Article
| Capitalism and Society
|
2013
The Business of Business Schools: Restoring a Focus on Competing to Win
Robert Simons
As business leaders worry about the decline of American competitiveness, business schools are responding by changing their curriculums. But are the topics and approaches taught in today's business schools part of the solution or part of the problem? In this paper, I explore the possibility that four trends in current MBA curriculums—theory creep, mission creep, doing well by doing good, and the quest for enlightenment—are teaching students to be uncompetitive in today's global markets. If this hypothesis is true, I argue that business school curriculums should be re-centered around the tough choices needed to compete—and to win.
Keywords: business schools, purpose of business schools, management education, business school curriculum, strategy execution, U.S. competitiveness, capitalism, management profession, innovation, competing to win;
Integrated Corporate Reporting;
Trends;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Decision Making;
Design;
Business Education;
Curriculum and Courses;
Innovation and Management;
Chapter
| The Globalization of Cost-Benefit Analysis in Environmental Policy
| 2013
Assessing Potential Carbon Revenues from Reduced Forest Cover Loss in Liberia
Jessica Donovan, Keith Lawrence, Christopher Neyor, Eduard Niesten and Eric Werker
We conducted an analysis that explores the merits of a low-carbon development strategy for Liberia. This chapter describes both our cost-benefit analysis initiative and a plausible policy process for Liberia. We proposed a simple approach that models the costs and benefits of land placed under different uses. Policy scenarios then determine the amount of land under each land use and the implications for costs, benefits, and carbon emissions. A "low-carbon development strategy" for Liberia would include a number of cost beneficial policies, the most obvious being a transition to more efficient agriculture. Other beneficial policies include accelerating the establishment of Protected Areas, ensuring that tree crop plantations are located on degraded land rather than forest areas, and introducing energy-efficient stoves for charcoal and fuel wood.
Keywords: carbon revenue;
Liberia;
deforestation;
climate change;
Citation:
Donovan, Jessica, Keith Lawrence, Christopher Neyor, Eduard Niesten, and Eric Werker. "Assessing Potential Carbon Revenues from Reduced Forest Cover Loss in Liberia." Chap. 19 in
The Globalization of Cost-Benefit Analysis in Environmental Policy, edited by Michael A. Livermore, and Richard L. Revesz, 293–304. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Working Paper
| HBS Working Paper Series
| 2012
Pay for Environmental Performance: The Effect of Incentive Provision on Carbon Emissions
Robert G. Eccles, Ioannis Ioannou, Shelley Xin Li and George Serafeim
Corporations are increasingly under pressure to improve their environmental performance and to account for potential risks and opportunities associated with climate change. In this paper, we examine the effectiveness of monetary and nonmonetary incentives provided by companies to their employees in order to reduce carbon emissions. Specifically, we find evidence that the use of monetary incentives is associated with higher carbon emissions. This result holds both in cross-sectional and time-series analysis. Moreover, we find that the use of nonmonetary incentives is associated with lower carbon emissions. Consistent with monetary incentives crowding out motivation for pro-social behavior, we find that the effect of monetary incentives on carbon emissions is mitigated when these incentives are provided to employees with formally assigned responsibility for environmental performance. Furthermore, by employing a two-stage multinomial logistic model, we provide insights into factors affecting companies' decisions on incentive provision, as well as showing that the impact of monetary incentives on carbon emissions remains significant even when we control for potential selection bias in our sample.
Keywords: Motivation and Incentives;
Environmental Sustainability;
Article
| MIT Sloan Management Review
|
Summer 2012
How to Become a Sustainable Company
Robert G. Eccles, Kathleen Miller Perkins and George Serafeim
Using field and survey data we identify the characteristics of sustainable companies, and we develop a two-stage model that can help companies develop a culture of innovation, trust, and the ability for transformational change.
Keywords: sustainability;
innovation;
trust;
leadership;
Leadership;
Environmental Sustainability;
Organizational Culture;
Innovation and Invention;
Trust;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Working Paper
| HBS Working Paper Series
| 2012
Rainmakers: Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity
Jooa Julia Lee, Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats
People believe that weather conditions influence their everyday work life, but to date, little is known about how weather affects individual productivity. Most people believe that bad weather conditions reduce productivity. In this research, we predict and find just the opposite. Drawing on cognitive psychology research, we propose that bad weather increases individual productivity by eliminating potential cognitive distractions resulting from good weather. When the weather is bad, individuals may focus more on their work rather than thinking about activities they could engage in outside of work. We tested our hypotheses using both field and lab data. First, we use field data on employees' productivity from a mid-size bank in Japan, which we then match with daily weather data to investigate the effect of bad weather conditions (in terms of precipitation, visibility, and temperature) on productivity. Second, we use a laboratory experiment to examine the psychological mechanism explaining the relationship between bad weather and increased productivity. Our findings support our proposed model and suggest that worker productivity is higher on bad rather than good weather days. We discuss the implications of our findings for workers and managers.
Keywords: weather;
productivity;
opportunity cost;
distractions;
Weather and Climate Change;
Performance Productivity;
Social Psychology;
Mathematical Methods;
Article
| Harvard Business Review
|
July–August 2012
The Growth Opportunity That Lies Next Door
G. Jones
This article uses the case of Natura, the largest Brazilian beauty company and one of the world's top twenty beauty companies, to explore how the logic of globalization is changing for corporations from emerging countries as growth opportunities in those countries outpace those in developed markets. For 30 years Natura attempted to move, with mixed results, into developed markets even as the opportunities of its region have grown stronger and stronger. Ultimately Natura has moved beyond stereotypes of globalization, recognizing that winning in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico can be an entry onto the world stage every bit as effective as conquering Paris or New York.
Keywords: Brazil;
marketing;
globalization;
green marketing;
environment;
Globalization;
Developing Countries and Economies;
Geographic Location;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Beauty and Cosmetics Industry;
Latin America;
Europe;
Conference Presentation
|
27
Jun
2012
Engaging Supply Chains in Climate Change
Michael W. Toffel
Citation:
Toffel, Michael W. "Engaging Supply Chains in Climate Change." Paper presented at the GRONEN Research Conference, Group on Organizations and the Natural Environment (GRONEN), Saint Maximin la Sainte Baume, France, June 27, 2012.
Working Paper
| HBS Working Paper Series
| 2012
Engaging Supply Chains in Climate Change
Chonnikarn Fern Jira and Michael W. Toffel
Suppliers are increasingly being asked to share information about their vulnerability to climate change and their strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Their responses vary widely. We theorize and empirically identify several factors associated with suppliers being especially willing to share this information with buyers, focusing on attributes of the buyers seeking this information and of the suppliers being asked to provide it. We test our hypotheses using data from the Carbon Disclosure Project's Supply Chain Program, a collaboration of multinational corporations requesting such information from thousands of suppliers in 49 countries. We find evidence that suppliers are more likely to share this information when requests from buyers are more prevalent, when buyers appear committed to using the information, when suppliers belong to more profitable industries, and when suppliers are located in countries with greenhouse gas regulations. We find evidence that these factors also influence the comprehensiveness of the information suppliers share and their willingness to share the information publicly.
Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Information;
Knowledge Sharing;
Supply Chain;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Environmental Sustainability;
Weather and Climate Change;
Competitive Advantage;
Citation:
Jira, Chonnikarn Fern, and Michael W. Toffel. "
Engaging Supply Chains in Climate Change." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12–026, October 2011. (Revised October 2012. Forthcoming at
Manufacturing and Service Operations Management.)
Working Paper
| HBS Working Paper Series
| 2012
'Power from Sunshine': A Business History of Solar Energy
Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane
This working paper provides a longitudinal perspective on the business history of solar energy between the nineteenth century and the present day. It covers early attempts to develop solar energy, the use of passive solar in architecture before World War 2, and the subsequent growth of the modern photovoltaic industry. It explores the role of entrepreneurial actors, sometimes motivated by broad social and environmental agendas, whose strategies to build viable business models proved crucially dependent on two exogenous factors: the prices of alternative conventional fuels and public policy. Supportive public policies in various geographies facilitated the commercialization of photovoltaic technologies, but they also encouraged rent-seeking and inefficiencies, while policy shifts resulted in a regular boom and bust cycle. The perceived long-term potential of solar energy, combined with the capital-intensity and cyclical nature of the industry, led to large electronics, oil and engineering companies buying entrepreneurial firms in successive generations. These firms became important drivers of innovation and scale, but they also found solar to be an industry in which achieving a viable business model proved a chimera, whilst waves of creative destruction became the norm.
Keywords: Renewable Energy;
Business History;
Policy;
Entrepreneurship;
Innovation and Invention;
Business Model;
Energy Industry;
Article
| Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
|
Spring 2012
Optimizing Organic Waste to Energy Operations
Baris Ata, Deishin Lee and Mustafa H. Tongarlak
A waste-to-energy firm that recycles organic waste with energy recovery performs two environmentally beneficial functions: it diverts waste from landfill and it produces renewable energy. At the same time, the waste-to-energy firm serves and collects revenue from two types of customers: waste generators who pay for waste disposal service and electricity consumers who buy energy. Given the process characteristics of the waste-to-energy operation, the market characteristics for waste disposal and energy, and the mechanisms regulators use to encourage production of renewable energy, we determine the profit-maximizing operating strategy of the firm. We also show how regulatory mechanisms affect the operating decisions of the waste-to-energy firm. Our analyses suggest that if the social planner's objective is to maximize landfill diversion, offering a subsidy as a per kilowatt-hour for electricity is more cost effective, whereas if the objective is to maximize renewable energy generation, giving a subsidy as a lump sum to offset capital costs is more effective. This has different regulatory implications for urban and rural settings where the environmental objectives may differ.
Keywords: Business Ventures;
Energy Generation;
Renewable Energy;
Revenue;
Customers;
Strategy;
Corporate Governance;
Wastes and Waste Processing;
Environmental Sustainability;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Cost Management;
Urban Scope;