General Management
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- 2025
- Working Paper
An Empirical Examination of Business Climate Alliances: Effective and/or Harmful?
By: Matteo Gasparini and Peter TufanoThis research studies business alliances that seek to address climate change, offering empirical evidence to address claims advanced by alliance supporters and critics. We study eleven major alliance mostly focused on financial services firms and 424 major publicly-traded financial institutions–some of which joined these alliances. We use diff-in-diff and other approaches to identify the effects of alliance membership and to study "booster", network, and peer effects. Financial service firms that join climate alliances show increased adoption of climate-aligned management practices; greater adoption of emissions targets; reductions of own-emissions; mixed evidence of increased funding for green projects; and greater pro-climate lobbying. We find no evidence of traditional antitrust violations in the form of pricing power or market concentration; no reduction in funding to oil and gas companies; and no lower risk-adjusted shareholder returns than non-alliance members. We find that participation in multiple alliances ("booster effects") is correlated with adoption of practices, emission targets, emissions reductions, and pro-climate lobbying–albeit with diminishing returns; and we find some evidence of network and peer effects.
- 2025
- Working Paper
An Empirical Examination of Business Climate Alliances: Effective and/or Harmful?
By: Matteo Gasparini and Peter TufanoThis research studies business alliances that seek to address climate change, offering empirical evidence to address claims advanced by alliance supporters and critics. We study eleven major alliance mostly focused on financial services firms and 424 major publicly-traded financial institutions–some of which joined these alliances. We use...
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- 2025
- Working Paper
Trade and Industrial Policy in Supply Chains: Directed Technological Change in Rare Earths
By: Laura Alfaro, Harald Fadinger, Jay Schymik and Gede ViranandaTrade and industrial policies, while primarily intended to support domestic industries, may unintentionally stimulate technological progress abroad. We document this mechanism in the case of rare earth elements (REEs)—critical inputs for manufacturing at the knowledge frontier, with low elasticity of substitution, inelastic supply, and high production and processing concentration. To assess the importance of REEs across industries, we construct an input-output table that includes disaggregated REE inputs. Using REE-related patents categorized by a large language model, sectoral TFP data, trade data, and physical and chemical substitution properties of REEs, we show that the introduction of REE export restrictions by China led to a global surge in innovation and exports in REE-intensive downstream sectors outside of China. To rationalize these findings and quantify the global impact of the adverse REE supply shock, we develop a quantitative general equilibrium model of trade and directed technological change. We also propose a structural method to estimate sectoral input substitution elasticities for REEs from patent data and find REEs to be complementary inputs. Under endogenous technologies and with complementary inputs, input supply restrictions on REEs induce a surge in REE-enhancing innovation and lead to an expansion of REE-intensive downstream sectors.
- 2025
- Working Paper
Trade and Industrial Policy in Supply Chains: Directed Technological Change in Rare Earths
By: Laura Alfaro, Harald Fadinger, Jay Schymik and Gede ViranandaTrade and industrial policies, while primarily intended to support domestic industries, may unintentionally stimulate technological progress abroad. We document this mechanism in the case of rare earth elements (REEs)—critical inputs for manufacturing at the knowledge frontier, with low elasticity of substitution, inelastic supply, and high...
About the Unit
The General Management Unit is concerned with the leadership and management of the enterprise as a whole. This concern encompasses:
- the personal values and qualities of effective general managers and enterprise leaders;
- the philosophies, values, and strategies that inform successful enterprises; and
- the relation of enterprise to the broader community and other external constituencies.
The Unit's work is conceived and carried out principally in four interest groups, each of which has its own leadership, research agenda, and teaching programs:
- Management Policy and Process
- Management Information Systems
- Society and Enterprise
- Leadership, Values, and Corporate Responsibility
Recent Publications
How Universities Die: It Has Happened Before in Centers of Learning Such as Berlin and Beijing. Is Boston Next?
- June 1, 2025 |
- Article |
- Boston Globe
An Empirical Examination of Business Climate Alliances: Effective and/or Harmful?
- 2025 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Trade and Industrial Policy in Supply Chains: Directed Technological Change in Rare Earths
- 2025 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Trade Within Multinational Boundaries
- 2025 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Social Enterprise in Latin America
- May 2025 |
- Background Note |
- Faculty Research
How to Build a Life: How to Take Charge of Your Family Inheritance
- May 15, 2025 |
- Article |
- The Atlantic
Governing Sustainability in a Shifting Context (B)
- May 2025 |
- Supplement |
- Faculty Research
Harvard Business Publishing
Seminars & Conferences
There are no upcoming events.