Publications

December 1999 (Revised April 2012)
Background Note

Earnings Per Share

By: David F. Hawkins

Discusses accounting rules for earnings per share measurement. The U.S. approach is described in detail and non-U.S. practices are briefly covered. A rewritten version of an earlier note. View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Stock Shares; Profit; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Measurement and Metrics; United States

28 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Profit Power of Corporate Culture

concept," he says. "Its impact on profit can be measured and quantified." Heskett finds that as much as half of the difference in operating profit between organizations can be attributed to... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January–February 2018
Article

Inclusive Growth: Profitable Strategies for Tackling Poverty and Inequality

By: Robert S. Kaplan, George Serafeim and Eduardo Tugendhat

More than a billion people in the developing world remain in extreme poverty and outside the formal economy. Traditional CSR programs have done little to alleviate the situation and rarely produce transformative change.
Instead of trying to fix local problems,... View Details

Keywords: Inclusive Growth; Sustainability; Social Impact; Business Strategy; Shared Value; Impact Investing; Inequality; Corporate Governance; Balanced Scorecard; Strategy Execution; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Poverty; Equality and Inequality; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Strategy; Investment

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25 Feb 2020
News

Profits and Purpose

tackle. But the students said, “Whoa, how can we talk about the big problems of our time without thinking about inequality?” The students also pushed me to move beyond shared value. Of course, building the business models that create both... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint

Article

On the Division of Profit in Sequential Innovation

By: Jerry R. Green and Suzanne Scotchmer

In markets with sequential innovation, inventors of derivative improvements might undermine the profit of initial innovators through competition. Profit erosion can be mitigated by broadening the first innovator's patent protection and/or by permitting cooperative... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Innovation and Invention

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07 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Debate over Taxing Foreign Profits

Congress and the next president of the United States will be under pressure to make major changes to U.S. corporate tax policy, the consequences of which could have significant impact on profit and competitiveness of American companies on... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

19 Jan 2017
News

Finding Purpose in Profit

matter. It’s hard to imagine learning the topics better anywhere else. And it was fun going through it as a newly married couple—burning the midnight oil and reading cases together.” The two also shared a passion for outdoor recreation.... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley; B corporations

June 2005
Case

Growth and Profitability at Fresenius

By: Joel Podolny, Vincent Dessain, Monika Stachowiak and Anders Sjoman

In March 2005, Mark Schneider, CEO of Fresenius, is considering the group's strategic and organizational future. The highly decentralized 7 billion euro German health care group is active in three different business units, with the largest, FMC AG, listed separately... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Diversification; Organizational Structure; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; Germany

19 Feb 2020
News

Breaking the Salary Sharing Taboo

March 2023
Case

Ownership Works: Scaling a Profitable Social Mission

By: Ethan Rouen, Dennis Campbell and Andrew Robinson

Pete Stavros was on a high after his latest experiment with employee ownership. As the head of industrial investments for KKR, Stavros orchestrated the sale of CHI Overhead Doors, which turned into KKR’s best investment in more than two decades and created $360 million... View Details

Keywords: Employee Ownership; Knowledge Sharing; Nonprofit Organizations

13 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

3 Ways Firms Can Profit From Environmental Investments

In the course of her work, Rebecca Henderson meets business executives who don't address the threat of climate change because they don't believe that it exists. Her recommendation: They should consider investments in environmental sustainability anyway, assuming that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

April 2012
Article

Share Issuance and Factor Timing

By: Robin Greenwood and Samuel G. Hanson

We show that characteristics of stock issuers can be used to forecast important common factors in stocks' returns such as those associated with book-to-market, size, and industry. Specifically, we use differences between the attributes of stock issuers and repurchasers... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Stock Shares; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment Return; Policy; Profit

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2016
Report

The New Role of Business in Global Education

By: Mark R. Kramer, Greg Hills, Kate Tallant, Matt Wilka and Anjali Bhatt

Shared value defines a new role for business in helping to overcome the global education and unemployment crisis. By aligning profit with purpose, companies can become essential partners for schools, nonprofits, and governments while simultaneously discovering new ways... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Education; Employment; Global Range; Business Ventures

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04 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

Diversity Boosts Profits in Venture Capital Firms

Google Engineer Deserved to be Fired by the CEO What Does 'Diversity' Really Mean? How Should Managers Deal with the Challenges of Building an Inclusive Workplace? What do you think of this research? Share your insights below. View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Banking; Financial Services

06 May 2002
Research & Ideas

Profits for Nonprofits: Earning Your Own Way

self-sufficient while not being self-sufficient ourselves?— Alfred Wise,Share Our Strength The session, led by HBS professor James E. Austin, featured three managers whose experiences highlight the challenges and benefits of thinking about View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

June 1985
Background Note

Computing and Analyzing Earnings per Share

By: David F. Hawkins

Keywords: Profit

January 2006 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and the Market for Digital Information Goods

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Andres Hervas and Jordan Mitchell

We study competitive interaction between two alternative models of digital content distribution over the Internet: peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing and centralized client-server distribution. We present microfoundations for a stylized model of p2p file sharing where all... View Details

Keywords: Price; Profit; Distribution; Competition; Internet and the Web; Information Infrastructure