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• Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2018 (Revised March 2019)

  Facebook—Can Ethics Scale in the Digital Age?

  George A. Riedel and Carin-Isabel Knoop

  Since its founding in 2004, Facebook has built a phenomenally successful business at global scale to become the fifth most valuable public company in the world. The revelation of Cambridge Analytica events in March 2018, where 78 million users' information was leaked in a 2016 U.S. election cycle, exposed a breach of trust/privacy among its user community. In the past, growth at any costs appeared to be the de facto strategy. Now many voices such as regulators, advertisers, ethicists, shareholders and users argued for a more responsible approach to addressing their concerns. Mark Zuckerberg (CEO/Chair/Founder) and Sheryl Sandberg (COO) mapped out their six-point plan to address this existential threat. Could they continue to grow and rectify the breach of trust/privacy? Did other stakeholders have some greater responsibility too? In addition to issues of privacy and trust, there is a growing chorus of concern about “content moderation”—not for the easy topics like spam or copyright material—but for the hard things revolving around political points of view, hate speech, polarizing perspectives, etc. How will Facebook strike the balance between free speech and corrosive content across billions of users and dozens of languages? Are they the arbiters of truth/censorship in the digital world?

  Keywords: Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Trust; Business Model; Corporate Accountability;

  Citation:

  Riedel, George A., and Carin-Isabel Knoop. "Facebook—Can Ethics Scale in the Digital Age?" Harvard Business School Case 319-030, August 2018. (Revised March 2019.)  View Details

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• Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | November 2018 (Revised March 2019)

  Initial Coin Offerings in 2018

  Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Ramana Nanda, Robert F. White and Nathaniel Schwalb

  In 2018, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) were an emerging fundraising method for blockchain-based projects. As the ecosystem grew, there were many open questions on regulation, pricing, and even which projects were a good fit for blockchain. However, there was already some emerging consensus on the benefits and challenges of building with blockchain and emerging best practices for Initial Coin Offerings.

  Keywords: Blockchain; Initial Coin Offerings; ICO; Decentralization; networks; Protocols; Entrepreneurship; Project Finance;

  Citation:

  Bussgang, Jeffrey J., Ramana Nanda, Robert F. White, and Nathaniel Schwalb. "Initial Coin Offerings in 2018." Harvard Business School Technical Note 819-057, November 2018. (Revised March 2019.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2019

  Christine Lagarde (Abridged)

  Julie Battilana, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Julia Kelley

  Citation:

  Battilana, Julie, Carin-Isabel Knoop, and Julia Kelley. "Christine Lagarde (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 419-055, March 2019.  View Details

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