As an MBA student at HBS, you will prepare yourself for leadership in a rapidly changing world in which natural resources are increasingly scarce and the threat of climate change ever more urgent.
Who Creates New Firms When Local Opportunities Arise?
- JANUARY 2022
- |
- Journal of Financial Economics
We examine the characteristics of the individuals who become entrepreneurs when local opportunities arise. We identify local demand shocks by linking fluctuations in global commodity prices to municipality level agricultural endowments in Brazil. We find that the firm creation response is almost entirely driven by young and skilled individuals. Their response is larger in municipalities with better access to finance and more skilled human capital, and is driven entirely by the formal market. These results highlight how the composition of the local population can have a significant impact on the entrepreneurial responsiveness of the economy.
Why is Corporate Virtue in the Eye of The Beholder? The Case of ESG Ratings
- JANUARY 2022
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- Accounting Review
Despite the rising use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, there is substantial disagreement across rating agencies regarding what rating to give to individual firms. As what drives this disagreement is unclear, we examine whether a firm’s ESG disclosure helps explain some of this disagreement. We predict and find that greater ESG disclosure actually leads to greater ESG rating disagreement. These findings hold using firm fixed effects, and using a difference-in-differences design with mandatory ESG disclosure shocks. We also find that raters disagree more about ESG outcome metrics than input metrics (policies), and that disclosure appears to amplify disagreement more for outcomes. Lastly, we examine consequences of ESG disagreement and find that greater ESG disagreement is associated with higher return volatility, larger absolute price movements, and a lower likelihood of issuing external financing. Overall, our findings highlight that ESG disclosure generally exacerbates ESG rating disagreement rather than resolving it.
Taking Leadership to a New Place: Outside-the-Building Thinking to Improve the World
- 2021
- |
- Book Chapter
BOOK ABSTRACT: Twenty-nine leading scholars and executives provide a visionary look at the future of business, propelling past damaging industrial-age values to uncover the key ingredients of humanistic, ecologically sustainable, and intergenerational prosperity.
What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?
- 30 NOV 2021
- |
- In Practice
COP26 shined a light on the complexities of addressing the climate crisis. We asked Harvard Business School faculty members to discuss how business leaders can help spur change and what opportunities might emerge.
Climate Change Lessons from the U.S. Navy: Forest Reinhardt & Michael Toffel
- 12 JAN 2022
- |
- Climate Rising
Climate change poses two very different challenges to the U.S. Navy. First, the Navy
has to buttress its billions of dollars of shoreline assets against rising sea levels.
Second, it has to plan to be called on more often to address both military threats
and humanitarian crises caused by climate change. In this episode of HBR Idea Cast,
Climate Rising host Harvard Business School professor Mike Toffel and his colleague
Forest Reinhardt discuss how the U.S. Navy is both addressing climate change and adapting
to it. They explain what the private sector can learn from the Navy’s scientific and
sober view of the world. Reinhardt and Toffel are the authors of the Harvard Business
Review article, “Managing Climate Change: Lessons from the U.S. Navy.”
Climate change poses two very different challenges to the U.S. Navy. First, the Navy
has to buttress its billions of dollars of shoreline assets against rising sea levels.
Second, it has to plan to be called on more often to address both military threats
and humanitarian crises caused by climate change. In this episode of HBR Idea Cast,
Climate Rising host Harvard Business School professor Mike Toffel and his colleague
Forest Reinhardt discuss how the U.S. Navy is both addressing climate change and adapting
to it. They explain what the private sector can learn from the Navy’s scientific and
sober view of the world. Reinhardt and Toffel are the authors of the Harvard Business
Review article, “Managing Climate Change: Lessons from the U.S. Navy.”
An advanced curriculum for corporate and nonprofit executives from all over the world to prepare them for new levels of leadership.
The Business & Environment Initiative connects alumni with students, faculty, and each other for learning, careers, and impact.
SpaceX’s Future Depends on a Gigantic Rocket and 42,000 Internet Satellites
Re: Matthew Weinzierl
- 28 Dec 2021
- |
- Wall Street Journal
What Options do Building Owners Have to Mitigate Extreme Weather Events?
Re: John Macomber
- 14 Dec 2021
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- Propmodo
Business Leaders Must Take Action on Climate and Voting Rights
By: Michael Porter
- 03 Nov 2021
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- Harvard Business Review