Publications

October 23, 2013
Article

Banyan Family Business Advisors On The Keys to Long-Term Resilience

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Family businesses have been found to excel in resilience during economic downturns compared to publicly-traded ones. This is attributed to their focus on resilience over performance. Key qualities of resilient family firms include managing low debt, practicing... View Details

Keywords: Performance Consistency; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Family Ownership; Family Business; Values and Beliefs; Business Strategy

Read Now

December 2010 (Revised June 2018)
Case

The Pecora Hearings

By: David Moss, Cole Bolton and Eugene Kintgen

In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, the Senate Banking Committee began a much-publicized investigation of the nation's financial sector. The hearings, which came to be known as the Pecora hearings after the Banking Committee's lead counsel Ferdinand Pecora,... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Fairness; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Institutions; Debt Securities; Stocks; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Legislation; History; Financial Services Industry; United States

January 1992 (Revised August 1992)
Case

Lexon Corp. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine

A general manager at Lexon Computer Corp. must decide whether interception and surveillance of employees' e-mail is acceptable company practice, and whether to follow the advice of his computer operations manager who wants to fire the person who complained that the... View Details

Keywords: Information; Rights; Managerial Roles; Interpersonal Communication; Employee Relationship Management; Ethics; Computer Industry

February 2004 (Revised April 2005)
Exercise

Necessary Evils: A Diagnostic Exercise

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Andrew Molinsky

Central to the work of leaders and professionals are tasks that entail harming one party to deliver benefits or advance valued and worthy goals. Sometimes a person must, as part of his or her job, perform an act that causes emotional, material, or physical harm to... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Ethics; Management Skills

2012
Working Paper

Putting Integrity into Finance: A Purely Positive Approach

By: Werner Erhard and Michael C. Jensen

We summarize our new positive theory of integrity that has no normative content, and argue that there are large gains from putting integrity into finance—into both the theory and practice of finance. We define integrity as being whole and complete and unbroken. We... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Ethics; Theory; Practice; Change

SSRN

06 Jun 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Leaders Lose Their Way

narcissistic wounds from childhood. Many times, this desire is so strong that leaders breach the ethical standards that previously governed their conduct, which can be bizarre and even illegal. Very few people go into leadership to cheat... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

30 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 31, 2006

international economic and financial crises highlights the need for a comprehensive framework to assess the robustness of national economic and financial systems. This paper proposes a new comprehensive approach to measure, analyze, and manage macroeconomic risk based... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 24

consistent with these ideas, some policy practice and much of the academic criticism of policies inspired by Porter's cluster work have taken a different direction, looking instead into ways of creating clusters. The fifth section... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Curiosity, Not Coding: 6 Skills Leaders Need in the Digital Age

to ask the right questions about opportunities, risks, and legal and ethical danger zones, and set the boundary conditions to guide the deployment of digital tools and data. Roundtable participants who are digital natives expect... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards; Technology

July 2005 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Narayana Murthy and Compassionate Capitalism

By: William W. George, Shailendra Jit Singh and Andrew N. McLean

Narayana Murthy's roles at Infosys Technologies--as a co-founder, longtime CEO, and nonexecutive chairman and chief mentor--has been marked by explosive growth, demanding management challenges, and widely lauded company leadership. His personal leadership philosophy... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Economic Systems; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Biography; Leadership; Business or Company Management; Information Technology Industry; India

15 May 2024
Research & Ideas

A Major Roadblock for Autonomous Cars: Motorists Believe They Drive Better

part of drivers: “Whether people utilize automated vehicles is not just a matter of how they view the technology in a vacuum, but it's how they view it in relation to themselves,” says De Freitas, who is also director of HBS’s Ethical... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Transportation; Auto

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

cuts in white-collar staff. Joseph Fuller is a Professor of Management Practice in General Management and co-leads the Managing the Future of Work initiative at HBS. Ayelet Israeli: For now, AI still needs human intervention In the near... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

26 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Where is Home for the Global Firm?

headquarters functions—are no longer bound to one country. Why are these changes taking place, and what are their consequences?" As an expert on international corporate and public finance, Desai presents a practical framework for firms to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2016
Chapter

Trade Associations, State Building, and the Sherman Act: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1912–25

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

From its founding in 1912 through the interwar years, the Chamber’s history shows a persistent preoccupation with progressive economics and policy making. Rather than flouting the new ideas of institutional economics, which favored federal regulators overseeing data... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Fairness; Supply and Industry; Policy; Business and Government Relations; United States

March 2022 (Revised March 2024)
Case

DaVita Responds to COVID

By: Susanna Gallani and David Lane

Early in August 2021, DaVita CEO Javier Rodriguez was assessing the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on his firm, which provided life-sustaining kidney dialysis to roughly 240,000 people. Effective infection control practices and information sharing had ensured... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Change Management; Communication; Talent and Talent Management; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Health Care and Treatment; Health Pandemics; Human Resources; Employee Relationship Management; Retention; Wages; Working Conditions; Leadership Style; Crisis Management; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; United States

15 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 15

Practices of Trade: Jurisdictional Disputes in the U.S. Commerce in Cadavers Author:Michel Anteby Publication:Administrative Science Quarterly 55, no. 4 (2010) Abstract This study examines the U.S. commerce in human cadavers for medical... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2012
Case

Barclays Capital and the Sale of Del Monte Foods

By: John Coates, Clayton Rose and David Lane

This case explores the reputational and legal issues that arise as Barclays Capital attempted to manage client conflicts by following established industry practice in the face of changing legal norms. In February 2011, Judge Travis Laster granted a preliminary... View Details

Keywords: Client Management; Fiduciary Duty; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Investment Banking; Private Equity; Ethics; Finance; Reputation; Banking Industry; United States

January 2025
Case

Reimagining the Employee Experience at the LEGO Group

By: Amy Edmondson, Mark Mortensen and Elisabeth Powell

In 2024, the LEGO Group faced a decision about the future of LEGO’s Benefits Experience Strategy and the “Best of Both” remote/hybrid work policy. With over 28,500 employees spanning global hubs, retail stores, and manufacturing plants, LEGO leaders had to consider... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Employee Relationship Management; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Culture; Alignment; Compensation and Benefits; Europe