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- Article
Stock Price Reactions to ESG News: The Role of ESG Ratings and Disagreement
By: George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon
We investigate whether ESG ratings predict future ESG news and the associated market reactions. We find that the consensus rating predicts future news, but its predictive ability diminishes for firms with large disagreement between raters. Relation between news and...
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Keywords:
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Disclosure;
ESG Ratings;
ESG Reporting;
ESG Disclosure Metrics;
Sustainability;
Investments;
Disagreement;
Rating Disagreement;
Ratings;
Environmental Sustainability;
Social Issues;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Performance;
News;
Investment;
Financial Markets;
Stocks;
Price
- August 2023
- Case
Raya Partners: Profitability and Purpose
By: Arthur Segel and Ephraim Mernick
Raya Partners, a private equity firm, faces a crucial decision regarding Asa Specialty Coatings Company (ASCC). The dilemma involves shifting ASCC's manufacturing operations to Mexico, a move that would boost profitability and reduce emissions but result in significant...
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- June 2023
- Article
Regulatory Limits to Risk Management
By: Ishita Sen
Variable annuities, the largest liability of U.S. life insurers, are investment products containing long-dated minimum return guarantees. I show that guarantees with similar economic risks are treated differently by regulation and these differences impact insurers’...
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- May–June 2023
- Article
Should Your Start-up Be For-profit or Nonprofit?: A Guide for Social Entrepreneurs
By: Cait Brumme and Brian Trelstad
Years ago the line between nonprofit and for-profit enterprises was clear, but that has changed. Nonprofits now offer products that compete with those of the best for-profits, and for-profits can deliver as much social value as charities. Despite the blurred...
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- 2023
- Working Paper
ESG: From Process to Product
By: George Serafeim
ESG measurement, analysis, management, and communication is a process that the financial industry has turned into a product, resulting in many investment funds using the ESG label. This has caused confusion, generating demand for a framework that defines...
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- March 31, 2023
- Article
What Is the Optimal Pattern of a Customer Journey?
Even though customer experience (CX) leaders are becoming increasingly focused on optimizing their firms’ customer journeys, they face a clear challenge: Which touchpoints along the journey should they invest in? That is, which moments when the customer interacts with...
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- March 2023 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Patagonia: 'Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder'
By: Brian Trelstad, Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael Norris and Susan Pinckney
In September 2022, Yvon Chouinard, the iconoclastic founder of outdoor apparel company Patagonia, announced a new ownership model for his company. Chouinard and his family had held complete control of the company's voting and non-voting stock since its founding 50...
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Keywords:
Trusts;
Business Ventures;
Business Organization;
Family Business;
Restructuring;
Change;
Disruption;
Transition;
Decision Making;
Ethics;
Values and Beliefs;
Finance;
Financial Management;
Governance;
Corporate Governance;
Investment Activism;
Leadership;
Labor;
Law;
Common Law;
Management;
Goals and Objectives;
Organizations;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Mission and Purpose;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Ownership;
Ownership Type;
Family Ownership;
Private Ownership;
Social Enterprise;
Nonprofit Organizations;
Society;
Social Issues;
Wealth and Poverty;
Value;
Value Creation;
Apparel and Accessories Industry;
United States
- 2023
- Book
Deeply Responsible Business: A Global History of Values-Driven Leadership
By: Geoffrey Jones
Corporate social responsibility has entered the mainstream, but what does it take to run a successful purpose-driven business? This book examines leaders who put values alongside profits to showcase the challenges and upside of deeply responsible business. Should...
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Keywords:
Corporate Responsibility;
Business Ecuation;
Socially Responsible Investing;
Business Education;
Ethics;
Leadership;
Business History;
Philanthropy and Charitable Giving;
Religion;
Social Enterprise;
Social Issues;
Wealth and Poverty;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Mission and Purpose;
Banking Industry;
Beauty and Cosmetics Industry;
Computer Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Education Industry;
Fashion Industry;
Financial Services Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Green Technology Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
Electronics Industry;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
United Kingdom;
Germany;
United States;
Japan;
India;
Latin America
- February 2023 (Revised June 2023)
- Case
Doing Business in São Paulo, Brazil
By: Hise O. Gibson, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo
The case uses the example of a large investment made by French retail group Carrefour in Brazil to discuss the opportunities and challenges of doing business in the country. It gives readers an overview of Brazil’s economic transformation since its colonial years until...
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- February 2023
- Case
Kapor Capital
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Lindsay N. Hyde and Julia Kelley
Kapor Capital, a leading impact investment venture capital (VC) firm, is on the cusp of a generational transition. The two rising managing directors are about to take over the firm from the VC’s eponymous founders. How should they think about strategy, brand, and...
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- February 2023
- Article
Climate Solutions Investments
By: Alex Cheema-Fox, George Serafeim and Hui (Stacie) Wang
An increasing number of companies are providing products and services that help reduce carbon emissions in the economy. We develop a methodology to identify those companies and create a sample of publicly listed climate solutions companies allowing us to study their...
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- 2022
- Working Paper
How Do Investors Value ESG?
By: Malcolm Baker, Mark Egan and Suproteem K. Sarkar
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives have risen to near the top of the agenda for corporate executives and boards, driven in large part by their perceptions of shareholder interest. We quantify the value that shareholders place on ESG using a revealed...
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- September 2022
- Case
ROI vs. ROI: The Grupo Baobá Family Office
By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Jiawei Ye and Grace Headinger
Fernando Scodro, a third-generation member of his family, mulled over the next step in integrating an ESG strategy into his family office’s investment portfolio. While his family office, Grupo Baobá, had made excellent progress in incorporating his family’s values into...
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- 2022
- Working Paper
What Do Impact Investors Do Differently?
In recent years, impact investors – private investors who seek to generate simultaneously attractive financial and social returns – have attracted intense interest and controversy. We analyze a novel, comprehensive data set of impact and traditional investors to assess...
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- August 2022 (Revised August 2023)
- Case
Sweet Teez Bakery: Projecting the Dough’s Rise
By: Emily R. McComb, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein
In 2021, the HBS Impact Investment Fund student team met with entrepreneur Teresa Maynard, who had applied for a $25,000 impact investment loan. The students thought the former Harvard Data Scientist’s bakery business, Sweet Teez Bakery, showed promise. Maynard had...
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- August 2022 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Boston Impact Initiative: Investing in Local Change
By: Emily R. McComb, Amy Klopfenstein and Mel Martin
In fall 2021, Aliana Piñeiro, impact director at Boston Impact Initiative (BII) discovered that an entrepreneur the organization was considering for an investment had failed to disclose pre-existing debt with another lender. Although the business scored highly on BII’s...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurship;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Finance;
Investment;
Investment Funds;
Investment Portfolio;
Relationships;
Business and Community Relations;
Society;
Social Issues;
Wealth and Poverty;
Wealth;
Poverty;
Risk Management;
Financial Services Industry;
North and Central America;
United States;
Massachusetts;
Boston
- August 2022
- Case
Southwick Social Ventures
By: Henry McGee, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein
In 2021, the HBS Impact Investment Fund student team had found a promising potential investment in Southwick Social Ventures (SSV), a worker and management-owned trouser manufacturer. With a 100% immigrant workforce, the co-operative was focused on reviving...
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- August 2022 (Revised September 2023)
- Case
Evaluating the Impact of Hillside Harvest
By: Archie L. Jones, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein
In fall 2021, the HBS Impact Investment Fund student team had just finished their last round of due diligence on the BIPOC-founded premium hot sauce company Hillside Harvest. They thought the business had a fine performance, showing potential to grow into a successful...
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- August 2022 (Revised August 2023)
- Case
NOW PT (A): Should We Invest?
By: George A Riedel, Amy Klopfenstein and Mel Martin
In fall 2021, a team of students from the HBS Impact Investing Fund considered Neurologic Optimal Wellness Physical Therapy (NOW PT) for a potential investment. Dr. Banks, the founder of NOW PT, drove to visit patients. She sought an investment from the fund to open a...
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- August 2022 (Revised September 2023)
- Case
Fresh Food Generation
By: Brian Trelstad, Amy Klopfenstein and Mel Martin
This case highlights one of five BIPOC entrepreneurs in the Boston area as part of the HBS Impact Investment Fund. In fall 2021, a team of HBS students reviewed the financial statements of Fresh Food Generation (FFG), a Dorchester, Massachusetts-based food service...
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