innovation

Business Stakeholders

Why Both Sides of the ESG Debate Have It Wrong (And How to Get It Right)

There are few topics in business more current, more covered or more controversial than corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) responsibilities. Proponents claim a business’s adoption of such principles yields outcomes that benefit all parties, driving win-win scenarios for internal and external stakeholders alike. But critics dismiss ESG implementation as a performative PR ploy, and argue that considering such non-pecuniary factors in corporate decision-making is unsustainable. Our (independent, nonpartisan) findings indicate both sides of the debate are missing the mark – and in hopes of advancing more productive conversations, we introduce below a research-based model for examining the trade-offs of ESG adoption for businesses large and small.

Future of work

Designing Work for Attracting and Retaining Talent

If companies are going to provide equitable advancement opportunities for remote and hybrid workers, managers must be mindful and leaders must lead, say Jami Stewart of Cisco Systems Inc. and Jes Averhart of Jes & Co., speakers at a recent discussion hosted by the Kenan Institute-affiliated UNC Entrepreneurship Center and the Research Triangle Foundation. Also: A company’s commitment to social impact can be a key to adding and keeping talented young employees.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

A New Approach to DEI, and Why the Time Is Right

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor Al Segars and co-author Anselm Beach have written about their new model for developing diversity, equity and inclusion in an organization, the Values/Principles Model, in the most recent issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review. At a time when recognition of DEI’s benefits has become widespread, their approach gives leaders the tools to create real change that will allow their whole companies to prosper. Learn more by clicking below.

Center for the Business of Healthcare

HBR: How Algorithms Could Improve Primary Care

Health systems have employed online and phone-based triage tools using automated algorithms to quickly determine which COVID-19 patients may need the most attention. Primary care can also be transformed through the broad application of automated algorithms, writes researchers including Bradley Staats, faculty director of the UNC Center for the Business of Health, but this requires building automated clinical processes that are safe and effective.

Equitable Entrepreneurship

The Solo Startup Can Succeed — With Some Help

Don’t believe the myth that a startup with a single founder is bound for trouble. According to a piece in the Harvard Business Review by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professors Chris Bingham and Brad Hendricks, and UC-Irvine Paul Merage School of Business Professor Travis Howell, solo founders succeed with critical assistance from people and organizations who aren’t official co-founders and don’t require substantial equity.

The Surprising Complexities of Measuring ESG

The Surprising Complexities of Measuring ESG

The Kenan Institute’s deep dive into stakeholder capitalism has exposed shortcomings in a key building block: ESG measurement. Our experts have explored the issue at length, proposing ways of refining these measures to produce structures that could meet the needs of multiple stakeholders while also working to design reporting free from political influence and agendas. As a next step, the Kenan Institute hosted a conversation featuring a business leader, investor and standard setter to discuss how we might turn these ideas into solutions to help integrate stakeholder capitalism principals into business and investment decisions.

Starbucks-boomerang-CEOs

Schultz’s Return May Leave Bitter Taste for Starbucks Investors

Howard Schultz began his third stint as Starbucks Corp. CEO on April 4, this time in an interim capacity, and that brings with it reason for concern, says UNC Entrepreneurship Center Faculty Director and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor Chris Bingham. Research by Bingham and colleagues Professor Brad Hendricks and UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business Travis Howell shows that stock performance is about 10% worse under so-called boomerang CEOs than under CEOs taking a position for the first time.

Earth - Climate Change

Can Entrepreneurs Save the Planet?

With a recent report from the United Nations warning that climate change has already begun to cause irreversible damage, experts during the 2022 Kenan Institute Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Conference discussed the role innovation can – and should – be playing to combat these ill effects. This week’s insight explores the topic through Q&A with Dr. Eric Toone, executive managing director and technology lead at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Dr. Jacqueline Pless, the Fred Kayne (1960) Career Development Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan School of Management.

Maryann-Feldman

CREATE’s Feldman Testifies on Technology-Based Economic Development Challenges

CREATE Faculty Director and UNC Public Policy Professor Maryann Feldman recently served as a panelist examining conditions for technology-based economic development. While speaking to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Sept. 29, Feldman cautioned against treating universities as lynchpins in the effort to drive regional innovation—noting reforms are needed to help university technology transfer offices recoup operating costs—and strongly advocated for new financing models to spur economic development in areas lacking venture capital support.

Equitable Entrepreneurship

What COVID-19 Taught Us About Equitable Entrepreneurship

As the pandemic forced shutdowns across the globe, U.S. government entities at the federal, state and local levels worked swiftly to secure known drivers of economic growth and job creation – including entrepreneurial ecosystems and small businesses. And while the programs implemented were widely lauded as successful, the story of who benefitted – and who did not – is more complex. This week’s Kenan Insight explores our experts’ key findings around the roles of policy and implementation in supporting equal access to opportunity.

Supply Chain

Supply Shortages: Here to Stay? The Roles Government and Emerging Tech Should Be Playing

Consumers will long associate the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic with seemingly apocalyptic searches for toilet paper, hand sanitizer and PPE. But even now, amid continued surges of the Delta variant, many global supply chains continue to experience disruptions at record rates. This week’s Kenan Insight invites our experts to weigh in on the immediate impact of these disruptions for business and society, the longer term effects across industries and the roles government and emerging tech should be playing to drive solutions.

Eship Center Eric Happel Fireside Chat
May 24, 2026

Fireside Chat: UNC Entrepreneurship Center — Eric Happel

Each month Launch Chapel Hill and the UNC Entrepreneurship Center host fireside chats with a different theme. These chats showcase a broad range of entrepreneurs at various stages of their venture evolution. Featured entrepreneurs will discuss their journey: the good, the bad and the ugly. The first of the spring series will be on January 27 and will feature Eric Happel, who works on Nike's Global Partners Management and Strategy team. Join us as Eric describes his decision to leave Nike for a startup, his experience building a startup and then his return to Nike with his newfound knowledge and skills.

Bill Spruill Fireside chat Entrepreneurship Center
May 24, 2026

Fireside Chat: UNC Entrepreneurship Center — Bill Spruill

The UNC Entrepreneurship Center will host its fourth and final fireside chat for the fall 2020 semester with Bill Spruill on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Fireside chats are a continuing series of talks hosted by Launch Chapel Hill and The Entrepreneurship Center. These conversations seek to showcase a broad range of entrepreneurs who are making an impact in their field, as well as introduce and connect these people to the Launch Chapel Hill and Triangle community.

Niki & Ritika Shamdasani
May 24, 2026

Fireside Chat: UNC Entrepreneurship Center — Candid Conversations with Niki & Ritika Shamdasani, Founders of Sani

In the Entrepreneurship Center's second chat, they feature the superstar-sister-founder-team: Niki and Ritika Shamdasani of Sani, a South Asian-inspired fashion brand. The sisters launched Sani in 2017 to create the outfits and shopping experience they always wished they could find for cultural clothing. That mission has led to a first-of-its-kind partnership with Rent the Runway, features in Business Insider, NBC and Good Morning America, and a loyal following of 70,000 on TikTok.

Carpe
May 24, 2026

Fireside Chat: UNC Entrepreneurship Center — David Spratte and Kasper Kubica, Founders of Carpe

These conversations seek to showcase a broad range of entrepreneurs who are making an impact in their field, as well as introduce and connect these people to the Launch Chapel Hill and Triangle community. Our first chat highlights Duke-UNC superstar team, Kasper Kubica and David Spratte, co-founders of Carpe -- the first all-over body sweat management brand known for its category-leading hand and foot antiperspirants.

Money and Taxes

Tax Income Shifting

There is growing evidence that many multinational corporations are lowering their tax obligations by engaging in income shifting—moving income from high-tax countries to low-tax countries or tax havens, and shifting deductions from low-tax countries to high-tax countries. By at least one estimate, the result is loss of nearly $100 to $240 billion annually in global tax revenues. In this Kenan Insight, we explore the extent of the problem and what might be done to address it.

Sharecare and the Center for the Business of Health Host Student Competition to Identify Data-driven Solutions for North Carolina Well-Being

Sharecare and the Center for the Business of Health Host Student Competition to Identify Data-driven Solutions for North Carolina Well-Being

Sharecare, the digital health company that helps people manage all their health in one place, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center for the Business of Health announced the results of the North Carolina Well-Being Data Analysis Competition, a student competition designed to drive local insights around well-being in North Carolina.

Can Ed Tech Save Universities?

Can Ed Tech Save Universities?

Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, institutions of higher education were under immense pressure to live up to their value propositions, with underlying tensions that have been developing for years posing an existential threat to their financial viability. As colleges and universities move classes and operations online in response to the pandemic, questions arise as to what such changes hold not just for now, but for the long-term success of higher education. Can ed tech provide a way forward? Find out in this week’s Kenan Insight.

Innovation

Innovation in a Time of Crisis: Entrepreneurs’ Response to COVID-19

Much has been said (and rightly so) about the catastrophic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But there is another side to the crisis. It’s a story of hope, based on collaboration and innovation. As healthcare needs and economic hardships intensify, entrepreneurs around the globe are stepping up to create solutions that will not only address immediate needs, but also effect long-lasting change. A panel of Kenan Institute-convened experts discussed this surge of innovation in response to COVID-19 on April 7, 2020. The full recording of this press briefing–-along with a deeper-dive analysis on the drivers of innovation amid the crisis by UNC Kenan-Flagler Professors Mahka Moeen and Chris Bingham-–is available in this week’s Kenan Insight.

Inaugural Software Growth & Investment Symposium: Funding the Triangle’s Burgeoning Tech Ecosystem

Inaugural Software Growth & Investment Symposium: Funding the Triangle’s Burgeoning Tech Ecosystem

In partnership with Vista Equity Partners, NCIF hosted the inaugural Software Growth & Investment Symposium on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. The event brought together members of the Triangle’s burgeoning tech ecosystem to learn from leading software executives and their investors about proven approaches to scaling from $10 million to $100 million annual recurring revenue.

Institute Insights Increased Use of Predictive Analytics Is Re-Shaping the Factory Floor Eva Labro

Institute Insights: Increased Use of Predictive Analytics Is Re-Shaping the Factory Floor

The growing use of predictive analytics to analyze manufacturing plant data has increased factory efficiency while re-shaping the employment relationship among both managers and factory floor employees, according to a new study from Eva Labro, Professor of Management Accounting, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School; Mark Lang, Professor of Accounting, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School; and Jim Omartian, Assistant Professor of Accounting, University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.