS Technical Note written for students of the HBS MBA course Business at the Base of the Pyramid (BBOP), offers readers pragmatic perspectives on how the... View Details
Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Social Issues; Value Creation; Human Needs; Performance Evaluation
Rangan, V. Kasturi, and Tricia Gregg. "Business at the Base of the Pyramid: Understanding Impact and Impact Evaluations." Harvard Business School Technical Note 518-057, January 2018.
- April 2013
- Article
Making a Difference Matters: Impact Unlocks the Emotional Benefits of Prosocial Spending
By: Lara B. Aknin, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Ashley V. Whillans, Adam M. Grant and Michael I. Norton
When does giving lead to happiness? Here, we present two studies demonstrating that the
emotional benefits of spending money on others (prosocial spending) are unleashed when
givers are aware of their positive impact. In Study 1, an experiment using real... View Details
Keywords: Prosocial Spending; Prosocial Impact; Subjective Well Being; Donations; Happiness; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving
Aknin, Lara B., Elizabeth W. Dunn, Ashley V. Whillans, Adam M. Grant, and Michael I. Norton. "Making a Difference Matters: Impact Unlocks the Emotional Benefits of Prosocial Spending." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 88 (April 2013): 90–95.
- Article
Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to Finance
By: Beiting Cheng, Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim
In this paper, we investigate whether superior performance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies leads to better access to finance. We hypothesize that better access to finance can be attributed to a) reduced agency costs due to enhanced stakeholder... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Capital Constraints; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Stakeholder Engagement; Disclosure; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Capital
Cheng, Beiting, Ioannis Ioannou, and George Serafeim. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to Finance." Strategic Management Journal 35, no. 1 (January 2014): 1–23.
- 22 Apr 2024
- Research & Ideas
When Does Impact Investing Make the Biggest Impact?
The idea of supporting social change has propelled impact investing assets to more than $1 trillion. But what if those funds aren’t as impactful as investors expect? Recent... View Details
Keywords: by Rachel Layne
- Research Summary
Reforming Social Science
By: Max H. Bazerman
Social science research affects all of us. When researchers learned organ donation rates are higher in countries where human organs are automatically available for donation unless you specifically “opt-out” of the system, as opposed to countries like the U.S., where... View Details
- 2025
- Working Paper
Impact Investing and Worker Outcomes
By: Josh Lerner, Markus Lithell and Gordon M. Phillips
Impact investors claim to distinguish themselves from traditional venture capital and growth
equity investors by also pursuing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives.
Whether they successfully do so in practice is unclear. We use confidential Census... View Details
Lerner, Josh, Markus Lithell, and Gordon M. Phillips. "Impact Investing and Worker Outcomes." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-040, February 2025. (Revised May 2025.)
- Article
The Payoff of Pay-for-Success
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Lisa Chase
Pay-for-success contracts also known as social impact bonds, have been widely touted as a clever way to fill the funding gap plaguing social programs by attracting a tranche of the trillions of dollars in private return-seeking capital. This article takes an in-depth... View Details
Keywords: Impact Investing; Social Impact Bonds; Public Innovation; Social Enterprise; Investment; Innovation and Invention
Rangan, V. Kasturi, and Lisa Chase. "The Payoff of Pay-for-Success." Stanford Social Innovation Review 13, no. 4 (Fall 2015): 28–36.
- Article
Does 'Liking' Lead to Loving? The Impact of Joining a Brand's Social Network on Marketing Outcomes
Does “liking” a brand on Facebook cause a person to view it more favorably? Or is “liking” simply a symptom of being fond of a brand? We disentangle these possibilities and find evidence for the latter: brand attitudes and purchasing are predicted by consumers’... View Details
Keywords: Brands; Marketing Effectiveness; Brand Evaluation; Peer Influence; Brands and Branding; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Media
John, Leslie K., Oliver Emrich, Sunil Gupta, and Michael I. Norton. "Does 'Liking' Lead to Loving? The Impact of Joining a Brand's Social Network on Marketing Outcomes." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 54, no. 1 (February 2017): 144–155.