Publications
Publications
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(7,556)
- Faculty Publications (1,872)
- May 2023
- Case
CMA CGM: Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Container Shipping
By: Willy C. Shih and Emilie Billaud
Marine transport is the most cost-effective way to move large volumes over long distances, and container shipping is the backbone of international trade in goods. Yet shipping contributed 3% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, and the deep-sea segment, which... View Details
- May 2023 (Revised November 2023)
- Case
Arcos Dorados: Decarbonizing McDonald's in Latin America
By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal
This case describes the decarbonization strategy of Arcos Dorados—McDonald’s largest independent franchisee, operating in 20 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean—and how the company measured its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including those... View Details
Keywords: Environmental Accounting; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Change Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Environmental Sustainability; Food; Growth Management; Supply Chain; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Green Technology Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Latin America; North and Central America; South America
- May 2023
- Article
Do Internal Control Weaknesses Affect Firms' Demand for Financial Skills? Evidence from U.S. Job Postings
By: Janet Gao, Kenneth J. Merkley, Joseph Pacelli and Joseph H. Schroeder
Ineffective internal controls over financial reporting often relates to a lack of qualified personnel with sufficient accounting and technical expertise. In this study, we examine whether firms respond to internal control failures by increasing their demand for... View Details
- April 2023 (Revised July 2023)
- Case
Fermenting Accounting Problems at Vermont Kombucha Corp.
By: Tatiana Sandino and Marshal Herrmann
Founded in 2005, Vermont Kombucha Corp. (V-Ko) was an early mover in the fledgling U.S. market for kombucha, a drink brewed for its health benefits. Early on, the company captured more than 90% of market share. Under the leadership of its founder and CEO, Joe Williams,... View Details
- April 3, 2023
- Article
Getting a Clearer View of Your Company’s Carbon Footprint
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Karthik Ramanna and Stefan Reichelstein
E-liability accounting is a new technique that will help customers factor in a product’s environmental footprint into their purchasing decisions and will help create a competition dynamic that leads to reduced carbon outputs. This article describes two pilot studies—by... View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
Corporate Website-based Measures of Firms' Value Drivers
By: Wei Cai, Dennis Campbell and Patrick Ferguson
We develop and validate new text-based measures of firms’ financial and non-financial value drivers. Using the Wayback Machine to access public US firms’ archived websites from 1995-2020, we scrape text from corporate homepages. We use Kaplan and Norton’s (1992)... View Details
- April 2023
- Article
Inattentive Inference
By: Thomas Graeber
This paper studies how people infer a state of the world from information structures that include additional, payoff-irrelevant states. For example, learning from a customer review about a product’s quality requires accounting for the reviewer’s otherwise irrelevant... View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
Deep Responsibility and Irresponsibility in the Beauty Industry
By: Geoffrey Jones
This working paper employs the concept of deep responsibility to assess the social responsibility of the beauty industry over time. It shows that many of today’s problems with the industry have deep historical roots. Products have carried too many health hazards.... View Details
- March 20, 2023
- Editorial
Can Twitter Be a Force for Good? Social Media Helps Curb Corporate Misconduct
By: Jonas Heese and Joseph Pacelli
- March 2023 (Revised March 2025)
- Module Note
LCA Module Overview: Society
By: Nien-hê Hsieh
Leadership and Corporate and Accountability (LCA) is a required course in the first-year MBA curriculum at Harvard Business School to help managers determine and deliver on their economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities. This note summarizes the cases and outlines... View Details
- March 2023
- Teaching Note
Sustainability Reporting at Dollar Tree, Inc.
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 122-044. The case discusses the ESG strategy of Dollar Tree Inc., a U.S. Fortune 500 company in the deep discount retail industry and the shareholder pressure faced by the company. In 2022, the company faced a shareholder resolution from... 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
- March 2023 (Revised November 2023)
- Module Note
The Social Purpose of the Firm
By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau
The Social Purpose of the Firm (SPF) is a short module designed to explore how, and under what circumstances, business leaders can harness the power of capitalism and markets to “make a difference in the world” – that is, to address a significant societal problem as a... View Details
- March 2023 (Revised June 2023)
- Teaching Note
Ransomware Attack at Springhill Medical Center
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan (Jason) Ni
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-065. In July, 2019, Springhill Medical Center (“SMC”) in Mobile, Alabama fell prey to a malicious ransomware attack that crippled the hospital’s internal network systems and public-facing web page. While the hospital rushed to... View Details
Keywords: Disruption; Communication; Communication Strategy; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Policy; Employees; News; Cybersecurity; Digital Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Information Management; Internet and the Web; Crisis Management; Business or Company Management; Resource Allocation; Risk Management; Negotiation Tactics; Failure; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Attitudes; Behavior; Perception; Reputation; Trust; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Health Industry; Alabama; United States
- March 2023
- Teaching Note
Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-069. On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth... View Details
Keywords: Disruption; Communication; Communication Strategy; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Policy; Employees; News; Cybersecurity; Digital Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Information Management; Internet and the Web; Crisis Management; Business or Company Management; Resource Allocation; Risk Management; Negotiation Tactics; Failure; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Attitudes; Behavior; Perception; Reputation; Trust; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Infrastructure; Distribution Industry; United States; Alabama
- March 2023
- Case
Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni
On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth about $4.4 million at the time) in... View Details
Keywords: Disruption; Communication; Communication Strategy; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Policy; Employees; News; Cybersecurity; Digital Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Information Management; Internet and the Web; Crisis Management; Business or Company Management; Resource Allocation; Risk Management; Negotiation Tactics; Failure; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Attitudes; Behavior; Perception; Reputation; Trust; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Infrastructure; Distribution Industry; United States; Alabama
- March 2023
- Article
Attracting the Sharks: Corporate Innovation and Securities Class Action Lawsuits
By: Elisabeth Kempf and Oliver Spalt
This paper provides novel evidence suggesting that securities class action lawsuits, a central pillar of the U.S. litigation and corporate governance system, can constitute an obstacle to valuable corporate innovation. We first establish that valuable innovation output... View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
Accounting for Carbon Offsets – Establishing the Foundation for Carbon-Trading Markets
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Karthik Ramanna and Marc Roston
Tackling climate change requires reductions in current and future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as the removal of existing GHG from the atmosphere. Carbon-offset producers purport to provide such removals. But poor measurement practices and inadequate controls... View Details
- February 2023
- Case
Ransomware Attack at Springhill Medical Center
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan (Jason) Ni
In July, 2019, Springhill Medical Center (“SMC”) in Mobile, Alabama, fell prey to a malicious ransomware attack that crippled the hospital’s internal network systems and public-facing web page. While the hospital rushed to securely restore the network, medical... View Details
Keywords: Disruption; Communication; Communication Strategy; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Policy; Employees; News; Cybersecurity; Digital Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Information Management; Internet and the Web; Crisis Management; Resource Allocation; Risk Management; Negotiation Tactics; Failure; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Attitudes; Behavior; Perception; Reputation; Trust; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Health Industry; United States; Alabama
- February 2023 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Hey, Insta & YouTube, Are You Watching TikTok?
In early 2023, the entertainment app TikTok reached close to 1 billion users globally, placing it 4th behind the leading social networks of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Featuring a sophisticated recommendation engine, TikTok mastered the art of keeping users... View Details
- February 2023
- Article
Climate Solutions Investments
By: Alex Cheema-Fox, George Serafeim and Hui (Stacie) Wang
An increasing number of companies are providing products and services that help reduce carbon emissions in the economy. We develop a methodology to identify those companies and create a sample of publicly listed climate solutions companies allowing us to study their... View Details