Incentive Pay - Publications - Faculty & Research

30 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 30, 2008

(forthcoming) Abstract This paper analyzes the association between ownership, top management incentives, and expenditures on accounting information. We argue that organizations with privately appointed boards of directors such as for-profit and non-governmental... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

25 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

Steer Clear of the Blind Spots That Derail Experiments

more questions about the outcome. Alibaba, for example, set out a few years ago to test whether coupons nudged shoppers to buy items they had left in their digital carts. Executives found that these incentives didn’t boost sales, but... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

18 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

How to Use Free Shipping as a Competitive Weapon

more counterintuitive, says Ngwe. According to his research, VIP shoppers were less sensitive to paying a higher shipping fee, presumably because their desire for the products was stronger. "Whereas online sellers might think of a... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail

08 May 2006
Research & Ideas

The Cost of Cutting in Line

standing in line at the airport, it occurred to me that waiting lines appeared to be another example for a missing-markets problem. Why do I have to wait at airports? Why don't the airlines offer a service that would allow me to pay $20... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Stop Thinking of Climate Change as a Religious or Political Issue

You sometimes hear people say things like, "I believe in global warming" or "I don't believe in climate change." It seems odd to approach climate change in this way, as though it were a question of belief, like religion. Most of the time when we confront uncertainty in... View Details

Keywords: by Forest Reinhardt; Energy; Utilities

20 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Fixing Corporate Governance: A Roundtable Discussion at Harvard Business School

the issue of top-management compensation? Brian Hall: As you all know, stock options were intended to give executives incentives to get share prices to rise, which in theory would create value for shareholders and society alike. That... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

18 Jun 2007
Op-Ed

Leveling the Executive Options Playing Field

appear before you today to discuss the accounting and tax treatment of incentive compensation. I am an associate professor of finance at Harvard Business School and a faculty research fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research.... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai

31 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Why Competition May Not Improve Credit Rating Agencies

are agencies' revenue models and their incentives to produce credible and accurate ratings? And what fault lines do you see in this process? A: Three different revenue models have been tried or proposed for ratings firms. Currently,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

12 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Michael Porter’s Prescription For the High Cost of Health Care

in the behaviors of employers purchasing health plans. In addition, some important system infrastructure needs to be put in place—rules and regulations that shift the incentives and create the right types of information. Let's look at... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter; Health

30 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

Use the Psychology of Pricing To Keep Customers Returning

the idea that people will use a product or service more right after they pay for it. How can companies make this work for them? A: Sunk costs are a curious bit of psychology. Economists say that attending to sunk costs is not... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Mahoney

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

all the turnaround situations I've witnessed, we should remember that leading a corporate turnaround isn't a one-size-fits-all process. It requires that CEOs pay attention to the specifics of a company's problems and that the leaders... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

24 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

Reducing Risk with Online Advertising

markets, these are the kinds of concerns you should think about when setting payment terms and dealing directly with suppliers. One tool to deter fraud: pay later. Edelman's new research on a major advertising affiliate network... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Video Game; Web Services

28 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 28

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/13-017.pdf Earnings Management from the Bottom Up: An Analysis of Managerial Incentives Below the CEO Authors: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Julie Wulf Abstract Performance-based View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

What Leaders Need to Do To Restore Investor Confidence

is all this misconduct occurring now? A: I think it's the confluence of several factors: the use of powerful incentive packages, an exuberance that pushed equity prices to heights that were hard to justify economically and yet were very... View Details

Keywords: by Harvard Management Update

25 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

How Chapter 11 Saved the US Economy

companies other valuable options for raising cash, Gilson says. While operating in Chapter 11, a company is freed from paying interest on its pre-bankruptcy debts. Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code allows the company to reject... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Financial Services

20 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

No Place Like Home: America’s Housing Crisis and Its Impact on Business

(For example, 86 percent of the companies in one recent survey said that housing costs were a serious deterrent to attracting businesses and middle-income employees to New York City.) On the lower end of the wage scale, companies are forced to View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Construction; Real Estate

27 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

The Most Popular Stories and Research Papers of 2015

US Health Care? (18,291) Jim Heskett asks, are we addressing health care cost issues with the creativity they deserve? What do YOU think? How Should Pay Be Linked to Performance? (18,284) Jim Heskett sums up 98 reader responses from... View Details

07 Oct 2015
What Do You Think?

What is the Best Immigration Model for the US?

the European “lessons” on immigration. “Compare (Germany) with France, which provides time off for parental leave and financial incentives to have children, and unsurprisingly they have plenty of kids ... and are not so keen on... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

07 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 7

to reductions in dividends relative to the reference point set by prior dividends. Managers with strong but unobservable cash earnings separate themselves by paying high dividends but retain enough earnings to be likely not to fall short... View Details