Publications

December 2022
Article

Social Skills Improve Business Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial with Entrepreneurs in Togo

By: Stefan Dimitriadis and Rembrand Koning

Recent field experiments demonstrate that advice, mentorship, and feedback from randomly assigned peers improve entrepreneurial performance. These results raise a natural question: what is preventing entrepreneurs and managers from forming these peer connections... View Details

Keywords: Social Skills; Business Performance; Entrepreneurs; Peer Relationships; Field Experiment; Entrepreneurship; Performance; Relationships; Interpersonal Communication; Togo

October 2023 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Ӧzyeğin Social Investments: A Legacy of Giving

By: Christina R. Wing, Zeshan Gondal and Brittany L. Logan

This case explores the work of Özyeğin Social Investments, founded by Hüsnü Özyeğin, one of Turkey's most successful entrepreneurs. With a focus on education, health, gender equality, rural development, and disaster relief in Turkey, Özyeğin Social Investments and the... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Family Business; Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Enterprise; Turkey

2013
Article

Does Social Connection Turn Good Deeds into Good Feelings? On the Value of Putting the 'Social' in Prosocial Spending

By: Lara B. Aknin, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Gillian M. Sandstrom and Michael I. Norton

When are the emotional benefits of generous behavior most likely to emerge? In three studies, we demonstrate that the hedonic benefits of generous spending are most likely when spending promotes positive social connection. Study 1 shows that people feel happier after... View Details

Keywords: Money; Prosocial Spending; Social Connection; Well-being; Donations; Charitable Giving; Warm Glow; Social Relationships; Gift Giving; Happiness; Relationships; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Society

June 2024
Article

The Monitoring Role of Social Media

By: Jonas Heese and Joseph Pacelli

In this study, we examine whether social media activity can reduce corporate misconduct. We use the staggered introduction of 3G mobile broadband access across the United States to identify exogenous increases in social media activity and test whether access to 3G... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Twitter; Corporate Accountability; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Social and Collaborative Networks

April 14, 2015
Article

The Type of Socially Responsible Investments That Make Firms More Profitable

By: George Serafeim

Keywords: Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility; Corporate Sustainability; Investing; Investment Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Profit; Investment; Environmental Sustainability

February 2022
Case

Launching the Social

By: Tom Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Tom Quinn

This case features the same protagonists as Ample Hills Creamery (HBS No. 822-073), and can be used as a continuation of that story.
Ample Hills Creamery started in 2010 as a temporary ice cream pushcart in Brooklyn, New York City. On the strength of inventive... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Small Business; Brands and Branding; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion

January 2014
Case

Social Strategy at Cisco Systems

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Daniel Malter and Aaron Smith

In April 2013, Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, vice president and general manager for Learning@Cisco Systems, was planning the future of the Cisco Learning Network, an online platform hosted at Cisco.com. Since its launch in 2008, the Cisco Learning Network provided content to... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Competency and Skills; Learning; Web Services Industry

14 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Measuring Social Impact

what that spending achieved. Yet there has been little agreement on a set of hard-and-fast metrics to measure social performance. How should a nonprofit manager respond when a significant donor asks for proof of his or her contribution's... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

Fall 2014
Article

Seesaws and Social Security Benefits Indexing

By: Matthew Weinzierl

The price indexation of Social Security benefit payments has emerged in recent years as a flashpoint of debate in the United States. I characterize the direct effects that changes in that price index would have on retirees who differ in their initial wealth at... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Compensation and Benefits; United States

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04 Feb 2008
Research & Ideas

Putting Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector

The social sector is big business. In the United States alone some 1.5 million nonprofits and other social ventures have combined revenues of $700 billion and control assets valued at $2 trillion—a seemingly... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Business Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility

By: Dutch Leonard

This project focuses on how business leaders can be most effective at creating better social outcomes and vibrant, successful businesses at the same time. What forms of leadership -- and in what venues (in the community, in the corporation, in politics, ...) -- turn... View Details

July 2021 (Revised July 2024)
Course Overview Note

Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change

By: Brian Trelstad and Preeti Varma

Systems thinking is a discipline that emerged in the 20th century as a way to understand the complex interrelationships among various players and dynamics within an industry or field that resist simple, reductionist thinking. The big challenges we face play out in... View Details

Keywords: Systems Thinking; Social Entrepreneurship; System; Change

03 Jul 2008
Working Paper Summaries

The Future of Social Enterprise

Keywords: by V. Kasturi Rangan, Herman B. Leonard & Susan McDonald

Research Summary

Branding in Digital and Social Media

By: Jill J. Avery

This very contemporary line of research explores the rapidly changing digital world, and investigates how emerging technologies are creating a new consumer culture in which consumers expect to be partners in the co-creation of brands. The work explores the branding... View Details

29 Oct 2015
Other Presentation

Social Progress: The Next Development Agenda

By: Michael E. Porter and Scott Stern

How do we measure development? The Social Progress Index was launched in 2013 as a holistic approach to benchmarking countries' social performance, independent of economic measures. SPI has been widely taken up on a global basis in evaluating national performance, and... View Details

Keywords: Economic Development; Development Economics; Society; United States

Research Summary

Social media and user-generated content

In this project, Professor Piskorski, jointly with Andreea Gorbatai, examines inherent trade-offs in provision of user-generated content, using Wikipedia as a research setting. In Wikipedia, every user has the right to add material to an article, but with no... View Details

1975
Book

Another Voice: Feminist Perspectives on Social Life and Social Science

By: M. Millman and R. M. Kanter

Keywords: Gender; Perspective; Society; Science

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Article

A Critical Examination of Corporate Environmental and Social Impact Measurement and Valuation

By: Judith Stroehle, Ali Aslan Gümüşay, Laura Marie Edinger-Schons, Amyn Vogel, Alnoor Ebrahim, Andreas Rasche, Andrew King, Ken Pucker, Richard Barker, Juliane Reinecke, Giovanna Michelon, Stuart Cooper, Dror Etzion, Karim Harji, Marya Besharov, Colin Mayer, Nien-hê Hsieh and Emma van den Terrell

The assignment of monetary values to a company's impact on society and the natural environment promises much. At the same time, this endeavor would benefit from addressing three prior ethical considerations: 1) determining responsibility to clarify attribution of... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Social Impact; Impact Accounting; Corporate Responsibility; Impact Measurement; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Ethics; Valuation; Corporate Accountability