There continues to be substantial debate on whether and how providing inclusive access to finance through microcredit promotes entrepreneurship-led development at the base of the pyramid. We contribute to this literature by examining differences in household-level outcomes associated with...

Prior literature has established that international collaboration on R&D is an important means for generating new and impactful ideas through the cross-border integration of knowledge. We show that cross-country collaboration improves not just the resulting inventions, but also has a long-term...

Design thinking remains mired in controversy. Its proponents claim that it enhances not just confidence but also creativity, but its opponents question whether it does anything beyond building unfounded confidence. In order to bring rigorous evidence to this debate, we designed a randomized...

Firms commonly undertake philanthropic campaigns as a means of attracting and retaining customers. Such campaigns often take the form of charity-linked promotions, whereby a firm donates a specific amount to a charitable cause when a customer takes up the promotion through a related purchase. We...

Research summary: Companies often justify their corporate social initiatives by citing talent management benefits. We examine the extent of, and the reasons for, employee interest in such an initiative in a global management consulting firm. We find a large fraction of employees to be interested...

Free market advocates consider consumer choice unambiguously welfare-enhancing but consumers are often unable to make choices aligned with their well-being, and being disempowered might sometimes drive preference for products with questionable impact. We contribute to this debate on corporate...

The emerging practice of “impact investing” optimizes both financial and social outcomes, and thus promises to support hybrid organizations that simultaneously pursue financial and social goals. We argue, however, that impact investing decisions may be prone to behavioral factors that limit...

Many corporate ESG disclosure regulations rely on private activist pressure to enforce compliance, but relatively little is known about its effectiveness. We present results from a field experiment testing the effect of various types of pressure from a leading human rights NGO on subsequent...

Firms serving base-of-the-pyramid markets often employ community-mediated exchange strategies that build and maintain exchange relationships with customers collectively, through community interactions. Prior research suggests that such strategies may engender positive peer influence that leads...

Research on corporate social responsibility often assumes that the agency for social engagement lies with top management. We extend this perspective by showing how a corporate social initiative can emerge from the bottom up when an employee – even without formal authority – takes on the role...