Featured Videos

 

 

• 12 Sep 2019

Tackling Climate Change in the MBA Classroom

 

 

• 21 Jun 2018

Leadership and the Climate Change Challenge

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• • MAY 2019
  • HBS CASE

  Rio Tinto: Decommoditizing Aluminum

  Rio Tinto, a global mining company, sought to decommoditize its aluminum products by differentiating some production lines as a lower-carbon branded product. In order to create a market for this product, Rio Tinto needed the support of the global aluminum
• • 2019
  • HBS WORKING PAPER

  Understanding and Overcoming Roadblocks to Environmental Sustainability. Past Roads and Future Prospects

  This working paper examines key barriers to business sustainability discussed at a multidisciplinary conference held at the Harvard Business School in 2018. Drawing on perspectives from both the historical and business literatures, speakers debated the historical success and future opportunities for voluntary business actions to advance sustainability. Roadblocks include misaligned incentives, missing institutions, inertia of economic systems, and the concept of sustainability itself. It appears that overcoming these roadblocks will require systematic interventions and alternative normative concepts.
• • MAY 2019
  • WORKING PAPER

  How Transparency into Internal and External Responsibility Initiatives Influences Consumer Choice: Evidence from the Field and Lab

  Amid growing calls for transparency and social and environmental responsibility, companies are employing different strategies to improve consumer perceptions of their brands. Some pursue internal initiatives that reduce their negative social or environmental impacts through responsible operations practices (such as paying a living wage to workers or engaging in environmentally sustainable manufacturing). Others pursue external responsibility initiatives (such as philanthropy or cause-related marketing). Through three experiments, conducted in the field and lab, the authors compare how transparency into these internal and external initiatives affects customer perceptions and sales, and explore the psychological processes linking transparency to sales.
• • MAY 2019
  • WORKING KNOWLEDGE

  Activist CEOs Are Rising Up—and Their Customers Are Listening

  Are product sales affected by the CEO's stance on political and social issues? Michael Toffel and Aaron Chatterji study how consumers react to vocal chief executives.