Publications

Robert S. Kaplan is Senior Fellow and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. He joined the HBS faculty in 1984 after spending 16 years on the faculty of the business school at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he... View Details

Keywords: health care; nonprofit industry

17 Feb 2023
News

Accelerating Climate Solutions

Career Coach

Lee Scott

(impact measurement), FoodFutureCo (social impact accelerator), Schaffer and Combs (social impact consulting), Philadelphia Food Access Collaborative / Americorps VISTA (nonprofit), Fulbright research. View Details

27 Jul 2019
Op-Ed

Does Facebook's Business Model Threaten Our Elections?

business strategy, part of Facebook’s business model since at least 2010. That’s when Facebook opened up its Graph application programming interface (API) to advertisers, giving them access to user data including their social View Details

Keywords: by George Riedel

June 2018
Case

Feeding America (A)

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Alan Lam

This case describes how Feeding America, the third-largest nonprofit organization in the U.S., designed a marketplace for allocating donated food across its network of food banks. It considers the promises and pitfalls of using market-based allocation in the context of... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Food; Resource Allocation; Fairness; Performance Efficiency; United States

18 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 18, 2007

Synthesis Author:Carliss Y. Baldwin Abstract This paper constructs a unified theory of the location of transactions and the boundaries of firms. It proposes that systems of production can be viewed as View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Nov 2006
First Look

First Look: November 7, 2006

market in over-the-counter derivatives. Others focus on the social consequences of globalization and new modes of communication, evaluating the introduction of new information technologies into African... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Jun 2020
Blog Post

What MBAs can do in Defense of Black Lives

for White, South Asian, Latinx, and Asian allies for Black lives. White folks: we need to educate ourselves about racism and stop putting that burden on our classmates of color. Talk to your View Details

Karim R. Lakhani

Karim R. Lakhani is the Dorothy & Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He specializes in technology management, innovation, digital transformation and artificial... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; communications; computer; health care; high technology; information technology industry; internet; pharmaceuticals; software; video games

2025
Working Paper

Better Keep the Twenty Dollars: Incentivizing Innovation in Open Source

By: Annamaria Conti, Vansh Gupta, Jorge Guzman and Maria P. Roche

Open source is key to innovation yet is assumed to be done largely through intrinsic motivation. How can we incentivize it? In this paper, we examine the impact of a program providing monetary incentives to motivate innovators to contribute to open source. The Sponsors... View Details

Keywords: Open Source; Innovation; Incentives; Financial Rewards; Crowding Out; Open Source Distribution; Innovation and Invention; Motivation and Incentives; Technology Industry

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April 19, 2023
Editorial

Extreme Views Are More Attractive Than Moderate Ones

By: Amit Goldenberg

Do you ever feel like everyone on social media has a more extreme viewpoint than your own? We often blame social media companies for the cacophony of politically extreme opinions around us. After all, these companies are generally motivated to promote the most... View Details

Keywords: Social Media; Networks

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Career Coach

Tricia Peralta

Tricia has always been passionate about healthcare, social impact, and strategy, and has explored career paths including corporate strategy, management consulting, project... View Details

17 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Why We Don’t Study Corporate Responsibility

"Our message," says Margolis in this interview, "is that as business plays an increasingly important role in society, it is important to correct the drift away from social welfare and devote... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

November 2020
Case

Guild Education: Unlocking Opportunity for America's Workforce

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar

Founded in 2015, Guild Education is an education marketplace that connects employers and universities to provide employees with ‘education as a benefit.’ The Denver-based company is transforming traditional tuition assistance programs by facilitating direct payment by... View Details

Keywords: Education; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Employees; Social Enterprise; Education Industry; Technology Industry; Colorado

26 Oct 2021
Blog Post

Tap into Top Talent with the HBS Leadership Fellows Program

When Rob Zeaske (MBA 2002) came to Harvard Business School two decades ago, he was also interested in having an impact at the intersection of business and social enterprise, but he didn’t know exactly how to... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise

November 1999 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Mexican Foundation for Rural Development

By: James E. Austin and Gerardo Lozano

The Mexican Foundation for Rural Development (MFRD) is a nonprofit network of 32 rural development centers servicing low-income farm families. Management plans to expand its operation dramatically, forming 10,000 rural cooperatives in ten years. It faces major issues... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Cooperative Ownership; Nonprofit Organizations; Society; Strategy; Mexico

Find at Harvard

Americans are stuck. We live with travel delays on congested roads, shipping delays on clogged railways, and delays on repairs, project approvals, and funding due to gridlocked leadership. These delays affect us all, whether you are a daily commuter, a frequent... View Details

January 2003 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

By: Allen S. Grossman, Jane Wei-Skillern and Kristin Lieb

In 2002, Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, the recognized world leader in the breeding and training of guide dogs, was in the midst of broadening its reach and providing additional mobility services. Chief Executive Geraldine Peacock was concerned that systemic... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Programs; Networks; Nonprofit Organizations; Competitive Strategy