Research - Global Initiative - Harvard Business School

August 2020
Article
ILR Review

Improving Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Role of Institutional Environments and Monitoring Program Design

By: Jodi L. Short, Michael W. Toffel and Andrea R. Hugill

Activism seeking to improve labor conditions in global supply chains has led many transnational corporations to adopt codes of conduct and monitor suppliers for compliance. Drawing on thousands of audits conducted by a major social auditor, we identify structural...

Forthcoming
Article
Studies in Comparative International Development

The Rise of the Investor State: State Capital in the Chinese Economy

By: Meg Rithmire and Hao Chen

The nature and extent of the role of the Chinese state in the economy is fundamental to many empirical and theoretical debates about that country’s political economy. We document and explain the rise of a novel form of intervention on the part of the Chinese state: the...

2019
Working Paper

The Great Convergence: Skill Accumulation and Mass Education in Africa and Asia, 1870-2010

By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg

While human capital has gained prominence in new vintages of growth theory, economists have struggled to find the positive externalities of mass education in developing economies. We shed new light on the economic significance of the global 'schooling revolution' by...

July 2020
Teaching Material

Gender Diversity on Boards: Views from Norway

By: Aiyesha Dey

July 2020
Case

The Shuanghui-Smithfield Acquisition (A)

By: Dante Roscini and Stacy Tan

July 2020
Teaching Material

The Shuanghui-Smithfield Acquisition (B)

By: Dante Roscini and Stacy Tan

July 2020
Teaching Material

Instabeat—Crossing the Finish Line

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar

An examination of the strategic, operational, and personal challenges facing the founder of a startup in the "wearable" technology space.

2020
Working Paper

Of Learning and Forgetting: Centrism, Populism, and the Legitimacy Crisis of Globalization

By: Rawi Abdelal

Every order is a bargain with disappointments and trade-offs. Thus is every order an unstable equilibrium. The first era of globalization, circa 1870–1914, created both international prosperity and domestic instability. That instability was fully realized during the...

July 2020
Teaching Material

The New LAX: Ready for Takeoff? Video Supplement

By: Boris Groysberg, Annelena Lobb and Michael Norris

2020

The COVID-19 Attack on Latin America: Proposals for an Effective Response

By: Laura Alfaro, Guillermo Calvo, Augusto de la Torre, Jose de Gregorio, Roque Benjamin Fernandez, Pablo Guidotti, Paulo Leme, Enrique Mendoza, Liliana Rojas-Suarez and Andres Velasco

July 2020
Case

Pattern Brands

By: Sunil Gupta, Elie Ofek and Julia Kelley

In March 2020, direct-to-consumer (DTC) company Pattern Brands needed to decide how to allocate resources across its different brands. Pattern Co-Founders Nick Ling and Emmett Shine hoped to avoid the pitfalls faced by some DTC companies—such as inability to scale and...

2020
Working Paper

Collaborating During Coronavirus: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Nature of Work

By: Evan DeFilippis, Stephen Michael Impink, Madison Singell, Jeffrey T. Polzer and Raffaella Sadun

We explore the impact of COVID-19 on employee's digital communication patterns through an event study of lockdowns in 16 large metropolitan areas in North America, Europe and the Middle East. Using de-identified, aggregated meeting and email meta-data from 3,143,270...

July 2020
Teaching Material

COVID-19: The Global Shutdown

By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong

In the first months of 2020, a pandemic overwhelmed the world. COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus, spread from China and created a severe public health emergency across countries. While an immediate fear of the disease’s impact on human life permeaacted...

2020
Working Paper

Discrimination, Disenfranchisement and African American WWII Military Enlistment

By: Nancy Qian and Marco Tabellini

This paper documents that disenfranchisement and discrimination discouraged WWII volunteer military participation of African American men, relative to Caucasian men, after the Pearl Harbor attack. The race-gap in volunteer enlistment is most pronounced in regions where...

Forthcoming
Article
American Economic Review: Insights

Tariff Passthrough at the Border and at the Store: Evidence from U.S. Trade Policy

By: Alberto Cavallo, Gita Gopinath, Brent Neiman and Jenny Tang

We use micro data collected at the border and the store to characterize the price impact of recent US trade policy on importers, exporters, and consumers. At the border, import tariff passthrough is much higher than exchange rate passthrough. Chinese exporters did not...

Teaching Interest

Financial Reporting and Control

By: Euvin Naidoo

Throughout their careers, business leaders are required to measure and evaluate their organization's economic performance, improve resource allocation and strategy implementation within their organizations, and build accountability for performance through effective...

July 2020
Case

Karen Bruck: Growing Managers at MercadoLibre

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Fernanda Miguel and Mariana Cal

Karen Bruck, Corporate Sales Director at MercadoLibre, Latin America's largest e-commerce platform, needs to make a decision about one of her managers, who, while analytically savvy, has an approach that does not fit in with the company's culture.

July 2020
Case

Rosalind Fox at John Deere

By: Anthony Mayo and Olivia Hull

Rosalind Fox, the factory manager at John Deere’s Des Moines, Iowa plant, has improved the financial standing of the factory in the three years she’s been at its helm. But employee engagement scores—which measured employees’ satisfaction with working conditions and...

July 2020
Case

Steve Kerr: Coaching the Golden State Warriors to Joy, Compassion, Competition, and Mindfulness

By: Francesca Gino and Jeffrey Huizinga

Steve Kerr, coach of the 3-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors, reflects on his values-driven leadership style in the wake of a challenging season.

July 2020
Case

Paris Saint-Germain: Building One of the World's Top Sports Brands

By: Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente

In March 2020, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the president of French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain (‘PSG’) sees his team clinch a spot among the last eight clubs to compete in the UEFA Champions League. Established in 1970 and initially a club with only moderate success, PSG’s...