Publications

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January 2022
Case

VidyaGyan: Bridging the Rural Urban Divide

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Rachna Chawla, Kairavi Dey and Anjali Raina

Set up in 2008, VidyaGyan was a residential school for children in grades 6-12 from low-income rural families in Uttar Pradesh in northern India. It was the brainchild of Shiv Nadar and Cabinet Secretary T.S.R. Subramanian, who recognized the enormous potential hidden... View Details

Keywords: Non-profit; Education; Social Enterprise; Non-Governmental Organizations; Nonprofit Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Wealth and Poverty; Demographics; Equality and Inequality; Performance Evaluation; Opportunities; Education Industry; South Asia; India

14 Mar 2023
Blog Post

How Inclusive Managers Create Glass-Shattering Organizations

attempting to raise awareness about gender inequality for early- and mid-career professionals as well as women at the senior executive level. Although significant progress has been made over the past 50... View Details

January 2001 (Revised May 2001)
Background Note

State, The

By: Rawi E. Abdelal

Surveys approaches to understanding the state; highlights the relationships between the state, order, and property; and offers an analytical framework for how states vary from place to place and over time. View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Governance Compliance; Framework; Economic Sectors; Policy; Private Ownership; Public Ownership; Entrepreneurship; Development Economics; Equality and Inequality

January 2008 (Revised January 2010)
Case

iBasis, Inc.

By: Andrew Wasynczuk, Katherine Dowd and Nicole Kravec

iBasis examines the development of a long-term relationship between equipment manufacturer Cisco and start-up iBasis, a voice-over-internet wholesaler. Questions arise for iBasis founders as to how best to build a beneficial relationship with the much larger partner.... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Intellectual Property; Value Creation; Equality and Inequality; Partners and Partnerships; Business Growth and Maturation; Price Bubble; Trust; Business Startups; Manufacturing Industry; Communications Industry; Web Services Industry

20 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Airplane Design Brings Out the Class Warfare in Us All

football stadium, a cruise ship—where people are segmented by rank of some sort. Norton co-authored the study, Physical and Situational Inequality on Airplanes Predicts Air Rage, with Katherine A. DeCelles,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Air Transportation; Sports; Travel

May 2025
Case

IQanat: Empowering Rural Youth in Kazakhstan

By: Boris Groysberg and Maxim Pike Harrell

In June 2025, IQanat CEO Aliya Salikova considered scaling opportunities for the foundation, which provided educational opportunities for children from rural regions of Kazakhstan. Established by Kazakhstani businessman and philanthropist Aidyn Rakhimbayev, IQanat... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Rural Scope; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Equality and Inequality; Education Industry; Central Asia; Kazakhstan

17 Jun 2020
Blog Post

Black MBA Students Pen Letters to the HBS Community: Letter 2/5

failed justice system. It is a response to unending structural violence and inequity that has infected our economic systems, political institutions, and social structures. It... View Details

April 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Unrest in Chile

By: Vincent Pons, William Mullins, John Masko, Annelena Lobb and Rafael Di Tella

In 2020, Chileans would head to the ballot box to decide their country’s future. Many international observers credited Chile’s decades of neoliberal governance with turning the country into Latin America’s “Tiger,” a prosperous, diversified economy on its way to... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics; Economy; Political Elections; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Equality and Inequality; System Shocks; Chile; Latin America

16 Aug 2016
First Look

August 16, 2016

views on distributive justice are shown to differ in two specific, related ways from what is conventionally assumed in modern optimal tax research. A large share of respondents, and in some cases a large majority, resist the full View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 17

political motivations for Vietnamese leaders to provide equalizing transfers that limit inequality growth among provinces. Cases & Course MaterialsBackground on the Technology of Molecular Diagnostics... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Jun 2011
News

America the Unequal

percent of the wealth — and the bottom 40 percent virtually none — could guarantee equal opportunity for all its citizens. My colleagues and I are now exploring whether... View Details

Keywords: income disparity; class mobility

11 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 11

Cassandra L. Govan, Dan Ariely, and Elise Holland Abstract—Recent evidence suggests that Americans underestimate wealth inequality in the United States and favor a more View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Oct 2020
News

JPMorgan Chase Commits $30 Billion to Advance Racial Equity

America’s history,” Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon (MBA 1982) said in a release. “We can do more and do better to break down systems that have propagated racism and widespread... View Details

September 2011 (Revised November 2011)
Case

Liberté, Égalité, Sororité: How Should France Achieve Boardroom Parité?

By: Boris Groysberg and Hilary Fischer-Groban

The French government is considering mandating a gender quota for corporate boards. Other countries have approached the question of gender equity in corporate governance in various ways; which model might best work for France? View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Governing and Advisory Boards; Gender; Corporate Governance; France