Publications

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May 2013
Article

The Stock Selection and Performance of Buy-Side Analysts

By: Boris Groysberg, Paul Healy, George Serafeim and Devin Shanthikumar

Prior research on equity analysts focuses almost exclusively on those employed by sell-side investment banks and brokerage houses. Yet investment firms undertake their own buy-side research and their analysts face different stock selection and recommendation incentives... View Details

Keywords: Buy-side Analysts; Sell-side Analysts; Stock Recommendations; Recommendation Optimism; Recommendation Performance; Investment Recommendations; Conflicts Of Interest; Financial Markets; Financial Institutions; Financial Services Industry; United States

January–February 2018
Article

Inclusive Growth: Profitable Strategies for Tackling Poverty and Inequality

By: Robert S. Kaplan, George Serafeim and Eduardo Tugendhat

More than a billion people in the developing world remain in extreme poverty and outside the formal economy. Traditional CSR programs have done little to alleviate the situation and rarely produce transformative change.
Instead of trying to fix local problems,... View Details

Keywords: Inclusive Growth; Sustainability; Social Impact; Business Strategy; Shared Value; Impact Investing; Inequality; Corporate Governance; Balanced Scorecard; Strategy Execution; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Poverty; Equality and Inequality; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Strategy; Investment

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2022
Working Paper

The Issuance and Design of Sustainability-linked Loans

By: Maria Loumioti and George Serafeim

Sustainability-linked loans (i.e., syndicated loans for which pricing is linked to a sustainability performance indicator) have rapidly evolved into a significant private debt product. We find that sustainability-linked lending has been available mostly to borrowers... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainability Management; Credit Products; Loan Contracts; Loans; Corporate Finance; Credit Risk; Environment; ESG; ESG Ratings; Climate Change; Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Risk and Uncertainty; Credit

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22 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 22, 2019

distinct types of services from 1998 to 2015: SC Traded Services (with the highest STEM intensity and wages) versus B2C Main Street Services (with the lowest STEM intensity and wages). Corporate... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

January–February 2021
Article

Cross‐firm Return Predictability and Accounting Quality

By: Wen Chen, Mozaffar Khan, Leonid Kogan and George Serafeim

We test the hypothesis that if poor accounting quality (AQ) is associated with poor investor understanding of firms’ revenue and cost structures, then poor AQ stocks likely respond more slowly than good AQ stocks to new non‐idiosyncratic information that affects both... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Quality; Earnings Quality; Stock Returns; Investment Strategy; Accounting; Business Earnings; Quality; Investment Return; Investment; Strategy

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September 2023
Article

Stock Price Reactions to ESG News: The Role of ESG Ratings and Disagreement

By: George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon

We investigate whether ESG ratings predict future ESG news and the associated market reactions. We find that the consensus rating predicts future news, but its predictive ability diminishes for firms with large disagreement between raters. Relation between news and... View Details

15 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 15

Institutional Logics By: Ioannou, Ioannis, and George Serafeim Abstract—We explore the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings on sell-side analysts'... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 18 Jan 2018
Webinars: Trending@HBS

ESG Investing: What It Is and How to Use It

Integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues in investment decisions has been adopted by an increasing number of investors. However, there is still substantial confusion about how ESG investing can be used, when it can deliver better risk-adjusted... View Details

12 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 12

monitoring efforts as well as the syndication process. Working Papers The Consequences of Mandatory Corporate Sustainability Reporting Authors: Ioannis Ioannou and George View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2021
Working Paper

Impact Accounting for Product Use: A Framework and Industry-specific Models

By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

This handbook provides the first systematic attempt to generate a framework and industry-specific models for the measurement of impacts on customers and the environment from use of products and services, in monetary terms, that can then be reflected in financial... View Details

Keywords: Impact Measurement; Product Impact; Customer Welfare; Environment; ESG; Product; Customers; Well-being; Environmental Sustainability; Measurement and Metrics; Accounting; Financial Statements; Analysis; Framework

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April 2015
Case

Accor: Designing an Asset-Right Business and Disclosure Strategy

By: Mozaffar Khan and George Serafeim

Sebastien Bazin was now in charge of Accor, the world's largest French hotelier, a CAC 40 company with 3,600 hotels in 92 countries and a market cap of €10 billion. Previously as the European head of Colony Capital, one of the largest private equity groups and the... View Details

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12 Dec 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 12, 2017

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53593 Material Sustainability Information and Stock Price Informativeness By: Grewal, Jody, Clarissa Hauptmann, and George View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 28

Authors:Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim Publication:Business Strategy Review (May 2011) Abstract We are exploring the value of forcing corporations to issue sustainability... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Oct 2017
News

The Best-Performing CEOs in the World 2017

Third Quarter 2018
Article

Why and How Investors Use ESG Information: Evidence from a Global Survey

By: Amir Amel-Zadeh and George Serafeim

Using survey data from a sample of senior investment professionals from mainstream (i.e., not SRI funds) investment organizations, we provide insights into why and how investors use reported environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. Relevance to... View Details

Keywords: ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Sustainability; Investment Management; Investment Strategy; Metrics; Standard Setting; Accounting Standards; Finance; Investment; Information; Environmental Sustainability; Governance; Performance Effectiveness; Strategy