More from these Authors

• Article | Accounting Horizons | June 2013

  A Framework for Research on Corporate Accountability Reporting

  Karthik Ramanna

  This paper provides an accounting-based conceptual framing of the phenomenon of corporate accountability reporting. Such reporting is seen as arising from a delegator's (e.g., a citizenry) demand to hold a delegate (e.g., shareholders) to account. When effective, corporate accountability reporting can internalize certain externalities into firms' resource-allocation decisions, although doing so will not always serve shareholders' interests. I leverage the positive accounting literature's current understanding of properties of financial reports to develop three hypotheses on corporate accountability reporting. I argue that an accountability reporting system is likely to be more useful to a delegator if it (1) mitigates information advantages across delegates and delegators, (2) reports both stocks and flows in the measures of account, and (3) has a mutually agreeable due process to match across periods the actions of delegates and the outcomes of those actions. I show how the successive incidence of these properties in observed corporate accountability reports can be used to determine whether and how those reports create or destroy value for shareholders and other constituencies.

  Citation:

  Ramanna, Karthik. "A Framework for Research on Corporate Accountability Reporting." Accounting Horizons 26, no. 2 (June 2013).

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2013 version)

  Royal DSM: Fighting Hidden Hunger

  Rebecca Henderson, Noah Fisher and Mary Shelman

  In 2007 Royal DSM, a leading life science and materials company, entered a partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) to combat hidden hunger around the world by providing micronutrient solutions. The case investigates the unexpectedly large impact the partnership had on DSM and on the global nutrition discussion, and discusses the benefits and challenges of scaling up the Nutrition Improvement Program—a key component of DSM's human nutrition and health division—beyond the WFP partnership, despite the need to build significant additional capabilities and its somewhat lower margins.

  Citation:

  Henderson, Rebecca, Noah Fisher, and Mary Shelman. "Royal DSM: Fighting Hidden Hunger." Harvard Business School Case 313-085, May 2013. (Revised from original January 2013 version.)

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• Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2013 version)

  Relational Contracts and the Roots of Sustained Competitive Advantage

  Rebecca M. Henderson

  This note focuses on organizational "competencies" or "capabilities" as a potential source of sustained competitive advantage. Research in this area hypothesizes that some firms outperform their competition because they can do things that their rivals cannot.

  Citation:

  Henderson, Rebecca M. "Relational Contracts and the Roots of Sustained Competitive Advantage." Harvard Business School Technical Note 313-105, April 2013. (Revised from original January 2013 version.)

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