social impact investing - Publications - Faculty & Research

January 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Case

China Mobile's Rural Communications Strategy

By: William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan, G.A. Donovan and Tracy Manty

China Mobile was the world's leading mobile communications service provider with over 400 million customers. In some cities, its penetration rate was over 100%. With such huge successes, Chairman Wang Jianzhou was exploring ways to expand its customer base. Nearly... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Investment; Rural Scope; Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Telecommunications Industry; China

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Michael Porter is an economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker and teacher. Throughout his career at Harvard Business School, he has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; e-commerce industry; health care; information; information technology industry; internet; nonprofit industry; service industry; state government

25 May 2021
Research & Ideas

White Airbnb Hosts Earn More. Can AI Shrink the Racial Gap?

lodging demand. "If other companies invest in building similar race-blind algorithms, that may even the playing field for users." The research results could also have broader implications for promoting racial equity at a wide range of... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Technology; Accommodations

January 2014
Article

J. Richard Hackman (1940–2013)

By: Ruth Wageman and Teresa M. Amabile

When J. Richard Hackman died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 8, 2013, psychology lost a giant. Six and a half feet tall, with an outsize personality to match, Richard was the leading scholar in two distinct areas: work design and team effectiveness. In both... View Details

Keywords: Social Psychology; Organizational Design; Groups and Teams; Personal Development and Career; Education Industry; Cambridge

02 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 2

Publications Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to Finance Authors: Beiting Cheng, Ioannis Ioannou, and George Serafeim Publication: Strategic Management Journal (forthcoming) Abstract In this paper, we investigate whether... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Oct 2021
Blog Post

Crafting a Nontraditional Path to Venture Capital and Private Equity with Morgan Sheil (MBA 2021)

protagonists, and by taking on leadership roles with the Social Enterprise Club and Business & Environment Initiative. This multi-pronged approach that centered on putting her passion out there into the world led Sheil to critical... View Details

February 2025
Case

Doing Business in Casablanca, Morocco

By: Karen G. Mills, Ahmed Dahawy and Choetsow Tenzin

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Morocco. The case explores the various historical, cultural, and social factors that impact the business environment. It also highlights Morocco’s unique economy where cash remains a dominant... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Cultural Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Business History; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Cash; Culture; Distribution Industry; Financial Services Industry; Morocco

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07 Dec 2017
News

Can Index Funds Be a Force for Sustainable Capitalism?

2017
Other Teaching and Training Material

Organizational Behavior Reading: Leading Organizational Change

By: Ryan Raffaelli

This reading combines conceptual frameworks and research-based knowledge to provide practical guidance about how to lead organization change. The essential reading outlines key choices leaders must make when managing a change and the common traps that can cause a... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management

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2013
Article

Ethically Adrift: How Others Pull Our Moral Compass from True North, and How we Can Fix It

By: C. Moore and F. Gino

This chapter is about the social nature of morality. Using the metaphor of the moral compass to describe individuals' inner sense of right and wrong, we offer a framework to help us understand social reasons why our moral compass can come under others' control, leading... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Moral Sensibility; Behavior

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15 May 2017
Sharpening Your Skills

The Promises and Limitations of Big Data

data, which can be used to improve programs and services, according to Michael Luca and his research colleagues. Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing New tech-heavy financial firms are helping millennials invest, but... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Utilities; Public Administration; Health

April 2025
Case

Kleiner Perkins (2019)

By: Jo Tango and Srimayi Mylavarapu

Kleiner Perkins, founded in 1972, quickly rose to prominence as one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital firms, earning a reputation for early investments in industry giants like Google, Amazon, and Citrix. However, a bold, strategic pivot to cleantech investing... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurial Finance; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Services Industry

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28 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 28

study they asked, what is the effect of mandatory sustainability reporting on management practices across the world? Read the paper: http://bsr.london.edu/lbs-article/611/index.html Mutual Fund Trading Pressure: Firm-Level Stock Price View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Jul 2021
News

Opinion: ESG Funds Are Lagging the S&P 500 — Why That’s Good News If You Own Them

14 Nov 2017
News

Students help groups to pursue climate action

26 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Japanese Businesses Are So Good at Surviving Crises

soon after the earthquake hit: “If help is needed, then help. Don’t worry about profits.” Kigawa, who believed it was Yamato’s social mission to restore services as quickly as possible, managed to resume deliveries 10 days after the earth... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

06 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Behavioral Finance—Benefiting from Irrational Investors

like computers in financial models. Behavioral finance replaces these idealized decision makers with real and imperfect people who have social, cognitive, and emotional biases. My work focuses on how the resulting inefficiencies in the capital markets can create... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

15 Nov 2022
Op-Ed

Why TikTok Is Beating YouTube for Eyeball Time (It’s Not Just the Dance Videos)

to create social media, whose audiences voluntarily gave up their privacy. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Snapchat require you to sign in, making your identity known to the platform. Users’ interests can be inferred from the interests of their... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

23 Oct 2019
Video

The 2020 New Venture Competition Kickoff

July 2004 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Timberland: Commerce and Justice

By: James E. Austin, Herman B. Leonard and James Quinn

When Jeffrey Swartz became the third generation in his family to lead the Timberland Co., he pursued a strategy in which commerce and justice were "inextricably linked." Community involvement, environmental management, and global labor standards became not addenda to... View Details