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- Faculty Publications (161)
- Editorial
Why CEOs Should Share Their Long-Term Plans with Investors
By: Christina Rehnberg, George Serafeim and Brian Tomlinson
Rather than requiring less short-term information, the key to combating short-termism is to encourage companies to share more information about their long-term plans. Analysis of companies that have done so suggests that long-term plans are not mere marketing...
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Keywords:
CEO;
Investor Relations;
Disclosure;
Long-term Growth;
Investing;
Business and Shareholder Relations;
Strategy;
Corporate Disclosure
Rehnberg, Christina, George Serafeim, and Brian Tomlinson. "Why CEOs Should Share Their Long-Term Plans with Investors." Harvard Business Review (website) (September 19, 2018).
- Spring 2018
- Article
The Next Phase of Business Sustainability
The era of corporations integrating sustainable practices is being surpassed by a new age of corporations actively transforming the market to make it more sustainable.
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Keywords:
Environmental Sustainability;
Trends;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Corporate Disclosure
Hoffman, Andrew J. "The Next Phase of Business Sustainability." Stanford Social Innovation Review (Spring 2018): 34–39.
- February 2017 (Revised June 2017)
- Supplement
ExxonMobil: Business as Usual? (B)
By: George Serafeim, Shiva Rajgopal and David Freiberg
The case presents ExxonMobil's response to growing pressure to disclose how climate change will impact their business. This includes multiple asset impairments and losing a proxy vote to shareholders to increase climate change related reporting. Supplements the (B)...
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Keywords:
Oil & Gas;
Oil Prices;
Oil Companies;
Asset Impairment;
Predictive Analytics;
Sustainability;
Environmental Impact;
Innovation;
Disclosure;
Accounting;
Valuation;
Energy Sources;
Ethics;
Corporate Disclosure;
Governance Compliance;
Climate Change;
Financial Reporting;
Energy Industry;
United States
Serafeim, George, Shiva Rajgopal, and David Freiberg. "ExxonMobil: Business as Usual? (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 117-047, February 2017. (Revised June 2017.)
- January 2017 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
The Rise and Fall of Lehman Brothers
By: Stuart C. Gilson, Kristin Mugford and Sarah L. Abbott
With nearly $700 billion in assets, Lehman was the largest U.S. bankruptcy in history. In 2007, Lehman achieved record earnings of over $4 billion on revenues of $60 billion. By September 2008 the fourth largest investment bank in the world was bankrupt. How had a...
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Keywords:
Bankruptcy;
Financial Distress;
Accounting Policies;
Business Ethics;
Financial Reporting;
Volatility;
Judgments;
Financial Crisis;
Insolvency and Bankruptcy;
Financial Liquidity;
Investment Banking;
Financial Management;
Financial Strategy;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Disclosure;
Corporate Governance;
Crisis Management;
Risk Management;
Failure;
Business and Government Relations;
Ethics;
Banking Industry;
New York (city, NY)
Gilson, Stuart C., Kristin Mugford, and Sarah L. Abbott. "The Rise and Fall of Lehman Brothers." Harvard Business School Case 217-041, January 2017. (Revised January 2019.)
- 2016
- Working Paper
Patent Disclosures and Standard-Setting
By: Josh Lerner, Haris Tabakovic and Jean Tirole
A key role of standard setting organizations (SSOs) is to aggregate information on relevant intellectual property (IP) claims before deciding on a standard. This article explores the firms’ strategies in response to IP disclosure requirements—in particular, the choice...
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Lerner, Josh, Haris Tabakovic, and Jean Tirole. "Patent Disclosures and Standard-Setting." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 17-030, October 2016.
- Article
The Scandal Effect
By: Boris Groysberg, Eric Lin, George Serafeim and Robin Abrahams
Executives with scandal-tainted companies on their résumés pay a penalty on the job market, even if they clearly had nothing to do with the trouble. Because the scandal effect is lasting, a company you left long ago could have an impact on your current and future job...
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Keywords:
Misconduct;
Career;
Career Management;
Career Changes;
Executive Leadership;
Executive Development;
Crime and Corruption;
Executive Compensation;
Personal Development and Career;
Management Skills;
Management Teams
Groysberg, Boris, Eric Lin, George Serafeim, and Robin Abrahams. "The Scandal Effect." Harvard Business Review 94, no. 9 (September 2016): 90–98.
- March 22, 2016
- Article
The Globalization of Corporate Environmental Disclosure: Accountability or Greenwashing?
By: Christopher Marquis, Michael W. Toffel and Yanhua Zhou
This article is a layman summary of "Scrutiny, Norms, and Selective Disclosure: A Global Study of Greenwashing," published in Organization Science 27, no. 2 (March–April 2016): 483–504.
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Keywords:
Reporting;
Environmental Performance;
Civil Society;
Corporate Disclosure;
Integrated Corporate Reporting;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Civil Society or Community;
Environmental Sustainability
Marquis, Christopher, Michael W. Toffel, and Yanhua Zhou. "The Globalization of Corporate Environmental Disclosure: Accountability or Greenwashing?" Work In Progress (American Sociological Association blog) (March 22, 2016). (Reprinted as Environmental disclosure: corporate accountability or greenwashing?” LSE Business Review, June 9, 2016.)
- March 2016 (Revised April 2019)
- Technical Note
ESG Metrics: Reshaping Capitalism?
By: George Serafeim
In the past twenty-five years, the world had seen an exponential growth in the number of companies reporting environmental, social and governance (ESG) data. Investor interest in ESG data also grew rapidly. A growing belief that increasing levels of social inequality...
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Keywords:
Capitalism;
Sustainability;
Accountability;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Responsibilities To Society;
Environment;
Social Impact Investment;
ESG;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Environmental Sustainability;
Measurement and Metrics;
Integrated Corporate Reporting;
Corporate Accountability;
Accounting;
Economic Systems
Serafeim, George, and Jody Grewal. "ESG Metrics: Reshaping Capitalism?" Harvard Business School Technical Note 116-037, March 2016. (Revised April 2019.)
- March 2016
- Article
An Analysis of Firms' Self-reported Anticorruption Efforts
By: Paul M. Healy and George Serafeim
We use Transparency International's ratings of self-reported anticorruption efforts for 480 corporations to analyze factors underlying the ratings. Our tests examine whether these forms of disclosure reflect firms' real efforts to combat corruption or are cheap talk....
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Keywords:
Corruption;
Corporate Performance;
Growth;
Disclosure;
Disclosure Strategy;
Sustainability;
Crime and Corruption;
Corporate Disclosure;
Performance;
Sales
Healy, Paul M., and George Serafeim. "An Analysis of Firms' Self-reported Anticorruption Efforts." Accounting Review 91, no. 2 (March 2016): 489–511.
- March–April 2016
- Article
Scrutiny, Norms, and Selective Disclosure: A Global Study of Greenwashing
By: Christopher Marquis, Michael W. Toffel and Yanhua Zhou
Under increased pressure to report environmental impacts, some firms selectively disclose relatively benign impacts, creating an impression of transparency while masking their true performance. We identify key company- and country-level factors that limit firms' use of...
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Keywords:
Disclosure Strategy;
Disclosure;
Environmental Performance;
Environmental Strategy;
Environment;
Symbolic;
Reporting;
Corporate Disclosure;
Integrated Corporate Reporting;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact
Marquis, Christopher, Michael W. Toffel, and Yanhua Zhou. "Scrutiny, Norms, and Selective Disclosure: A Global Study of Greenwashing." Organization Science 27, no. 2 (March–April 2016): 483–504. (Formerly titled "When Do Firms Greenwash? Corporate Visibility, Civil Society Scrutiny, and Environmental Disclosure.")
- January 26, 2016
- Article
Hiding Personal Information Reveals the Worst
By: Leslie K. John, Kate Barasz and Michael I. Norton
Seven experiments explore people's decisions to share or withhold personal information and the wisdom of such decisions. When people choose not to reveal information—to be "hiders"—they are judged negatively by others (experiment 1). These negative judgments emerge...
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Keywords:
Disclosure;
Transparency;
Policy-making;
Privacy;
Information;
Corporate Disclosure;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Trust
John, Leslie K., Kate Barasz, and Michael I. Norton. "Hiding Personal Information Reveals the Worst." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, no. 4 (January 26, 2016): 954–959.
- Article
Strategic Disclosure: The Case of Business School Rankings
By: Michael Luca and Jonathan Smith
We empirically analyze disclosure decisions made by 240 MBA programs about which rankings to display on their websites. We present three main findings. First, consistent with theories of countersignaling, top schools are least likely to disclose their rankings, whereas...
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Keywords:
Voluntary Disclosure;
Shrouded Attributes;
Information Unraveling;
Rankings;
Higher Education;
Corporate Disclosure;
Rank and Position
Luca, Michael, and Jonathan Smith. "Strategic Disclosure: The Case of Business School Rankings." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 112 (April 2015): 17–25.
- March 2015
- Case
Statoil: Transparency on Payments to Governments
By: George Serafeim
The Statoil case describes the challenge of increasing transparency, in extractive industries, around host county government payments. The case describes Statoil's reasoning behind voluntarily disclosing host country government payments, and the events that led to this...
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Keywords:
Corruption;
Disclosure;
Disclosure Strategy;
Regulation;
Industry Self-regulation;
Corporate Governance;
Corporate Accountability;
Bribery;
Sustainability;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Government Legislation;
Cost vs Benefits;
Corporate Disclosure;
Mining;
Mining Industry;
United States
Serafeim, George, Paul M. Healy, and Jérôme Lenhardt. "Statoil: Transparency on Payments to Governments." Harvard Business School Case 115-049, March 2015.
- January 2015
- Article
Competing with Privacy
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Andres Hervas-Drane
We analyze the implications of consumer privacy for competition in the marketplace. We consider a market where firms set prices and disclosure levels for consumer information, and consumers observe both before deciding which firm to patronize and how much information...
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Keywords:
Information Acquisition;
Information Disclosure;
Online Privacy;
Privacy Regulation;
Information;
Rights;
Internet and the Web;
Competition;
Internet and the Web;
Corporate Disclosure;
Ethics;
Knowledge Acquisition
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Andres Hervas-Drane. "Competing with Privacy." Management Science 61, no. 1 (January 2015): 229–246.
- November 2014
- Article
The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance
By: Robert G. Eccles, Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim
We investigate the effect of corporate sustainability on organizational processes and performance. Using a matched sample of 180 U.S. companies, we find that corporations that voluntarily adopted sustainability policies by 1993—termed as High Sustainability...
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Keywords:
Sustainability;
Sustainability Management;
Sustainability Research;
Sustainability Reporting;
Sustainability Targets;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Corporate Accountability;
Reporting;
Corporate Governance;
Investor Clientele;
Investor Communication;
Stock Market;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Environmental Sustainability;
Performance;
United States
Eccles, Robert G., Ioannis Ioannou, and George Serafeim. "The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance." Management Science 60, no. 11 (November 2014): 2835–2857.
- October 2014 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
Integrated Reporting at Aegon
By: Robert G. Eccles, George Serafeim, Sydney Ribot and Michael Krzus
In 2011, Aegon adopted integrated reporting—a corporate reporting approach that sought to present company performance in a holistic light by considering medium- to long-term issues, stakeholder opinions, and the relationship between material financial and nonfinancial...
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Eccles, Robert G., George Serafeim, Sydney Ribot, and Michael Krzus. "Integrated Reporting at Aegon." Harvard Business School Case 315-011, October 2014. (Revised March 2015.)
- Article
Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to Finance
By: Beiting Cheng, Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim
In this paper, we investigate whether superior performance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies leads to better access to finance. We hypothesize that better access to finance can be attributed to a) reduced agency costs due to enhanced stakeholder...
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Keywords:
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Sustainability;
Capital Constraints;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
Stakeholder Engagement;
Disclosure;
Corporate Disclosure;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Environmental Sustainability;
Capital
Cheng, Beiting, Ioannis Ioannou, and George Serafeim. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to Finance." Strategic Management Journal 35, no. 1 (January 2014): 1–23.
- January 2014 (Revised January 2014)
- Case
Showdown at Cracker Barrel
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Tim Gray
In the fall of 2011, activist investor, Sardar Biglari, has acquired nearly 10% ownership in the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain. He believes that the board and senior management have failed and the company has underperformed relative to its peers. When he is denied a...
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Keywords:
Boards;
Activist Investors;
Proxy Battles;
Shareholder Activism;
Peer Firm;
Ratio Analysis;
Financial Accounting;
Financial Analysis;
Board Of Directors;
Boards Of Directors;
Financial Intermediaries;
Financial Analysts;
CEO Turnover;
New CEO;
Peer Groups;
Hedge Fund;
Hedge Funds;
Proxy Contest;
Proxy Fight;
Proxy Advisor;
Proxy Battle;
Financial Statement Analysis;
Financial Strategy;
Corporate Governance;
Corporate Disclosure;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Competition;
Valuation;
Business Strategy;
Value Creation;
Business and Shareholder Relations;
Financial Reporting;
Financial Statements;
Retail Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
United States
Srinivasan, Suraj, and Tim Gray. "Showdown at Cracker Barrel." Harvard Business School Case 114-026, January 2014. (Revised January 2014.)
- Winter 2013
- Article
Fear of Rejection? Tiered Certification and Transparency
By: Emmanuel Farhi, Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole
The sub-prime crisis has shone a harsh spotlight on the practices of securities underwriters, which provided too many complex securities that proved to ultimately have little value. This uproar calls attention to the fact that the literature on intermediaries has...
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Farhi, Emmanuel, Josh Lerner, and Jean Tirole. "Fear of Rejection? Tiered Certification and Transparency." RAND Journal of Economics 44, no. 4 (Winter 2013): 610–631.
- October 2013
- Article
How Firms Respond to Mandatory Information Disclosure
By: Anil R. Doshi, Glen W.S. Dowell and Michael W. Toffel
Mandatory information disclosure regulations seek to create institutional pressure to spur performance improvement. By examining how organizational characteristics moderate establishments' responses to a prominent environmental information disclosure program, we...
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Keywords:
Information Disclosure;
Institutional Theory;
Environmental Strategy;
Mandatory Disclosure;
Environmental Performance;
Information;
Corporate Disclosure;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Performance Improvement;
Environmental Sustainability;
Manufacturing Industry;
United States
Doshi, Anil R., Glen W.S. Dowell, and Michael W. Toffel. "How Firms Respond to Mandatory Information Disclosure." Strategic Management Journal 34, no. 10 (October 2013): 1209–1231. (Featured in The Regulatory Review.)