Publications

03 May 2021
Blog Post

Celebrating the First HBS African-American Mother-Daughter Duo

work, she’s continued to drive impact through her current five Corporate/Non-Profit boards helping to strengthen their governance and commitment to diversity and inclusion. So I knew at an early age that I wanted to go to business school... View Details

March 2018 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Designing a Compliance Program at AB InBev

By: Eugene Soltes

Compliance programs help companies align the interests and behavior of employees with external expectations and regulation. The case discusses how AB InBev, a major brewer, developed its compliance program. View Details

Keywords: Governance; Crime and Corruption; Governance Compliance; Consumer Products Industry; Africa; Europe; India; North America

28 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 28

widespread fraud in mortgage lender NovaStar Financial. The case is set in the time period from 2001 to 2007 and tracks the growth of the subprime industry and its collapse leading to the financial crisis. The case describes the business... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2008 (Revised July 2008)
Case

The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis

By: Robert Steven Kaplan, Christopher Marquis and Brent Kazan

Marc Buoniconti is the co-founder of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a nonprofit medical research organization. The project was founded in 1985 by Marc and his father Nick, a former Hall of Fame football player, when Marc suffered a spinal cord injury. In 2007,... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Health Testing and Trials; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Research and Development; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Industry; Miami

March 2008
Case

Novartis AG: Science-Based Business

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

Novartis is a science-based drug company, which has important implications for its business strategy. It is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world with over $38B in sales in 2007. Pharmaceuticals account for slightly over $24B of that total. In 2007,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Resource Allocation; Product Development; Partners and Partnerships; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Pharmaceutical Industry

Web

Sustainable Business Strategy Course | HBS Online

More about what you earn Syllabus 3 Modules, 20-25 Hours Download full syllabus 8 hrs Module 1 The Business Case for Action Understand the business case for change and how to analyze and assess industry disruptions to develop business... View Details

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

look at water as a critical asset that they want to invest in for the long term,” says Littlefield. Her hope is that cities might take a page from industry and see how private capital can work with View Details

Keywords: Kathleen Fu, Deborah Blagg, Julia Hanna, and Maureen Harmon; illustrations by; energy; environment; sustainability; entrepreneurship; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transportation; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities; Construction of Buildings; Construction; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

February 2017 (Revised June 2017)
Case

ExxonMobil: Business as Usual? (A)

By: George Serafeim, Shiva Rajgopal and David Freiberg

Climate change was becoming an important societal and business issue as more governments were introducing climate change related regulations and investors became increasibly worried about stranded assets within oil and gas firms. In September 2016, the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Oil ＆ Gas; Oil Prices; Oil Companies; Asset Impairment; Predictive Analytics; Sustainability; Environmental Impact; Innovation; Disclosure; Accounting; Valuation; Climate Change; Renewable Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Reporting; Energy Industry

September 2020
Case

An Introduction to Money Laundering: 'The Hunter'

By: Eugene Soltes, Guilhem Ros and Grace Liu

Money laundering schemes disguise the criminal origins of an estimated 2% to 5% of the world’s gross domestic product. Money laundering not only enables criminals to escape detection, but may also be used to finance further criminal operations including terrorism. This... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Accounting Audits; Financial Reporting; Financial Institutions; Banks and Banking; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Governance Controls; International Relations; National Security; Ethics; Accounting Industry; Accounting Industry; United States; Europe

01 Mar 2014
News

Generation Next

family-run Indian conglomerate. Kahn, who worked for agrichemical giant Syngenta AG and knew the industry well, agreed to have a look. The subsidiary, Godrej Agrovet, had expanded beyond its core business of animal feed in recent years,... View Details

Keywords: Mark Bergen; Godrej Group; Management

12 Nov 2021
News

Alumni Business Leaders on Confronting the Climate Change Challenge

civil disobedience. This really matters—as Erica Chenworth’s research has shown, no government can withstand a challenge of 3.5 percent of its population without either accommodating the movement or (in extreme cases) disintegrating. How... View Details

December 2001 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Borealis

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Bjorn N. Jorgensen

When Borealis, a European producer of plastics, used a traditional, time-consuming budgeting process, the budget was quickly out of date in a competitive environment characterized by continually changing input and output prices and dynamic market conditions. This case... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment; Governance Controls; Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Manufacturing Industry; Europe

03 Nov 2023
News

Global Networking Night; Sweden Club Holds Climate Forum

collaboration with the Swedish industries in the global climate conversation. “I have joined many conversations at COP26 and COP27 (UN Climate Change Conference—Conference of the Parties) and Stockholm+50 (a global environmental... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

Research Summary

Corporate Lobbying Strategy and Foreign MNEs

“U.S. Defense Contracts and the Lobbying Strategies of Foreign MNEs: The Liability of Foreignness and Make-or-Buy Decisions about Political Goods”

Many firms engage in lobbying with the expectation that their lobbying efforts will... View Details

Keywords: Non-market Strategy; Political Strategy; Lobbying; Make V. Buy; Multinational Enterprise; Global Strategy; United States

April 2019 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Sears: The Demise of an American Icon

By: Kristin Mugford and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2019, ESL Investments’ $5.2 billion offer to purchase Sears Holdings out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, was accepted, despite opposition from the company's unsecured creditors and other parties. ESL, which was led by Eddie Lampert, had acquired a stake in Sears following... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Reorganization; Bonds; Restructuring; Business Divisions; Transformation; Fairness; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Motivation and Incentives; Retail Industry; United States

January 2020
Background Note

Climate Change in 2020: Implications for Business

By: Rebecca M. Henderson, Sophus A. Reinert and Mariana Oseguera

This note provides general information about climate change and its implications for business. Included is an overview of climate change science and a number of its impacts, including rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and extreme weather, pressure on water... View Details

27 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 27

Francesca Gino, Michael W. Toffel, and Stephanie van SiceHarvard Business School Case 912-030 This case examines negotiations between a company and government over natural resources. The Fijian government... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

assumptions are present in the structure of technology and labor flows within Silicon Valley and its surrounding areas. Our model further identifies how the lengths over which agglomerative forces operate influence the shapes and sizes of View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

December 2015 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Chicken Republic

By: Jose Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

Deji Akinyanju, founder of Nigerian fast-food chain Chicken Republic, and Ayo Oduntan, founder of an integrated Nigerian poultry operation (Amo Byng Group), are among a growing cadre of skilled food-industry entrepreneurs for whom the opportunities to serve the... View Details