The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Tag Archive for ‘Harvard Business School’

Private Equity Buyouts: Job Picture Complex

The private equity practice of buying out a firm and restructuring its operations — often involving job layoffs at the target company — has been criticized for its negative effects on human lives and communities but also praised for improving businesses and making them more efficient and profitable. Past research has tried to weigh and assess these dynamics, but it has often been limited by such factors as incomplete data sets and a failure to compare employment changes at comparable firms during that same period.

Study Finds Sustainable Companies ‘Significantly Outperform’ Financially

A new study by researchers at Harvard Business School and London Business School concludes that companies which have voluntarily embraced sustainable business cultures with a substantial number of environmental and social policies “significantly outperform their counterparts over the long-term, both in terms of stock market and accounting performance.”

Study: Mandatory Sustainability Reporting Improves Behavior

A new working paper by researchers at the London Business School and Harvard Business School finds that requiring companies to report on their environmental, social and governance initiatives leads to broad improvement in socially responsible management practices.

Study: Delay in SEC’s Proxy Access Rule Proves Its Value

The study found that in a one-day “event window” around October 4, when the SEC announced delay of the shareholder proxy access rule, share prices of companies that would have been most exposed to shareholder access declined significantly – about 42 basis points – compared to share prices of companies that would have been most insulated from the rule.

BOOKS: Speaking Up for Values in Business

When companies cross ethical lines, a common assumption is that employees don’t speak up because their moral compass has gone haywire. But it may be more complicated than that. A new book by business professor and consultant Mary C. Gentile argues that most people want to do the right thing. They just don’t know how.

More Wall Street Analysts Buy Corporate Social Responsibility

Wall Street analysts who issue “buy” and “sell” recommendations on publicly-held companies are increasingly awarding more favorable ratings to firms with corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, according to a new academic study. “As time goes by,” the authors write, “CSR strategies are perceived to be more value-creating.”

Adding Value and Values to the MBA

When students return to campus in coming weeks, so will debate about the purpose of management education and the role of ethics. Columnist Gael O’Brien wonders whether current business leaders will support training new leaders in skills and competencies that support new models of business – or will it be simply business as usual?

Ethics Specialist Named Dean of Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School professor Nitin Nohria has been a faculty leader of the movement to adopt an MBA Oath, a voluntary pledge for graduating and current MBAs to “create value responsibly and ethically.”

WellCare Director Resigns, Questions Accounting Oversight

In a rare public display of boardroom in-fighting, a Harvard Business School professor and health care expert resigned from the board of WellCare Health Plans Inc., asserting that the company’s accounting systems were in need of greater oversight and that some board members had conspired to undercut her authority and force her from the board.