“We’re at Harvard Business School — it’s a bastion of capitalism,” said Ethan Rouen, who teaches the Harvard class “Reimagining Capitalism.” “I will say, though, that if you look at the courses being offered, the institutes being created and speakers we bring on campus, there is a huge demand both from the faculty and the students for rethinking the obligation of the corporation to society.”

Companies should do more to confront climate change, labor market shifts, and racism, according to a survey of 14,000 people in 14 countries by the Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society and the Edelman Trust Institute. Is it time for more business leaders to step up?

While business is trusted, government and media are not, the survey found. Debora Spar, who is launching Harvard Business School’s Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society in Detroit, noted the Midwest’s stance towards business is a surprising ask for America’s corporations. "There are expectations/hope that business can come in and really play an active role in solving community level issues," she said.

Harvard Business School’s Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society (BiGS) aims to examine how businesses can, and should, address society’s biggest challenges. Hear more from BiGS senior associate dean, Professor Debora Spar; Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund president; Tracy Palandjian, CEO and co-founder of Social Finance; Arnold Donald, former Carnival CEO; and HBS professors George Serafeim, Peter Tufano, and Robin Ely.

Despite polarized attitudes, Rebecca Henderson argues that it's the perfect time for companies to reset their moral compass. In an essay from the book A Political Economy of Justice, she explores the social efforts of Cadbury and Unilever.

In the wake of George Floyd’s killing and widespread protests for social justice in the United States, OneTen was formed by a coalition of 40 large companies to address the disparity in job opportunities for African Americans without four-year college degrees. Their goal was to provide one million jobs in 10 years. But in order to do that, OneTen had to analyze the underlying problems and formulate recommendations for both system-level problems and those that manifest themselves at an organizational level. Professor Kash Rangan and OneTen CEO Maurice Jones discuss OneTen’s approach in the case, “OneTen: One Million Opportunities in Ten Years.”

HBS has announced the inaugural cohort of the Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society (BiGS) Visiting Fellows, who will be joining the school this fall.