Publications

Article

Purpose and Privation: Nation and Economy in Post-Habsburg Eastern Europe and Post-Soviet Eurasia

By: Rawi Abdelal

January 2024
Technical Note

The ICARUS Principles: What It Takes to Tackle the World

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

Over the course of the 20th century, most of the world’s major multinational corporations framed their mission around Milton Friedman’s famous mantra: that the sole purpose of the firm is to maximize its shareholders’ profits. Recently, however, growing numbers of... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Mission; Social Business; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; For-Profit Firms

July–August 2021
Article

SPACs: What You Need to Know

By: Max Bazerman and Paresh Patel

Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, have been around in various forms for decades, but during the past two years they’ve taken off in the United States. In 2019, 59 were created, with $13 billion invested; in 2020, 247 were created, with $80 billion... View Details

Keywords: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies; SPACs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Going Public; Investment

December 2, 2021
Article

Former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly: Empowering Workers to Create ‘Magic’

By: Hubert Joly and Adi Ignatius

Hubert Joly was behind an amazing turnaround at Best Buy. While everybody was saying he should lay people off to solve the company’s problems, Joly instead listened to the people working for him and found solutions that didn’t involve people losing their jobs.... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Meaningful Work; Employee Empowerment; Mission and Purpose; Employees; Organizational Culture; Leadership

December 1988 (Revised May 1989)
Background Note

PROFORMA: An Aid for Analyzing Accounting Statements for the Purposes of Constructing Proformas and Forecasting

By: John E. Bishop

Keywords: Accounting; Forecasting and Prediction

Article

Companies Should Be Guided by Their Purpose and Values When Deciding Whether or Not to Exit Russia

By: Hubert Joly

2008
Other Unpublished Work

From Public Purpose to Financial Economics: The Linked Ecologies of Economics and Business in Twentieth Century America

By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana

As the main producers of managerial elites, business schools represent strategic research sites for understanding the formation of economic practices and representations. This article draws on historical material to analyze the changing place of economics in American... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Business Education; Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business History; Chicago

First Quarter 2018
Article

Beyond Engagement

By: Roger Hallowell, Hervé Coyco and Randall White

Keywords: Engagement; Motivation; Purpose

June 2021
Technical Note

SPAC Space

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2020, over half of all initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United States were special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), blank-check companies that typically had two years to find a business to take public, usually through a reverse merger. Together, 248... View Details

Keywords: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies; SPACs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Going Public; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Strategy

May 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Choosing the Course of Passion: Brooke Boyarsky Pratt at knownwell

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz and Alexis Lefort

Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (HBS ’13) enjoyed considerable success in her early career, quickly climbing the ranks to associate partner at McKinsey, and later becoming an executive vice president at Berkadia, a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio company. Throughout these years,... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Career; Career Planning; Purpose; Personal Development and Career; Mission and Purpose; Identity; Business Startups; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Health Industry; United States

2023
Working Paper

Segmented Going-Public Markets and the Demand for SPACs

By: Angela Ma, Miles Zheng and Jessica Bai

We provide a regulatory-arbitrage-based explanation for the origin and proliferation of the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). SPAC sponsors act as non-bank intermediaries, and the SPAC market structure appeals to yield-seeking investors and riskier,... View Details

Keywords: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies; Non-bank Intermediaries; Regulatory Arbitrage; Adverse Selection; Initial Public Offering

SSRN

Winter 2020
Article

A Noble Purpose Alone Won't Transform Your Company: Leadership Behaviors That Nurture Interpersonal Collaboration Are the True Drivers of Change

By: Robert Cross, Amy C. Edmondson and Wendy Murphy

Fall 2021
Article

Strategy as a Way of Life: Businesses Must Root Strategy in Moral Purpose to Thrive in a Complex, Rapidly Changing World

By: Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi

Doing the ordinary things in life a little bit better every day elevates individuals. All of us gained mother's wisdom by living with her, by watching her from behind her, by being scolded by her, and being told over and over again, to be honest, not to tell a lie or... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Moral Sensibility; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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Article

Getting Clear on Corporate Culture: Conceptualisation, Measurement and Operationalisation

By: Nien-he Hsieh, Benjamin Lange, David Rodin and Mira L. A. Wolf-Bauwens

This article provides a review of existing literature on corporate culture, drawing on work from the disciplines of business ethics, management studies, psychology, anthropology, and economics, as well as interviews with business leaders. It surveys different... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Culture; Culture Change; Business Ethics; Corporate Purpose; Corporate Culture Significance; Culture Measurements; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Ethics; Mission and Purpose; Measurement and Metrics

September–October 2020
Article

Social-Impact Efforts That Create Real Value

By: George Serafeim

Until the mid-2010s few investors paid attention to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data—information about companies’ carbon footprints, labor policies, board makeup, and so forth. Today the data is widely used by investors. How can organizations create... View Details

June 2025
Case

Khabar Lahariya

By: Ranjay Gulati and Kanika Jain

Founded and run entirely by women, Khabar Lahariya was a leading digital media portal, known for its uniquely feminist perspective and rural focus. It started in 2002 as a non-profit print publication, and by 2023, had evolved into a multimedia news site that was part... View Details

Keywords: South Asia; India; Purpose; Strategy; Business Model; Leadership; Digital; Business Ventures; Change; Decision Making; Growth and Development; Management; Media; Social Enterprise; Journalism and News Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Publishing Industry; Asia

2021
Working Paper

How to Fix ESG Reporting

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

Investors, advocacy groups, academics, and the 200 CEOs of the US Business Roundtable have asked corporations to take on an added purpose beyond a narrow pursuit of shareholder value. In response, many companies now issue ESG (Environmental, Societal, and Governance)... View Details

Keywords: ESG Reporting; Sustainability; Corporate Purpose; Greenhouse Gas; Activity-Based Costing; Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Measurement and Metrics; Goals and Objectives; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Accountability

SSRN

November 5, 2013
Article

How to Turn Around Nearly Anything

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

In turbulent times, turnarounds are increasingly a fact of life. Some companies need to be rescued from the brink of extinction, but that’s not the only kind of turnaround. Others need a course correction while still profitable, or a momentum shift because of... View Details

Keywords: Turnarounds; Change; Purpose; Team Building; Voice; Positivity; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Value; Assets; Mission and Purpose

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March 2021 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Helen Keller: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case describes the rise of Helen Keller who at 19 months became deaf and blind. Refusing to be sidelined from life, Keller showed great determination in learning how to communicate with others, employing tutors and travelling to Boston to enroll in the Perkins... View Details

Keywords: Mission And Purpose; Values And Beliefs; Success; Diversity; Leading Change; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics; Power and Influence