Accounting & Management

- September 9, 2024
- Article
Ten Questions for a Winning Climate-transition Business Strategy

By: George Serafeim

The move to a low-carbon economy will create opportunities for innovation and growth. To make the most of them, leaders must understand the challenges they could face along the way.
- September 9, 2024
- Article
Ten Questions for a Winning Climate-transition Business Strategy

By: George Serafeim

The move to a low-carbon economy will create opportunities for innovation and growth. To make the most of them, leaders must understand the challenges they could face along the way.
- 2024
- Working Paper
CSR Under the Pressure of Financial Shocks

By: Monica Kabutey, Syrena Shirley and Anywhere Sikochi

This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced firms' interactions with customers and suppliers. Customer-supplier relationships are essential because the success of interconnected firms affects the sustainability of the entire supply chain. We use the economic shock of COVID-19 to evaluate if socially responsible firms truly adhere to responsible business practices (i.e. prioritize stakeholders) when faced with financial pressure. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that socially responsible firms take longer to pay their suppliers though they do not appear to relax payment terms for customers during COVID. These strategies contradict the principles of stakeholder theory, which focuses on understanding and addressing the interests of all stakeholders. Overall, our findings show that socially responsible firms focus more on safeguarding their own liquidity rather than stakeholder priorities during crisis periods.
- 2024
- Working Paper
CSR Under the Pressure of Financial Shocks

By: Monica Kabutey, Syrena Shirley and Anywhere Sikochi

This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced firms' interactions with customers and suppliers. Customer-supplier relationships are essential because the success of interconnected firms affects the sustainability of the entire supply chain. We use the economic shock of COVID-19 to evaluate if socially responsible firms truly adhere to...
- August 2024
- Case
Intel: Residual Income Valuation

By: Joseph Pacelli
- August 2024
- Case
Intel: Residual Income Valuation

By: Joseph Pacelli

About the Unit

The Accounting & Management unit at Harvard Business School strives to be the worldwide leader in research, course development, and teaching on top managements' use of performance measurement systems to:

Communicate with external investors to ensure that their firms' securities are fairly priced and that they are able to access capital,
Measure and evaluate their firms' economic performance,
Improve resource allocation and strategy implementation within their firms, and
Build accountability for performance through effective external and internal governance.

Unit research, course development, and teaching fall into two broad areas: Financial Reporting and Analysis and Management Accounting. Our research helps scholars and educators understand current best practices for the design and use of performance measurement systems that help managers to build more effective, value-creating organizations. Our teaching materials enable us to bring the results of this research into the classroom, and to practice.

Recent Publications

Ten Questions for a Winning Climate-transition Business Strategy

By: George Serafeim

September 9, 2024 |
Article |
strategy+business

The move to a low-carbon economy will create opportunities for innovation and growth. To make the most of them, leaders must understand the challenges they could face along the way.

Keywords: Strategy; Innovation; Technology; Sustainability; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Transformations; Business Model Innovation; Environment; Leadership And Change Management; Innovation and Invention; Climate Change; Environmental Management; Transformation; Change; Leadership

Citation

Read Now

Intel Valuation - Instructor Spreadsheet

By: Joseph Pacelli

August 2024 |
Supplement |
Faculty Research

Citation

Purchase

Intel Valuation - Student Spreadsheet

By: Joseph Pacelli

August 2024 |
Supplement |
Faculty Research

Citation

Purchase

Intel: Residual Income Valuation

By: Joseph Pacelli

August 2024 |
Teaching Note |
Faculty Research

Citation

CSR Under the Pressure of Financial Shocks

By: Monica Kabutey, Syrena Shirley and Anywhere Sikochi

2024 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced firms' interactions with customers and suppliers. Customer-supplier relationships are essential because the success of interconnected firms affects the sustainability of the entire supply chain. We use the economic shock of COVID-19 to evaluate if socially responsible firms truly adhere to responsible business practices (i.e. prioritize stakeholders) when faced with financial pressure. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that socially responsible firms take longer to pay their suppliers though they do not appear to relax payment terms for customers during COVID. These strategies contradict the principles of stakeholder theory, which focuses on understanding and addressing the interests of all stakeholders. Overall, our findings show that socially responsible firms focus more on safeguarding their own liquidity rather than stakeholder priorities during crisis periods.

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Supply Chain; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Crisis

Citation

Read Now

Iogen: Decarbonizing Hard-to-Abate Sectors

By: George Serafeim, Charlotte Foody and John Mulliken

August 2024 |
Case |
Faculty Research

Brian Foody, CEO of Iogen Corporation, was an early leader in advanced biofuels, developing a range of technologies to transform agricultural waste into transportation fuel. With $100 million in revenue and 350 patents across various biofuel technologies, Iogen was looking to the future - towards the energy transition. In the spring of 2024, Iogen was advancing a promising new technology. It used agricultural waste (e.g., corn stalks) – a feedstock that would otherwise be left in the field to rot – to produce hydrogen, maritime and jet fuel. This process permanently removed more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than was emitted through the production process and as a result, gave Foody optimism about the commercial prospects of the technology. Foody believed the technology had the carbon savings, cost effectiveness, and scalability needed to decarbonize several hard to abate sectors. Nevertheless, he saw challenges in its commercializing given the nascent markets, developing regulatory landscapes, competing technologies and vast capital expenditures needed to bring the technology to market. What markets should he target? How could he develop a business model that was competitive in today’s environment? How could he get investors comfortable enough to support Iogen?