Social Enterprise Initiative - Publications - Faculty & Research

August 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Camera IQ and the Metaverse: Building Augmented Reality Brand Experiences

By: Jill Avery and Rayan Nahas

Camera IQ, a camera marketing software company that empowered brands to create and launch augmented reality experiences (AREs) across social platforms, had just raised an additional $5 million to fund further product development and expand its marketing and sales... View Details

Citation

Educators

Purchase

March 2011 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Arck Systems

By: Ian Larkin

The Arck Systems series of cases describes the dilemmas faced by a senior sales manager in determining a sales compensation plan at an enterprise software company. The existing compensation plan is aggressive and highly rewards "star" performers. The cases track a... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Performance Effectiveness; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Software; Information Technology Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

22 Mar 2016
First Look

March 22, 2016

little attention, and most articles change only mildly from their initial slant. Our study provides the first empirical evidence on the limit of Linus' Law. While many organizations believe that they could improve their knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2010
Case

Esquel Group: Building a Sustainable Partnership with Cotton Farmers in Xinjiang (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Jason Cheng Qian

Esquel Group, leading manufacturer of quality shirts, sought to negotiate long-term partnerships with often-exploited farmers in Xinjiang (western China) to procure a superior cotton variety. Seeking to secure a large supply of specialty cotton in an ethical and... View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Leasing; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Hong Kong; Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu

Citation

Educators

Purchase

August 2022 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Iluméxico: For Every Family to Have Power

By: Brian Trelstad, Isa Oliveres and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

In 2022, Manuel Wiechers, the CEO of Iluméxico, a for-profit social enterprise that provided off-grid solar energy services in rural Mexico, was finalizing his presentation for the company’s upcoming board meeting. In the 12 years since Wiechers had co-founded... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Social Enterprise; Energy; Energy Policy; Energy Generation; Energy Sources; Growth Management; Business and Government Relations; Equity; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Energy Industry; Mexico; Latin America

Citation

Educators

Purchase

November 2013 (Revised January 2015)
Case

Restructuring JAL

By: Malcolm Baker, Adi Sunderam, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

Hideo Seto, the recently appointed chairman of the investment committee of the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation, must decide whether to push JAL group, Japan's largest airline, into bankruptcy or to act as a sponsor in an out-of-court restructuring. The... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Costs Of Financial Distress; Cost vs Benefits; Air Transportation; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Air Transportation Industry; Japan; United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

April 2002
Case

Pallotta TeamWorks

By: Allen S. Grossman and Elizabeth Kind

Pallotta Team Works is a for-profit, privately owned company that produces multiday fundraising events for nonprofit organizations. Dan Pallotta, the 40-year-old CEO, founded the enterprise in 1992. The company has grown rapidly, having raised over $200 million for... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Business Model; Nonprofit Organizations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Social Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Service Industry; Consulting Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

2015
Working Paper

Do People Shape Cities, or Do Cities Shape People? The Co-evolution of Physical, Social, and Economic Change in Five Major U.S. Cities

By: Nikhil Naik, Scott Duke Kominers, Ramesh Raskar, Edward L. Glaeser and Cesar Hidalgo

Urban change involves transformations in the physical appearance and the social composition of neighborhoods. Yet, the relationship between the physical and social components of urban change is not well understood due to the lack of comprehensive measures of... View Details

Keywords: Demographics; Urban Development; Change; Economics

Citation

Read Now

25 Feb 2015
HBS Seminar

Beril Toktay, Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology

08 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Hunt for Talent on Digital Platforms, Not in Resume Piles

apply, firms can now hop on a platform and pick out talent they think would be an especially good fit for their needs. When Koning and his colleagues set out to learn how many workers were being recruited versus applying for jobs directly, statistics from the 1991... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Employment

July 2017
Case

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

The founders of a start-up platform for publishers have developed preliminary personas of target customers and are evaluating the implications for initial target buyers, messaging, and marketing programs. The case is useful for discussing the process of developing... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

October 2010 (Revised June 2014)
Case

Volkswagen do Brasil: Driving Strategy with the Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

A new management team at VW do Brazil develops and deploys a strategy map and Balanced Scorecard to accomplish a turnaround and cultural change after eight consecutive years of financial losses and market share declines. The team uses the strategy map to align... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Developing Countries and Economies; Management Teams; Leadership; Balanced Scorecard; Strategic Planning; Balance and Stability; Motivation and Incentives; Communication Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Auto Industry; Brazil; Germany

Citation

Educators

Purchase

08 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 8

Epstein, and Kristi Yuthas Publication:In Scaling Social Impact: New Thinking, edited by Paul Bloom and Edward Skloot. Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming An abstract is unavailable at this time. Order this Book:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Mar 2024
Blog Post

History of the HBS Women's Student Association

community of women at HBS. This initiative was born out of a necessity to support women navigating the challenges of a predominantly male-dominated business world, marking a significant step towards fostering gender inclusivity and equity... View Details

18 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Beyond Heroic Entrepreneurs

experts in the field gathered last year at HBS to discuss such funding issues at a seminar hosted by the School's Social Enterprise Initiative. "If there's such a rise in the hybrid models, as more and more... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

November 1998
Case

Wegmans Food Markets: Diabetes Counseling

By: Ray A. Goldberg, David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Danny Wegman, president of Wegmans Food Markets, is trying to decide how to evaluate the success of a nutrition-counseling program for diabetics, and whether and how to expand the program beyond the two stores currently involved. Wegmans, with 57 stores and $2.3... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Expansion; Programs; Human Needs; Financial Management; Health Care and Treatment; Nutrition; Consumer Behavior; Pharmaceutical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

2015
Chapter

Managerial Responsibility and the Purpose of Business: Doing One's Job Well

By: Nien-he Hsieh

Business managers routinely make decisions that significantly affect the lives of others in both positive and negative ways. In the light of these wide-ranging effects, much scholarship has been devoted to specifying the responsibilities of managers of for-profit... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives

Citation

Find at Harvard

Purchase

Why do advertising campaigns and new products often fail? Why do consumers feel that companies don't understand their needs? Because marketers themselves don't think deeply about consumers' innermost thoughts and feelings. Marketing Metaphoria is a groundbreaking book... View Details

17 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Why We Don’t Study Corporate Responsibility

managers' social initiatives are akin to using a dishwasher to wash clothes. Corporations can contribute best to society if they do what they do best: employ a workforce to provide goods and services to the... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

August 2019
Case

Humanistic Capitalism at Brunello Cucinelli

By: Francesca Gino and Gary Pisano

This case explores one company’s attempt to experiment with a different underlying model for a capitalist enterprise. Brunello Cucinelli, S.p.A. is a leading manufacturer of luxury fashion apparel. Despite being a publicly traded enterprise with annual revenues... View Details