Publications

28 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 28, 2008

who regulate access to, and interactions around, the platform. We present evidence on Facebook, TopCoder, Roppongi Hills, and Harvard Business School to document the "regulatory" role played by MSPs. We find MSPs use nuanced... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2025
Supplement

Negotiating a Legacy at Sustainable Harvest (B)

By: Jillian Jordan, Julian Zlatev, Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter

The specialty coffee importer Sustainable Harvest was the first certified B Corp in the coffee industry due to its investments in building coffee farmers’ capacity and livelihood. But in 2022, after coffee prices plummeted and the company’s bank declined to extend its... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Trust; Ethics; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Volatility; Futures and Commodity Futures; Social Enterprise; Valuation; Business Model; Credit; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Europe

April 2019 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Handy: The Future of Work? (A)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Kieron Stopforth

Witnessing numerous lawsuits alleging that online platform companies misclassified workers as contractors when they were actually employees, Handy’s founders faced a series of decisions. Handy was an online platform business that enabled customers to book appointments... View Details

Keywords: Employment; Working Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Compensation and Benefits; Internet and the Web; Ethics; Fairness; Service Industry; United States

October 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Case

The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations

By: Mihir A. Desai, Suzanne Antoniou and Leanne Fan

How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government... View Details

April 2011
Case

Daniel Kim's Dilemma (A)

By: Bill George and Natalie Kindred

Daniel Kim was considering "blowing the whistle" on his friend, the CEO of a fast-growing startup where Kim had spent most of his professional career. When Kim joined the company, called Cardio-Metric, in 2002, it consisted of seven young engineers (including its two... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Fairness; Corporate Accountability; Emotions; Behavior; Leadership Style; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Disclosure

Article

Why Doesn't Capitalism Flow to Poor Countries?

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch

We show that capitalism is far from common around the world. Outside a small group of rich countries, heavy regulation of business, leftist rhetoric, and interventionist beliefs flourish. We relate these phenomena to the presence of corruption, with causality running... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Voting; Economic Systems; Fairness; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Emotions

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December 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Teaching Note

The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations

By: Mihir A. Desai and Suzanne Antoniou

How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government... View Details

October 2018
Case

Zenefits Board of Directors (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

In early 2018, the time seemed right for Zenefits investor and director Lars Dalgaard to reflect on whether Zenefits had the right board of directors to shepherd the company through its next stages of growth. For the company whose name combined the words “benefits,”... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Business Model; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Leadership; Risk Management; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; California

January 2023
Case

Thomas Buberl: Refounding AXA

By: Hubert Joly, Mihir Desai and Amram Migdal

In 2022, AXA and its CEO Thomas Buberl faced new types of challenges, including systemic risks such as climate change, geopolitical instability, public health crises, and social tensions caused by economic risks. AXA was one of the world’s largest insurers. Since... View Details

June 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Technical Note

Sustaining Corporate Culture in a Growing Organization

By: Dennis Campbell and Tatiana Sandino

An organization’s culture can be a significant source of sustainable competitive advantage. For the organization, it can attract job candidates who fit and align employees working in different teams around common goals. For employees, a strong culture can generate... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Growth and Development; Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Management Systems

22 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 22

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1416935 Ethical Discrepancy: Changing Our Attitudes to Resolve Moral Dissonance Authors:L.L. Shu, F. Gino, and M.H. Bazerman Publication:In Behavioral View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2021 (Revised January 2023)
Case

The Trouble with TCE

By: Vincent Pons, Rafael Di Tella and Galit Goldstein

Trichloroethylene, or TCE, was a chemical used by tens of thousands of businesses in the United States. It was an affordable tool for many. Yet, TCE had been associated with important health risks, including cancer and autoimmune disease. TCE potentially posed other... View Details

Keywords: Trichloroethylene; Toxicity; Lobbying; Chemicals; Health Disorders; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Ethics; Business and Government Relations; Chemical Industry; United States

March 2008 (Revised December 2011)
Case

IBM Values and Corporate Citizenship

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

IBM's transformation into a globally integrated enterprise (GIE) began with a conviction about what should never change. Since its founding in 1911, the company operated under a set of principles articulated by founder Thomas Watson and became known for a strong... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Globalized Firms and Management; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Integration

11 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 11

http://hbr.org/search/713073-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 413-073 First Green Bank: Bringing Bloom to Desert Landscapes First Green Bank is a bank start-up in the midst of the financial crisis that aims to promote sustainability... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

December 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Supplement

The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations

By: Mihir A. Desai and Suzanne Antoniou

How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government... View Details

2007
Book

America the Principled: 6 Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

This book draws on the author's multiple research projects and field observations to analyze problems facing the United States in recent years and to create an agenda for renewing American strengths through returning to core American principles—but in new ways suitable... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Policy; Leadership; Civil Society or Community; Cooperation; United States