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    • COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      Cold Call
      A podcast featuring faculty discussing cases they've written and the lessons they impart.
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      • 02 Mar 2021
      • Cold Call Podcast

      Can Historic Social Injustices be Addressed Through Reparations?

      Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants believe historic social injustices should be addressed through reparations. Professor Mihir Desai discusses the arguments for and against reparations in response to the Tulsa Massacre and, more broadly, to the effects of slavery and racist government policies in the US in his case, “The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations.”  Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

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      Toffel, W. MichaelRemove Toffel, W. Michael →

      Page 1 of 56 Results →
      • 23 Feb 2021
      • Research & Ideas

      COVID-19 Shines New Light on Working Conditions in Supply Chains

      by Danielle Kost

      Michael Toffel discusses how the coronavirus pandemic has renewed concerns about how suppliers treat employees, and how a new online resource can help. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 22 Feb 2021
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Auditor Independence and Outsourcing: Aligning Incentives to Mitigate Shilling and Shirking

      by Ashley Palmarozzo, Jodi L. Short, and Michael W. Toffel

      Firms use external auditors to monitor the quality of difficult-to-observe aspects of their business partners’ performance, including the working conditions of their suppliers. Firms can improve monitoring accuracy by having their own employees conduct some audits, and by rotating across third-party auditing firms.

      • 01 May 2020
      • In Practice

      COVID-19’s Hard Lessons Might Prepare Business for Climate Change

      by Danielle Kost

      We asked experts from the HBS Business and Environment Initiative how the coronavirus crisis might change the way companies think about sustainability. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 22 Apr 2020
      • Research Event

      How Investors Are Sizing Up Climate Change’s Risks—and Opportunities

      by Danielle Kost

      What are the financial implications of rising seas and extreme weather? Asset managers and risk experts gathered at Harvard Business School to discuss how they’re evaluating climate risk in their portfolios. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 13 Nov 2019
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Shareholder Activism and Firms’ Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks

      by Caroline Flammer, Michael W. Toffel, and Kala Viswanathan

      Shareholder resolutions typically fail, and often by a wide margin. So why do active investors bother? It turns out that resolutions nonetheless can influence corporate transparency. Specifically, after being targeted with shareholder resolutions on environmental topics, this research shows that companies are more likely to publicly disclose their climate change risks—and that such disclosure increases these companies’ valuation.

      • 20 May 2019
      • Research & Ideas

      Activist CEOs Are Rising Up—and Their Customers Are Listening

      by Michael Blanding

      Are product sales affected by the CEO's stance on political and social issues? Michael Toffel and Aaron Chatterji study how consumers react to vocal chief executives. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 09 May 2018
      • Research & Ideas

      A Simple Way for Restaurant Inspectors to Improve Food Safety

      by Carmen Nobel

      Basic tweaks to the schedules of food safety inspectors could prevent millions of foodborne illnesses, according to new behavioral science research by Maria Ibáñez and Michael Toffel. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 21 Jul 2017
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Organizational Structures and the Improvement of Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains: Legalization, Participation, and Economic Incentives

      by Yanhua Z. Bird, Jodi L. Short, and Michael W. Toffel

      Suppliers face increasing pressure from the institutional environment as well as demands from buyers to improve working conditions. This study analyzes the internal organizational dynamics of more than 3,000 supplier firms in 55 countries. Findings call for looking beyond the symbolism of organizational structures and attending to how they can be linked with real implementation and improvement.

      • 18 Jul 2017
      • First Look

      First Look at New Research and Ideas, July 18, 2017

      Sean Silverthorne

      The creative habits of ordinary people ... Pursuing innovation at Polaroid ... Do we know how to improve bad working conditions?

      • 30 May 2017
      • First Look

      First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 30

      Sean Silverthorne

      Advice for those seeking advice ... Should CEOs become social activists? ... What companies don’t know about location.

      • 26 Apr 2017
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Assessing the Quality of Quality Assessment: The Role of Scheduling

      by Maria Ibanez and Michael W. Toffel

      Accurate inspections enable companies to assess the quality, safety, and environmental practices of their business partners, and enable regulators to protect consumers, workers, and the environment. This study finds that inspectors are less stringent later in their workday and after visiting workplaces with fewer problems. Managers and regulators can improve inspection accuracy by mitigating these biases and their consequences.

      • 15 Mar 2017
      • Lessons from the Classroom

      More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business

      by Carmen Nobel

      MBA students participating in Harvard Business School’s Climate Change Challenge offer ideas on how companies can negate impacts from a changing environment. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 19 Sep 2016
      • Research & Ideas

      Why Isn't Business Research More Relevant to Business Practitioners?

      by Carmen Nobel

      There’s a pervasive paradox in academia: Research conducted at business schools often offers no obvious value to people who work in the world of business. Professors and practitioners weigh in on how to enhance the relevance of research. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 12 Sep 2016
      • Research & Ideas

      What Brands Can Do to Monitor Factory Conditions of Suppliers

      by Michael Blanding

      For better or for worse, it’s fallen to multinational corporations to police the overseas factories of suppliers in their supply chains—and perhaps make them better. Michael W. Toffel examines how. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 18 Jul 2016
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Beyond Symbolic Responses to Private Politics: Examining Labor Standards Improvement in Global Supply Chains

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

      Global supply chain factories improve their working conditions to a greater extent when their buyers take a cooperative approach to monitoring them, when the auditors are more highly trained, and when the factories face greater risk of poor conditions being exposed, according to findings in this research.

      • 20 Apr 2016
      • Research & Ideas

      When CEOs Become Activists

      by Carmen Nobel

      More and more, CEOs are promoting social causes that lie far outside their core business interests. Research by Mike Toffel and Aaron Chatterji explores the rise of CEO activists and the effects on their companies. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 29 Mar 2016
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Do CEO Activists Make a Difference? Evidence from a Field Experiment

      by Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

      Corporate leaders are speaking out on social and environmental issues that are largely unrelated to their companies’ core businesses. Does such CEO activism actually change citizens’ opinions about these public issues—or their consumer attitudes toward these CEOs’ companies? Focusing on Apple CEO Tim Cook’s denunciation of potential discrimination resulting from Indiana’s proposed religious freedom law, this study finds that CEO activists can frame issues in ways that do influence public opinion, and to the same extent as political leaders. Moreover, while CEO activism risks alienating consumers who disagree with the CEO’s public stance, this study finds that Cook’s statements increased consumers’ intent to purchase Apple products, especially among those who agreed with Cook’s statements.

      • 12 Feb 2016
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Enhancing the Practical Relevance of Research

      by Michael W. Toffel

      Research is relevant when it has the potential to improve the decision making of managers or policymakers. Elaborating on his remarks at the 2015 Production and Operations Management Society conference, Toffel explains why research relevance matters and how scholars can increase the relevance of their research. Journals, professional societies, and doctoral programs can also foster research that is more useful and influential in society at large.

      • 05 Jan 2016
      • Working Paper Summaries

      The Integrity of Private Third-party Compliance Monitoring

      by Michael W. Toffel & Jodi L. Short

      Michael Toffel and Jodi Short examine how conflict of interest and other risks lead to inaccurate monitoring of health, labor, and environmental standards.

      • 19 Oct 2015
      • Research & Ideas

      Business Research that Makes for Smarter Public Policy

      by Michael Blanding

      Just as researchers in the life sciences often target their work to tackle the most dangerous diseases, business scholars are using their research to make a difference in government policy. Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

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