Publications

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February 2010
Case

Burt's Bees: Balancing Growth and Sustainability (Multimedia)

By: Christopher Marquis

The case examines sustainability initiatives at Burt's Bees, with video segments that detail the company's history, leadership, and implementation of ambitious 2020 sustainability goals. The company traces its roots to 1984, when Roxanne Quinby and Burt Schavitz teamed... View Details

Keywords: Balance and Stability; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Business or Company Management; Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Mergers and Acquisitions; Social Enterprise; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Ethics

Charles C.Y. Wang is the Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is a research member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and an associate editor of Management Science and Journal of Accounting Research,... View Details

October 2002 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Starbucks and Conservation International

By: James E. Austin and Cate Reavis

Starbucks, the world's leading specialty coffee company, developed a strategic alliance with Conservation International, a major international environmental nonprofit organization. The purpose of the alliance was to promote coffee-growing practices of small farms that... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Growth and Development Strategy; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Production; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Cooperative Ownership; Performance Efficiency; Alliances; Nonprofit Organizations; Food and Beverage Industry; Mexico

January 2003 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Heineken NV: Workplace HIV/AIDS Programs in Africa (C)

Third in a three-part series that explores the multifaceted organizational and strategic choices that companies now face as a result of the global AIDS epidemic. Heineken is considering becoming one of the first companies to offer AIDS drugs (antiretroviral therapy) to... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Employees; Food and Beverage Industry; Africa

April 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Governing Sustainability in a Shifting Context (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

In early 2025, boards of directors had to rethink corporate responsibility and sustainability efforts amid rapidly-shifting social, legal, regulatory, and economic forces. While just a few years earlier, calls to address racial justice and climate change reached into... View Details

24 Oct 2011
News

Harvard Business School’s Business and Environment Initiative to Host Conference in 2013

2019
Editorial

Yes, Sustainability Can Be a Strategy

By: Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainability Management; Sustainability Standards; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Performance; CSR; Environmental Sustainability

Register to Read

04 Jun 2012
News

What is 'Creating Shared Value'?

23 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 23

Publications 2013 pub Does Social Connection Turn Good Deeds into Good Feelings?: On the Value of Putting the 'Social' in Prosocial Spending By: Aknin, Lara B., Elizabeth W. Dunn, Gillian M. Sandstrom, and Michael I. Norton... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

June 1997
Background Note

The Normative Foundations of Business

What is the appropriate role for business to play in a capitalist society? In analyzing responses to this question, this note distinguishes two separate dimensions. The first involves the distinctive objective of business as a social institution, considers the pros and... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Economic Systems

17 May 2011
News

Sustainable growth is the new incarnation of capitalism

2002
Case

Hindustan Lever (Abridged)

By: Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble

This abridged case includes only what HLL did without describing their approach to implementation. It has been used effectively to spur discussion about the role of business in society and corporate social responsibility. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

Read Now

Today, corporate accountability is as vital to the bottom line as an effective business model. Value Shift makes a strong case for the merits of corporate responsibility and shows how a value-positive orientation contributes to superior performance through... View Details

Golfing Alone? Corporations, Elites, and Nonprofit Growth in 100 American Communities

We examine the link between corporations and community by showing how corporate density interacts with the local social and cultural infrastructure to affect the growth and decline of the number of local nonprofits between 1987 and 2002. We focus on two... View Details

01 Feb 2012
News

How business differs in the emerging world

December 2014 (Revised February 2023)
Module Note

Legal Analysis: Customers

By: Lena G. Goldberg

This Note introduces the Module on Responsibilities to Customers taught in Leadership and Corporate Accountability, a required course in the Harvard Business School MBA program. The Note outlines the asymmetries inherent in the company-customer relationship and... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Legal Liability; Customer Relationship Management

22 Apr 2025
HBS Seminar

Kaitlin Woolley, Cornell University

25 Apr 2014
Video

Robert Goodwin - Making A Difference

2017
Working Paper

Emerging Markets and the Future of Business History

By: Gareth Austin, Carlos Dávila and Geoffrey Jones

This working paper suggests that the business history of emerging markets should be seen as an alternative business history rather than merely adding new settings to explore established core debates. The discipline of business history evolved around the corporate... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Emerging Markets; Developing Countries and Economies