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- March 2020
- Case
The Trouble with TCE
By: Vincent Pons, Rafael Di Tella and Galit Goldstein
Trichloroethylene, or TCE, was a chemical used by tens of thousands of businesses in the United States. It was an affordable tool for many. Yet, TCE had been associated with important health risks, including cancer and autoimmune disease. TCE potentially posed other...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
The ESG-Innovation Disconnect: Evidence from Green Patenting
By: Lauren Cohen, Umit G. Gurun and Quoc H. Nguyen
No firm or sector of the global economy is untouched by innovation. In equilibrium, innovators will flock to (and innovation will occur where) the returns to innovative capital are the highest. In this paper, we document a strong empirical pattern in green patent...
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- September–October 2020
- Article
Social-Impact Efforts That Create Real Value
By: George Serafeim
Until the mid-2010s few investors paid attention to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data—information about companies’ carbon footprints, labor policies, board makeup, and so forth. Today the data is widely used by investors. How can organizations create...
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Keywords:
Sustainability;
Sustainability Management;
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Disclosure;
ESG Disclosure Metrics;
ESG Ratings;
ESG Reporting;
Social Impact;
Impact Measurement;
Social Innovation;
Purpose;
Corporate Purpose;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Strategy;
Social Enterprise;
Society;
Accounting;
Investment;
Environmental Sustainability;
Climate Change;
Corporate Strategy;
Mission and Purpose;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Financial Services Industry;
Chemical Industry;
Technology Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Pharmaceutical Industry;
North America;
Europe;
Japan;
Australia
- November 2019
- Article
When and Why Defaults Influence Decisions: A Meta-analysis of Default Effects
By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Shannon Duncan, Elke U. Weber and Eric J. Johnson
When people make decisions with a pre-selected choice option—a “default”—they are more likely to select that option. Because defaults are easy to implement, they constitute one of the most widely employed tools in the choice architecture toolbox. However, to decide...
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- 2019
- Working Paper
Intelligent Design of Inclusive Growth Strategies
By: Robert S. Kaplan, George Serafeim and Eduardo Tugendhat
Improving corporate engagement with society, as advocated in the Business Roundtable’s 2019 statement, should not be viewed as a zero-sum proposition where attention to new stakeholders detracts from delivering shareholder value. Corporate programs for sustainable and...
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- 2019
- White Paper
Impact-Weighted Financial Accounts: The Missing Piece for an Impact Economy
By: George Serafeim, T. Robert Zochowski and Jennifer Downing
Reimagining capitalism is an imperative. We need to create a more inclusive and sustainable form of capitalism that works for every person and the planet. Massive environmental damage, growing income and wealth disparity, stress, and depression within developed...
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- Article
Assessing the Impact of CEO Activism
By: Aaron K Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel
CEO activism refers to corporate leaders speaking out on social and environmental policy issues not directly related to their company’s core business. Distinct from nonmarket strategy and traditional corporate social responsibility, the recent wave of CEO activism...
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- Summer 2018
- Article
CSR Needs CPR: Corporate Sustainability and Politics
By: Thomas Lyon, Magali A. Delmas, John W. Maxwell, Pratima Bansal, Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline, Patricia Crifo, Rodolphe Durand, Jean-Pascal Gond, Andrew King, Michael Lenox, Michael W. Toffel, David Vogel and Frank Wijen
Corporate sustainability has gone mainstream, and many companies have taken meaningful steps to improve their own environmental performance. But while corporate political actions such as lobbying can have a greater impact on environmental quality, they are ignored in...
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- 2018
- Report
The Future of Nuclear Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study
The Future of Nuclear Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World study is the eighth in the MIT Energy Initiative’s "Future of" series, which aims to shed light on a range of complex and important issues involving energy and the environment. A central theme is...
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- April 2017 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
The U.S. Shale Revolution: Global Rebalancing?
By: Laura Alfaro and Richard H.K. Vietor
The American shale revolution has upended oil and gas markets for nearly a decade. Prices have risen then plunged, production has surged and then waned, LNG has boomed, and technology and productivity have improved. The U.S. energy policy, under the Obama...
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- December 2016
- Article
Impact Investing: A Brief History
By: Brian Trelstad
Over the last decade, impact investing has become an increasingly-discussed topic in the realms of both business and public policy. Impact investors are motived by a desire to advance social or environmental goals and an intuition that pursuing two goals at once -...
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- 2016
- Chapter
Unpacking the Dynamics of Successful Change: Ten Insights from the Private Sector
Book Abstract: The aim of this book is to catalyze global interest in the pursuit of transformational changes in natural resource and environmental management. It is shown that transformational policy reforms involve fundamental shifts in strategy with far-reaching...
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- 2016
- Book
Strategy Beyond Markets
By: John de Figueiredo, Michael Lenox, Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Rick Vanden Bergh
Strategy beyond markets has been an active area of research inquiry since the early 1990s. Since its inception, the scholarship emanating from this research stream has grown substantially in quantity, quality, and breadth. Likewise, firms across the world have...
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Keywords:
Strategy
- November 2015 (Revised January 2016)
- Teaching Note
McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage Free Eggs
This case provides an opportunity for students to consider how large, multinational corporations should respond when targeted by activists regarding environmental and social concerns in their supply chains. Greenpeace targeted McDonald's because its chicken supplier...
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- February 2015 (Revised December 2016)
- Case
Poseidon Carlsbad: Desalination and the San Diego County Water Authority
By: John Macomber
Extreme drought conditions in California have significant impacts on the ability of the San Diego County Water Authority to provide adequate water for current users. Water shortfalls also could curtail the economic development of one of the fastest growing regions in...
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- November 2014
- Article
Government Green Procurement Spillovers: Evidence from Municipal Building Policies in California
By: Timothy Simcoe and Michael W. Toffel
We study how government green procurement policies influence private-sector demand for similar products. Specifically, we measure the impact of municipal policies requiring governments to construct green buildings on private-sector adoption of the U.S. Green Building...
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- 2014
- Chapter
Promoting Corporate Sustainability through Integrated Reporting: The Role of Investment Fiduciaries and the Responsibilities of the Corporate Board
By: Robert G. Eccles, J. Herron and George Serafeim
This book is a comprehensive reference work exploring recent changes and future trends in the principles that govern institutional investors and fiduciaries. A wide range of contributors offer new perspectives on dynamics that drive the current emphasis on short-term...
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- Summer 2013
- Response
How Caesars Entertainment Is Betting on Sustainability: Response
One of the largest gaming companies in the world expanded its sustainability efforts using a scorecard to guide and goad managers. This response assesses Caesars Entertainment's CodeGreen scorecard, advocates a more comprehensive environmental assessment to target...
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- April 2013 (Revised February 2018)
- Case
Norway: The Embarrassment of Riches
In early 2013, Norway was by many accounts the world’s most developed country; it topped various indices for everything from democracy to happiness, had a comprehensive welfare state, and massive oil revenues endowed it with a substantial, and growing, Sovereign Wealth...
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- March 2013 (Revised May 2013)
- Case
Building Innovation at Terrapin Bright Green
By: Amy C. Edmondson, Sydney Ribot and Mary Saunders
Describes Terrapin Bright Green, an environmental consulting and strategic planning firm, and its approach for creating integrative, systematic solutions to green-building conundrums through consulting, research, and policy-related activities. Emphasis is placed on the...
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