Activists - Publications - Faculty & Research

26 May 2022
HBS Case

Apple vs. Feds: Is iPhone Privacy a Basic Human Right?

Apple CEO Tim Cook didn’t come to his post with an activist agenda, yet when law enforcement officials began pressuring the company to hand over iPhone users’ data without their permission, Cook took what he believed was a moral stance to... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

20 Aug 2020
Book

From the Plow to the Pill: How Technology Shapes Our Lives

level of agency over their lives and careers. They had choices that your mother and my mother did not. Yes, thankfully, groups of activists have also been pushing for decades to advance the social and legal changes that give women more... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

Q: Do firms compete on their programs? A: Except for niche firms, few companies brag about the conditions under which their products are made. Interestingly, many of the brands that were once targets of activists are now leaders in this... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

10 Feb 2021
Research & Ideas

Has #MeToo Changed How Hollywood Hires?

Milano asked women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted to publicly declare “me too,” a phrase initially used in this context in 2006 on MySpace by sexual harassment survivor and activist Tarana Burke. More than 1.7 million tweets... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Media & Broadcasting

30 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do

toward clean water projects. Still, Keenan acknowledges that many in the nonprofit sector worry that enabling overhead-free donations will perpetuate the idea that overhead is a bad thing. For example, activist Dan Pallotta argues in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Research Summary

Profitable Souls: Foreign Investment and the Fate of Human Rights

By: Debora L. Spar

This is a project about foreign investment, about what happens when big multinational firms invest in small, poor, and often nasty places. Typically, most observers assume that this is a largely negative relationship: that multinationals exploit the local population,... View Details

07 Jul 2021
Book

Good News for Disgraced Companies: You Can Regain Trust

it,” says Harvard Business School Professor Sandra Sucher. By contrast, she notes, when Pinterest proactively moved to keep anti-vaccination activists from spreading misinformation on the site during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

25 Jan 2017
HBS Case

How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?

superior to those with darker skin colors, are marketers crossing a line? Cream makers say they are merely meeting a market need, but social activists argue that these companies have an ethical responsibility to avoid marketing products... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Beauty & Cosmetics

14 Jan 2019
Op-Ed

These 4 CEOs Created a New Standard of Leadership

continued unabated through 2018. In 2013-14 Nooyi had to fend off activist investor Nelson Peltz, who called for breaking the company in two, never wavering from her strategy. Nooyi may have been ahead of her time, as America’s obesity... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Health; Banking; Food & Beverage; Consumer Products

21 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Do TV Debates Sway Voters?

world, the best place to change the minds of voters, especially disenchanted voters, is on their doorsteps, Pons says. Voters who dismiss the canned responses of a well-groomed candidate might listen to an activist from the same town or a... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

01 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

How Systemic Racism Can Threaten National Security

by Black activists and others to fight racism both at home and abroad, the researchers note. “Our point is not that African Americans did not participate. In fact, they did volunteer—and did so at high rates,” Tabellini says. “Our results... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

08 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Representation Matters: Building Case Studies That Empower Women Leaders

Ten years before Harvard Business School published its first case study, activists across Europe celebrated the first International Women’s Day. They demanded, among other things, the right for women to hold public office and an end to... View Details

Keywords: by Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

08 Feb 2010
HBS Case

Looking Behind Google’s Stand in China

political dissidents and Falun Gong activists whom they attempt to track as equivalent. Q: It was interesting that no other companies backed Google in this dispute. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called it "Google's problem." A:... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

03 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Dealing with the ‘Irrational’ Negotiator

were in dire need of such assistance. There was much support among politicians and activists for this initiative. Not surprisingly, however, there were also certain special-interest groups that opposed this legislation. Here's what was... View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra & Max H. Bazerman

15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

or as an effort of managers to massage metrics. The salutary effects of activist investors can be appreciated, just as one also appreciates the information and incentive problems that plague their money management industry. The channeling... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

03 Jul 2008
What Do You Think?

Are Followers About to Get Their Due?

five types of followers: isolates (completely detached), bystanders (observers only), participants (engaged), activists (who feel strongly and act accordingly, both with and against leaders), and diehards (deeply devoted). Dismissing the... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

29 Jan 2021
Op-Ed

How Influencers, Celebrities, and FOMO Can Win Over Vaccine Skeptics

of the much harsher consequences. India’s fight against HIV provides a good example to follow: Cipla, the maker of generic drugs, provided a simple message: Its low-priced drugs treated life-threatening conditions, and this message was amplified through View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim

Research Summary

Overview

By: Vincent Pons

Professor Pons studies questions in political economy and development with the goal of understanding how democratic systems function, and how they can be improved.

He decomposes the electoral cycle into four essential steps: the factors affecting voter... View Details

22 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

When Protestors Knock at Your Door

making them a more influential lever in many cases than states." Also intriguing is the "passion and tenacity with which NGO members and activists pursue their interests. They dedicate (and, in certain cases, risk) their lives... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

05 Jul 2017
Research & Ideas

Are Stockbrokers Illegally Leaking Confidential Information to Favored Clients?

information about large stock trades to their best, most lucrative clients. When a savvy activist investor submits a trading order through a brokerage firm, for example, the brokers will exploit this information by telling their favorite... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

Publications