- 14 Feb 2023
- HBS Case
Is Sweden Still 'Sweden'? A Liberal Utopia Grapples with an Identity Crisis
Changing political views and economic forces have threatened Sweden's image of liberal stability. Is it the end of the Scandinavian business-welfare model as we know it? In a case study, Debora Spar examines recent shifts in Sweden and what they mean for the country's future.
- 21 Oct 2022
- Research & Ideas
People Trust Business, But Expect CEOs to Drive Social Change
Companies should do more to confront climate change, labor market shifts, and racism, according to a survey of 14,000 people in 14 countries by the Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society and the Edelman Trust Institute. Is it time for more business leaders to step up?
- 01 Feb 2022
- Cold Call Podcast
Making Diverse Leadership a Priority at Whittier College
In 2018, Linda Oubré was selected as the president of Whittier College in Los Angeles County – the first Black woman to serve in that role. The student body had been slowly evolving to represent the growing diversity of the surrounding area, but the college’s leadership remained largely white and male. Oubré set her sights on diversifying the college’s staff, administration, and board of trustees. Harvard Business School professor Debora Spar and Oubré discuss how she galvanized support among the college’s constituents, while making hard changes in the case, “Linda Oubré at Whittier College.” Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Nov 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
The Challenges of Commercializing Fertility
Entrepreneur Christy Jones wants to create a venture to help women preserve their eggs and postpone motherhood. But what would an egg-freezing service sell—and to whom? Debora Spar discusses the challenges of commercializing fertility in a new case study. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Aug 2020
- Book
From the Plow to the Pill: How Technology Shapes Our Lives
Many technologies have upended long-held beliefs about love, sex, marriage, and reproduction, says Debora Spar in a new book, Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
How Martine Rothblatt Started a Company to Save Her Daughter
When serial entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt (founder of Sirius XM) received her seven-year-old daughter’s diagnosis of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH), she created United Therapeutics and developed a drug to save her life. When her daughter later needed a lung transplant, Rothblatt decided to take what she saw as the logical next step: manufacturing organs for transplantation. Rothblatt’s entrepreneurial career exemplifies a larger debate around the role of the firm in creating solutions for society’s problems. If companies are uniquely good at innovating, what voice should society have in governing the new technologies that firms create? Harvard Business School professor Debora Spar debates these questions in the case “Martine Rothblatt and United Therapeutics: A Series of Implausible Dreams.” As part of a new first-year MBA course at Harvard Business School, this case examines the central question: what is the social purpose of the firm?