Publications

2025
Working Paper

Partisan Corporate Speech

By: William Cassidy and Elisabeth Kempf

We construct a novel measure of partisan corporate speech using natural language processing techniques and use it to establish three stylized facts. First, the volume of partisan corporate speech has risen sharply between 2012 and 2022. Second, this increase has... View Details

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2025
Working Paper

Corporate Actions as Moral Issues

By: Zwetelina Iliewa, Elisabeth Kempf and Oliver Spalt

We examine nonpecuniary preferences across a broad set of corporate actions using a representative sample of the U.S. population. Our core findings, based on large-scale online surveys, are that (i) self-reported nonpecuniary concerns are large both for stock market... View Details

Keywords: Public Opinion; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility

April 2025
Teaching Note

'Care in Every Drop': Ayala Corporation and Manila Water (A) and (B)

By: Debora L. Spar and Sarah Sasso

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 324-038 and 324-039. View Details

2025
Chapter

Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change

By: Ann-Kristin Bergquist and Geoffrey Jones

This chapter explores when and why private regulatory governance systems became the primary form of global environmental governance. The chapter explores two different historical paths in such private regulation and how they came about. The first path involved... View Details

Keywords: Institutional Entrepreneurship; Environment; Climate Change; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Environmental Regulation; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

April 2025
Teaching Note

Aramco: Navigating the Energy Transition

By: Tarun Khanna and Samir Junnarkar

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 725-358. View Details

Keywords: Energy Transmission; Oil ＆ Gas; Economic Diversification; Corporate Strategy; Leadership; Business Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Transition; Environmental Sustainability; Diversification; Energy Industry; Saudi Arabia

April 2025
Case

Lisa Su and AMD (A)

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Matthew Preble and Dave Habeeb

This multimedia case study focuses on CEO Lisa Su’s turnaround and subsequent transformation of the technology company Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). When Su accepted the top position in 2014, AMD was on the verge of collapse. Su focused the company’s culture,... View Details

April 2025
Case

Japan Industrial Partners Powers the Leveraged Buyout of Toshiba

By: Brian K. Baik, Joseph Pacelli and James Barnett

The case explores Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) $14 billion takeover of Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba). JIP was a private equity firm that took over the troubled electronics corporation in late 2023. The deal, which had been labeled one of the largest leveraged buyout... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; International Accounting; Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Ownership; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Value; Accounting Industry; Electronics Industry; Energy Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Semiconductor Industry; Asia; Japan

April 2025
Teaching Note

ZEISS: Commercializing Science

By: Maria P. Roche

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 725-359. View Details

April 2025
Case

Radical Transformation at Bayer: Dynamic Shared Ownership

By: Boris Groysberg and Gamze Yucaoglu

In 2023, Bill Anderson became CEO of Bayer AG, a 160-year-old life sciences giant looking to strengthen its pharma pipeline, manage debt, and cut through bureaucracy. His bold response: Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO), a radical model replacing traditional hierarchies... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Business Strategy; Alignment; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

2025
Working Paper

The Political Economy of Firm Networks: CEO Ideology and Global Trade

By: Elisabeth Kempf, Mancy Luo and Margarita Tsoutsoura

We examine how the political ideology of corporate leaders shapes cross-border firm networks. Exploiting changes in ideological alignment between U.S. firm CEOs and foreign governments around close foreign elections, we show that U.S. firms are more likely to... View Details

Keywords: Global Trade; Firm Networks; Political Ideology; Elections; Political Economy; Political Elections; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Trade

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April 2025
Supplement

#FutureFresenius: 'Committed to Life' in 2024 and Beyond (B)

By: David J. Collis, Benjamin C. Esty and Haisley Wert

From February 2024 onward, Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA continued to make progress on the #FutureFresenius transformation that CEO Michael Sen had initiated in October 2022. The company had completed the initial "reset" phase and moved into the "revitalize" portion of the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Finance; Transformation; Leading Change; Health Industry; United States; Germany

April 2025
Case

#FutureFresenius: Implementing a New Strategy to Transform the Company and Advance Patient Care

By: David J. Collis, Benjamin C. Esty and Haisley Wert

In February 2024, Fresenius CEO Michael Sen reflected on the company’s transformation journey from his office in Bad Homburg, Germany. With revenues of €22 billion and a mission to advance patient care, Fresenius had built a strong reputation through decades of... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Corporate Strategy; Transformation; Finance; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Alignment; Health Industry; Germany; United States

April 2025
Supplement

ZEISS: Commercializing Science

By: Maria P. Roche and Richie Zitomer

Spreadsheet Supplement for HBS Case No. 725-359. View Details

April 2025
Article

Corporate Ownership and ESG Performance

By: Belen Villalonga, Peter Tufano and Boya Wang

Using a sample of 3083 firms from 62 countries over 18 years, we analyze how the structure and identity of firms' material owners influence their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. We find that firms with founding families or other individual... View Details

Keywords: ESG; CSR; Family Firms; Social Responsibility; Environment; Sustainability; Ownership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Governance; Environmental Sustainability

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April 2025
Article

Crisis Interventions in Corporate Insolvency

By: Samuel Antill and Christopher Clayton

We model the optimal resolution of insolvent firms in general equilibrium. Collateral-constrained banks lend to (i) solvent firms to finance investments and (ii) distressed firms to avoid liquidation. Liquidations create negative fire-sale externalities. Liquidations... View Details

Keywords: Insolvent Firms; Government Intervention; Liquidation; Econometric Models; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Policy

2025
Working Paper

The Invention of Corporate Governance

By: Yueran Ma and Andrei Shleifer

The analysis of corporate governance begins with a central feature of modern capitalism—the separation of ownership and control in large corporations—first empirically documented by Berle and Means (1932). Such separation entails several agency problems reflecting... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Law; Business and Shareholder Relations

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April 2025
Article

Transitioning Into Retirement: The Interplay of Self and Life Structure

By: Marcy Crary, Douglas T. (Tim) Hall, Kathy E. Kram, Teresa M. Amabile and Lotte Bailyn

This paper explores the psychological, social, and behavioral ways in which professionals end their corporate careers and reorient themselves and their lives in the transition from employment to retirement. Framed within life course theory, specifically the adult... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Behavior; Transition; Identity

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March 2025
Case

Hurtigruten: Sea Zero

By: Christian Kaps and Michael W. Toffel

Hurtigruten was deciding whether the next ship they built should be fully electric. But such a vessel's battery, the size of electric cars, needed to be charged on the ship's multi-day voyage along the Norwegian coast. Before making such a $250 million investment, the... View Details

Keywords: Energy Sources; Alternative Energy; Ship Transportation; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Innovation and Management; Green Technology; Investment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Shipping Industry; Tourism Industry; Transportation Industry; Travel Industry; Battery Industry; Norway; Europe

March 2025
Case

Calyx Global: Rating Carbon Credits

By: Michael W. Toffel and Adam Chen

This case describes how rating agencies and other organizations are seeking to improve the quality of carbon credits sold in the voluntary carbon market to organizations seeking to use them to supplement their internal decarbonization efforts to meet their net zero... View Details

Keywords: Service Design; Certification; Auditing; Auditor Reputation; Carbon Credits; Carbon; Rating Agency Disagreement; Ratings; Climate Change; Business Model; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Conflict of Interests; Reputation; Business Strategy