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• Teaching Plan | HBS Case Collection | September 2020

  Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship

  George Serafeim

  Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the principle that addressing the VC funding gap for minorities and women—who received only 3% of total VC funding—could produce superior returns. Tingle and Pierre-Jacques were passionate about the mission of Harlem Capital to change the face of entrepreneurship. However, despite generating significant media attention, Harlem Capital had only raised a few million dollars over the summer, not nearly enough for the fund to be financially viable as a career path for Tingle and Pierre-Jacques.
  Should Tingle and Pierre-Jacques commit to Harlem Capital despite the serious roadblocks on their path? Or should they capitalize on their pre-MBA private equity experience and attempt to be impactful through a more traditional career post-MBA graduation?

  Keywords: venture capital firm compensation; entrepreneurial finance; entrepreneurial financing; Black entrepreneurs; black leadership; Black inventors; inclusion; minority-owned businesses; race and ethnicity; race characteristics; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Diversity; Race; Gender; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Serafeim, George. "Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship." Harvard Business School Teaching Plan 121-027, September 2020.  View Details

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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

  Measuring the Cost of Corporate Water Usage

  DG Park, George Serafeim and T. Robert Zochowski

  We develop a methodology that calculates the impact that organizations have on the environment through their water consumption relating to water stress risk. Using the methodology, we derive estimates for four companies that show how assumptions on the geographic location of the water withdrawal and use of different prices for water across geographies lead to variation in these estimates. We conclude with a framework guiding a user to understand the conditions under which a methodology might lead to over- or underestimation of water costs.

  Keywords: Water; water management; environment; sustainability; Organizations; Environmental Sustainability; Valuation;

  Citation:

  Park, DG, George Serafeim, and T. Robert Zochowski. "Measuring the Cost of Corporate Water Usage." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-036, September 2020.  View Details

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• Article | Foundations and Trends® in Accounting | 2020

  Research on Corporate Sustainability: Review and Directions for Future Research

  Jody Grewal and George Serafeim

  We review the literature on corporate sustainability and provide directions for future research. Our review focuses on three actions: measuring, managing and communicating corporate sustainability performance. Measurement is the least developed of the three and represents promising opportunities for research. Compelling evidence now exists on the role of management control systems, investor pressure and mandated disclosure in improving corporate sustainability outcomes. Research has moved beyond weighing the importance of all sustainability issues equally, with recent studies drawing distinctions between the financial materiality of different sustainability issues. Collectively, this new line of inquiry suggests that improving performance on material sustainability metrics is related to improved financial performance, helping to resolve four decades of inconclusive evidence on the relation between sustainability and financial outcomes. Finally, we review research on how disclosure mediums, accounting standards, information monitors and intermediaries shape the communication of sustainability performance. We conclude with a call for research on how to measure performance in the 21st century when corporate purpose extends beyond shareholder value maximization.

  Keywords: sustainability; sustainability reporting; Sustainability Management; nonfinancial disclosure; nonfinancial information; nonfinancial performance; materiality; ESG; ESG (environmental, social, governance) performance; ESG (environmental, social, governance) performance; ESG disclosure; ESG disclosure metrics; ESG ratings; ESG reporting; inequality; corporate social responsibility; Accounting; Finance; Management; Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Diversity; Equality and Inequality; Corporate Disclosure; Measurement and Metrics; Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;

  Citation:

  Grewal, Jody, and George Serafeim. "Research on Corporate Sustainability: Review and Directions for Future Research." Foundations and Trends® in Accounting 14, no. 2 (2020): 73–127.  View Details

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