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This case tells the story of Bank of America, a single cog in the financial machine that survived a major crisis in 2008, though its repercussions continue to be felt in the industry and in the global economy more generally. The mechanics of the financial crisis are examined as well as the part played by Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. While seemingly better positioned than its competitors and able to acquire Merrill Lynch, Bank of America leaders engaged in a number of questionable practices that brought it under ethical and then legal scrutiny.

As part of an effort to radically transform the company, Wal-Mart's leaders undertake a number of sustainability initiatives, in particular the creation of a sustainable products index. If successful, the index will enable consumers to gauge the environmental impact of the products they decide to buy.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Charges of labor rights abuses and environmental harm are common for major brands that source from global supply chains. However, brand attempts to police supply chains to enforce company standards seldom serve as an effective long-term solution. Frustrated with the limitations of a typical compliance-oriented approach and after committing significant human and financial resources with senior management buy-in, apparel retailer Gap Inc. undertook a strategy of stakeholder engagement. Stakeholder theory suggests that such an approach should be more effective in fulfilling corporate social responsibility and other business goals than focusing on compliance, but many companies continue to focus on policing supply chain labor and environmental standards. Gap's successful experiment with stakeholder engagement confirmed academic intuition about the value of stakeholder engagement. For Gap, the transition to a strategy of stakeholder engagement helped build its image as a caring company and improve outcomes for subcontractor employees after labor violations were discovered. After just a few years of this practice, Gap succeeded in both further improving the working conditions of its contractors' employees and reducing the company's status as a target for anti-globalization protesters and other activists. Gap's long supply chain is not uncommon, nor is the challenge of monitoring the social performance of thousands of subcontractors. Proactive stakeholder engagement can help avert problems in the supply chain (and elsewhere); solve problems sooner when they do appear; and enhance the company's credibility and effectiveness through partnerships with labor, environmental activists, and the broader public.

In January 2008, Société Générale, revealed that trader Jerome Kerviel had exposed the bank to 50 billion euros in apparently unhedged and unauthorized trades, resulting in 4.9 billion euros of losses when his positions were unwound. This case provides an opportunity to explore the motivations underlying Kerviel's conduct and the failure of the bank's internal controls, as well as other organizational and sociological factors in this incident and the broader 2008 financial crisis.

In 2003, Unilever and Oxfam embarked on a groundbreaking "learning project" designed to better understand the impacts of business on poverty. Developing countries were seen as an essential component of Unilever's corporate strategy, with developing and emerging markets forecast to account for 90% of the world's population by 2010. Unilever had long been present in many of these markets and was increasingly aware that its future growth would depend upon its ability to address issues of social and economic development in developing countries, including poverty. Oxfam, one of the world's most prominent nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), was focused in its campaigning and other activities on the alleviation of poverty. Thus, despite the often adversarial relationship between corporations and NGOs, the two organisations shared a common interest which formed the basis for their collaboration. The goal was to examine the role of business in poverty reduction, specifically by studying Unilever's operations in Indonesia. Case A describes how this collaboration came about and provides background on Unilever, Unilever Indonesia (UI), and Oxfam, including its campaigns against the pharmaceutical and coffee industries. It also examines the role of NGOs, the challenge of tackling poverty in developing countries, the Millennium Development Goals, and the UN Global Compact. The case ithe difficulties inherent in better understanding the role of MNCs in poverty alleviation as well as in forging effective collaboration between corporations and NGOs.

Most consumers who comprise "the bottom of the pyramid" reside in hundreds of thousands of villages located beyond most multinationals' distribution networks. Their access to essential goods is limited not just by high prices, but also by inadequate rural distribution, which also restricts the ability of poor producers to distribute their products. The term "socially responsible distribution" describes initiatives that provide poor producers and consumers with market access for goods and services that they can benefit from by either buying or selling, thus neutralizing the disadvantages they suffer due to inadequate physical links to markets, information asymmetries, and weak bargaining power. This article identifies how socially responsible distribution can be achieved by strategies that reduce costs, reinvent the distribution channel, or incorporate a long-term approach to investment. It offers guidelines for setting up distribution channels that integrate the rural bottom of the pyramid and identifies the payoffs from adopting them.

Corporate social responsibility has major implications for pricing decisions in some markets. An extreme case is the pricing of life-saving drugs in developing countries; industry critics have pointed to price as an obstacle to treatment and a factor in the deaths of millions of AIDS victims. Examines socially responsible pricing in the form of differential pricing across markets, taking into account ability to pay and social welfare. An analysis of AIDS drug pricing between 1999 and 2003 suggests that, in fact, the high prices of AIDS drugs in developing countries suboptimized contribution earnings in those markets. In the 1990s, multinationals could have earned greater contribution in developing countries by reducing prices, while also saving thousands of lives. However, that could have jeopardized earnings in developed countries, and this, together with other factors, created barriers to socially responsible pricing. Neither multinationals nor developing country governments can alone create conditions for socially responsible pricing to prevail. Identifies the role of different players in addressing barriers to socially responsible pricing, including multinationals, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and multilateral institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization. Also offers lessons for managers in industries with characteristics similar to the drug industry, where socially responsible pricing also may be needed, if not demanded.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not a new idea. However, CSR has never been more prominent on the corporate agenda than it is today. Examines the pressure for increased corporate attention to CSR and whether it is warranted and likely to be sustained. Differentiates between the business case for CSR and the normative case and concludes that individual firms must assess the extent to which the general business case for CSR applies to their specific circumstances. For some firms, CSR may be a major influence on corporate strategy.

Product recalls can destroy brands and even companies. But according to the authors, if a company handles recalls strategically, it can decrease the negative impact and maybe even reap some benefits. The authors maintain that a strategic approach to recalls should address the implications of a recall for all relevant business functions and should deal with all stages of a recall, from readiness before the fact to product reintroduction after a recall has ended. The authors offer step-by-step guidelines on handling recalls effectively. With forethought and planning, the authors assert, unavoidable recalls can have long-term favorable outcomes.

Forced to explain why businesses should continue to give money away while laying off workers, contributions managers in hundreds of companies have come up with an approach that ties corporate giving directly to strategy. In those companies, philanthropic and business units have joined forces to develop philanthropic strategies that give their companies a powerful competitive edge. The new corporate philanthropy encourages companies to play a leadership role in social problem solving by funding initiatives that incorporate the best thinking of governments and nonprofit institutions. The new approach to philanthropy is best illustrated by the AT&T Foundation, which has set up a dynamic relationship with the company's business units to support social causes while advancing AT&T's business goals.

A condensed version of Suzuki Samurai: The Rollover Crisis. Suzuki management must plan a response to a Consumers Union demand for a recall of the Samurai on grounds of its unacceptable propensity to roll over.

In 1989, PepsiCo withdrew an advertising campaign featuring Madonna following complaints from religious groups regarding the content of a Madonna video.

Describes the highly successful recall of the Black & Decker Spacemaker Plus Coffeemaker. Objectives include: 1) factors in product recall effectiveness and success, 2) the use of direct marketing in product recall, 3) the role of public relations in product recall, and 4) impact of product recalls on product brands.

A fire is reported in a Black & Decker Spacemaker Plus Coffeemaker. This newly introduced product is a "Key Introduction" for Black & Decker's Household Product Group (HPG). HPG's president has to decide whether the product should be recalled and, if so, how the recall should be implemented. Teaching objectives include: 1) managing a product recall, 2) ethical considerations in product safety and product recalls, and 3) the meaning of customer care.

Describes the role of state lotteries, lottery marketing, and the operation of the Massachusetts State Lottery, including reference to Massachusetts lottery advertising. Highlights the success of state lotteries while also noting growing criticism, particularly of their advertising. Teaching objectives: To consider 1) truth in advertising, 2) the ethics of marketing gambling, and 3) the marketing/public policy interface.

Examines the decision by Pharma International on whether to launch an antimalarial product in Nigeria and, if so, how that should be implemented. Involves commercial, ethical, and policy considerations. Rich in situation assessment data, the case refers to criticism of pharmaceutical marketing practices in the Third World and CIBA-GEIGY's Servipharm initiative, one response to this problem.

Teaching objectives: 1) to show how aggressive marketing can lead to allegations of misconduct, 2) to consider responses under crisis management, and 3) to explore the importance of credibility within marketing communications.

Teaching objectives: 1) to consider legal and other obligations advertising agencies owe to their clients, 2) to show how aggressive marketing can lead to allegations of misconduct, 3) to explore conflicts of interest which may arise for professional service companies in marketing their expertise to more than one company within another industry, and 4) to consider the responsibilities of a corporation taking legal action against another.

Rossin Greenberg Seronick & Hill (RGSH), a New England advertising agency, was keen to secure the account of Microsoft Corp. The case describes the bid for the account, which included the submission of a "flier" referring to knowledge of a competitor's plans, as a result of hiring two new creative people who had worked on the account of Lotus Development Corp. at another agency. Teaching objectives: 1) to examine how agencies bid for advertising accounts, 2) to consider how companies review agencies, and 3) to show how aggressive marketing may lead to allegations of misconduct.