MIT Sloan Management Review

Japan’s economy has been in the doldrums for so long that many Japanese seem to have adopted a resigned attitude ofSho ga nai (“That’s life”) toward it. But Japan, of course, can become competitive again, provided its political and corporate leaders take on four difficult but essential tasks.
The first task is to instill a commitment [...]

Most people accept that innovating involves risk. If a gene therapy patient dies, regulators stiffen controls, but they don’t make gene therapy impossible. Similarly, the United States must apply balance in addressing business scandals. Corporate governance problems call for safeguards, but not to the point of hobbling risk taking and economic growth. As dangerous as [...]

Does the belief that a manager‘s overriding duty is to maximize shareholder returns encourage socially destructive actions by corporations? Employing economic, legal and behavioral analyses, the author concludes that, although the shareholder theory is often inaccurately maligned, stakeholder theory may be more conducive to curbing the kind of impropriety seen at Enron and Global Crossing.

I am shocked,shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” The disingenuousness of Captain Renault’s outrage in the movieCasablanca isn’t lost on the audience, who know that Renault knows exactly what has been going on in Rick’s Café. It’s only after being pressured to shut down the establishment that Renault feigns shock.
As the [...]

In light of recent corporate scandals, businesses struggle to reconcile increased regulation with corporate strategic goals. To succeed, companies must understand the games business and government play and the roles of each in making and enforcing the rules while developing hybrid strategies to shape the rules. The author identifies two major types of games, believing that the most effective businesses combine different approaches from each, which in turn helps to shape how governments regulate future corporate activity.

Companies that actively manage a wide range of sustainability indicators are better able to create long-term value for all stakeholders.

You are on a crowded elevator standing next to a couple of executives from a company with offices on the floor just above yours. They are talking in low tones about a surprise announcement coming the next day. Their firm, AGA Software, is being sold to a big, famous technology company! “My options are going [...]

President Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security confirmed what thoughtful analysts have known for years: Without substantial reforms, Social Security will not be able to pay the benefits promised to U.S. citizens — at least not without a substantial increase in Social Security taxes, which, of course, would hinder the ability of U.S. businesses and [...]

For the past two decades, business leaders have focused exclusively on shareholder value. In a time of terrorism and corporate scandal, a much broader vision is imperative, as Yale School of Management Dean Jeffrey E. Garten explains.

In this article, the authors make the case that corporate misdeeds are symptoms of a syndrome of selfishness that has taken hold of our business institutions, our societies and our minds. Drawing on history, literature, philosophy and management thinking, they argue that the syndrome is built on a series of half-truths — or fabrications — each of which has driven a debilitating wedge into society.