Motivation And Incentives - Publications - Faculty & Research

25 Feb 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Starting a Business

Professor Noam Wasserman discusses his research into the motivations of entrepreneurs and the people who invest in them. Key concepts include: Entrepreneurs are often motivated... View Details

03 Mar 2003
What Do You Think?

Are Conditions Right for the Next Accounting Scandal?

auditors and audit committees whose mutual survival depends on each other, overly complicated accounting and tax systems, and the nature of the reporting relationships between... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Accounting; Financial Services

12 Mar 2018
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Why BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Is Not a Socialist

shareholder value is created. Every company should start with a clear purpose and set of values that go beyond making money. It is the purpose and values that motivate View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Banking

18 Nov 2009
HBS Case

Customer Feedback Not on elBulli’s Menu

He's been called "the Salvador Dalí of the kitchen" for creations ranging from beetroot and yogurt ice-cream lollipops to a deconstructed Spanish omelet served in a parfait glass. Each year, some 2 million hopeful diners vie to... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

17 Nov 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Are Optimists or Pessimists Better Leaders?

motivate people to take action-different actions, but at least action. Are You A Pessimist? If you're a pessimist, you tend to focus on safety and security. Pessimism drives you to seek View Details

15 Nov 2004
Research & Ideas

Solving the Health Care Conundrum

care delivery system. By focusing on greater value, the issues of who should be covered (access) and what should be covered will be easier to resolve. While policy changes to require informational disclosure View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter; Health

01 Jun 2021
What Do You Think?

Are Employers Ready for a Flood of 'New' Talent Seeking Work?

organizations ready to take advantage of the talent surge? Just how prepared are employers? Are incentives and support systems for returnees to the workforce in place? Have we provided for the need for... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

05 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

The Ten Deadly Mistakes of Wanna-Dots

incentives to cooperate in cyberspace. (Maintain your belief that conflict is a healthy spur to higher performance; let the victor get the spoils.) Keep reminding divisions that they are separate businesses because they are different,... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

09 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Warring Algorithms Could Be Driving Up Consumer Prices

The widespread use of pricing algorithms is reshaping the nature of competition in online markets and potentially driving up the prices of retail goods, according to recent research. These automated, price-adjusting software programs may... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Tackling Climate Change Will Cost Less Than We Think

energy conservation alone. And this is all in a world in which we are spending a ridiculously small amount of money on clean energy research, and the private sector has only minimal View Details

Keywords: by Rebecca Henderson; Energy; Utilities

18 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Open Innovation Contestants Build AI-Based Cancer Tool

oncology expert in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/ Dana-Farber Cancer Institute radiation oncology program, was a motivated and creative collaborator in exploring View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

28 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

HBS Celebrates Social Enterprise Initiative

origin and mission of the Social Enterprise Initiative? James Austin: When we began the Social Enterprise Initiative, the opportunity that motivated us was to mobilize the talent View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

10 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

Become a Value Creator

staff member receive credit for good ideas not only makes the employee feel valued and motivates him or her to come up with better ideas in the future, but also makes the leader look good. The purpose of... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Building Competitive Advantage Through Operations

motivate a change? What are the goals and objectives of the change, and how will it be organized? How will performance be measured against those objectives? What technology... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

03 Feb 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do You Hire an 'Impostor'?

however, succeeded in completing their MBAs with honors. They used the phenomenon as an incentive to succeed, setting high standards for performance and worrying about being under-prepared. They were (and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Power of Leadership Groups for Staying on Track

fundamental reassessment of leadership and leadership development. The command-and-control model so prevalent in the twentieth century has ceased to be effective because it fails to motivate people,... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

03 Apr 2017
What Do You Think?

How About Investing in Human Infrastructure?

thrown around range from the federal government borrowing and investing that money directly to instead providing incentives such as tax credits to encourage private industry to participate. The method View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Construction

18 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Big Deals: Financing Large-Scale Investments

good projects and good returns. Esty's interest in project finance evolved out of his doctoral thesis on risk-taking in the savings and loan (S&L) industry during the 1980s. "I have been intrigued... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

27 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

What Happens When Ordinary People Get Creative?

than 12,000 daily diaries, looking for commonalities that influenced the workers’ “inner work lives,” defined by the researchers as “the confluence of perceptions, emotions, and motivations that individuals... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

17 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Navigating Tradeoffs: How Purpose Becomes a Company's ‘Lighthouse in the Storm’

commitments that influence the supply chain, and governments creating proper incentives and market dynamics to fuel innovation and usher in... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

Publications