Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(3,326)
- Faculty Publications (776)
- May 2022 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
The Freedom Fund (A): Ending Modern Slavery
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han
The Freedom Fund founded in 2013 to end modern slavery had raised more than half its intended target (by 2025) of $200 million. In 2021, impressed by its decentralized-partnering style of operations, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott awarded the Fund a gift of $35 million... View Details
- April 2022
- Case
Corporate Responses to the War in Ukraine: Nestlé
By: Nien-he Hsieh and Christopher Diak
- 2022
- Book
A Political Economy of Justice
By: Danielle Allen, Yochai Benkler, Leah Downey, Rebecca Henderson and Joshua Simons
Defining a just economy in a tenuous social-political time.
If we can agree that our current social-political moment is tenuous and unsustainable—and indeed, that may be the only thing we can agree on right now—then how do markets, governments, and people... View Details
If we can agree that our current social-political moment is tenuous and unsustainable—and indeed, that may be the only thing we can agree on right now—then how do markets, governments, and people... View Details
- March 2022 (Revised March 2025)
- Technical Note
Ethical Analysis: Society
By: Nien-hê Hsieh
How should managers determine and deliver on their responsibilities to society? This note summarizes prevailing approaches to this question and outlines an approach centered on what distinguishes society from other key constituencies, such as investors or customers.... View Details
- March 2022
- Case
The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program: 2009-2021
By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Julia Kelley
In December 2021, more than a decade after its founding, Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Small Businesses program was still going strong — and the firm now needed to evaluate potential program modifications to reach a wider group of small business owners. Launched in the... View Details
Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Small Business; Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Government and Politics; Knowledge; Knowledge Dissemination; Labor; Employment; Human Capital; Management; Goals and Objectives; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Programs; Networks; Social Enterprise; Society; Strategy; Demographics; Diversity; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US)
- March 2022 (Revised January 2023)
- Case
Clara Wu Tsai and Brooklyn Loan Innovation
Philanthropist Clara Wu Tsai is committed to racial equity and investing in Brooklyn-based minority business owners. In the wake of the George Floyd murder, she decides to create a new initiative called the Social Justice Fund and commit an initial $50 million over 10... View Details
- March 2022 (Revised April 2022)
- Teaching Note
France Télécom (A), (B), and (C)
By: Ashley Whillans
This case series discusses the evolution of France Télécom (now Orange) from a national telephone monopoly to a private company. During this process, the company faced numerous challenges including the entry of new competition from other countries and a workforce that... View Details
- March 2022
- Case
In Data We Trust: Be Mobile Africa and Furthering Financial Inclusion Across the African Continent
By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Pierre Marchesseault
To Cédric Jeannot, leveraging technology to promote financial inclusion was personal. After no established financial institution would accept his technology platform to lower transaction costs for free, Jeannot launched FinTech company Be Mobile Africa in May 2020.... View Details
Keywords: Finance; Fintech; Emerging Market; Fundraising; Financial Inclusion; Strategy; Expansion; Management; Entrepreneurship; Personal Finance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Africa; Togo; Nigeria; Ghana
- 2022
- Chapter
Sustainability for People and the Planet: Placing Workers at the Center of Sustainability Research
By: Julie Yen, Julie Battilana and Emilie Aguirre
Though workers face a series of critical challenges in contemporary work organizations, they are often overlooked in conversations about sustainable business. In this chapter, we argue that prioritizing the rights and well-being of workers is a core dimension of... View Details
- February 2022
- Case
Paul Polman
By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Youngme Moon and Susie Ma
Over his 40-year career, Paul Polman had led some of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, making his biggest mark as CEO of Unilever—a multi-national corporation that produced everything from soap to soup. Polman was also well-regarded as a leader in corporate... View Details
- February 2022
- Teaching Plan
Community Solutions
By: Brian Trelstad and Tom Quinn
Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 322-021. Community Solutions was an anti-homelessness nonprofit founded in 2011 after protagonist Rosanne Haggerty grew frustrated with the limited impact of traditional housing and outreach strategies. It set an ambitious goal, reached... View Details
- February 2022
- Case
Business Roundtable 2019 Statement: A New Paradigm or Business as Usual?
By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Amram Migdal
This note focuses on the antecedents of, reactions to, and clarifications about The Business Roundtable’s August 19, 2019, “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.” The note includes background information on corporate governance as practiced in the United States in... View Details
- February 2022
- Article
Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century
By: Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas and Stefanie Stantcheva
This paper studies the effect of corporate and personal taxes on innovation in the United States over the twentieth century. We build a panel of the universe of inventors who patent since 1920, and a historical state-level corporate tax database with corporate tax... View Details
- January 2022
- Case
Bee-ing Better at Bombas
By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Youngme Moon and John Masko
David Heath and Randy Goldberg founded Bombas in 2013 to serve two missions: to deliver the “best socks in the history of feet,” and to donate socks (the most requested item in homeless shelters) to Americans experiencing homelessness. Eight years later, Bombas had... View Details
Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Distribution; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Quality; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Human Needs; Poverty; Growth and Development Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; New York (city, NY)
- January 2022
- Case
Fueling a Cleaner Future: ACWA Power and Green Hydrogen
By: Dennis Yao and Alpana Thapar
In January 2020, Paddy Padmanathan, president and CEO of ACWA Power, was reflecting on the company’s sixteen-year record of success and thinking about its future growth plans. Founded in 2004, ACWA Power was a Saudi Arabian developer, owner, and operator of power and... View Details
- 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
- Article
Democratizing Work: Redistributing Power in Organizations for a Democratic and Sustainable Future
By: Julie Battilana, Julie Yen, Isabelle Ferreras and Lakshmi Ramarajan
Environmental destruction and social inequalities are increasingly urgent challenges. How can corporations, which have played a key role in creating and reproducing these problems, be part of the solution? In this paper, we advance that a shift to more democratic forms... View Details
- January 2022
- Article
Why Is Corporate Virtue in the Eye of the Beholder? The Case of ESG Ratings
By: Dane Christensen, George Serafeim and Anywhere Sikochi
Despite the rising use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, there is substantial disagreement across rating agencies regarding what rating to give to individual firms. As what drives this disagreement is unclear, we examine whether a firm’s ESG... View Details
- December 2021
- Case
Bunge: Building a Sustainable Future?
By: Forest Reinhardt, David E. Bell, Pedro Levindo and Ruth Costas
Bunge, one of the world’s leading agribusiness traders and processors, strives to comply with its commitment to having a deforestation-free value chain by 2025 while it considers potential new business growth areas. After a complex turnaround, which involved one of the... View Details
- December 2021
- Case
Danish Crown: Feeding the Future
By: David E. Bell, Damien P. McLoughlin, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej
Danish Crown, one of the world’s largest exporters of pork meat and one of Europe’s top five producers of beef, faced increasing headwinds in 2021, making CEO Jais Valeur feel like the core of the meat business was under attack. As a cooperative and prominent player in... View Details
Keywords: Agribusiness; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Food; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Nutrition; Cooperative Ownership; Change Management; Transition; Leadership; Leading Change; Marketing; Product Marketing; Corporate Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; Denmark