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May 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Background Note

Social Enterprise in Latin America

By: Brian L. Trelstad and Karina Souza

This research note provides an overview of the social enterprise ecosystem in Latin America, exploring current dynamics across key markets, including country-specific insights on Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Central America. In a region characterized... View Details

February 2025
Case

Hyperscaling Dreams: Ualá's Path from Startup to Fintech Champion

By: Juan Alcácer and Manuel Franck

Ualá, a fintech startup founded in Argentina in 2017 by Pierpaolo Barbieri, aimed to increase financial inclusion in Latin America through a digital platform linked to a prepaid card. After rapid success in Argentina, it expanded into Mexico and Colombia, acquiring... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Leadership; Venture Capital; Talent and Talent Management; Strategy; Credit; Business Startups; Profit; Growth and Development Strategy; Banking Industry; Argentina; Mexico; Colombia; Latin America

2025
Working Paper

The Hidden Costs of Flexible Labor Models: How Working Multiple Jobs Affects Employees

By: Paige Tsai and Ryan W. Buell

As operations increasingly rely upon flexible labor models—such as gig, part-time, and remote work—it has become commonplace for individuals to work multiple jobs. Across three studies, relying on a combination of transaction-level data from 90,548 customers of a... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Operations; Employee Behavior; Job Design; Sustainable Operations; Job Design and Levels; Personal Finance; Well-being; Happiness; Satisfaction; Wages

September 26, 2024
Article

A Better Way to Measure Social Impact

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Constance Spitzer

All impact investors report the financial returns from their funds and investments, and many provide metrics on intended social outcomes, such as numbers of individuals served, or quality jobs created. But investors do not supply metrics about their impacts on... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Social Impact Investment; Inclusive Growth; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability

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November 2023
Case

Will Fintechs and Central Banks Play in Emtech's Sandbox?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

In February 2023, Emtech’s founder Carmelle Cadet is facing a dilemma. Rapidly running out of cash, Cadet has a term sheet from a leading VC but has a choice of how to structure the investment. The decision will have significant implications for Cadet’s own stake, as... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Cash Flow; Currency; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Digital Platforms

June 2023
Case

Launching Egypt’s First Digital Banking Platform: QNB Bebasata

By: Mark Egan, Billy Chan and Ahmed Dahawy

The leadership team at QNB Alahli, Egypt's second biggest private bank, looked back on their efforts to create a brand-new, fully digital banking platform since 2019. A digital-only banking service was unprecedented in Egypt, a country where over 90% of financial... View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Strategy; Business Model; Product Launch; Finance; Banking Industry; Egypt

June 14, 2023
Article

Research: Your Love for Work May Alienate Your Colleagues

By: Mijeong Kwon, Julia Lee Cunningham and Jon M. Jachimowicz

Research shows that employees who are passionate about their work are more productive, innovative, and collaborative. New research suggests that these employees also see passion for work as a moral imperative, and they’re more likely to judge colleagues who are... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Motivation and Incentives

2022
Working Paper

Banking on Transparency for the Poor: Experimental Evidence from India

By: Erica M. Field, Natalia Rigol, Charity M. Troyer Moore, Rohini Pande and Simone G. Schaner

Do information frictions limit the benefits of financial inclusion drives for the rural poor? We evaluate an experimental intervention among recently banked poor Indian women receiving government cash transfers via direct deposit. Treated women were provided automated... View Details

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April 2022
Supplement

Mastercard Labs (B)

By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley

When Ajaypal (Ajay) Banga became the CEO of Mastercard in 2010, digital technologies were on the rise, and innovation needed to become a strategic imperative at the company. Banga tasked Garry Lyons, who had joined Mastercard through the 2009 acquisition of Orbiscom,... View Details

April 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Mastercard Labs (A)

By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley

When Ajaypal (Ajay) Banga became the CEO of Mastercard in 2010, he shifted the company’s competitive focus from card networks to cash itself. Mastercard’s new vision of a “World Beyond Cash” distilled into a three-pronged framework: Grow the core business, Diversify... View Details

April 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Mastercard Labs (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley

When Ajaypal (Ajay) Banga became the CEO of Mastercard in 2010, he shifted the company’s competitive focus from card networks to cash itself. Mastercard’s new vision of a “World Beyond Cash” distilled into a three-pronged framework: Grow the core business, Diversify... View Details

March 2022
Case

In Data We Trust: Be Mobile Africa and Furthering Financial Inclusion Across the African Continent

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Pierre Marchesseault

To Cédric Jeannot, leveraging technology to promote financial inclusion was personal. After no established financial institution would accept his technology platform to lower transaction costs for free, Jeannot launched FinTech company Be Mobile Africa in May 2020.... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Fintech; Emerging Market; Fundraising; Financial Inclusion; Strategy; Expansion; Management; Entrepreneurship; Personal Finance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Africa; Togo; Nigeria; Ghana

December 2021
Case

The Instant Payment Mandate: The Central Bank of Brazil and Pix

By: Lauren Cohen and Spencer C. N. Hagist

João M. P. De Mello and his team at the Central Bank of Brazil are preparing a move that would seek to tilt the scales in favor of financial inclusion for the entire country. The innovation at hand is the unprecedented nation-wide instant payment scheme: Pix. The fruit... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Innovation Strategy; Banking Industry; Brazil

November 2021
Article

Borrower Leakage from Costly Screening: Evidence from SME Lending in Peru

By: Irani Arraiz, Miriam Bruhn, Benjamin N. Roth, Claudia Ruiz-Ortega and Rodolfo Stucchi

We provide evidence that commercial lenders in Peru suffer leakages in their loan approval process. Leveraging a discontinuity in the loan approval process of a large bank, we find that receiving a loan approval from the bank causes loan applicants to receive offers... View Details

Keywords: Information Spillovers; SME Lending; Financial Inclusion; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Small Business; Information; Peru

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September 2021 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

Migrante: Using Tech to Provide Financial Inclusion to Immigrants

By: Boris Vallée and Mauricio Larrain

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 221-108. View Details

July 2021
Case

Migrante: Using Tech to Provide Financial Inclusion to Immigrants

By: Boris Vallee and Mauricio Larrain

Keywords: Chile

April 2021
Case

JPMorgan Chase's Path Forward

By: Joseph L. Bower, Nien-hê Hsieh and Michael Norris

In 2020, JPMorgan Chase announced a $30 billion Commitment to Advance Racial Equity. The Commitment included investments in housing, small businesses, and financial literacy across the U.S., and diversity, equity, and inclusion within the bank. It was part of a broader... View Details

Keywords: Racial Wealth Gap; Diversity; Race; Financial Institutions; Banks and Banking; Leading Change; Banking Industry; New York (city, NY); Chicago

April–May 2021
Article

The Influence of Loan Officers on Loan Contract Design and Performance

By: Robert Bushman, Janet Gao, Xiumin Martin and Joseph Pacelli

We investigate the extent to which loan officers generate independent, individual effects on the design and performance of syndicated loans. We construct a large database containing the identities of loan officers involved in structuring syndicated loan deals, allowing... View Details

Keywords: Loan Officers; Covenants; Interest Spreads; Syndicated Loans; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Design; Performance

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Article

Reimagining the Balanced Scorecard for the ESG Era

By: Robert S. Kaplan and David McMillan

Companies are increasingly aware that their customers and society in general expect businesses to adopt and work towards social and environmental objectives as well as the traditional financial ones. This involves not only re-evaluating firms’ models but re-imagining... View Details

Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Business Ecosystems; Balanced Scorecard; Adaptation; Business Model; Business and Stakeholder Relations

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2020
Working Paper

Accounting for Product Impact in the Consumer Finance Industry

By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor credit card providers within the consumer finance industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates... View Details

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