Is Business Broken? Podcast

Faculty Lead: Marcel Rindisbacher

These days, it’s hard to ignore the debate over the role business should play in society.

The terms greenwashing, tech monopolies, and corporate greed seem ubiquitous. But on the other hand, maybe business could actually help solve some of today’s biggest problems?

The Is Business Broken? podcast features conversations with academics, industry leaders, and politicians that ask the thorny questions necessary for this moment and help us navigate real world solutions.

Currently Available Podcast Episodes
(all hosted by Curt Nickish):

1. Is Business Broken? (Susan Fournier)
2. Promises and Perils of the ESG Movement (Andy King, Witold Henisz)
3. Revisiting ESG: How did we get here? (Eddie Riedl, John Streur)
4. What Are Today’s Business Leaders Saying About ESG? (Peter Fox-Penner, Mindy Lubber)
5. The Future of ESG: Where Do We Go From Here? (Bob Eccles, Madison Condon)

Coming Fall 2024, we’ll explore questions of financing gene and cell therapy, and potential market solutions to reducing social media misinformation.

Issue360: GEN-AI Discussion Platform​

Faculty Lead(s): Paul Carlile, Paul McManus

Through this simulated civil discourse and debate, future business leaders will enhance their understanding of the tradeoffs they face within the context of addressing societal grand challenges. For example, meeting current clean energy goals will require coordination between government regulators, financiers, old and new technology companies, and public interest groups. In this simulation experience, participants will quickly learn about the challenges of their assigned role by harnessing the power of Gen-AI tools. The experience will be structured to expose the nuances of the playing field in a format that can be reused in multiple scenarios (e.g. education goals, health goals).  ​

SENDEX (Business Sentiment Indices)

Faculty Lead: Shuba Srinivasan, DK Lee, Sami Karaca, Jay Zagorsky

This initiative aims to build a new asset for evaluating public sentiment towards business. Unlike prior work built upon survey data, this team will leverage Large Language Models (LLMs) and public news and media sources to perform an aspect-based sentiment analysis regarding the perception of business. Various sentiment indices will be used to infer changes in public opinion over time, geography, and stakeholder. 

This project explores the question: What are the drivers of business sentiment? while also developing a novel aggregate sentiment index from disaggregated indices and exploring how to correct for possible media biases.

Corporate Impact Measurement

Faculty Lead: Nalin Kulatilaka, Eddie Riedl, Susan Murphy

By integrating Environmental, Social, and Governance factors into their strategies, more and more companies are seeking to foster long-term value while having positive societal impacts. Investors use ESG data to better understand financial value and risk factors that may not be reflected in traditional financial disclosures. Through a portfolio of projects, this ongoing research program explores ways to improve ESG practices from disclosure standards to how investors use the data.

Research Questions:

1. What is the risk associated with corporate carbon emissions targets?
2. How do today’s ESG risk disclosures compare with SASB recommendations?
3. Can we measure shareholder preference regarding environmental trade-offs?
4. Why does the impact of green investing on polluting firms’ costs of capital appear to be limited?
5. Can we predict when a sociopolitical issue will blow up a brand?

Paying for progress: ensuring financial access to life science innovations

Faculty Lead: Rena Conti, Iain Cockburn

Gene and Cell Therapies (GCTs) are one of the most exciting biomedical advances of our time. The result of decades of public investment in fundamental science and private investment in development, these remarkable innovations are offering cures for previously untreatable diseases. But with price tags starting at $1 million per patient, GCTs present a major challenge to our system of financing health care. Can we sustain progress in bringing innovative therapies to market while making the results of these efforts accessible to all who need them? We will bring together experts and thought leaders from industry, government, and academia to discuss opportunities for novel collaborative solutions to navigate the challenges ahead.

Research Questions:

1. How can we adapt our successful business-government R&D partnership model to guarantee affordable drug prices for new cell or gene therapy treatments?
2. Are there alternatives to traditional funding models for R&D research that improve patient access?

The funding model for social media platforms and Section 230

Faculty Lead: Marshall Van Alstyne

Misinformation is a widespread problem on social media. Under the current “section 230” regulation, companies are not held responsible for the content shared on their platforms. This research will explore the advertisement funding model of internet platforms and develop market solutions to reduce misinformation.

Research Questions:

• How does the funding model of social media platforms have to evolve to tackle misinformation? 
• What is the best way to reform the advertisement funding model - Section 230 regulatory reform or purely market solutions? Or a combination? 
• How should platforms be regulated?