Publications

2012
Working Paper

Finding the God Particle of the Sustainability Business Case: Greener Pastures for Shareholder Value

By: Marc L Bertoneche and Cornis van der Lugt

The start of the 2000s saw a flurry of international publications on "the business case" for sustainability, seeking to map out the returns on investment and to differentiate recommended actions from cases of corporate philanthropy. Reports by business organisations... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance; Environmental Sustainability

SSRN

July/August 2004
Article

Stakeholders and Environmental Management Practices: An Institutional Framework

By: Magali Delmas and Michael W. Toffel

Despite burgeoning research on companies' environmental strategies and environmental management practices, it remains unclear why some firms adopt environmental management practices beyond regulatory compliance. This paper leverages institutional theory by proposing... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Environmental Management; Adoption; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Organizational Structure; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Competition; Framework; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

November 1986 (Revised August 1989)
Case

Paul Revere Insurance Co. (A)

The Paul Revere Insurance Co. lost its number one position in disability insurance, its main product, and formulated a strategy to regain the lead through a comprehensive quality improvement effort. The case describes the forces influencing the strategic direction of... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Performance Productivity; Competitive Advantage; Insurance Industry; United States

03 Oct 2019
News

How to Market Innovations to Small Mid-Sized Businesses

April 2022
Case

Gender Equality in Business: 100 Years of Progress?

By: Boris Groysberg and Colleen Ammerman

"Gender Equality in Business: 100 Years of Progress?" traces the history of women in management from the early 20th to early 21st century through analysis of Harvard Business Review's coverage of women and gender. The case identifies six distinct phases in the... View Details

Keywords: History; Business History; Gender; Management; Employees; Leadership; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Work-Life Balance; Prejudice and Bias; Social Issues; Diversity; Equity; United States

29 Jul 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Who Is Governing Whom? Senior Managers, Governance and the Structure of Generosity in Large U.S. Firms

Keywords: by Christopher Marquis & Matthew Lee

Research Summary

Institutions and Firm Strategy at the Bottom of the Pyramid: The Case of Business Formalization in Vietnam

In this paper, written together with Edmund Malesky (UCSD), we test a series of hypotheses about how institutions shape a strategic decision of significant importance to the evolution of inclusive markets: registration as companies by previously informal businesses at... View Details

2024
Article

Political Polarization and Finance

By: Elisabeth Kempf and Margarita Tsoutsoura

We review an empirical literature that studies how political polarization affects financial decisions. We first discuss the degree of partisan segregation in finance and corporate America, the mechanisms through which partisanship may influence financial decisions, and... View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; Investment Portfolio; Decisions; Governance

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November 2014
Article

Government Green Procurement Spillovers: Evidence from Municipal Building Policies in California

By: Timothy Simcoe and Michael W. Toffel

We study how government green procurement policies influence private-sector demand for similar products. Specifically, we measure the impact of municipal policies requiring governments to construct green buildings on private-sector adoption of the U.S. Green Building... View Details

Keywords: Public Procurement; Green Building; Quality Certification; Environmental Policy; Buildings and Facilities; Environmental Sustainability; Policy; Government and Politics; Green Technology Industry; Public Administration Industry; California

2011
Article

Fundamental Freedom or Fringe Benefit?: Rice University and the Evolution of Academic Tenure, 1935-1963

In 1935, fewer than half of a sample of seventy-eight prominent universities employed formal tenure policies, but by 1973 almost 100 percent had instituted tenure. The intervening years generated many of the policies that still govern practices at American... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Compensation and Benefits; Education Industry

March 2011
Background Note

Customer Loyalty Schemes in the Retail Sector

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Aldo Sesia

Customer loyalty schemes (or programs) are explicit efforts by retailers to gain long-term patronage from customers. Loyalty schemes are developed for a variety of reasons: to reward loyal customers, to generate more robust information about customer behavior, to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; United Kingdom; United States

September 2009 (Revised December 2009)
Supplement

Genzyme Center (C)

By: Michael W. Toffel and Aldo Sesia

Genzyme Corporation is in the midst of planning its new corporate headquarters, which incorporates many innovative green building features. After learning that the building as planned would likely earn a LEED Silver rating, an intermediate score in the LEED green... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Standards; Cost vs Benefits; Biotechnology Industry; Construction Industry; Real Estate Industry; Green Technology Industry

October 2010 (Revised July 2013)
Case

ActionAid International: Globalizing Governance, Localizing Accountability

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and Rachel Gordon

As a global NGO working in 45 countries, ActionAid International aims to eradicate poverty by addressing its underlying causes such as injustice and inequality. This case follows a series of radical transformations implemented by the organization's CEO, Ramesh Singh—a... View Details

Keywords: Local Range; Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Nonprofit Organizations; Power and Influence; Johannesburg; London

May 2018
Article

Advice Giving: A Subtle Pathway to Power

By: M. Schaerer, L.P. Tost, L. Huang, F. Gino and R. P. Larrick

We propose that interpersonal behaviors can activate feelings of power, and we examine this idea in the context of advice giving. Specifically, we show a) that advice giving is an interpersonal behavior that enhances individuals’ sense of power and b) that those who... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Behavior; Power and Influence

Article

The Price of Equality: Suboptimal Resource Allocations across Social Categories

By: Stephen M. Garcia, Max Bazerman, Shirli Kopelman, Avishalom Tor and Dale T. Miller

This paper explores the influence of social categories on the perceived trade-off between relatively bad but equal distribution of resources between two parties and profit maximizing, yet asymmetric, payoffs. Studies 1 and 2 show that people prefer to maximize profits... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Resource Allocation; Societal Protocols; Profit; Decision Making; Prejudice and Bias; Market Transactions; Ethics; Power and Influence; Distribution; Organizations