Publications

11 Jan 2022
News

A New Era for the American Worker

December 2012 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Developing the Materiality Matrix at Telefónica

By: Robert G. Eccles, George Serafeim and Asun Cano-Escoriaza

Telefónica, one of the largest telecommunication companies in the world and headquartered in Spain, has been issuing a corporate sustainability report since 2002. In its 2011 Sustainability report, the company included a "materiality matrix," and was one of only five... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainability Reporting; Sustainable Strategy; CSR; Corporate Social Responsibility; Communication Technology; Environmental Accounting; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Telecommunications Industry; Spain

July 2016
Case

'Golden Leash' Pay for Directors at The Dow Chemical Company

By: Ian Gow, Suraj Srinivasan and Neeraj Goyal

In November 2014, The Dow Chemical Company was faced with the prospect of a proxy battle with prominent hedge fund and activist investor Third Point Management. The activist had criticized Dow’s recent performance and advocated that the company split itself to maximize... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Investment Activism; Chemical Industry

2017
Working Paper

Biased Beliefs About Random Samples: Evidence from Two Integrated Experiments

By: Daniel J. Benjamin, Don A. Moore and Matthew Rabin

This paper describes results of a pair of incentivized experiments on biases in judgments about random samples. Consistent with the Law of Small Numbers (LSN), participants exaggerated the likelihood that short sequences and random subsets of coin flips would be... View Details

Keywords: Probability; Economic Theory; Analysis; Incentives

03 Jun 2019
News

Collaborations, not tax breaks, are better for growth

13 Jun 2011
HBS Case

Mobile Banking for the Unbanked

In many developing countries it's common for a person to have a mobile phone but not a bank account. In fact, more than 1 billion people fit this description, and the number is only likely to increase. To that end, many companies are... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Communications; Telecommunications

Article

Is It Time for Auditor Independence Yet?

By: M. H. Bazerman and D. A. Moore

Well before the collapse of Enron and Arthur Andersen, we argued that the auditing system had been corrupted by the incentives auditors face to please their clients. We stated that even honest auditors were incapable of independence within the current regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Change; Crime and Corruption; Customer Satisfaction; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Failure; Motivation and Incentives

February 1996
Background Note

Managing for Creativity

By: Teresa M. Amabile

Organizational stimulants and obstacles to creativity are summarized. The management tasks of supporting creativity and encouraging innovation are described as a delicate balance between over-control and chaos. A technology used to assess the climate for creativity is... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Creativity; Motivation and Incentives; Technology

April 2008
Teaching Note

Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant: Motivating in Good Times and Bad (Brief Case)

By: Michael Beer and Elizabeth Collins

Teaching note for case # 2175 View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Human Resource Management; Incentives; Motivation; Manufacturing; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Change Management; Production; Organizations; Human Resources; Manufacturing Industry

01 Sep 2006
What Do You Think?

Are We Ready for Self-Management?

as many cited obstacles to its implementation, chief among them management itself. Many respondents were enthusiastic. For example, Leeor Geva characterized self-management as a "win-win strategy." In Jonathan Narducci's words,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

August 2012 (Revised March 2014)
Technical Note

4M: Four-Markets Analysis for Emerging Economies

By: Eric Werker

This technical note describes a methodology for evaluating the political economy of business-government relations in an emerging or frontier economy. The note argues that there are not one but four markets in an emerging economy: the market of "rentiers" such as mining... View Details

Keywords: Frontier Markets; Emerging Markets

September 2023
Article

A Pull versus Push Framework for Reputation

By: Jillian J. Jordan

Reputation is a powerful driver of human behavior. Reputation systems incentivize 'actors' to take reputation-enhancing actions, and 'evaluators' to reward actors with positive reputations by preferentially cooperating with them. This article proposes a reputation... View Details

Keywords: Reputation; Behavior; Game Theory

01 Sep 2011
News

Water for Life

an excellent public-private partnership model that provided the right incentives for investment and the flexibility to attack the problems in service delivery. This was key. How did you structure Manila... View Details

Keywords: Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities

May 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Ultra: The Quest for Leadership (A)

By: Dwight B. Crane and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

Ultra is one of a small group of competing Brazilian petrochemical companies, each of which buys raw material and is a minority owner of Copene, a "cracking" company that provides ethylene and other materials. Because of an industry restructuring, an auction of shares... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Capital Budgeting; Investment; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Industry Structures; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Bids and Bidding; Economy; Ownership Stake; Chemical Industry; Brazil

26 Aug 2009
Op-Ed

Where Cash for Clunkers Ran Off the Road

short-term incentive programs designed to shape consumer purchase behavior. It has no experience in such initiatives and proved itself incapable of forecasting demand associated with different incentive... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Auto

November – December 2011
Article

Competitive Strategy for Open Source Software

By: Vineet Kumar, Brett Gordon and Kannan Srinivasan

Commercial open source software (COSS) products-privately developed software based on publicly available source code-represent a rapidly growing, multibillion-dollar market. A unique aspect of competition in the COSS market is that many open source licenses require... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Competitive Strategy; Product Development; Growth and Development; Markets; Motivation and Incentives; Quality; Policy; Perspective; Profit; Open Source Distribution; Emerging Markets