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January 2022
Case

Bee-ing Better at Bombas

By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Youngme Moon and John Masko

David Heath and Randy Goldberg founded Bombas in 2013 to serve two missions: to deliver the “best socks in the history of feet,” and to donate socks (the most requested item in homeless shelters) to Americans experiencing homelessness. Eight years later, Bombas had... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Distribution; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Quality; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Human Needs; Poverty; Growth and Development Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; New York (city, NY)

Web

Faculty and Research - Alumni

and that they disseminate to business leaders and scholars around the world. MANUFACTURING A RENAISSANCE IN THE DEEP SOUTH A faculty excursion to the Golden Triangle helped deepen research expertise and build bonds across academic units and ranks. Sustaining Business... View Details

21 Sep 2021
Office Hours

Readers Ask: How Can I Gain Power and Influence?

The global COVID-19 pandemic has shifted power dynamics not only within today’s historically tight job market, where workers have an unprecedented level of choice and control, but also within households, organizations, and society as a... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Web

Redefining Capitalism - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

economic value while creating shared value for society Businesses acting as businesses , not as charitable givers, are arguably the most powerful force for addressing many of the pressing issues facing our View Details

Fast Answer

Companies: social responsibility

most sustainable corporations. The following websites give background information on social responsibility issues and companies: Benefit Corp Information Center: Benefit corporations have a corporate purpose to create a material positive impact on View Details

August 2019
Case

Humanistic Capitalism at Brunello Cucinelli

By: Francesca Gino and Gary Pisano

This case explores one company’s attempt to experiment with a different underlying model for a capitalist enterprise. Brunello Cucinelli, S.p.A. is a leading manufacturer of luxury fashion apparel. Despite being a publicly traded enterprise with annual revenues... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Culture; Human Resource Practices; Growth; Growth Strategy; Motivation; Values; Fashion; Capitalism; Organizational Culture; Values and Beliefs; Human Resources; Management; Business Model; Policy; Behavior; Growth and Development Strategy; Luxury; Italy

2022
Chapter

Buying Time? The Vietnam War and Southeast Asia

By: Mattias Fibiger

This article examines the “buying time thesis”—the idea that the American war in Vietnam bought time for the rest of Southeast Asia to build up political, economic, military, and diplomatic defenses against communism. It finds that there is some truth to claims that... View Details

Keywords: Vietnam War; Impact; Legacy; Geopolitics; War; History; Government and Politics; Southeast Asia

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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

April 2022
Case

The First Opium War and Global Free Trade

By: Jeremy Friedman and Allison Lazarus

The First Opium War (1839-1842) symbolized the peak of the era of European imperialism, with a political and cultural legacy that remains potent to this day. The British Empire, “acquired in a fit of absent-mindedness” as one observer famously claimed, seemed to be... View Details

Keywords: Imperialism; Narcotics; Importing; History; Globalized Markets and Industries; Trade; Social Issues

12 Oct 2022
Blog Post

11 Stories from HBS PRIDE for National Coming Out Day

recognizing early on that being able to help others would require helping myself first. The path to find my own happiness took me through 21 years of being a closeted gay male, feeling like an “other,” and having no visible role models to emulate or anyone to help me... View Details

Web

Jaume Plensa Inés 2013 | About

Jaume Plensa Inés , 2013 Jaume Plensa (Spanish, born 1955), Inés , 2013, cast iron, 276 3/4 x 34 1/4 x 100 1/4 in. HBS Art and Artifacts Collection , 2018.1 . © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP, Madrid. Jaume Plensa... View Details

08 Apr 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

The Life of Luxury and How to Sell It

Research released recently by iseecars.com seems to indicate a fleeting happiness with luxury cars. New buyers of BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche sell them more frequently in the first year than owners of other models. Car owners who drive their... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Auto; Retail; Fashion

October 16, 2019
Article

Where ESG Fails

By: Michael E. Porter, George Serafeim and Mark Kramer

We are entering a new stage of understanding of the linkage between investment performance and social impact. Previous approaches, such as socially responsible investing and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) screening, have obscured the opportunities for... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Sustainability; Environment; Social Impact; Impact Investing; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Reporting; Shared Value; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Investment; Value; Strategy

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20 Oct 2015
Blog Post

What to Expect Your First Year at HBS

plenty of people to get-to-know and plenty of events to attend. I really appreciated the diversity of things to do - dinner with professors, section get-togethers (e.g., murder mystery dinner or charity evening), society drinks, outdoor... View Details

February 2001 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Estee Lauder and the Market for Prestige Cosmetics

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Opens with a brief history of the U.S. cosmetics market and its rapid development in the 1920s. Also recounts Lauder's initial involvement in the sector, making skin care products and selling them in Manhattan beauty parlors during the Great Depression. Pays particular... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Market Entry and Exit; Entrepreneurship; Luxury; Business Strategy; Society; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

February 2023
Case

Ransomware Attack at Springhill Medical Center

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan (Jason) Ni

In July, 2019, Springhill Medical Center (“SMC”) in Mobile, Alabama, fell prey to a malicious ransomware attack that crippled the hospital’s internal network systems and public-facing web page. While the hospital rushed to securely restore the network, medical... View Details