Where are the biggest polluters? And what is your company doing to protect the environment? A new Web site—both a public service and a research tool—posts managers' data in real time, allowing a balanced view of industrial environmental performance. HBS professor Michael W. Toffel and senior research fellow Andrew A. King explain.
Published in 2007
In the early stages of the 21st century, America has lost its way both at home and in the world, argues Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. In her new book, America the Principled, she details 6 opportunities for America to boost its economic vitality and democratic ideals. Q&A plus excerpt.
What role can business managers play in protecting the natural environment? Academic research on when it might "pay to be green" has advanced understanding of how and when firms achieve sustained competitive advantage. The focus of such research, however, has begun to change in light of limits to available "win-win" opportunities and to gaps in regulation. This paper, intended as a book chapter, reviews current literature and explores the potential of self-regulatory institutions to solve environmental problems.
Self-regulation has been all over the news, but are firms that adopt such programs already better on important measures like labor and quality practices? Does adopting a program help companies improve faster? In this Q&A, HBS professor Michael Toffel gives a reality check and discusses the trends for managers.
Ratings of corporations' environmental activities and capabilities influence billions of dollars of "socially responsible" investments as well as consumers, activists, and potential employees. But how well do these ratings predict socially responsible outcomes such as superior environmental performance? Companies can enhance their environmental image in one of two ways: by reducing or minimizing their impact on the environment, or by merely appearing to do so via marketing efforts or "greenwashing." This study evaluates the predictive validity of environmental ratings produced by Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini Research & Analytics (KLD), and tests whether companies that score high on KLD ratings generate superior environmental performance or whether highly rated firms are simply superior marketers of the factors that these rating agencies purport to measure. The data analysis examines all 588 large, publicly-owned companies in the United States that were both regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and whose social performance was rated by KLD at least once during 1991-2003. This paper may be the first to examine the predictive validity of social or environmental ratings.
Published in 2005
Does it make legal, ethical, or economic sense for companies to participate in environmental corporate social responsibility programs? A new book from HBS professor Richard Vietor and colleagues Bruce Hay and Robert N. Stavins attempts to separate fact from fiction on the debate.
A study of smart practices by social and business organizations in Iberoamerica. Research by HBS professor James Austin, HBS senior researcher Ezequiel A. Reficco, and UNIANDES professor Roberto Gutiérrez.
Corporate partnering with social organizations is beneficial for both, as seen in fruitful relationships built in the Americas. But first you must understand the motives of each party.
Published in 2004
What can business do to improve social welfare? In fact, we don’t know because too little study has been given the issue, argues HBS professor Joshua Margolis and colleagues.
Expectations are changing on the role multinational corporations play in improving the Asian communities in which they serve.
Published in 2003
You may not enjoy being targeted by a non-governmental organization, but you better learn how to manage that relationship, say HBS professor Debora Spar and Lane LaMure.
The tragedy of AIDS has the potential to decimate society—and of course workforces, too. African-based experts in health care and the pharmaceutical industry traded ideas for alleviating this scourge in a session moderated by Harvard Business School Professor Debora L. Spar.
Published in 2002
Managerial capitalism is hanging on by its fingertips, say James Maxmin and HBS professor Shoshana Zuboff. In this e-mail interview with HBS Working Knowledge and in an excerpt from their new book, The Support Economy, the authors lay out the problem and offer savvy solutions for business and consumers.
Can an international alliance of global corporations win a war on poverty? Yes, if such an alliance is well planned and formed soon, according to HBS professor emeritus George C. Lodge.
It's a crucial question: How can this country's poor build up their assets and jump out of the spiral of poverty? The challenge is to create asset-building programs that go beyond savings, expanding into other financial services with higher return rates and greater opportunities, with a big assist from technology, argues Harvard Business School professor Peter Tufano.
Published in 2001
Is there a relationship between a company's social performance and its financial performance? HBS associate professor Joshua D. Margolis and University of Michigan colleague James P. Walsh make the connection in their latest working paper. PLUS: Margolis Q&A.
Published in 2000
Affordable housing is a bottom-line issue, one that American business ignores at its own peril. New research and initiatives of HBS Professors William J. Poorvu and Michael A. Wheeler and others show why business needs to take a more provocative stance to assure that moderate- and low- income workers can afford to live near where they work.
Published in 1999
Does it pay to be green? When it comes to questions about business and the environment, says HBS Professor Forest L. Reinhardt, there are no simple yes-or-no answers. In this excerpt from his article in the Harvard Business Review, Reinhardt stresses the importance of applying traditional business principles to environmental issues.
