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- Article
When Hiring CEOs, Focus on Character
By: Aiyesha Dey
The author, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, has studied the ways in which the lifestyle behaviors of CEOs—in particular, materialism and a propensity for rule breaking—may spell trouble for a company. Her research, which includes looking at...
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- July 2022
- Case
Birla Carbon Egypt: Building Soft Power in a Foreign Country
By: Jeremy Friedman and Malini Sen
Birla Carbon, a flagship business of the nearly $60-billion global conglomerate and India-headquartered Aditya Birla Group (ABG), is one of the world's top manufacturers and suppliers of high-quality carbon black. The largest among its 16 manufacturing plants is Birla...
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Keywords:
Acquisition;
Family Business;
Disruption;
Transformation;
Diversity;
Trade;
Energy;
Values and Beliefs;
Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;
Global Strategy;
Government and Politics;
Private Ownership;
Civil Society or Community;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Value Creation;
Industrial Products Industry;
Rubber Industry;
Egypt;
Africa;
India;
Asia;
Atlanta;
United States
- July 2022
- Case
Sixty Years of Sylvia’s
By: Christina R. Wing, Carlton Burrell Jr., Chika-Dike Nwokike and Abby Patrick
Sylvia’s Restaurant, approaching its sixtieth anniversary this August, is a testament to the values instilled by the matriarch herself, Sylvia Woods. Despite living through an era of racial oppression and poverty, Sylvia accessed financing and established her financial...
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- 2022
- Working Paper
Moral Thin-Slicing: How Snap Judgments Affect Online Sharing of Moral Content
By: Julian De Freitas and Alon Hafri
Consumers are exposed to a range of provocative moral transgressions online, as when consuming viral videos on social media or morally charged advertisements. Given limits on time and attention, consumers increasingly make moral evaluations in a few seconds or less,...
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Keywords:
Moral Judgement;
Thin Slices;
Social Media;
Fake News;
Misinformation;
Moral Sensibility;
Behavior;
News
- July 2022
- Case
Call of Fiduciary Duty: Microsoft Acquires Activision
By: Joseph Pacelli, Jonas Heese and James Barnett
In January 2022, Microsoft announces its acquisition of the video game company Activision Blizzard, in a deal valued at $68.7 billion, which would make Microsoft the world’s third largest video game company. The deal came as Activision Blizzard faced gender pay...
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- July 2022
- Article
When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals
By: Daniel H. Stein, Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
From Catholics performing the sign of the cross since the 4th century to Americans reciting the Pledge of Allegiance since the 1890s, group rituals (i.e., predefined sequences of symbolic actions) have strikingly consistent features over time. Seven studies (N = 4,213)...
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Keywords:
Ritual;
Morality;
Groups;
Norms;
Commitment;
Groups and Teams;
Values and Beliefs;
Change;
Moral Sensibility;
Behavior
- 2022
- Working Paper
Moral Deteriorations Sever Firm Identity
By: Julian De Freitas, Zarema Khon, Pechthida Kim and Samuel G.B. Johnson
Firms change over time. Which changes are so damaging that consumers believe the firm’s very
identity ceases to exist? We explored this question using Twitter data and eight experiments
involving nearly 3,000 subjects. Consumers judged that moral deteriorations were...
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- June 2022 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Sustainability Reporting at Dollar Tree, Inc.
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni
The cases discusses the ESG strategy of Dollar Tree Inc., a U.S. Fortune 500 company in the deep discount retail industry and the and shareholder pressure faced by the company. In 2022, the company faced a shareholder resolution from a renowned shareholder advocacy...
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Keywords:
ESG;
Sustainability;
Shareholder Activism;
Dollar Tree;
Sustainability Reporting;
ESG Reporting;
Board Of Directors;
Shareholder Engagement;
GHG;
Environmental Accounting;
Integrated Corporate Reporting;
Trends;
Communication;
Announcements;
Voting;
Environmental Management;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Values and Beliefs;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Disclosure;
Corporate Governance;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Policy;
Reports;
Business or Company Management;
Risk Management;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Outcome or Result;
Strategic Planning;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Situation or Environment;
Opportunities;
Civil Society or Community;
Social Issues;
Public Opinion;
Strategy;
Adaptation;
Alignment;
Business Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Value Creation;
Retail Industry;
United States;
Virginia
- June 2022
- Case
Larry Miller
Under the leadership of Larry Miller, chairman and former president of Nike’s Air Jordan brand, annual revenues for the Jordan brand soared from $150 million to over $4 billion. But for over 40 years, Miller guarded a secret. When he was 16 years old and part of a...
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- June 2022
- Case
Can Goodr Fight Food Insecurity at Scale?
By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr
Jasmine Crowe founded Goodr to redirect food waste to people in need. Now a profitable enterprise, she’s searching for Series A funding and encountering pushback. Scaling and contract concerns are also at the forefront of her mind, but so are her values. Feeding...
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- 2022
- Working Paper
Beliefs about Gender Differences in Social Preferences
By: Christine L Exley, Oliver P. Hauser, Molly Moore and John-Henry Pezzuto
While there is a vast (and mixed) literature on gender differences in social preferences, little is known about believed gender differences in social preferences. This paper documents robust evidence for believed gender differences in social preferences. Across a wide...
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- May 2022
- Case
Timnit Gebru: 'SILENCED No More' on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models
By: Tsedal Neeley and Stefani Ruper
Dr. Timnit Gebru—a leading artificial intelligence (AI) computer scientist and co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team—was messaging with one of her colleagues when she saw the words: “Did you resign?? Megan sent an email saying that she accepted your resignation.” Heart...
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- April 2022 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Conflicts of Interest at Uptown Bank
By: Jonas Heese
In 2013, two employees debated whether to blow the whistle on their employer, Bell Bank, after completing an internal review that revealed undisclosed conflicts of interest. Bell Bank’s Asset Management business disproportionately invested clients’ money in Bell Bank’s...
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Keywords:
Whistleblower;
Whistleblowing;
Mutual Funds;
Conflicts Of Interest;
Decision Making;
Decisions;
Judgments;
Ethics;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Finance;
Financial Institutions;
Banks and Banking;
Financial Management;
Investment;
Investment Funds;
Governance;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Disclosure;
Corporate Governance;
Governance Compliance;
Governance Controls;
Policy;
Law;
Legal Liability;
Social Psychology;
Motivation and Incentives;
Perception;
Perspective;
Trust;
Financial Services Industry;
North and Central America;
United States
- April 6, 2022
- Article
5 Principles of Purposeful Leadership
By: Hubert Joly
The traditional model of the leader-hero who saves the day, knows it all, is the smartest person in the room, and is too often driven by power, fame, glory, or money is not appropriate in today’s environment. People today expect a different kind of leader. While each...
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- 2022
- Book
A Political Economy of Justice
By: Danielle Allen, Yochai Benkler, Leah Downey, Rebecca Henderson and Joshua Simons
Defining a just economy in a tenuous social-political time.
If we can agree that our current social-political moment is tenuous and unsustainable—and indeed, that may be the only thing we can agree on right now—then how do markets, governments, and people... View Details
If we can agree that our current social-political moment is tenuous and unsustainable—and indeed, that may be the only thing we can agree on right now—then how do markets, governments, and people... View Details
- 2022
- Chapter
Capitalism and the Environment
By: Geoffrey Jones
Capitalism drove the environmental decimation of the planet. The environment was seen as a free good, while the consequences of dirty industrial and agricultural processes were seen as external to the firm. Public policies largely allowed this to happen, as politicians...
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- 2022
- Chapter
Firms, Morality, and the Search for a Better World
Book Abstract: Defining a just economy in a tenuous social-political time. If we can agree that our current social-political moment is tenuous and unsustainable—and indeed, that may be the only thing we can agree on right now—then how do markets, governments, and...
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- March 2022 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
DaVita Responds to COVID
By: Susanna Gallani and David Lane
Early in August 2021, DaVita CEO Javier Rodriguez was assessing the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on his firm, which provided life-sustaining kidney dialysis to roughly 240,000 people. Effective infection control practices and information sharing had ensured...
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Keywords:
COVID-19 Pandemic;
Change Management;
Communication;
Talent and Talent Management;
Fairness;
Values and Beliefs;
Corporate Accountability;
Health Care and Treatment;
Health Pandemics;
Human Resources;
Employee Relationship Management;
Retention;
Wages;
Working Conditions;
Leadership Style;
Crisis Management;
Organizational Culture;
Health Industry;
United States
- March 2022
- Technical Note
Ethical Analysis: Society
By: Nien-hê Hsieh
How should managers determine and deliver on their responsibilities to society? This note summarizes prevailing approaches to this question and outlines an approach centered on what distinguishes society from other key constituencies, such as investors or customers....
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- March 2022
- Supplement
Natura: Weathering the Pandemic at Brazil´s Cosmetic Giant (B)
By: Brian Trelstad, Pedro Levindo and Carla Larangeira
Brazil's Natura, a multi-brand cosmetics group, has taken several measures to safeguard the livelihoods of its thousands of employees and millions of sales representatives during the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. The company has also made strides in its efforts...
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Keywords:
COVID-19 Pandemic;
Acquisition;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Decision Making;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Environmental Management;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Ethics;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Global Strategy;
Corporate Governance;
Health Pandemics;
Human Resources;
Human Capital;
Crisis Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Marketing;
Distribution Channels;
Supply Chain;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Mission and Purpose;
Organizational Culture;
Customer Ownership;
Relationships;
Business and Community Relations;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Networks;
Partners and Partnerships;
Science-Based Business;
Reputation;
Human Needs;
Social Issues;
Strategy;
Equality and Inequality;
Employee Relationship Management;
Beauty and Cosmetics Industry;
Brazil;
Latin America