Adrian Lam

We estimate the supply-side effects of climate change on firm sales by exploiting variation in local average temperature across suppliers of the same client. A 1°C increase in temperature leads to a 2.5% decline in annual sales. This effect is nonlinear, with stronger effects among suppliers in regions with the largest temperature increases and in cooler regions. Manufacturing and heat-sensitive industries are more affected, consistent with a reduction in labor productivity and labor supply when local temperatures rise. Nondiversified and financially constrained firms are also more affected, supporting the importance of operational and financial flexibility in adapting to climate change.

The accelerating convergence of geopolitical volatility, technological disruption, environmental stress, and societal transformation has rendered traditional strategic management frameworks insufficient. Organizations now operate in environments defined not only by disruptions with existential implications but by wickedness—conditions in which problems are ambiguous, stakeholders disagree, and solutions reshape the challenge itself. Building on the premise that strategy itself is a wicked problem, this article advances a central claim: organizational resilience is best understood as an architectural capability largely grounded in humanity-based identity. Unlike organizational structure, mission, or even current strategy, each of which may be transient in turbulent environments, organizational identity, which is a construct that derives from individuals and humanity, provides an enduring basis for harmonizing the organization and its environment. Utilizing the lens of “humanity”—in its two dimensions of humankind and humaneness—we synthesize research on wicked problems, organizational identity, dynamic capabilities, modular design, alliances and smart power, and hybrid intelligence. We then propose an integrative model linking humanity-driven identity to resilience through three vectors—Inspirational Transformative Ambition, Innovative Value Networks, and Hybrid Intelligence Ecosystems—operationalized via a recently developed diagnostic tool. Finally, we offer corroborative evidence for the “Business of Humanity” logic, arguing that aligning humankind (opportunity across the full market spectrum) with humaneness (values-based evaluation) strengthens resilience by expanding opportunity sets while enhancing legitimacy, trust, and stakeholder alignment.

We document that the stock prices of firms with higher carbon emissions respond more to monetary policy shocks around Federal Open Market Committee announcements. Theoretically, we show that greater emissions-reduction needs can explain high-emission firms’ heightened sensitivity to monetary policy. Consistent with this channel, we find that (i) the valuation results are stronger among capital-intensive and highly levered firms and (ii) high-emission firms reduce emissions relatively faster on average, but disproportionately slow down these efforts when monetary policy is restrictive. We also examine bond price responses to monetary policy shocks to assess the relevance of differential discount rate effects.

This paper empirically examines the interaction between monetary policy and carbon transition risk. Using an event study design, we find that the stock prices of firms with higher carbon emissions are more responsive to monetary policy shocks identified from high-frequency movements in Fed Funds futures around Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcements. Cross-sectional tests reveal that this effect is driven by firms that are more capital intensive, with lower ESG ratings, with greater climate risk exposures, or without climate abatement plans. Using instrumental-variable local projections, we find that high-emission firms reduce emissions relative to low-emission firms, but slow down these efforts when monetary policy is restrictive. Taken together, our results indicate that monetary policy shapes the path to carbon neutrality irrespective of whether central banks embrace a climate target.

This paper examines whether health risks deter corporate chemical pollution. I exploit the variation in perceived health risks created by the US Report on Carcinogens, which officially recognizes cancer risks posed by industrial chemicals. I show that when a chemical is recognized as a carcinogen, aggregate pollution levels remain unaffected, but pollution-based market concentration increases. While individual firms lower pollution levels and pollution capacity, the largest polluters acquire assets and scale up polluting activities. Additional analyses suggest that these corporate responses represent a reallocation of litigation risk across firms, which benefit shareholders but fail to deter chemical pollution.