Publications

22 Jan 2016
Blog Post

being ethical and acting with integrity. It’s being respectful and grateful to others. It’s enjoying the presence of people and giving as much knowledge as you plan to take. Practice those things. View Details

February 1999 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Royal Dutch/Shell in Nigeria (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Mihnea C. Moldoveanu

Working with Shell's country manager for Nigeria, the company's Committee of Managing Directors must decide how to respond to the Nigerian government's decision to impose the death sentence on Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of a movement for the rights of the... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Multinational Firms and Management; Courts and Trials; Rights; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Nigeria

November 2016
Case

Jollibee Foods Corporation

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly

When Tony Tan Caktiong stepped down as president and CEO of Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) in mid-2014, Ernesto Tanmantiong, his younger brother, succeeded him. In 2016, the brothers were working together to realize the company’s vision of making JFC a truly... View Details

Keywords: Values; Vision; Fast Food; Values and Beliefs; Goals and Objectives; Expansion; Philippines

17 Jun 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Excellence Comes From Saying No

environment, it's both strange and liberating," says Frei. The atmosphere allowed for an unusual amount of introspection and reflection on the cases they discussed. Schulman recalled robust discussion between HLS and HBS students about View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

April 2013
Teaching Plan

Barclays and the LIBOR Scandal

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

In the summer of 2012, Barclays plc, one of the largest banks in the world, agreed to settle with authorities and acknowledged that the firm had manipulated LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate)—a benchmark reference rate that was fundamental to the operation of... View Details

Keywords: Financial Systems; Financial Services; Corruption; Regulation; General Management; Management; Leadership; Economic Systems; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Culture; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

Web

Technology & Operations Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Sustainability, Environment and Climate category for the HBS Business and Environment Initiative’s “ Climate Rising Podcast ” with Kate Zerrenner and Craig McDonald. Michael W. Toffel : Winner of the 2023 Case Centre Award in the Ethics... View Details

Web

John H. McArthur | About

trajectory.” McArthur is credited with building the faculty through the recruitment and promotion of outstanding faculty members, strengthening research, enhancing Executive Education, and launching important initiatives in ethics and... View Details

04 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

The Business of Life

A few years ago, a colleague at Harvard Business School visited Clayton Christensen's office to talk about leading a values-driven life. "He told me that he had decided against having religion in his life," Christensen recalls, explaining that his colleague didn't see... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

08 Feb 2010
HBS Case

Looking Behind Google’s Stand in China

Google, the "do no evil" company, gained entry into the Chinese search engine market last decade by agreeing to ban search results on topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese government. To Google's way of thinking, it could do more good for Internet freedom... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

June 2012
Article

The Transparency Paradox: A Role for Privacy in Organizational Learning and Operational Control

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

Using data from embedded participant-observers and a field experiment at the second largest mobile phone factory in the world, located in China, I theorize and test the implications of transparent organizational design on workers' productivity and organizational... View Details

January 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Dick's Sporting Goods: Getting Out Of The Gun Business (A)

By: George A. Riedel

Dick's Sporting Goods was one of the top five retailers of a range of firearms in the US. Over the last several years and specifically following the Parkland shooting of 2018, Ed Stack, the CEO and chairman, had wrestled with the question of their role as a leading... View Details

Keywords: Gun Policy; Gun Violence; Sporting Goods; Sport; Human Behavior; Violence; Ethics; Decision Making; Social Issues; Corporate Accountability; Sports Industry; Retail Industry; United States

April 2017 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Victor Wu

Through the challenges facing Target, the case examines ways in which corporations can become involved in political and legislative debates and processes, ranging from campaign contributions to lobbying to political activism. In 2016, Target CEO Brian Cornell must... View Details

November 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Supplement

Accounting Outages at Plug Power? (C)

By: Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli and James Barnett

Set in June 2023, the C case explores Plug Power’s recovery from its financial restatements, how it benefited from government subsidies, and new strategic alliances. View Details

Keywords: Environmental Accounting; Financial Reporting; Ethics; Finance; Management; Social Enterprise; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States; Europe

01 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The ‘Luxury Prime’: How Luxury Changes People

Are people who travel in town cars and on corporate jets different—on a psychological level—from you and me? Does the availability of luxury goods "prime" individuals to be less concerned about or considerate toward others? The answer from new research seems... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

Web

A Tradition of Philanthropy - Alumni

Ethics program, which is now an integral part of the MBA Program. 1995 John C. Whitehead (MBA 1947) makes a founding gift to create the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative . 1997 HBS opens the California Research Center , its first research... View Details

21 Nov 2015
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Stella McCartney Combines High Fashion with Environmental Values

the context of luxury is just fascinating because on the one hand they seem very contradictory, luxury and sustainability. Luxury for many people is all about excessiveness and waste. “Such products do not feel luxurious to more ethically... View Details

Keywords: by Brian Kenny; Fashion

March 2017 (Revised June 2019)
Case

CEO Activism (A)

By: Michael W. Toffel, Aaron K. Chatterji and Julia Kelley

This case introduces CEO activism, a phenomenon in which business leaders engage in political or social issues that do not relate directly to their companies. The case uses several examples to describe why business leaders are engaging in CEO activism and the potential... View Details