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Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2009

MARKET REBELS: How Activists Make or Break Radical Innovations by Havagreeva Rao  Review by Carl Schramm

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2009

Unethical behavior remains a persistent problem in nonprofits and for-profits alike. To help organizations solve that problem, the authors examine the factors that influence moral conduct, the ethical issues that arise specifically in charitable organizations, and the best ways to promote ethical behavior within organizations. —By Deborah L. Rhode & Amanda K. Packel

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2009

Manchester Bidwell Corporation replicates by adapting general strategies to local cultures. —By Suzie Boss

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2009

Tweeters come together for spontaneous gatherings of like-minded philanthropists.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Rosetta Thurman, author of Perspectives from the Pipeline blog, interviews Samuel Isaac Richard, an emerging, young, nonprofit leader based in Phoenix.  She shares his insights on the next generation's ability to implement social change. 

Resource: Blog Post
[photo - Myra Strober]

We've made progress, says economist Myra Strober, but the system and potential role models still sometimes fail us.

Resource: News Article

Short psychological interventions can change preconceptions, altering how people interact with their world. Effects are potent, cumulative and long lasting. Recent Stanford research reveals the benefits of brief interventions in both aggressive teens and antagonistic spouses.

Resource: News Article
[photo - Time]

In this quarter’s column, we explore giving the gift of our time to others. It’s a fact that most Americans are feeling more time-constrained than ever. With waking hours largely consumed by work, precious minutes remain for the daily list of to-dos, including exercise, cleaning, and socializing with friends and family. For some, time has become an even more valuable resource than money.

Resource: News Article
[photo - Ethical Behavior]

New research shows how subtle changes in language can lead to more ethical behavior.

Resource: News Article
[photo - Gift Giving]

In this quarter’s column, we look at a common gift-giving practice: giving away a present you don’t really want. “Regifting” is generally regarded as a taboo, but is this practice really as offensive to the original giver as people think? And is there a way to shift cultural norms so as to promote this sort of gift recycling and reduce the trashing of perfectly good items?

Resource: News Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Winter 2009

Rockers go green. 

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2008

The violence, noise, and crowding of poor neighborhoods stress kids and parents, bringing out their bad sides and breeding psychopathology.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2008

LaserMonks, a multimillion-dollar enterprise, sells ink-jet cartridges and other office supplies online to support its Cistercian abbey in Wisconsin and to help others, also. —By Suzie Boss

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2008

Charismatic people spread happiness and well-being.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2008

Just do it—later.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

How nonprofits can recruit more minorities.

Resource: Blog Post

How to sort through the world of social media.

Resource: Blog Post

Creative directors can sometimes muck up marketing messages.

Resource: Blog Post

A new study says arts education should be expanded.

Resource: Blog Post

Social media innovators are intrigued by the idea of spare-time, mobile volunteering.

Resource: Blog Post
Video/Audio : All | Audio | Video

How do we get individuals to practice healthier habits and influence positive behavior change? The "Behavior Wizard" offers technology-based solutions in this audio lecture from the 2011 Stanford Graduate School of Business Healthcare Summit. B.J. Fogg, Director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, bring his insights from the tech world. In decades studying how computers and mobile apps can be used to bring about behavior change, Fogg found new applications for the health sector in promoting positive habits.

Resource: Audio
[photo - Challenges and Opportunities of Nationality]

Social enterprise can both ease the terrible consequences of the insularity inherent in nationalism, and enhance the positive opportunities for social change within established heritage and cultural traditions. In this panel discussion, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, experts consider topics ranging from multiculturalism within countries to cross-national and international cultural challenges and opportunities.

Resource: Audio

Technology has increased the flow of information and made our decision-making more transparent. In this panel discussion on empathy and ethics, Bill Drayton, Mary Gordon, Keith Hammonds, Kirk Hanson, and Jill Vialet consider how empathetic ethics has to begin with individuals and can only then move into the organizations we lead and the societies we serve.

Resource: Audio
[photo - Professor in Economics]

At what stage in life do innovators make their most significant contributions to social enterprise? In this audio lecture, economist and creativity researcher David Galenson debunks the myth that high achievement is the domain of youth and genius for an audience of social entrepreneurs over the age of 60. Applying lessons learned from lives of artists and leaders, he considers differences in style and time horizons of creative people, emphasizing that social innovation is more about slow burn than flash in the pan.

Resource: Audio

The question of what to eat to be healthy has spawned a rash of often contradictory advice by "experts." In this audio lecture, sponsored by the Stanford Ethics and Society Program, NYU professor and author Marion Nestle offers simple advice that cuts through the confusion. She highlights the difference between "nutrients" and "food," and suggests how to bring "nutrition" back into the food realm. Her discussion forays into how agriculture and business interact to produce the foodstuffs on our shelves.

Resource: Audio
[Video-Cory Booker's 2012 Commencement Address]

Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, challenges Stanford graduates to be courageous, never lose faith and always work together during Stanford's 121st Commencement. He extolls lessons from his own father and grandfather through stories of hardship, hope, and humor. Booker encourages graduates to find and join their own "conspiracy of love" -- people who will help lift them up in times of need, provide a community and challenge them to go beyond what they think is possible.

Resource: Video
[Video-The Effectiveness of Message Framing to Influence Behavior]

Most observers agree that human consumption is on a crash course with the environment. Although recycling programs have been implemented in many cities around the world, people often do not participate as often as they could. This research examines the effectiveness of messages that highlight the negative consequences of not recycling (loss frames) versus those that emphasize the positive consequences of recycling (gain frames) in influencing people's behavior.

Resource: Video
[Video-Using People's Irrationality To Do Good]

Identifying effective obesity treatment is both a clinical challenge and a public health priority. Can monetary incentives stimulate weight loss? Leslie John presents a study that examines different economic incentives for weight loss during a 16 week intervention.

Resource: Video
[Video-Cory Booker's 2012 Commencement Address]

Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, challenges Stanford graduates to be courageous, never lose faith and always work together during Stanford's 121st Commencement. He extolls lessons from his own father and grandfather through stories of hardship, hope, and humor. Booker encourages graduates to find and join their own "conspiracy of love" -- people who will help lift them up in times of need, provide a community and challenge them to go beyond what they think is possible.

Resource: Video
[Video-The Effectiveness of Message Framing to Influence Behavior]

Most observers agree that human consumption is on a crash course with the environment. Although recycling programs have been implemented in many cities around the world, people often do not participate as often as they could. This research examines the effectiveness of messages that highlight the negative consequences of not recycling (loss frames) versus those that emphasize the positive consequences of recycling (gain frames) in influencing people's behavior.

Resource: Video
[Video-Using People's Irrationality To Do Good]

Identifying effective obesity treatment is both a clinical challenge and a public health priority. Can monetary incentives stimulate weight loss? Leslie John presents a study that examines different economic incentives for weight loss during a 16 week intervention.

Resource: Video

How do we get individuals to practice healthier habits and influence positive behavior change? The "Behavior Wizard" offers technology-based solutions in this audio lecture from the 2011 Stanford Graduate School of Business Healthcare Summit. B.J. Fogg, Director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, bring his insights from the tech world. In decades studying how computers and mobile apps can be used to bring about behavior change, Fogg found new applications for the health sector in promoting positive habits.

Resource: Audio
[photo - Challenges and Opportunities of Nationality]

Social enterprise can both ease the terrible consequences of the insularity inherent in nationalism, and enhance the positive opportunities for social change within established heritage and cultural traditions. In this panel discussion, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, experts consider topics ranging from multiculturalism within countries to cross-national and international cultural challenges and opportunities.

Resource: Audio
Case Studies : All | Academic Cases
No Results Found
Multimedia Case
[photo - James A. Phills]

Circus Oz, Australia’s premier, international circus, was exploring offering the new development officer position a higher-than-normal salary. The case and its companion videocase cover the organization’s dilemmas around this, and the situation’s resolution.

Resource: Academic Case
Multimedia Case

Innermotion dance company presents performances based on themes related to incest and childhood sexual abuse. This video explores how the founder must reexamine her focus and priorities when faced with the loss of a major grant.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - George Foster]

Visa’s executive vice president of international marketing, partnerships, and sponsorship played a key role in convincing Visa’s six regional boards and its international board to allow Visa to extend its Olympics and Paralympics sponsorship. His team planned to discuss the current corporate strategy and use it to refine the existing sponsorship strategy.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - James A. Phills]

By the close of 2001, theatres in Seattle were experiencing box office slumps. The vibrant theatre industry faced monumental challenges to remaining both critically acclaimed and financially sound.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - James A. Phills]

The directors of the American Repertory Theatre face major government cuts in funding. How can they best identify new sources of income?

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - William F. Meehan III]

From 1999 to 2003, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival completed a huge capital campaign. The case gives an in-depth examination of the organization’s planning process for this campaign.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - William F. Meehan III]

By the end of 1993, the San Francisco Symphony faced a shift in its financial fortunes, with forecasts predicting annual budget shortfalls. The executive committee must develop a strategy for the symphony that balances its financial needs and its artistic commitments and aspirations.

Resource: Academic Case

Bay Area Video Coalition, a nonprofit media services organization, has behaved like a high-tech business. Now it faces unique challenges and opportunities that are common to both nonprofit and for-profit businesses.

Resource: Academic Case

The executive director of a teen arts and entrepreneurship training program in Boston, Artists for Humanity, weighs issues of expansion, staff turnover, and fundraising. The organization’s challenges reflect those facing many small nonprofits, particularly those with an entrepreneurial arm.

Resource: Academic Case
Multimedia Case
[photo - James A. Phills]

Circus Oz, Australia’s premier, international circus, was exploring offering the new development officer position a higher-than-normal salary. The case and its companion videocase cover the organization’s dilemmas around this, and the situation’s resolution.

Resource: Academic Case
Multimedia Case

Innermotion dance company presents performances based on themes related to incest and childhood sexual abuse. This video explores how the founder must reexamine her focus and priorities when faced with the loss of a major grant.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - George Foster]

Visa’s executive vice president of international marketing, partnerships, and sponsorship played a key role in convincing Visa’s six regional boards and its international board to allow Visa to extend its Olympics and Paralympics sponsorship. His team planned to discuss the current corporate strategy and use it to refine the existing sponsorship strategy.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - James A. Phills]

By the close of 2001, theatres in Seattle were experiencing box office slumps. The vibrant theatre industry faced monumental challenges to remaining both critically acclaimed and financially sound.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - James A. Phills]

The directors of the American Repertory Theatre face major government cuts in funding. How can they best identify new sources of income?

Resource: Academic Case
Research Papers : All
[photo - Ask for help]

How can a certain kind of behavior actually contributes to inequalities? Specifically, do children’s social-class backgrounds affect when and how they seek help in the classroom, thereby teasing out children’s own role in educational stratification? We consider how teachers may use such information to correct these dynamics, and thus contribute to more equal access for all children at school.

Resource: Research Paper

Crew members on an offshore oil rig toned down their bluster and macho behavior as an unexpected side effect of an initiative to cut down on-the-job injuries. The case study, coauthored by Debra Meyerson of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, could present a model for minimizing the effects of gender in other work settings.

Resource: Research Paper

A brief intervention aimed at buttressing college freshmen's sense of social belonging in school was tested in a randomized controlled trial, and its academic and health-related consequences over 3 years are reported. The intervention aimed to lessen psychological perceptions of threat on campus by framing social adversity as common and transient.

Resource: Research Paper

What happens when restaurants are required to post calorie counts alongside food and beverage offerings? Average calories per transaction falls by 6 percent, researchers find.

Resource: Research Paper
[photo - Photo: Pencil Writing "Help!"]

Vanessa Bohns and Francis Flynn demonstrate that people in a position to provide help tend to underestimate the role that embarrassment plays in decisions about whether or not to ask for help. As a result, potential helpers overestimate the likelihood that people will ask for help and misjudge the most effective means of encouraging help-seeking behavior.

Resource: Research Paper
Courses : All
[photo - Roderick Kramer]

This course examines the lives of individuals who have contributed greatly to society, either through business, politics, arts and entertainment, or other pursuits. We take a close look, for example, at the "paths to prominence" of individuals such as Steve Jobs, Condi Rice, George Lucas, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King.

Resource: MBA Course
Innovators : All

Dave DeForest-Stalls wants to help kids stay out of gangs. He's providing mentorship and hip ways to keep youth on the straight and narrow.

Resource: CSI Affiliates

Ruth Bolan is giving voice to indigenous peoples of the Pacific Island. She funds documentaries that bring their culture and challenges to millions of viewers.

Resource: CSI Affiliates
[photo - Peter Hero]

Peter Hero has been helping philanthropists make a social impact for two decades. He's now inspiring students to get involved in social entrepreneurship.

Resource: Alumni
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Winter 2010

Kickstarter invites people with good ideas to post videos and other media to tell their own stories.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2009

The fine arts in America are on a perilous path. Attendance at opera, theater, jazz, symphony, and ballet performances has dropped precipitously in recent decades. Just as worrisome, the median age of people attending these events has increased dramatically. If the fine arts are to survive as a living, creative, and significant force in American life, arts institutions need to radically recreate themselves.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Dave DeForest-Stalls wants to help kids stay out of gangs. He's providing mentorship and hip ways to keep youth on the straight and narrow.

Resource: CSI Affiliates
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2009

How a Jewish charity is responding to one of the biggest scams in history.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2009

“The question everyone asked was, ‘Why did those crazy people choose to stay?’"

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Corner