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This module note for students outlines an approach to help managers deliver on their responsibilities in relation to society. The approach frames...
- 2021
- Working Paper
The Changing Role of Business in Society
Business interaction with the U.S. government, historically based on securing industry or company special interests at the expense of the public god, has enabled and furthered government dysfunction. Gridlock within the American political system has precluded the...
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Keywords:
Politics;
Shared Value;
Social Progress Index;
Competitiveness;
United States;
Walmart;
BlackRock;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG;
Transparency;
Campaign Contributions;
Campaign Finance;
Lobbying;
Revolving Door;
Political Ideology;
Political Parties;
Political Partisanship;
Government And Business;
Government Innovation;
Elections;
Democracy;
Capitalism;
Stakeholder Capitalism;
Shareholder Engagement;
Corporate Accountability;
Competition;
Strategy;
Government and Politics;
Society;
Social Issues;
Human Needs;
Wealth and Poverty;
Business and Community Relations;
Business and Government Relations;
Financial Services Industry;
Banking Industry;
United States
- July 2021
- Article
Invisible Inequality Leads to Punishing the Poor and Rewarding the Rich
By: Oliver P. Hauser, Gordon T. Kraft-Todd, David Rand, Martin A. Nowak and Michael I. Norton
Four experiments examine how the lack of awareness of inequality affects behaviour towards the rich and poor. In Experiment 1, participants who became aware that wealthy individuals donated a smaller percentage of their income switched from rewarding the wealthy to...
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Keywords:
Income Transparency;
Income;
Wealth;
Equality and Inequality;
Knowledge;
Behavior;
Outcome or Result;
Society;
Policy
- 2021
- Chapter
Multinationals' Need for State Protection: The Creation of the Swiss Investment Risk Guarantee in the 1960s
By: Sabine Pitteloud
This chapter focuses on the role of Industrie-Holding, the Federation of Swiss Industrial Multinational Companies, in the introduction of an investment risk guarantee during the 1960s. The chapter therefore contributes to a) the growing body of literature on how...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Accounting for Product Impact in the Oil and Gas Industry
By: Katie Panella, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the oil and gas industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary product impact estimates of...
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Keywords:
Product Innovation;
Impact;
Impact Investing;
Impact Measurement;
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Ratings;
Social Corporate Responsibility;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Social Impact;
Oil;
Oil ＆ Gas;
Oil And Gas;
IWAI;
Product Design;
Product Positioning;
Society;
Environmental Sustainability;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Product
- 2021
- Working Paper
Accounting for Product Impact in the Pharmaceuticals Industry
By: Amanda Rischbieth, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the pharmaceuticals industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates of accessible...
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Keywords:
Product Innovation;
Impact;
Impact Investing;
Impact Measurement;
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Ratings;
Social Corporate Responsibility;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Social Impact;
Pharmaceutical Companies;
Pharmaceuticals;
Product Design;
Product Positioning;
Society;
Environmental Sustainability;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Product;
Safety;
Pharmaceutical Industry
- June 30, 2021
- Article
Rosabeth Moss Kanter: Let Employees Take the Lead on ESG
Companies that don’t give rank-and-file workers a central role in their environmental, social and governance (ESG) work are making a mistake. They risk alienating values-oriented employees who question company practices, and they miss a big opportunity for employee...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Accounting for Product Impact in the Interactive Media and Services Industry
By: DG Park, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the interactive media and services industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact...
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Keywords:
Product Innovation;
Impact;
Impact Investing;
Impact Measurement;
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Ratings;
Social Corporate Responsibility;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Social Impact;
Social Media;
Product Design;
Product Positioning;
Society;
Product;
Environmental Sustainability;
Measurement and Metrics;
Framework;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Technology Industry
- June 2021
- Case
Acelero Learning
By: Mario Small, Kathleen L. McGinn, Amy Klopfenstein and Katherine Chen
In November 2020, Henry Wilde, co-founder and CEO of Acelero, Inc., must decide whether to change his company’s program model for delivering early childhood education to low-income children. One of the only for-profit Head Start providers in the United States, Acelero...
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Keywords:
Education;
Early Childhood Education;
Teaching;
Training;
Learning;
Leadership;
Leading Change;
Organizations;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Relationships;
Business and Shareholder Relations;
Networks;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Business and Community Relations;
Social Psychology;
Trust;
Social and Collaborative Networks;
Society;
Civil Society or Community;
Poverty;
Education Industry;
North and Central America;
United States
- 2021
- Working Paper
Studying the U.S.-Based Portfolio Companies of U.S. Impact Investors
By: M. Diane Burton, Gurveen Chadha, Shawn A. Cole, Abhishek Dev, Christina Jarymowycz, Leslie Jeng, Laura Kelley, Josh Lerner, Jaime R. Diaz Palacios, Yue (Cynthia) Xu and T. Robert Zochowski
Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the reliance on market-based solutions to social and environmental problems around the world (Barman 2016; Horvath and Powell 2020). The growth of impact investing is a vivid example of this trend and, although there have...
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- 2021
- Article
To Thine Own Self Be True? Incentive Problems in Personalized Law
By: Jordan M. Barry, John William Hatfield and Scott Duke Kominers
Recent years have seen an explosion of scholarship on “personalized law.” Commentators foresee a world in which regulators armed with big data and machine learning techniques determine the optimal legal rule for every regulated party, then instantaneously disseminate...
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- 25 May 2021
- Panel Discussion
Understanding the Moment
By: Lynn S. Paine, Walter Robb, H. W. Brands and Suzanne Vautrinot
How can we put recent developments in American history, and recent trends in thinking about the responsibilities of business, into perspective? What is the role of the corporation in supporting democracy and civil society? Our panelists—Lynn S. Paine, Walter Robb, H....
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- May 2021
- Case
The SMA Foundation: Steering Therapeutic Research and Development in a Rare Disease
By: Amitabh Chandra, Spencer Lee-Rey and Caroline Marra
This case explores incentives for rare disease drug development by chronicling the role of the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Foundation in forming strategic partnerships with the scientific research community and pharmaceutical developers to transform the trajectory...
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- May 13, 2021
- Article
The Big Benefits of Employee Ownership
By: Thomas Dudley and Ethan Rouen
Wealth inequality in the U.S. has been increasing for decades: The richest 1% own a majority of all business wealth, and the top 10% own more than 90%. Companies, which have played a vital role in the growth in inequality can also play one in reducing it. One place to...
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- May 2021
- Teaching Plan
Gera Developments: Leadership at a Crossroads
By: Christina R. Wing and John Masko
Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 621-018. For decades, Gera Developments (Gera) was a boutique family-owned real estate development firm in Pune, India. But since 2000, managing director Rohit Gera had turned the company into a dynamic innovator in housing solutions for...
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Keywords:
Buildings and Facilities;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Construction;
Geographic Location;
Global Strategy;
Globalized Firms and Management;
Housing;
Leadership Style;
Management Succession;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Family Ownership;
Family and Family Relationships;
Urban Development;
Customization and Personalization;
Real Estate Industry;
Maharashtra;
India;
San Francisco
- May, 2021
- Article
'Many Others Are Doing It, So Why Shouldn't I?': How Being in Larger Competitions Leads to More Cheating
By: Celia Chui, Maryam Kouchaki and Francesca Gino
In many spheres of life, from applying for a job to participating in an athletic contest to vying for a date, we face competition. Does the size of the competition pool affect our propensity to behave unethically in our pursuit of the prize? We propose that it does....
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Keywords:
Unethical Behavior;
Cheating;
Competitors;
Social Norms;
Ethics;
Behavior;
Competition;
Societal Protocols
- 2021
- Article
Impact-Weighted Financial Accounts: A Paradigm Shift
By: Ethan Rouen and George Serafeim
The last decade has seen an exponential increase in corporate sustainability activities and efforts by investors to use these activities in their portfolio formation, valuation, and stewardship activities. This paper explains the need for a uniform strategy to measure...
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- May 19, 2021
- Article
Measuring the Impact of #MeToo on Gender Equity in Hollywood
By: Hong Luo and Laurina Zhang
The #MeToo movement has brought issues of sexual harassment and gender inequities to the forefront around the world. But how much of a tangible impact has it had on the experiences of women in the workplace? In this piece, the authors discuss their research that...
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- 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...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Companies' Responses to Social Activism: A Resource Reconfiguration Perspective
By: Yanhua Bird, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel
Private politics scholarship portrays companies’ organizational vulnerabilities as opportunities for social activists because they signal openness to change. But meaningful organizational change requires not only openness to change, but capacity to mobilize resources...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Gender Orientation and Segregation of Ideas: #MeToo’s Impact in Hollywood
By: Hong Luo and Laurina Zhang
Does the #MeToo movement affect the gender orientation of ideas and who develops which types of ideas? We examine these questions in the context of Hollywood. Since #MeToo affected the entire industry, we use variation in whether producers had past collaborations with...
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