Publications

03 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

The Competitive Advantage of Global Finance

world. What does the book add to the literature that you felt was lacking? Mihir Desai: Recent waves of globalization have had several distinct effects on firms that have not been addressed by many... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

September 2023
Article

The Health Costs of Dirty Energy: Evidence from the Capacity Market in Colombia

By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Theresa Molina, Anant Nyshadham, Jorge Tamayo and Nicholas Torres

The health effects of “dirty” (fossil fuel driven) energy production are difficult to measure accurately due to the endogeneity of fuel choice. We exploit an electricity policy in Colombia that generates a price-based trigger for the use of thermal energy sources.... View Details

Keywords: Pollution; Health Disorders; Energy Industry; Colombia

February 2021
Article

Topic Classification of Electric Vehicle Consumer Experiences with Transformer-Based Deep Learning

By: Sooji Ha, Daniel J Marchetto, Sameer Dharur and Omar Isaac Asensio

The transportation sector is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is a driver of adverse health effects globally. Increasingly, government policies have promoted the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) as a solution to mitigate GHG emissions.... View Details

Keywords: Natural Language Processing; Analytics and Data Science; Environmental Sustainability; Infrastructure; Transportation; Policy

11 Jun 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching the Next Generation of Energy Executives

You may think that being an energy executive—especially a manager in a leading oil company—might be the easiest job around. Just flip the production switch, and watch gas prices head toward $4 a gallon. But students enrolled in Harvard Business School professor Forest... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

Forthcoming
Article

The Institutional Sources of Economic Transformation: Explaining Variation in Energy Transitions

By: Jared Finnegan, Phillip Lipscy, Jonas Meckling and Florence Metz

Why are some governments more effective in promoting economic change than others? We develop a theory of the institutional sources of economic transformation. Institutions can facilitate transformation through two central mechanisms: insulation and compensation.... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Business and Government Relations; Supply and Industry; Demand and Consumers; Transformation; Economic Systems; Climate Change

Find at Harvard

25 Apr 2014
News

Taking up the issue of climate change

1988, we were thinking about bringing a child into the world and really became focused on the environment," recalls Horn. He subsequently joined the board of the Natural Resources Defense Council, "arguably the most View Details

19 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

The Landscape of Integrated Reporting: An E-Book

lost trust in business. Whether it be the environment, health care, or making sure that people have access to information, I can't think of any major problem that society confronts today that can be View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria; Accounting

15 Mar 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business

This word cloud is composed of blog posts by more than 900 students describing how individual organizations are likely to be affected by climate change. Image by Patrick Clapp Last fall, first-year MBA students at Harvard Business School received a new assignment in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Green Technology

18 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

The Bias of Wall Street Analysts

Analysts and Research Reports," and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) issued Rule 472, "Communications with the Public." Both were effective in May of 2002, which is subsequent to the data... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

Sharing the Responsibility of Corporate Governance

interests of the corporation. Contrary to popular belief, this does not mean maximizing shareholder value without regard for the effect on employees, customers, suppliers, the environment, or the communities... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

February 2017 (Revised June 2017)
Case

ExxonMobil: Business as Usual? (A)

By: George Serafeim, Shiva Rajgopal and David Freiberg

Climate change was becoming an important societal and business issue as more governments were introducing climate change related regulations and investors became increasibly worried about stranded assets within oil and gas firms. In September 2016, the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Oil ＆ Gas; Oil Prices; Oil Companies; Asset Impairment; Predictive Analytics; Sustainability; Environmental Impact; Innovation; Disclosure; Accounting; Valuation; Climate Change; Renewable Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Reporting; Energy Industry

Educators

23 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

The Future of the Venture Capital Cycle

implies that the side effects associated with periods of rapid growth generate sufficient difficulties that periods of retrenchment are sure to follow. Neoclassical economics... View Details

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers & Josh Lerner; Financial Services

December 2016
Article

Impact Investing: A Brief History

By: Brian Trelstad

Over the last decade, impact investing has become an increasingly-discussed topic in the realms of both business and public policy. Impact investors are motived by a desire to advance social or environmental goals and an intuition that pursuing two goals at once -... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Investment; Ethics; Strategy

SSRN

Summer 2013
Article

A Tale of Two Stories: Sustainability and the Quarterly Earnings Call

By: Robert G. Eccles and George Serafeim

One of the challenges companies claim to face in making sustainability a core part of their strategy and operations is that the market does not care about sustainability, either in general or because the time frames in which it matters are too long. The response of... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Communication; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Investment; Environmental Sustainability

Find at Harvard

21 Nov 2017
News

Alumni Peer into the Future of Energy

alumni, faculty, and environmental industry leaders. “We invited several of our alumni guests to host each event and give a short talk, to paint a picture of the future for... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; solar power; wind power

June 2011 (Revised December 2013)
Case

FIJI Water: Carbon Negative?

By: Francesca Gino, Michael W. Toffel and Stephanie van Sice

Seeking to go beyond global best practices in reducing environmental impacts, FIJI Water, a premium artesian bottled water company in the United States, launched a Carbon Negative campaign that would offset more greenhouse gas emissions than were released by the... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Footprint; Carbon Offsetting; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Brands and Branding; Negotiation Tactics; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Fiji

Educators

10 Jun 2015
Research & Ideas

The Transparency Revolution in Corporate Reporting

decipher what kind of company they are buying into. The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) is an NGO established in 2011 with designs on cutting through that noise. Much the way the Financial Accounting Standards Board has... View Details

Keywords: Re: George Serafeim

March 1989 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Philip Morris Companies and Kraft, Inc.

By: Richard S. Ruback

Gives students the opportunity to explore the effect of substantial free cash flow on corporate acquisition and operating strategies. Students are also given the opportunity to extract information from the common stock prices of the participating firms. A variety of... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Strategic Planning; Acquisition; Strategy; Restructuring; Valuation; Stocks

Educators