social issues - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Hippo: Weathering the Storm of the Home Insurance Crisis

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Sophia Pan

Rick McCathron, CEO of Hippo, considered how the firm’s underwriting model could account for the effects of climate change. Along with providing smart home packages, targeting risk-friendly customers, and using data-driven pricing, the Insurtech used technologically... View Details

Citation

Educators

22 Feb 2024
News

GCC Crossroads Aims for a Bright Future; Seattle Alumni Talk Leadership in Tech; Italy Preps for European Alumni Summit

Clubs News Clubs News Crossroads Forum Explores Future of Gulf Region More than 1,300 public and private leaders convened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on January 30 and 31 for the Crossroads GCC Future Impact Forum, co-hosted by the HBS Club of the Gulf Cooperation Council... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

January 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Elon Musk at Tesla

By: George Serafeim and Amram Migdal

This case gives an overview of Elon Musk’s career arc through the lens of the 2003 founding of Tesla and its growth through 2022. Background information is included on Tesla’s unique strategic decisions, its operational and reputational struggles and successes, and the... View Details

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04 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 4

plan, has implications jointly for DCF and stock prices. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/210039-PDF-ENG United Breaks Guitars John Deighton and Leora KornfeldHarvard Business School Case 510-057 When social media... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

30 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Mark Zuckerberg Do?

opted for only minimal control in order to create larger personal networks. Further, there was little governmental regulation of social networking companies protecting those users. In the past two weeks, Facebook’s world had changed with... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Web Services; Information Technology

July–September 2020
Article

Innovation Contest: Effect of Perceived Support for Learning on Participation

By: Olivia Jung, Andrea Blasco and Karim R. Lakhani

Background: Frontline staff are well positioned to conceive improvement opportunities based on first-hand knowledge of what works and does not work. The innovation contest may be a relevant and useful vehicle to elicit staff ideas. However, the success of the... View Details

Keywords: Contest; Innovation; Employee Engagement; Organizational Learning; Health Care; Health Care Delivery; Innovation and Invention; Organizations; Learning; Employees; Perception; Health Care and Treatment

Citation

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2021
Working Paper

The Business of K-12 Education in China

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yuhai Wu

This working paper examines the evolution of K-12 education in China, especially between 1985 and the present day, drawing extensive interviews with participants in the educational sector. China has been hugely successful in reaching almost 100 percent literacy,... View Details

Keywords: K-12 Education; China; Real Estate; Early Childhood Education; Performance Evaluation; Teaching; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Personal Development and Career; Social Issues; Nonprofit Organizations; Private Sector; Education Industry; Real Estate Industry; China

Citation

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31 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 31, 2017

facilitated research investment in an area of significant social value, patents promoted disclosure. Our findings highlight the importance of complementarities between prize and patent-based incentives in the design of innovation... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

27 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing

purview only. It is an issue that involves both. At the top of the customer base pyramid where the accounts are huge, marketing and sales must make joint decisions about product, price, brand, and all kinds of support.— Benson Shapiro The... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro

29 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

A Manager’s Moral Obligation to Preserve Capitalism

for instance, might argue that capitalism ignores issues of fairness in outcomes—but they can't say that it doesn't exist. “Our task is not to take immoral people and make them moral. Our task is to add texture to the dominant ethical... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

27 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Build 'Scaffolds' to Improve Performance of Temporary Teams

which hampered the pod acting as a team, Valentine says. While a hospital may be a natural setting for team scaffolds, Edmondson and Valentine see other applicable sites. Many large, global companies are trying to enable better lateral coordination to solve client... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Health

2008
Other Unpublished Work

Accounting, Risk Management and the Aftermath of a Control Debacle

By: Anette Mikes

Despite the widespread adoption of risk management systems in the financial services industry, recent control debacles highlight the apparent lack of top managerial attention to risk controls. Yet in order to understand the workings and uses of risk controls (or any... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Governance Controls; Management Systems; Accounting; Conflict and Resolution; Trends; Financial Services Industry

Citation

29 Mar 2016
First Look

March 29, 2016

the major public goods issues of our time. Yet we live in a time when many public goods issues are global and global governance mechanisms are at the very earliest stage of development, and in industry after... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Agents of Change: The Founding of the AASU - The Value of Business Education

then to go into business means a great deal," Du Bois wrote. "It is, indeed, a step in social progress worth measuring." 3 Harvard Business School (HBS), the country's first graduate program in business administration, opened its doors in... View Details

12 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 12

let people pay their bills online, and airline apps let them check in and monitor the status of their flights. (2) Offer unique value. In South Korea, commuters can use an app to order groceries while waiting for their trains. (3) Provide View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

When Design Enables Discrimination: Learning from Anti-Asian Bias on Airbnb

post-doctoral researcher at the Université Paris-Dauphine, and Michelangelo Rossi, assistant professor at Télécom Paris. In a political environment where racial injustice draws plenty of attention from all sides, companies that want to lead on the View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds; Technology; Travel

September 2017
Case

Christine Lagarde

By: Julie Battilana, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Vanessa Ampelas and Noemie Assenat

The case covers the youth and career trajectory of Christine Lagarde across her time at Baker & McKenzie, as a minister in the government of France and as the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The case highlights the challenges and opportunities she faced... View Details

Keywords: Change; Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Leadership; Gender; Leading Change

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27 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: September 27

reach and richness jointly determine the potential value of the network, while receptivity is crucial in realizing that potential. The Dynamics of Social Structure: The Emergence and Decline of Small Worlds Authors:Ranjay Gulati, Maxim... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Isn't Business Research More Relevant to Business Practitioners?

disciplines, where academic research is leading to the development of a second skin that could improve drug delivery or alerting farmers and scientists on how to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural farming. Harvard Business School’s Michael W. Toffel... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

December 1997 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Merck Sharp & Dohme Argentina, Inc. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Hal Hogan

Describes the efforts of the new managing director of Merck's subsidiary for Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay to transform the organization and its culture. Focuses on a critical decision: whether to offer the son of a high-ranking official in the government's national... View Details