Publications

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July 2009 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Blue Ocean or Stormy Waters? Buying Nix Check Cashing

By: Peter Tufano

Kinecta Federal Credit Union has the opportunity to purchase Nix Check Cashing as part of their "blue ocean" strategy to reach the financially underserved and increase credit union membership and deposits. But they face financial as well as reputational risk. Check... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Credit; Financing and Loans; Personal Finance; Strategic Planning; Partners and Partnerships; Reputation; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

January 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

United Housing—Otis Gates

By: Steven Rogers and Mercer Cook

Otis Gates, the only African-American in his HBS graduating class, is an entrepreneur from greater Boston area and has built a successful affordable housing firm. Along the way, he and his partners have contributed countless hours of community service to the... View Details

Keywords: Affordable Housing; Real Estate; Community Engagement; Social-good; Request For Proposal; Diversity; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Moral Sensibility; Fairness; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Housing; Business and Community Relations; Real Estate Industry

March 2013
Case

Massachusetts Financial Services (Abridged)

By: Brian J. Hall and Karen Huang

This case describes the compensation and performance evaluations at an investment management company. The senior management team of Massachusetts Financial Services (MFS) Investment Management was contemplating an introduction of hedge funds at the firm, but many... View Details

Keywords: Compensation; Incentives; Investment Management; Performance Measurement; Portfolio Management; Motivation and Incentives; Asset Management; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Financial Services Industry; Massachusetts

November 2002
Background Note

Strategy and Sources of Motion Picture Finance, The

By: Mihir A. Desai, Gabriel J. Loeb and Mark Veblen

This case considers the alternative financing mechanisms for film financing, the evolution of film finance in the United States, and the nature of tax-motivated film financing in the United States and around the world. It develops the strategy driving motion picture... View Details

Keywords: Film Entertainment; Financial Instruments; Financial Strategy; Financing and Loans; Globalized Markets and Industries; Taxation; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

Program

Leadership for Senior Executives

Summary Uncertainty and change are relentless challenges for today's leaders. Between expanding globalization, rapid technological shifts, and evolving social norms, how can leaders make the right strategic decisions and leadership... View Details

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

04 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 4

severity of the coordination problem faced by users. Read the paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=38648 The Costs of Ambient Cultural Disharmony: Indirect Intercultural Conflicts in Social Environment Undermine... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

August 2003 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Peninsula Community Foundation

By: James E. Austin, Jane Wei-Skillern and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

After leading the Peninsula Community Foundation (PCF) through a period of tremendous growth, its president, Sterling Speirn, is facing the prospect of a decline in the foundation's asset base for the first time in the foundation's history. In addition, the fact that... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Product Positioning; Planning; Alliances; Opportunities; Nonprofit Organizations; Valuation; Financial Services Industry

April 2009
Case

Performance Management at Intermountain Healthcare

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Alexander Romney

Intermountain Healthcare is a 21-hospital integrated delivery system serving Utah and southern Idaho that is nationally recognized for its highly structured approach to managing the quality of clinical care. This case describes Intermountain's system for improving... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Standards; Service Delivery; Outcome or Result; Motivation and Incentives; Health Industry; Idaho; Utah

17 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

DeCelles, whose research focuses on the intersection of organizational behavior and criminology. Business leaders should start by taking a closer look at their resume screening processes. Blind recruitment is one possible solution, where information about race, age,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2019
Article

Making Moves Matter: Experimental Evidence on Incentivizing Bureaucrats Through Performance-Based Postings

By: Adnan Q. Khan, Asim Ijaz Khwaja and Benjamin A. Olken

Bureaucracies often post staff to better or worse locations, ostensibly to provide incentives. Yet we know little about whether this works, with heterogeneity in preferences over postings impacting effectiveness. We propose a performance-ranked serial dictatorship... View Details

Keywords: Serial Dictatorship Mechanism; Employment; Geographic Location; Motivation and Incentives; Performance

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July 2022
Case

FIJI Water: Carbon Negative? (Abridged)

By: Michael W. Toffel, George Serafeim, Francesca Gino, Stephanie Van Sice and Tom Quinn

In the midst of increasing press scrutiny of the bottled water industry’s environmentally harmful practices, FIJI Water made a series of sustainability promises. The boldest of these was a pledge to go “carbon negative.” The company said that not only would they offset... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Footprint; Carbon Offsetting; Environmental Accounting; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Pollution; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Non-Governmental Organizations; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; Fiji; United States

08 Nov 2013
HBS Seminar

Laura Diaz Anadon, Harvard Kennedy School

September 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Supplement

Acumen Fund: Measurement in Impact Investing (B)

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

As Acumen Fund, a global venture philanthropy firm, moves forward with an investment portfolio exceeding $22 million, it runs into two critical measurement problems. First, how should it track the performance of each investment when its interest is not just the bottom... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Evaluation; Social Enterprise; Competition; Financial Services Industry; Kenya

2023
Working Paper

Change We Can’t Believe In: Distrust of Political Converts

By: Julian J. Zlatev, Amos Schurr and Nir Halevy

We propose and test three hypotheses regarding how people respond to political converts— individuals who switch their voting from one political party to another. Across two experiments, using behavioral and attitudinal measures of trust in two different countries, we... View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; Behavior; Attitudes; Trust