This week's topic is business and corporate social responsibility, which concerns the place of firms within their broader business and societal contexts and how that affects their choices. The intuition is to assess firms' business models and strategies in terms of a larger set of stakeholders than those involved regular business transactions.

This week's case is Merck: Covid-19 Vaccines, which is in the HBSP case packet. The case examines factors influencing Pharma companies and Merck in particular in developing large scale vaccines for a new virus, under safety and effectiveness constraints, profitability demands, and the pressures of a global pandemic. The discussion questions are listed below.

Merck: Covid-19 Vaccine 1) How is the innovation process for vaccines different from the regular innovation processes of pharmaceutical firms? Of high tech firms more generally? 2) What is Merck's strategy for developing Covid-19 vaccines? How is Merck balancing scale and scope constraints in its vaccine decisions? 3) Should Merck work to receive more support from OWS? What are the costs and benefits of such government support? 4) How do politics and corporate/professional reputation influence Merck's strategy for developing Covid-19 vaccines? How should they? 5) What should CEO Ken Frazier do?