Social Enterprise Initiative

Resources

Corporate Responsibility

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Select Books, Chapters, and Multimedia Products

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Select Articles and Working Papers

Search HBS Working Knowledge for cutting-edge research by HBS faculty related to corporate responsibility.

Search Harvard Business School’s faculty publications and research interest databases on corporate responsibility.

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Select Cases and Notes

Search Harvard Business School Publishing for articles and cases on corporate responsibility.

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Related Events

“Perspectives from the Field: Critical Issues and Emerging Trends in Corporate Social Responsibility.” A panel discussion moderated by Professor Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard (October 19, 2006).

“Business' Role in Saving the Environment: Thoughts from a Veteran of Both Worlds”. A Conversation with Carter Roberts, MBA '88, President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund U.S. (November 15, 2006).

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MBA Courses

Leadership and Corporate Accountability (First Year, Winter Term)
In this course, students learn, in–depth, about the complex responsibilities facing business leaders today. Through cases about difficult managerial decisions, the course examines the legal, ethical, and economic responsibilities of corporate leaders. It also teaches students about the management and governance systems leaders can use to promote responsible conduct by companies and their employees, and shows how personal values can play a critical role in effective leadership.

Business and the Environment (Second Year, Fall Term)
Professor Forest Reinhardt or Assistant Professor Michael Toffel
Business strategies and operations are increasingly influenced by concerns about the natural environment expressed by customers, shareholders, employees, and regulators. In this course, we examine how managers identify opportunities and manage business risks at the interface of business and the environment. Among other topics, we study managerial approaches to differentiate products along environmental lines, reformulate operations and supply chains to reduce their environmental impact, create and participate in market mechanisms to reduce pollution, and measure their progress toward becoming environmentally sustainable. Several classes will focus on global climate change. The course builds on and integrates concepts from TOM, Finance, FRC, Strategy, BGIE, and LCA.

Commerce and Society: Business and Creation of Social Value (Second Year, Fall Term)
Assistant Professor Christopher Marquis
This course explores what businesses must do to transform themselves into effective global citizens and examines ways in which strategic and responsible practice can be associated with bottom–line benefits. The course will explore the tools necessary for excellence in strategic social responsibility. Customers need to be a central engine pulling socially responsible business, so one focus of the course is examining social marketing tools for motivating customers to change their behavior and to care about the social and environmental attributes of the products they consume. The course also addresses how corporations can use social initiatives to attract, motivate and retain high performance employees. A final key topic is how businesses can improve their social and business performance by applying performance management tools to an expanded conception of economic and social value creation.

Business at the Base of the Pyramid (Second Year, Winter Term)
Professor V. Kasturi “Kash” Rangan and Senior Lecturer Michael Chu
The course seeks to provide an understanding of how business approaches can address low income segments, often the largest components of emerging markets (both in terms of population as well as total expenditure) but nevertheless severely underserved. The course material explores the factors behind the commercial viability of such markets and examines the impact of business models on the social and economic development of the societies involved, i.e. the creation of financial returns and the generation or destruction of social value. It views low–income populations as both consumers of goods and services (from healthcare, water and financial products to toiletries and electronics) and as economic agents in value chains (such as in agriculture and the dairy industry). The course is composed of three major modules: Basic Needs; Business Inputs (employment, technology, finance); and Consumption, Products & Services. The cases cover Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as US–based global initiatives.

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Executive Education Programs

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Strategies to Create Business and Social Value is designed to provide senior corporate executives in a variety of industries with the knowledge and practical tools and frameworks for integrating social responsibility as part of their corporate strategy. The program explores how corporate social responsibility can significantly improve business performance, how to incorporate it into the company strategy, and how to drive it throughout the organization. Through an in-depth exploration of the dilemmas, challenges, and complexities inherent to existing models of CSR, the program pushes the frontiers of the field and brings into focus the next generation of issues facing practitioners.

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