Publications

11 Apr 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Learning By Thinking: How Reflection Improves Performance

Keywords: by Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano & Bradley Staats

February 2022
Case

Launching the Social

By: Tom Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Tom Quinn

This case features the same protagonists as Ample Hills Creamery (HBS No. 822-073), and can be used as a continuation of that story.
Ample Hills Creamery started in 2010 as a temporary ice cream pushcart in Brooklyn, New York City. On the strength of inventive... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Small Business; Brands and Branding; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion

Educators

May 2022
Article

Embracing Field Studies as a Tool for Learning

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz

Field studies in social psychology tend to focus on validating existing insights. In addition to learning from the laboratory and bringing those insights to the field—which researchers currently favour—we should also conduct field studies that aim to learn in the field... View Details

Keywords: Field Studies; Social Psychology; Learning

February 26, 2024
Article

Making Workplaces Safer Through Machine Learning

By: Matthew S. Johnson, David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel

Machine learning algorithms can dramatically improve regulatory effectiveness. This short article describes the authors' scholarly work that shows how the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) could have reduced nearly twice as many occupational... View Details

Keywords: Government Experimentation; Auditing; Inspection; Evaluation; Process Improvement; Government Administration; AI and Machine Learning; Safety; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

27 Jun 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Social Norms Versus Social Responsibility: Punishing Transgressions Under Conflicting Obligations

Keywords: by Francesca Gino, Celia Moore & Lamar Pierce

March 2010
Article

Interpersonal Authority in a Theory of the Firm

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper develops a theory of the firm in which a firm's centralized asset ownership and low-powered incentives give the manager, as an equilibrium outcome, interpersonal authority over employees (in a world with open disagreement). The paper thus provides... View Details

Keywords: Theory; Assets; Ownership; Motivation and Incentives; Governance Controls; Power and Influence; Projects; Perspective; Employees

Teaching Interest

Field Course: Social Innovation Lab

This course provides students an opportunity to address a social enterprise topic with the discipline of business tools and techniques. Students will work in teams, choosing among three types of projects: a) developing a business plan for your own social enterprise;... View Details

2001
Working Paper

Social Enterprise Series No. 20: Business Leadership Coalitions and Public-Private Partnerships in American Cities: A Perspective on Regime Theory

By: James E. Austin and Arthur McCaffrey

February 2013
Article

Learning from Roger Fisher

By: James K. Sebenius

Roger Fisher's career and writings not only offer lessons about negotiation but also about how an academic, especially in a professional school such as law or business, can make an important, positive difference in the world. By his relentless engagement in vexing... View Details

Keywords: Roger Fisher; Dispute Resolution; Bargaining; Negotiation

October 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Ӧzyeğin Social Investments: A Legacy of Giving

By: Christina R. Wing, Zeshan Gondal and Brittany L. Logan

This case explores the work of Özyeğin Social Investments, founded by Hüsnü Özyeğin, one of Turkey's most successful entrepreneurs. With a focus on education, health, gender equality, rural development, and disaster relief in Turkey, Özyeğin Social Investments and the... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Family Business; Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Enterprise; Turkey

Educators

December 2022
Article

Social Skills Improve Business Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial with Entrepreneurs in Togo

By: Stefan Dimitriadis and Rembrand Koning

Recent field experiments demonstrate that advice, mentorship, and feedback from randomly assigned peers improve entrepreneurial performance. These results raise a natural question: what is preventing entrepreneurs and managers from forming these peer connections... View Details

Keywords: Social Skills; Business Performance; Entrepreneurs; Peer Relationships; Field Experiment; Entrepreneurship; Performance; Relationships; Interpersonal Communication; Togo

29 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

How Organizations Create Social Value

here. Although planning is considered a core competency of corporations, nonprofits were often more effective in planning their social actions. This is a difference in degree rather than kind. Corporations are relatively recent entrants... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

29 Oct 2015
Other Presentation

Social Progress: The Next Development Agenda

By: Michael E. Porter and Scott Stern

How do we measure development? The Social Progress Index was launched in 2013 as a holistic approach to benchmarking countries' social performance, independent of economic measures. SPI has been widely taken up on a global basis in evaluating national performance, and... View Details

Keywords: Economic Development; Development Economics; Society; United States

March 2015
Case

Pearson Affordable Learning Fund

By: Michael Chu, Vincent Dessain and Kristina Maslauskaite

An in-house venture capital fund for affordable private schools at the base of the pyramid established by Pearson, the world's largest education company, PALF sought to invest in business models providing superior educational outcomes in emerging markets on a... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investment; Low Cost Private Schools; Investment Fund; Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Transition; Investment; Development Economics; Business Growth and Maturation; Social Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Private Sector; Education; Education Industry; Asia; Africa

Educators

2018
Book

Re-engaging with Sustainability in the Anthropocene Era

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and P. Devereaux Jennings

Re-engaging with Sustainability in the Anthropocene Era applies organization theory to a grand challenge: our entry into the Anthropocene era, a period marked not only by human impact on climate change, but on chemical waste, habitat destruction, and despeciation. It... View Details

Keywords: Organization Theory; Environmental Management; Policy; Social Issues; Social Entrepreneurship; Pollutants

28 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

HBS Celebrates Social Enterprise Initiative

When Harvard Business School launched its Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) in 1993-1994, few academic institutions were conducting serious research and teaching about how to create social value through the... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

03 Oct 2023
What Do You Think?

Do Leaders Learn More From Success or Failure?

(Jay Yuno/iStock) Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson’s recent thought-provoking book, Right Kind of Wrong, makes a strong case for the notion that we often learn a lot from failure—and in some cases, perhaps even more than we... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 2019
Article

Learning to Become a Taste Expert

By: Kathryn A. Latour and John A. Deighton

Evidence suggests that consumers seek to become more expert about hedonic products to enhance their enjoyment of future consumption occasions. Current approaches to becoming expert center on cultivating an analytic mindset. In the present research the authors explore... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Experience and Expertise; Analysis; Perception