Publications

June 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Sustainability Reporting at Dollar Tree, Inc.

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

The cases discusses the ESG strategy of Dollar Tree Inc., a U.S. Fortune 500 company in the deep discount retail industry and the and shareholder pressure faced by the company. In 2022, the company faced a shareholder resolution from a renowned shareholder advocacy... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Sustainability; Shareholder Activism; Dollar Tree; Sustainability Reporting; ESG Reporting; Board Of Directors; Shareholder Engagement; GHG; Environmental Accounting; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Trends; Communication; Announcements; Voting; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Reports; Business or Company Management; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Outcome or Result; Strategic Planning; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Situation or Environment; Opportunities; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Public Opinion; Strategy; Adaptation; Alignment; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Value Creation; Retail Industry; United States; Virginia

24 Oct 2023
HBS Case

From P.T. Barnum to Mary Kay: Lessons From 5 Leaders Who Changed the World

stories contain pearls of management wisdom for today’s executives looking to lead with excellence. “Without exception, all these people are opportunity seekers,” says Simons of the leaders profiled, which include former British Prime... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

Article

The Re-Industrialization of the United States?

By: Willy C. Shih

Talk of "re-industrialization" in the United States has been supported by a seeming resurgence in manufacturing, but this is driven more by the end of labor arbitrage and increasing coordination costs of offshore manufacturing. Aggressive restructurings and significant... View Details

2016
Working Paper

What Factors Drive Director Perceptions of Their Board's Effectiveness?

By: Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy and Richard Ellis Crum

We use a survey of directors to collect data on their ratings of board effectiveness as well as board internal dynamics and key processes. Controlling for many of the governance metrics examined by prior research, we find that directors’ ratings of their boards’... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Corporate Governance; Performance Effectiveness; Perception; Risk Management

SSRN

July–August 2014
Article

Sustainability in the Boardroom: Lessons from Nike's Playbook

By: Lynn S. Paine

One surprising role of Nike's corporate responsibility committee is to provide support for innovation. More and more companies recognize the importance of corporate responsibility to their long-term success—and yet the matter gets short shrift in most boardrooms,... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry

Herman B. ("Dutch") Leonard is Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and the George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Sector Management at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In... View Details

Keywords: education industry; federal government; health care; nonprofit industry; state government

28 Mar 2023
HBS Seminar

Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, London Business School

December 2022
Case

Taylor Farms: Adding Value to Fresh Produce

By: José B. Alvarez, Forest L. Reinhardt, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Pedro Levindo

In October 2022, Bruce Taylor (HBS MBA, 1981), Chairman and CEO of Taylor Farms, the leading producer of salads and healthy fresh foods in the United States, wondered whether this was the right time for Taylor Farms to venture into the Controlled Environment... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Cost vs Benefits; Logistics; Environmental Sustainability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

September 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Merck & Co., Inc. (B)

In late 1986, Merck revised its performance review and pay practices. The most important change was a shift from an absolute rating system to a forced-distribution system in which managers are forced to adhere to a given distribution of performance ratings. Other major... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Pharmaceutical Industry

Article

Online Community as Space for Knowledge Flows

By: Samer Faraj, Georg von Krogh, Eric Monteiro and Karim R. Lakhani

Online communities frequently create significant economic and relational value for community participants and beyond. It is widely accepted that the underlying source of such value is the collective flow of knowledge among community participants. We distinguish the... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Value Creation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

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Robin Ely is the Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She conducts research on race and gender relations in organizations with a focus on leadership, identity, and organizational culture change.... View Details

October 2008
Case

Financial Crisis in Asia: 1997-1998 (Abridged)

By: Huw Pill, Rafael M. Di Tella and Jonathan Schlefer

What caused the 1997-98 Asia Crisis: Asian nations' poor economic management, international financial contagion, close "crony" relations between local politicians and capitalists? This case examines how the crisis erupted in Thailand and spread in a chain of events... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Crisis; Ethics; Financial Institutions; Financial Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Asia

Joseph Fuller is a Professor of Management Practice in General Management and Entrepreneurship. He founded and co-leads the school’s project, Managing the Future of Work, as well as the Harvard Project on the Workforce. He currently leads the FIELD Global Capstone... View Details

November 2005 (Revised April 2009)
Case

RFID at the METRO Group

Introduces radio frequency identification (RFID) as the next generation of automatic identification technologies that is expected to improve the performance of retail supply chains through reduced shrink, increased product availability, and improved labor productivity.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Supply Chain Management; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity; Technology Adoption

Web

Influence of the China Trade and the Heard Legacy - A Chronicle of the China Trade

Related Collections Site Credits While reading your letters, I always imagine that you are sitting opposite me, and we are conversing together, as we used to do in old times. — John Heard to Elizabeth Heard,... View Details

October 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

The University of Notre Dame Endowment

By: Andre F. Perold and Paul Michael Buser

The Endowment Model of Investing, which was based on creating high risk-adjusted performance through diversification, a long time horizon, top-notch outside managers, and illiquid investments, had served Notre Dame and other large universities well over the past... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Higher Education; Asset Management; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Risk Management; Performance Evaluation; Education Industry; Financial Services Industry

October 2002 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Restructuring the U.S. Steel Industry

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Focuses on the competitive decline of the integrated steel producers in the United States from 1970 to 2002. Issues include: Should the U.S. government impose tariffs to try to protect the industry? What should labor unions do, if anything, to protect jobs and wage... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Jobs and Positions; Labor Unions; Wages; Business and Government Relations; Integration; Steel Industry; United States

Article

Should Business Have Human Rights Obligations?

By: Nien-he Hsieh

Businesses and their managers are increasingly called upon to take on human rights obligations. Focusing on the case of multinational enterprises (MNEs), the paper argues we have reason to reject assigning human rights obligations to business enterprises and their... View Details

Keywords: Human Rights; Ruggie Principles; Corporate Responsibility; Multinationals; Rights; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact