This question lies at the heart of Harvard Business School’s new Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society, which seeks to frame and examine a critical management conversation of our time, and to provide new tools for leaders striving to navigate this shifting and complex landscape.

The Institute’s launch will bring together senior executives in industry, academia, government, and the nonprofit sector for a day of discussion around current practices, challenges, opportunities and rationales for business to engage in societal goals beyond shareholder value.

Goals for this session include:

• Providing a platform for leaders to exchange views about this shifting landscape, and about the expanding roles and responsibilities business is being asked to assume
• Testing frameworks and tools that could be used to support decision making and execution in this evolving space
• Highlighting HBS’s new Mid-US research office and building early connections for long-term relationships among decision makers in the mid-US