Publications

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September 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Discovery Health (B)

By: Samuel S. Chun and Shaun Matisonn

A South African health insurance company grapples with designing a financially viable coverage solution for a new prescription drug treatment for male impotence. View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Service Delivery; Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance Industry; South Africa

August 2004
Article

Appearing and Disappearing Dividends: The Link to Catering Incentives

By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler

We document a close link between fluctuations in the propensity to pay dividends and catering incentives. First, we use the methodology of Fama and French (J. Finan. Econ. (2001)) to identify a total of four distinct trends in the propensity to pay dividends... View Details

Keywords: Dividends; Payout Policy; Catering; Dividend Premium; Investor Sentiment; Investment Return; Motivation and Incentives; Trends; Stocks; Financial Services Industry

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Read Now

16 Jul 2014
HBS Case

Marketing Obamacare

are aware of the new opportunities, and then you've got to motivate and enable them to find an insurance solution that makes sense for them." After all, no one wakes up in the morning excited to buy insurance. "It's a grudge... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

24 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Want People to Save More? Send a Text

Pomeranz says. To study them, the researchers formed groups of microentrepreneurs in Chile that were modeled on self-help groups like Weight Watchers to explore how participants could motivate each other to save more money each week.... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

23 Sep 2020
News

Alumni Consider Election Reform; Clubs Explore Parenting by Case Method

Gridlock and Save Our Democracy. The mission of Reform Elections Now is to facilitate election reform through education and engagement, with practical solutions that will enhance informed discourse, increase voter participation and View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Duolingo: On a 'Streak'

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Nicole Tempest Keller and Nicole Luo

In December 2024, Severin Hacker, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Duolingo, reflected on the remarkable evolution of the language-learning app he helped launch in 2011. As the #1 most downloaded education app in the world, Duolingo had over 100 million... View Details

Keywords: Learning; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Diversification; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Technology Industry; Education Industry; United States

2009
Working Paper

Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper develops an economic theory of the costs and benefits of corporate culture—in the sense of shared beliefs and values—in order to study the effects of "culture clash" in mergers and acquisitions. I first use a simple analytical framework to show that shared... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Cost vs Benefits; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Motivation and Incentives; Theory

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December 2003 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Circon (A) (Abridged)

By: Brian J. Hall, Christopher Rose and Guhan Subramanian

In 1996, U.S. Surgical launched a hostile takeover bid against Circon Corp. CEO Richard Auhll recruited an old HBS friend, George Cloutier, to the Circon board to help him defend the company. Circon's primary defenses include a "poison pill" and a staggered board and... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Trust; Relationships; Acquisition; Business and Shareholder Relations; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

December 1998
Background Note

Cash Management Practices in Small Companies

By: H. Kent Bowen, Andrew R. Jassy, Laurence E. Katz, Kevin E. Kelly and Baltej Kochar

Most small business managers claim that cash management is their leading concern. Often walking a tightrope between growth and illiquidity, small business managers face different cash management challenges than their counterparts in larger companies. Compared to larger... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Working Capital; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Cash; Forecasting and Prediction; Policy; Business Strategy

March 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Supplement

Arck Systems (E)

By: Ian Larkin

The Arck Systems series of cases describes the dilemmas faced by a senior sales manager in determining a sales compensation plan at an enterprise software company. The existing compensation plan is aggressive and highly rewards "star" performers. The cases track a... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Framework; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Design; Performance Evaluation; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Software

September 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Compilation

PEARL Project, The: Work Patterns at Ditto (A)

By: Leslie A. Perlow

Describes life on a product development team, the behaviors that are rewarded, and the difficult tradeoffs members often have to make as a result. This is a rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Time Management; Groups and Teams; Work-Life Balance; Motivation and Incentives; Information Technology Industry

June 2000 (Revised July 2000)
Case

ORIX KK

By: Malcolm S. Salter and Andrew Eggers

Describes the challenges facing a Japanese financial services company as it attempts to maintain its ability to attract and retain talented employees. The CEO's ideas of corporate governance and evidence from the competitive labor environment suggest the need for more... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Geographic Location; Financial Services Industry; Japan

21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales

in many industries, but many executives hire on the basis of out-of-date generalizations. “Sales is an area especially susceptible to glib generalizations by many people: It’s all about relationships, or salespeople are ‘coin-operated’—if you want to View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

10 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

Become a Value Creator

motivations at the door." More Pie For Everyone In general, value creators work cooperatively with others to make the corporate pie bigger for all, whereas value claimers focus on taking more of the pie for themselves—like a thief... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Growth of the Social Enterprise

primarily for affiliates only. The fact that many of the key anticipated benefits for expansion were never realized is a stark reminder to nonprofit leaders to be realistic in their expectations of what benefits expansion will bring. Building a brand was consistently... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

29 May 2001
Research & Ideas

Race Does Matter in Mentoring

some minorities—those who eventually became executives—avoided that fate. What kept them motivated and prepared to take advantage of opportunities that arrived belatedly? A common thread among them was their relationships with mentors.... View Details

Keywords: by David A. Thomas

11 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 11

Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks Bringing Agency Back Into Network Research: Constrained Agency and Network Action By: Gulati, Ranjay, and Sameer B. Srivastava Abstract—We propose a framework of constrained agency grounded in the actors' resources and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2019
News

In Character: A Case Discussion Drama

What motivates you at work? How about Peter, down the hall in accounting? Or Linda, who heads up sales? In “Stoy Foods,” a case taught in the second-year MBA course Managing, Organizing & Motivating for... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

April 2011
Teaching Note

Office of Technology Transfer - Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (TN)

By: Willy Shih and Sen Chai

Teaching Note for 611057. View Details

Keywords: Patents; Rights; Infrastructure; Multinational Firms and Management; Research and Development; Complexity; Commercialization; Technology Adoption; Motivation and Incentives; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Shanghai