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Business and Society Program

Articles

Most of our papers and reports can be downloaded in PDF format free of charge. If you would like to obtain printed copies, please contact us at info@aspenbsp.org. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required for reading PDF files. It can be downloaded, free of charge, by clicking here.

These papers and a wealth of other interesting cases, papers and teaching materials on Social Impact Management are also available from CasePlace.org.

  • Are Executives Paid Too Much? (February 25, 2009)
    In this Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Executive Director Judith Samuelson and UCLA Professor Lynn Stout use compensation as a starting point to address the fundamental problem of short-termism in the U.S. economy. 
  • Operating and Investing for the Long-Term: Best Practices in Communications, Guidance and Incentive Structures (November 2008) In September, Aspen BSP co-sponsored a symposium on Best Practices in Earnings Guidance and Communications, hosted at Bloomberg L.P.'s New York headquarters. This document summarizes the sponsoring organizations' shared stance in recommending investor communication strategies and incentive structures that both reflect and encourage management and investment for the long-term.
  • The Aspen Principles: A Better Way Forward (Summer 2008)
    In this Directors & Boards cover story, Executive Director Judith Samuelson explores the genesis of the Aspen Principles, when a "critical mass of 'strange bedfellows' came up with a plan in 2007 to reverse the destructive pull of short-termism on U.S. business."
  • Green Stakeholders: Pesky Activists or Productive Allies? (March 19 - April 1, 2008) In this Harvard Business Review blog series, "HBR Green: A Discussion about Leadership and the Environment," Executive Director Judith Samuelson lends her expertise to explore the turbulent relationships between companies and NGOs in their path to solving complex environmental problems.
  • Aspen Principles for Long-Term Value Creation (June 2007)
    The Aspen Principles offer guidelines for long-term value creation for both operating companies and institutional investors. The Principles were created in dialogue with CVSG members who--as leaders in both investment and business--sought to identify common ground from many sources, including the Business Roundtable, Council of Institutional Investors, CalPERS, CED, TIAA-CREF and others.
  • The New Rigor: Beyond the Right Answer (Sept 2006)
    The old decision rules of business, which equate profit or share price maximation with corporate purpose, are fast expiring in today's complex business world. In this Academy of Management Learning & Education article, Judith Samuelson looks beyond the financial bottom line to consider new attitudes necessary for successful and sustainable business.  
  • The HBR List: Breakthrough Ideas for 2006 (Feb 2006)
    In the sixth annual Harvard Business School List, Judith Samuelson and Claire Preisser propose Idea #17: That a special set of "vanguard companies" are the key to decisively shifting the short-term biases of today's business world to a longer-term orientation for good.
  • Put Your Values to Work (Jan 2006)
    What differentiates an abstract value statement from a dedicated business plan in corporate decisionmaking?  Co-authored by Nancy McGaw, this article from the Harvard Management Update, a newsletter of Harvard Business School Publishing, recommends ten action steps for meaningfully integrating corporate value into everyday management practice.
  • Keynote Address to the AACSB International Deans, February 10, 2003: The State of Affairs for Management Education and Social Responsibility (Dec 2005)
    Reprinted by the Academy of Management Learning & Education, this speech by Mary Gentile and Judith Samuelson asks how management education can respond effectively to the challenges facing business today, and actually become part of the solution rather than merely a critical bystander. 
  • Get Aggressive About Passivity (Nov 2005)
    If managers always acted on their values, heroic whistle-blowing might never be required. But, research shows, people don't think that doing the right thing is part of their jobs. Co-authored by Judith Samuelson and Mary Gentile, this Harvard Business Review article features BSP's brand-new curriculum project, Giving Voice to Values.
  • Developing Leaders for a Sustainable Global Society (Sept/Oct 2005)
    Asking business leaders to make decisions that produce superior financials and simultaneously contribute to social progress and protect environmental quality is a tall order. Nancy McGaw shares the results of BSP's research into leadership development with representatives from firms around the world.
  • Training Managers for the Future (Feb 2005)
    In the wake of corporate scandels, this article by Mary Gentile explores the challenges of corporate governance that need to be addressed in order to re-train business's managers and leaders. Originally published in the February 2005 issue of E Journal USA, a publication of the U.S. Department of State.
  • The Voice of the Stakeholder: Is Sustainability Sustainable? Twelve works argue there is value in "corporate values." (Fall 2003)
    This article, co-authored by Judith Samuelson, published in Booz Allen Hamilton's strategy+business, examines 12 books which discuss and argue for sustainable enterprise. The authors review the challenges shared by corporate executives, shareholders and stakeholders in implementing sustainable policies and overall corporate social responsibility.