Idea posted: July 2017

Institutions: George Washington University School of Business    FHWien University of Applied Sciences    INSEAD   

In a seminal 2011 Harvard Business Review article, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer urged companies to abandon the ‘old narrow view of capitalism’ in which the sole purpose of companies…

Idea posted: May 2017

Institutions: University of Massachusetts, Boston, College of Management    University of Michigan Ross School of Business   

Corporate sustainability has become mainstream. Few companies would argue today – as they argued in the past - that the only responsibility companies have to society is to make a…

Idea posted: May 2016

Institutions: University of Oxford    Cornell University   

Most people make moral judgements intuitively: we feel what is right or wrong. For example, imagine a dilemma in which a runaway trolley is racing toward five people, who will…

Idea posted: May 2016

Institutions: London Business School    University of California, San Diego    Kellogg School of Management   

The gig economy (‘gigs’: think musicians and bands) — an economy built more than ever before on contract workers and part-timers — is dramatically changing the relationships between employers and…

Idea posted: April 2016

Institutions: University of Michigan Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise   

What is the role of social movements in inspiring or sparking corporate social responsibility? To answer this question, Panayiotis Georgallis of the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable…

Idea posted: May 2015

Institutions: Indian School of Business   

Both agency theory and stewardship theory help explain organizational dynamics, although starting from very different assumptions. Agency theory describes the relationship between the shareholders (called ‘principals’) and the company’s managers…

Idea posted: April 2015

Institutions: University of St. Gallen   

While corporations are engaging in socially responsible initiatives related to their industries or to benefit their communities (supporting organizations to help the needy, for example), some companies are going one…

Idea posted: April 2015

Institutions: City University of Hong Kong    University of Toronto Rotman School of Management    Kellogg School of Management   

An investigation into the problems of the 1973 Ford Pinto, a car susceptible to catastrophic explosions when rear-ended, revealed that Ford’s engineers had calculated that the company could save $11…

Idea posted: February 2015

Institutions: Duke University Fuqua School of Business   

In addition to economic and diversity issues, the Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey for the fourth quarter of 2014 focused on the issue of millennials in the workplace.…