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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,514)
- People (8)
- News (363)
- Research (807)
- Events (3)
- Multimedia (13)
- Faculty Publications (328)
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- June 1983
- Article
A Comparison of Tournaments and Contracts
By: Jerry R. Green and Nancy Stokey
Tournaments, reward structures based on rank order, are compared with individual contracts in a model with one risk-neutral principal and many risk-averse agents. Each agent's output is a stochastic function of his effort level plus an additive shock term that is... View Details
Green, Jerry R., and Nancy Stokey. "A Comparison of Tournaments and Contracts." Journal of Political Economy 91, no. 3 (June 1983): 349–364.
- April 2012 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Dovernet
By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred
This case illustrates the implications of using stringent performance measurement systems to create performance pressure, motivate employee achievement, and sharpen a firm's competitiveness. It opens by describing the downsides of the ruthlessly competitive culture at... View Details
Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Information Technology; Competitive Advantage; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; Vancouver
Simons, Robert, and Natalie Kindred. "Dovernet." Harvard Business School Case 112-061, April 2012. (Revised February 2017.)
- 05 Sep 2023
- Book
Failing Well: How Your ‘Intelligent Failure’ Unlocks Your Full Potential
initiative presents a credible opportunity to advance toward a desired goal. The plan is thoughtful and intentional, offering a significant reward if successful. “If I’m at risk of failure and it’s pointless, why do it?” she says. “You’re... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 17 Jan 2007
- Op-Ed
Learning from Private-Equity Boards
Private-equity boards are typically composed of members with substantial wealth at risk. Private-equity boards know how to structure financial incentives that deter reckless gambling and reward profitable growth. Private-equity boards... View Details
- March 2025
- Article
Limited Accountability and Awareness of Corporate Emissions Target Outcomes
By: Xiaoyan Jiang, Shawn Kim and Shirley Lu
Firms are increasingly announcing targets to reduce their carbon emissions, but it is unclear whether firms are held accountable for these targets. Here we examine emissions targets that ended in 2020 to investigate the final target outcomes, the transparency of target... View Details
Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Goals and Objectives; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Accountability; Environmental Sustainability; Public Opinion
Jiang, Xiaoyan, Shawn Kim, and Shirley Lu. "Limited Accountability and Awareness of Corporate Emissions Target Outcomes." Nature Climate Change 15, no. 3 (March 2025): 279–286.
- 2013
- Working Paper
The Dirty Laundry of Employee Award Programs: Evidence from the Field
By: Timothy Gubler, Ian I. Larkin and Lamar Pierce
Many scholars and practitioners have recently argued that corporate awards are a "free" way to motivate employees. We use field data from an attendance award program implemented at one of five industrial laundry plants to show that awards can carry significant... View Details
Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Service Delivery; Performance Productivity; Failure; Service Industry
Gubler, Timothy, Ian I. Larkin, and Lamar Pierce. "The Dirty Laundry of Employee Award Programs: Evidence from the Field." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-069, February 2013.
- September 1992 (Revised July 1998)
- Case
Germany in the 1990s: Managing Reunification
By: George C. Lodge and James W. Ragsdale
In October 1990, eastern Germany was incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany. The German people rewarded the architect of these changes, Helmut Kohl, with an enhanced majority in national elections. But only two years later it was hard to remember these heady... View Details
Keywords: Economy; Inflation and Deflation; Central Banking; Interest Rates; Political Elections; Situation or Environment; Integration; Europe; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom
Lodge, George C., and James W. Ragsdale. "Germany in the 1990s: Managing Reunification." Harvard Business School Case 793-033, September 1992. (Revised July 1998.)
- 10 Dec 2013
- First Look
First Look: December 10
Publications August 2013 Strategic Management Journal Location Choices under Strategic Interactions By: Alcácer, Juan, Minyuan Zhao, and Cristian Dezso Abstract—The literature on location choices has mostly emphasized the impact of location and firm characteristics.... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- October 2023 (Revised April 2024)
- Case
ghSMART & Co: Building and Scaling a Time Smart Firm
By: Ashley Whillans and Sara Coronel Rodriguez
"For ghSMART, freedom is the first principle from which all good things flow”—Geoff Smart, Chairman and Founder, ghSMART. ghSMART was a leadership advisory firm that was grounded in the principle of freedom. Talented Consultants and Partners could work remotely from... View Details
Keywords: Time; Consulting Firms; Time Management; Talent and Talent Management; Employee Relationship Management; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Sharing; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Reputation
Whillans, Ashley, and Sara Coronel Rodriguez. "ghSMART & Co: Building and Scaling a Time Smart Firm." Harvard Business School Case 924-009, October 2023. (Revised April 2024.)
- Spring 2023
- Article
Incentive Contract Design and Employee-Initiated Innovation: Evidence from the Field
By: Wei Cai, Susanna Gallani and Jee-Eun Shin
This study examines how the design of incentive contracts for tasks defined as workers’ official responsibilities (i.e., standard tasks) influences workers’ propensity to engage in employee-initiated innovation (EII). EII corresponds to innovation activities that are... View Details
Keywords: Employee-initiated Innovation; Contract Design; Rank-and-file; Extra-role Behaviors; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Innovation and Management
Cai, Wei, Susanna Gallani, and Jee-Eun Shin. "Incentive Contract Design and Employee-Initiated Innovation: Evidence from the Field." Contemporary Accounting Research 40, no. 1 (Spring 2023): 292–323.
- January 2020 (Revised December 2024)
- Case
Governing PG&E
By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz
The five commissioners of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) listened intently at a public forum in April 2019 as PG&E Corporation’s out-going chairman Richard Kelly described the company’s proposed new board. PG&E, which provided electricity and natural... View Details
Keywords: Bankruptcy; Board Of Directors; Board Dynamics; Business Ethics; Business Model Innovation; Corporate Boards; Energy Efficiency; Environmental And Social Sustainability; Government And Business; Hedge Funds; Institutional Investors; Legal Aspects Of Business; Regulated Monopolies; Regulation; Shareholders; Stakeholder Management; Strategy And Execution; Utilities; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governing and Advisory Boards; Ethics; Capital Structure; Climate Change; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Environmental Sustainability; Executive Compensation; Leadership; Management; Safety; Business and Government Relations; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; California; United States
Paine, Lynn S., and Will Hurwitz. "Governing PG&E." Harvard Business School Case 320-024, January 2020. (Revised December 2024.)
- Article
Overcoming the Outcome Bias: Making Intentions Matter
By: Ovul Sezer, Ting Zhang, Francesca Gino and Max Bazerman
People often make the well-documented mistake of paying too much attention to the outcomes of others’ actions while neglecting information about the original intentions leading to those outcomes. In five experiments, we examine interventions aimed at reducing this... View Details
Keywords: Outcome Bias; Intentions; Joint Evaluation; Judgment; Separate Evaluation; Goals and Objectives; Prejudice and Bias; Judgments; Performance Evaluation; Outcome or Result
Sezer, Ovul, Ting Zhang, Francesca Gino, and Max Bazerman. "Overcoming the Outcome Bias: Making Intentions Matter." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 137 (November 2016): 13–26.
- 2013
- Case
Career Pathways, Performance Pay, and Peer-review Promotion in Baltimore City Public Schools
By: Susan Moore Johnson, John J-H Kim, Geoff Marietta, S. Elisabeth Faller and James Noonan
In the fall of 2012, Dr. Andres Alonso had much to celebrate about in his five-year tenure as CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, including the approval and implementation of an innovative teachers' contract with a jointly-governed four-tier career pathway that tied... View Details
Keywords: Labor Management; Public Education; PELP; Union; Compensation; Collaboration; Public Education Leadership Project; Education; Labor; Compensation and Benefits; Education Industry; United States
Johnson, Susan Moore, John J-H Kim, Geoff Marietta, S. Elisabeth Faller, and James Noonan. "Career Pathways, Performance Pay, and Peer-review Promotion in Baltimore City Public Schools." Harvard Business Publishing Case, 2013. (Case No. PEL-071.)
- January 2011
- Article
Let the Right One In: A Microeconomic Approach to Partner Choice in Mutualisms
By: Marco Archetti, Francisco Ubeda, Drew Fudenberg, Jerry R. Green, Naomi E. Pierce and Douglas W. Yu
One of the main problems impeding the evolution of cooperation is partner choice. When information is asymmetric (the quality of a potential partner is known only to himself), it may seem that partner choice is not possible without signaling. Many mutualisms, however,... View Details
Keywords: Microeconomics; Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; System; Problems and Challenges; Information; Economics; Theory; Cost; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cooperation
Archetti, Marco, Francisco Ubeda, Drew Fudenberg, Jerry R. Green, Naomi E. Pierce, and Douglas W. Yu. "Let the Right One In: A Microeconomic Approach to Partner Choice in Mutualisms." American Naturalist 177, no. 1 (January 2011).
- 11 Mar 2008
- First Look
First Look: March 11, 2008
Working PapersTesting Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24 Authors:Dennis Campbell, Srikant M. Datar, Susan L. Kulp, and V.G. Narayanan Abstract We analyze balanced scorecard data from a convenience store chain,... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
- April 2024
- Case
Cyrus: Turning a Traditional Business Model on Its Head (A)
By: James Heskett
The loss of the lease at their Michelin-starred Cyrus 1.0 in Sonoma County, California gives the partners an opportunity to shut down and rework a “broken” business model, one with labor intensive experiences six or seven nights a week, high burnout, high... View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Retention; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leasing; Work-Life Balance; Strategic Planning; Loss; Profit; Working Conditions; California
Heskett, James. "Cyrus: Turning a Traditional Business Model on Its Head (A)." Harvard Business School Case 924-303, April 2024.
- August 2016
- Article
The Role of (Dis)similarity in (Mis)predicting Others' Preferences
By: Kate Barasz, Tami Kim and Leslie K. John
Consumers readily indicate liking options that appear dissimilar—for example, enjoying both rustic lake vacations and chic city vacations or liking both scholarly documentary films and action-packed thrillers. However, when predicting other consumers’ tastes for the... View Details
Keywords: Perceived Similarity; Prediction Error; Preference Prediction; Self-other Difference; Social Inference; Cognition and Thinking; Perception; Forecasting and Prediction
Barasz, Kate, Tami Kim, and Leslie K. John. "The Role of (Dis)similarity in (Mis)predicting Others' Preferences." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 53, no. 4 (August 2016): 597–607.
- September 2003 (Revised September 2004)
- Case
Hearthside Homes
By: Jason R. Barro, Brian J. Hall and Aaron Zimmerman
Investigates the "controllability problem" inherent in bonus systems. Ideally, an incentive system accurately measures performance in areas that the individual can control. But most measures are either too broad, including factors outside the influence of the employee,... View Details
- January 2001 (Revised June 2004)
- Case
PetroChina
By: Alexander Dyck, Yasheng Huang and David Lane
In March 2000, plans for the initial public offering of shares in PetroChina were proceeding on schedule, and institutional investors were evaluating the deal. PetroChina was China's largest oil and gas company and an attractive play on China's continued economic... View Details
Dyck, Alexander, Yasheng Huang, and David Lane. "PetroChina." Harvard Business School Case 701-040, January 2001. (Revised June 2004.)
- January 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Roush Performance: How to Design a Sales Force Compensation Plan
By: Doug J. Chung
Roush Performance manufactured and marketed factory-modified performance vehicles and high-end aftermarket automotive performance parts. Since its inception, Roush Performance had focused on building its engineering technology competency and diversifying its product... View Details
Keywords: Sales Force Management; Motivation; Compensation; Salary; Commissions; Bonuses; Quotas; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives
Chung, Doug J. "Roush Performance: How to Design a Sales Force Compensation Plan." Harvard Business School Case 519-066, January 2019. (Revised February 2020.)