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January 1996
Background Note

National Cultures and Work-Related Values: The Hofstede Study

People from different national cultures often operate under different assumptions about what is appropriate behavior. In organizational settings, these cultural differences in underlying assumptions can significantly affect interactions when individuals from various... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Organizations; Attitudes; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Computer Industry

01 Nov 2016
News

Paving the Way to College

Harley Frankel (MBA 1966) is dedicated to bringing change to the field of education. During a long career in education policy at the federal level, he led the National Head Start program; helped to develop the forerunner of the Pell Grant financial aid program; was... View Details

August 20, 2024
Article

Sexual Assault Victims Face a Penalty for Adjacent Consent

By: Jillian J. Jordan and Roseanna Sommers

Across 11 experimental studies (n = 12,257), we show that female victims of sexual assault are blamed more and seen as less morally virtuous if their assault follows voluntary sexual intimacy, a factor we term “adjacent consent”. Moreover, we illuminate a... View Details

Keywords: Perception; Prejudice and Bias; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Social Issues

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August 2020
Background Note

US Private Equity Firms: ESG and Impact (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Holly Fetter

This Note has two parts. The first part (A) explores how U.S. private equity firms are incorporating ESG (Environmental, Social, & Governance) factors and impact objectives into their investment strategies and firm practices. It is based on publicly available... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Financial Services Industry; United States

13 Dec 2022
News

The First Five Years: Christine Keung and Reggie Smith

Christine Keung (at podium) and Reginald Smith (both MBA 2020) present recommendations for economic development to the West Virginia State Senate in May 2022. How did you meet? Reggie Smith: "We first met before classes started RC year at a big social event in... View Details

02 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Spending on Happiness

from the University of British Columbia, Elizabeth Dunn and Lara Aknin. Their article, "Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness," appeared in the March 21, 2008 issue of Science. "Intentional activities—practices in... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

17 Mar 2023
News

Dean Datar Meets with Alumni in New York

Starting this past fall and continuing through the coming year, Dean Srikant Datar is traveling to meet with alumni around the world. On Tuesday, March 14, more than 200 alumni in the New Your area gathered to celebrate and connect with each other at "HBS in New York:... View Details

March 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Business of Life, The

By: Debora L. Spar

Every day, around the world, babies and children are being sold. Frequently, these transactions appear to be above or beyond the market. Orphaned children are never "sold"--they are only "matched" with their "forever families." Eggs are "donated," and surrogate mothers... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Markets; Social Issues; Family and Family Relationships

Find at Harvard

21 Apr 2014
News

Howard Stevenson Faculty

HBS Professor, Emeritus Howard Stevenson (MBA 1965, DBA 1969) talks about his involvement in helping solve complex social problems in health, the environment, and the news media. (Published April 2014) View Details

Article

From Blood Diamonds to Dirty Gold: How to Buy Gold Less Tainted by Mercury

By: Kristin Sippl

This is a quick and easy news article on the link between poverty, mercury pollution, and gold mining. It explains the problems in the jewelry industry as well as public and civil society attempts to address them. View Details

Keywords: Mining; Pollutants; Poverty; Social Issues

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10 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Why We Blab Our Intimate Secrets on Facebook

Harvard Business School. "There seemed to be a constant need for people to give status updates on what they were doing. It was very bizarre to me." John's curiosity led to a raft of collaborative research about information disclosure in the age of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

01 Sep 2011
News

Water for Life

— water provision to the urban poor, water education, and environmental protection — that reflect the social issues we can address as a water and wastewater service provider. These programs were carefully... View Details

Keywords: Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities

July 2022
Case

General Mills: Responding to the Killing of George Floyd (A)

By: Debora L. Spar and Alicia Dadlani

Jeff Harmening, CEO of General Mills, one of the world's largest manufacturers of breakfast cereals and packaged foods, was deeply disturbed and instantly aware that he and General Mills would need to respond. George Floyd, an African-American man who had been accused... View Details

Keywords: Race; Decisions; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Minneapolis; Minnesota; United States

June 1990 (Revised February 1991)
Case

In the Shadow of the City

Traces the history of a collaborative effort to create an organization to manage a major international development project in the slums of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Focuses on a serious set of disagreements which develops several months into the project between the two... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Conflict and Resolution; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Ethiopia

September 2017
Case

Harvard Men's Soccer

By: Alison Wood Brooks and Katherine Coffman

In the fall of 2016, the Crimson, Harvard’s undergraduate newspaper, broke a story revealing that the 2012 Harvard Men’s Soccer team had produced a sexually explicit “scouting report” about the Women’s Soccer team. The story generated national headlines and... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Ethics; Gender; Social Issues

November 1999
Supplement

"ACT UP": Peter Staley, An Interview with Professor Willis Emmons, November 17, 1995

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Provides excerpts from an interview with Peter Staley of Act Up reflecting on the Wall Street protest against Burroughs Wellcome in the fall of 1989 and on the role and impact of AIDS advocacy and activism in general. View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Social Issues; Public Opinion; Pharmaceutical Industry