Each month, the MIT SMR Strategy Forum poses a single question to our panel of experts in the fields of business, economics, and management. This month’s question asks our panel whether industry self-regulation can help mitigate climate change.

Each month, the MIT SMR Strategy Forum poses a single question to our panel of experts in the fields of business, economics, and management. This month’s question asks our panel to offer opinions on who suffers most in a trade war — businesses or consumers — and why.

Companies with rigorous compliance programs hope such programs will curtail employee wrongdoing. But to prevent employee misconduct, companies also need to understand how employees reach unethical decisions — and what affects their decision-making processes.

With tough new EU regulations on data security coming in 2018, global companies will soon be faced with a choice: Protect consumers’ data and reap the rewards of having access to it, or face the competitive consequences of consumer distrust. But companies caught unprepared for the change may lose the privilege of keeping consumers’ data altogether.

Business needs to show leadership in sustainability as it never has before. As regulations and guidelines loosen, some organizations may give in to the temptation to let profit motives soften their own environmental policies. To do so would be shortsighted — and not only for the most obvious reasons.

Integrating sustainability into company operations often means partnering with government agencies as well as nonprofits. For new businesses, two important points to keep in mind are that (1) it’s never too early to start, and (2) the collaborative approaches for each partnership may not be the same.

What’s happening this week at the intersection of management and technology: Redefining the tech industry; how to make more inclusive decisions fast; four tips for looking good on video calls.

Companies aiming to be competitive in the long term do not see safety and productivity as trade-offs. Research drawn from multiple studies conducted with the support of companies, unions, and regulators in the United States and Canada finds no evidence that protecting the workforce harms competitiveness. “Once companies understand that safety is not the enemy of efficiency,” the authors write, “they can begin to build organizational safety capabilities.”

Managers in some leading companies have pioneered a new approach to sustainability. In this approach, businesses have the potential to be rule makers as well as players in establishing environmental regulations. “There is an expression in Washington,” says DuPont’s Michael Parr, “that it is better to be at the table than on the menu.” Indeed, by engaging with government on the structure of the phaseout of air conditioning chemicals, DuPont helped bring an end to one profitable product life cycle and spawn another.

When can a CEO’s Facebook post get his or her company in trouble? The SEC is investigating whether a Facebook post by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings violated its Fair Disclosure Regulation.

The global financial crisis that occurred in 2008 can be viewed as a systems accident that was fueled, in part, by innovations in the financial sector.

Many corporate boards adopt a “one size fits all” approach to governance. Instead, they should consider fulfilling the role most needed at any given time.

U.S. prosecutors are imposing giant fines and imprisoning managers when regulatory compliance problems arise. Know how to protect your company and yourself when a legal crisis hits.

What has led to the development of Japan’s particular method of subcontracting? Theories that have attempted to explain Japanese subcontracting have critical shortcomings. A combination of political, economic, technological, and strategic factors has resulted in subcontracting’s growth and survival.