Publications

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 324-114. View Details

April 2025
Case

Jamie Dimon: Navigating the DEI Backlash

By: Joseph L. Badaracco and Sarah Mehta

December 2024
Article

Managerial Pluralism: Thirty Years of Teaching Business Ethics

The author reflects on 30 years of teaching business ethics at Harvard Business School. The paper presents tactical lessons for teaching courses in professional ethics and introduces “managerial pluralism.” This concept is akin to Isaiah Berlin’s value pluralism and... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Ethics; Judgments

August 2024
Background Note

Your True Moral Compass

This note explores the concept of a "moral compass" for making difficult decisions in leadership roles. It argues that the standard view of a moral compass as a simple, internal guide is inadequate for complex situations. Instead, it proposes that our true moral... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Decision Choices and Conditions

2024
Chapter

Corporations as the Central Institutions of Society

Mark Twain observed that, “Prediction is very difficult—particularly when it involves the future,” and he was right. One way to reduce the risk of becoming an infamous forecaster—like the experts who told us the Internet would quickly collapse, that Apple would never... View Details

Keywords: Trends; Business and Government Relations; Organizations; Power and Influence; Society

May 2024
Teaching Note

Lina Khan at the FTC: Redefining Antitrust in the Age of Big Tech

By: Joseph L. Badaracco and Susan Pinckney

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 324-018. View Details

April 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Market Dynamics and Moral Dilemmas: Novo Nordisk’s Weight-Loss Drugs

By: Joseph L. Badaracco, Tom Quinn and John Schultz

Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk was owned by a charitable foundation, and since its founding in the 1920s had focused on producing insulin to treat diabetes. In 2017, however, it released Ozempic, a diabetes treatment with the revolutionary side effect of... View Details

February 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Lina Khan at the FTC: Redefining Antitrust in the Age of Big Tech

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Susan Pinckney

In 2023 and 2024, the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice sued Google, Amazon, and Apple claiming antitrust violations. These lawsuits marked a shift in U.S. antitrust enforcement away from the Chicago School and towards the New Brandeis school of... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Government Administration; Lawsuits and Litigation; Monopoly; Technology Industry; United States; European Union; China; India

January 2024
Teaching Note

Automating Morality: Ethics for Intelligent Machines

By: Joseph L. Badaracco and Tom Quinn

December 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Invest or Build - or Steal? (A)

December 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Supplement

Invest or Build - or Steal? (B)

By: Joseph Badaracco

2023
Book

Your True Moral Compass: Defining Reality, Responsibility, and Practicality in Your Leadership Moments

This book presents a new, powerful, and practical way of making final decisions on the hard, complex, uncertain problems of life and work. What if you have looked at the data, talked with trusted colleagues, and applied all the relevant managerial and ethical... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Decisions; Work-Life Balance; Values and Beliefs

Find at Harvard

August 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Automating Morality: Ethics for Intelligent Machines

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Tom Quinn

As autonomy became a more significant part of modern life – most notably in autonomous vehicles (AVs), such as Teslas – ethical debates about whether and how to impart ethics to machines heated up. Utilitarians pointed out that autonomous vehicles crashed much less... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Judgments; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Adoption; Risk and Uncertainty; Cognition and Thinking; Technological Innovation; Auto Industry; Technology Industry; Africa; Asia; Europe; North and Central America; Oceania; South America

June 2021
Teaching Plan

Karin Vinik at South Lake Hospital

Teaching Plan for HBS Case Nos. 320-071, 320-072, 320-073, and 320-074. View Details

June 2021 (Revised June 2024)
Teaching Plan

PepsiCo, Profits, and Food: The Belt Tightens

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 314-055. View Details

January 2021 (Revised July 2025)
Supplement

Karin Vinik at South Lake Hospital (B)-(D)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco and Kim B. Clark

2020
Book

Step Back: How to Bring the Art of Reflection into Your Busy Life

December 2019 (Revised July 2025)
Case

Karin Vinik at South Lake Hospital (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco and Kim B. Clark

A newly appointed hospital CEO must decide how aggressively she should pursue a sexual harassment accusation against a long-time senior hospital executive, who was also a rival for the CEO position. View Details

Keywords: Sexual Harassment; Leadership; Decision Making