Publications

Educators

27 Mar 2024
News

Corporate Culture Homogeneity and Top Executive Incentive Design: Evidence from CEO Compensation Contracts

2015
Working Paper

Client Service, Compensation, and the Sell-Side Analyst Objective Function: An Empirical Analysis of Relational Incentives in the Investment-Research Industry

By: David A. Maber, Boris Groysberg and Paul M. Healy

This paper investigates how sell-side analysts build and sustain their client networks; the economic gains to successfully managing this challenge; and the metrics through which these incentives are delivered. In a typical semiannual period, the average analyst... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Measurement and Metrics; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Jobs and Positions

Companies typically compensate their sales force by using some combination of salary, commission, and bonuses, but executives are often unsure which incentives provide the best motivation. Should bonuses be tied to quotas or should they be given unconditionally? Is... View Details

Article

Incentives in Discrete-Time MDP Processes with Flexible Step-Size

By: Jerry R. Green and Francoise Schoumaker

08 Dec 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Are There Too Many Safe Securities? Securitization and the Incentives for Information Production

Keywords: by Samuel G. Hanson & Adi Sunderam; Financial Services

January 2010 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Aubrey McClendon's Special Incentive Compensation at Chesapeake Energy (A)

By: Paul Healy, Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

Aubrey McClendon, founder and CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was, according to Fortune Magazine, the highest paid U.S. CEO in 2008 receiving over $100 million in total compensation. McClendon received this compensation despite a significant drop in the company's stock price... View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Price; Stock Options; Valuation; Joint Ventures; Business Growth and Maturation; Economic Growth; Growth and Development Strategy; Change Management; Energy Industry; United States

Educators

December 2020
Teaching Plan

Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good

By: Francesca Gino, Gary P. Pisano and Alexander Rohe

2005
Chapter

Why Hackers Do What They Do: Understanding Motivation and Effort in Free/Open Source Software Projects

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Robert Wolf

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Applications and Software; Open Source Distribution; Attitudes

Find at Harvard

2021
Working Paper

Information Avoidance and Image Concerns

By: Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

A rich literature finds that individuals avoid information, even information that is instrumental to their choices. A common hypothesis posits that individuals strategically avoid information to hold particular beliefs or to take certain actions--such as behaving... View Details

Keywords: Image Motivation; Self-image; Information; Behavior; Identity; Personal Characteristics

02 May 2016
News

Motivating Middle-Schoolers to Get up to Speed with Math

Veteran entrepreneur and public education innovator Bill Daugherty (MBA 1991) is on a mission to get kids excited about math. In addition to his profit-sector job as executive chairman of ANC Sports Enterprises, Daugherty has been the... View Details

Article

Cash-for-Information Whistleblower Programs: Effects on Whistleblowing and Consequences for Whistleblowers

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and Gerardo Pérez Cavazos

Cash-for-information whistleblower programs have gained momentum as a regulatory tool to enforce corporate misconduct. Yet, little is known about how financial incentives affect whistleblowers’ decisions to report potential misconduct to authorities. Similarly, there... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Whistleblowers; Financial Incentives; Ethics; Governance Compliance; Lawsuits and Litigation

January 2013
Supplement

Aubrey McClendon's Special Incentive Compensation at Chesapeake Energy (B)

By: Paul Healy, Clayton S. Rose and Penelope Rossano

Keywords: Stockholders; Activist Investors; Corruption; Conflict of Interests; Crime and Corruption; Executive Compensation; Energy Industry

06 Mar 2017
News

To Motivate Employees, Show Them How They’re Helping Customers

14 Sep 2015
Video

2015 G&WS: Shelley Correll presents “Delivering on Diversity: A Framework for Motivating Cultural Change”

Article

Contagion or Restitution? When Bad Apples can Motivate Ethical Behavior

By: F. Gino, J. Gu and C. B. Zhong

Keywords: Ethics; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives

Find at Harvard

25 Oct 2018
News

The Motivating (and Demotivating) Effects of Learning Others’ Salaries

31 Dec 2019
News

How Selfish Motives Drive People To Make Dumb Mistakes

July 24, 2019
Editorial

How to Make Even the Most Mundane Tasks More Motivating

By: Jaewon Yoon, A.V. Whillans and Ed O'Brien

People want purposeful work, and managers know it. That’s why companies try to inspire employees with mission statements about the impact their work can have. Ikea tells employees they’re “creating a better everyday life”; Microsoft says they’re “empowering every... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Perspective

November 2011
Case

WrapItUp: Developing a New Compensation Plan

By: W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Rachel Shelton

A restaurant chain based in California offers made-to-order sandwich wraps using fresh, healthy ingredients. The founders of the company take a very active role in day-to-day business and tightly control every aspect of the restaurant operation from hiring store... View Details

Keywords: Empowerment; Middle Management; Human Resource Management; Compensation; Incentives; Motivation; Motivation and Incentives; Change Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Service Delivery; Entrepreneurship; Employees; Compensation and Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; California

Educators